Paul
Sands Hotel, Abdul-Rahman Al-Tubayshi St.
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Tel: 02-6671633
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The wait is finally over, at last “Paul” the eagerly awaited French café and bakery opened its doors in Jeddah. The French Bakery that was established in 1899 and now has a presence in many countries across Europe, America, Asia, and the Middle East. I have been a fan of it since I experienced it in Dubai many years ago. Having breakfast in “Paul” is a quite pleasant experience that is not easily found anywhere else.
I took my wife in the evening to see whether this one can live up to our hopes and expectations. The location is certainly premium, in one of the trendiest part of town in Al- Andalus Dist, on the Western side of Sands Hotel off Tahliah Street. We arrived there driven by curiosity at midnight. It was not exactly Suhoor time, but we are not big on that meal anyway. The place from the outside didn’t look that inviting, because the parking lot was dimly lit. The scene is totally different once you step inside; it is very bright and buzzing with patrons. The majority of customers were ladies, and I guess this kind of setting is more attractive to the female population.
Our waiter welcomed us inside, and we chose a corner table. The place is furnished like typical “Paul” café with tables and chairs in a traditional European cafés style. The place has a regal touch, but because it is divided into small sections, it gives rather intimate vibes. The waiters all dressed in white, with white aprons and beret, they could not look more French.
As for the menu, it gets a little confusing when it comes to the names because they are all in French, but thankfully, they description is written in English and they also has Arabic menu, which helps. My wife picked “Vichyssoise soup” (25 SR) and “Tarte Brioche Tomato” (40 SR), while I had “6 Cereals Croque” sandwich (35 SR), for drinks we had soda which came in cans (6 SR each). Both main came with side salads, and they served us a complementary basket of bread with amentias (butter, chili butter, and olive spread). Everything on the table was marvelous. The food presented well, looked fresh, and tasted great.
The service was fast and gracious. We had a bad experience before in a “Paul” restaurant in Dubai, but thankfully this did not happen here. After clearing up our dishes, we asked the waiter for the menu so we can pick some dessert, (it would be a big mistake not to try one!). It would be like visiting Paris and not stopping by the Eiffel Tower. I picked “Lemon Tarte” (15 SR) and cup of single espresso (12 SR) while the wife had the “White Lady Sundae” (30 SR). My tart was excellent and was the coffee, while my wife was not as impressed with her sundae. Over all we had a great light meal in “Paul”.
Here is the thing; “Paul” is the real deal. A genuine café in a city filled with wannabes. Whether you want to start your day with a delicious breakfast, a business lunch, a light snack, or even a cup of coffee and a piece of cake with your friends, “Paul” should be in your radar. You even can go there to pick up some bread or pastries. They are all on display seducing the customers in the shop, and your big dilemma then would be trying not to eat everything.
This post was submitted by ayaa1977.
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I visited Paul once around 2 months ago and was ver disappointed to be honest. The waiter couldn’t tell me what the soup of the day was, for any question I asked he had to consult a manager, there was NO complimentary bread basket and in the end when I asked why, they simply explained that some people would eat the bread and not order further. I was astonished, because bread is one of the reasons I love Paul. They don’t have chicken mushroom soup, which is extremely tasty and popular in Dubai, and you can combine with onion bread to make it a perfect combination. I ordered a club sandwich, and it was below my expectation. Then finally we couldn’t get the waiter to bring us the cheque, cuz nobody was checking on us and we went to pay the cashier. We bought some onion bread to go and it turned out to be very oily. So overall my experience in Paul was not great, thought I genuinely adore the place and hope it will improve, if I ever go there another time.
i had a great day at Paul. The food was great as i expected, however, what i thought was really great is how one of the staff “Mr. Ali” found my sister’s wallet in the outdoors area and kept it safe until we came to pick it up a day after! Mr. Ali’s integrity deserves 5\5!
Breakfast is amazing. We’ve stopped going to brunches at hotels – Paul is better quality, better decor and ambiance, better service, SMOKE FREE, and we are filled up with Le “Petit” Dejeuner full enough — for less than at any of the hotel brunches around!
I had an amazing breakfast their.
