TNH

The quality of the food here is extremely hit-and-miss. Twice I've been with friends when dishes brought to the table have looked so disappointingly bad that everyone has actually laughed at them in disbelief (the funny side being short-lived for the unlucky ones who ordered them). One was a pasta special that was seriously just a bowl of completely plain, over-cooked macaroni, the other was the world's smallest potato salad, which you could have polished off in two mouthfuls.

But some dishes are quite fine. The cauliflower gratin and the provencal open sandwich are both tasty (if you like a lot of cheese), the quiche is quite good, and the nicoise salad is nice enough. I don't know why they serve the salads with stale, sliced sandwich bread when they have crusty campagne available.

Service is painfully slow at lunch-times. You can expect to wait 45 minutes for your meal.

The setting is really lovely, though. Green and peaceful.

All things considered, it's probably best to just enjoy the atmosphere and stick to a coffee, smoothie or cake.

Sorry to say this but I cannot recommend this café at all. I know that most of the staff are trainees but still they should be able to understand the order when the customer points at the menu. If they don't may be it would be a good idea to add a vietnamese translation to the french/english menu. We had to order our crème brulée four times. The girl who took our order was obviously not able to speak english at all. Besides the staff's jackets might have been white at the beginning of the week but not any more on the saturday we were there. Compared to Koto which is a training programm too, Baguette et Chocolat is really disappointing. Besides, espresso and cappuccino were not good, mediocre at best.

A nice peaceful spot in the garden behind the museum. Plentiful seating and the space is kept very clean with very attentive staff. The waiters and waitresses don't speak much English, but are very friendly and competent, double checking our order. We were there at lunch time and we did not wait more than 10 minutes for our food. The ginger tea and pho were nice and well-priced, but the pastries were just awful -- we coated the lot in honey and it made them edible but just barely. Still, I would recommend that you eat and drink here while visiting the museum and supporting the Hoa Sua mission.

Sorry to burst any bubbles here, but the food at this place is pretty lame. And by lame I mean it sucks. But you should still go! Really. I don't mean to scare anyone from going. It makes up in charm what it lacks in quality food.

The setting is quite beautiful, on the grounds of the Ethnology Museum with nice big trees surrounding. The cafe is charming, kind of dollhouse modern French style. And perhaps most importantly, the staff are all student trainees who have had a rough go of it, so the owners are trying to do some social good in the process.

You should indeed go to admire the scene and support the local community. But stay away from the pizza, which is worse than microwaved (is it possible it was baked in a kid's toy oven? because that is what it looks like...).

I was at the Musueum of Ethnology for the first time a few weeks back and am kicking myself for not going there earlier and discovering the delights of this great little cafe.

From a purely 'mother with young child' perspective, Baguette and Chocolat is a dream come true - well-priced Vietnamese and Western comfort food, decent (but not great) lattes, yummy fruit and yoghurt concoctions and really great looking cakes in the safe grounds of the museum and nice setting of a lovely outdoorsy cafe.

If only it weren't so far away... but then again it's easy and safe enough for the kids to mooch about without the risk of being taken out by a motorbike while you sit back and enjoy a leisurely snack or meal, so it's worth the taxi fare out there.