PAUL is a bakery restaurant that I am more familiar with from my visits to Paris, France. Eventually, it opened up in London then other locations where we lived such as Washington DC. Recently they opened up a branch in Downtown Vancouver, British Columbia along the popular Robson Street.
This week, we finally made it to the location here. We hadn’t been downtown since COVID broke out but felt like we needed to start going out and about in the city. This is my review of the restaurant.
Ambience
The Vancouver location of course had similar branding to the other stores although much larger than the ones we’ve been to in Europe. The branch in Washington DC appeared to be larger although more chaotic.
The Vancouver branch is separated into three sections. First the line up and buy bakery items and a drink which you can take out or have in the cafe area with the cafe. The informal cafe part had plenty of seating to bring your purchases to eat in comfort. The third area was the sit down menu based area where you are waited on by servers. That area has a large ceiling and ornate paintings on the walls.
No matter what section you sat in it was fairly noisy and there wasn’t a lot of people in there when we arrived. We acclimatized after a little while although a couple of times I couldn’t hear the staff’s questions. It seemed, due to the high ceilings maybe, there was a lot of echo.
There were three bathrooms; two unisex and one for special needs. They were clean and maintained very well.
Staff
The staff were friendly and attentive no matter what section you sat in.
Menu
See pictures above. I had the Salmon Eggs Benedict which was amazing, I have this dish often and this was one of the best. The Mocha I had was luscious; very naughty but nice. I almost ate everything, I didn’t feel too full up. The eggs were done as I ordered, soft. The brioche was light and fluffy, not too stodgy as I’ve recently in another restaurant. View the full menu on their website.
Pricing
It was expensive but I guess you pay for quality and we don’t come here that often so it’s all good.
Take Out
I took an almond croissant away to have another time. That was expensive too but it’s most likely the best you can get. I have bought more expensive ones and they haven’t turned out very well.
Conclusion
I would go back here again, it was a treat that we don’t have too often. If I worked near here I would have no salary left.