Julien's Patisserie - Halifax

Forget starbucks this is *the* place to stop for coffee and amazing pastries. Samosas are fantastic. Croissants are wow. They sell full home baked bread loaves. Hours are a bit short but working day and Saturday I make an effort to go in.

The best bread in Halifax. If you live in the GTA or in Montreal it is fairly easy to find good continental European style bread, but in Halifax it is a challenge. Julien's is the only place with which I am fully satisfied so far. I particularly recommend the Levain, a large loaf of which (approx. 830g) costs $4.75 as of January 2011, a much better deal than worse bread elsewhere in Halifax. It is a very nice French style bread made from white and wholegrain sourdough that has a wonderful crispy crust yet is nice and soft on the inside. I can also recommend their Winnipeg Rye.<br/ <br/ Fortunately they don't ask you whether you want to have their bread sliced. Unfortunately though they give you their bread in plastic bags. This is particularly amazing since they store their bread in-store without any wrapping, i.e. they know that plastic bags destroy the crust, yet they still use plastic bags for their customers. Paper bags as used in Europe would be a lot better for the bread AND for the environment. I always open up the plastic bag for transport and take the bread out of the bag immediately when I get home and then put it in my bread box so as to preserve the wonderful crust.<br/ <br/ For some reason I don't like to buy Julien's bread at Pete's Frootique. Pete's usually carried a rather small (and seemingly random) subset of Julien's breads, and the bread is always worse (softer) than when you buy it from Julien's directly. Probably related to storage and wrapping (see above) than freshness per se.<br/ <br/ Julien's also sells various sweet bakeries and cakes, but all of those are rather expensive (and I find the cakes disappointing). The one thing I do like are their almond croissants. They are huge and a bit too moist, but have a wonderful taste.<br/ <br/ You can also sit down at Julien's (they probably have six or eight tables or so) but I really use it as a bakery rather than as a café. They are closed on Mondays.<br/ <br/ Overall I am very glad that Julien's exists. Without it I would probably have to bake all of my bread myself. Thank you for offering great bread at decent prices in Halifax!

I typically enjoy their specialty coffee but I ordered their mochaccino and was disappointed. Steamed chocolate milk with some espresso seemed like a shortcut and the result was sickly sweet.

Wonderful place delicious pastry warm atmosphere! I usually don't write reviews, but I am a regular customer here, so couldn't miss a chance to leave my review. Atmosphere is absolutely filled with warmness and cheerfulness wonderful for bold morning coffee as well as cup of tea during the rainy day. Although the service might not be the most personalized, however only because it is partially patisserie shop and cafe, I am truly fascinated with the speed and accuracy of the staff taking great care of such high flow of customers. Not to forget their variety of pastry and bread products you can always find something for your special moment. Thanks!

Great coffee, huge cafe au lait, tasty croissants, and unique cinnamon buns. The croissant sandwich was tasty but a little expensive at $6.95. The cinnamon bun dough felt similar to the croissant which I found very interesting. Friendly staff, and a very cozy, warm cafe.