The croissant was ok, i felt the orange juice wasn’t fresh, but the eggs were cooked perfectly. Overall I loved the place and will definitely go their again inshallah!
love it ..love it ..love it
Never miss their Mille-feuille
ميل فيه
especially the chocolate one
been there with my better half last thursday for a snack, the service is great not to mentioned their pastries & coffee. sure to come back ….
I loved the place & ambiance is very nice & the staff is very helpful.
i will definitely visit there again!
For those expats from the West not being able to eat a Croque Monsieur (due to it containing pork) is one of life’s great mysteries. Not any more. Thanks to the wonders of the commercial boom and inward investment we now have one of the best bakeries in Paris on our doorstep!
The experience starts and is centered around the central theme of what Paul stands for: fresh quality bread. Milling its own flour is the receipe for success and diners are reminded of that fact from the wonderful displays and the baker outfit clad waitors.
Back to the croque. Layers of cheese, bechemel sauce, toast, ham (halal!) was simply amazing and solved one of life’s mysteries! Served with a side salad with just enough dressing balanced the samdwich and made a perfect lunch.
The meal was preceded with three fine bread rolls, best quality butter and 2 fruit jams which really amounted to the chef showing off! The quality of the bread was as good as anything you would find in a Michelin star restaurant. Crusty yet soft and light with enough depth for you to reach for another!
Although not to everyone’s taste the music was unmistakenly french! The attention to detail in the display and seating area and the chic clientele often ordering in french adds to an ambiance that could easily be experienced anywhere in Europe.
Best of all was the price. Lunch of this quality for less than SR60 including service (less than 10%) is pure class. Fast, clean and attentive watiors makes this one of the best quick stop lunch/tea venues in Jeddah.
Bravo to all at Paul!
I’ve visited france countless times and i’ve been to paul every time. it’s an absolutely amazing place. just the smell attracts you in. the food is delicious and is very high quality. they have branches everywhere from london to dubai. The jeddah branch is no different. it fails to disappoint me every time. their options are wide and the food is delicious. I definitely recommend this to everyone with a french taste.
We went for lunch last week, and our final consensus is that it’s a fabulous and gorgeous place for coffee/dessert, but average for the food. We would go again for the vast array of beautiful desserts and great selection of drinks and coffees, but the food is a bit too bland for our tastes. The interior is stunning, and you can see that great care of taken in its furnishing and design. I’d go for the ambiance alone!
I love it! Grand opening was in November 2011; dismiss any comments during the soft opening!
Since it opened, we have been passing by it to get their delicious bread and deserts only but later my kids insisted on dinning there so we went on a Thursday night and sat inside. We ordered three meals and onion soup. The food in general was ok but there was nothing so special to make us come back for a second visit soon. For the French cuisine, I guess La Cuisine stands out as the best in Jeddah. The portions of food were small which is expected so not much comment there. What disappointed my daughter the most was when she ordered the Hot Chocolate! It was so thick and heavy. My daughter who is a Hot Chocolate lover couldn’t drink it.
I guess we will continue to pass by for the bread and deserts only
I love their hot chocolate, and so does my <3 yo daughter, but then again, she has been eating 70% dark chocolate since she was 1 yo old. What kind of hot chocolate does your daughter drink normally? Yes, theirs is very thick and heavy, like basically drinking solid chocolate, if you can imagine that, but that's what I love about it… pure chocolate experience.
Like your other reviewers I have previous experience of several Paul outlets including Waterloo Station, South Kensington, Paris and Istanbul. By far and away, the best reason for visiting the Jeddah outlet is the décor which is delightful; from its light and bright and airy family section to its wooden beamed ceiling, from the distressed pale green walls with delicate in-relief ornamental plasterwork, to the spacious displays of inviting goodies; whereas abroad outlets are far more cramped and dark. The many waiters mill about enthusiastically, unlike the understaffed outlets abroad. However, I am not a fan of what the French call Crème Anglaise, nor its cousin Crème Patissier, which are unpleasant, sticky concoctions of cornflour, milk and flavouring and which has become the filling of choice in most modern cafés and patissieries, including at Paul. One can only assume that real dairy cream has fallen out of fashion due to the all-important Bottom Line. This supposition is further borne out by the serving of the apricot and berry jams in little open pots presumably doled out from big wholesale tins back in the kitchen; leading one to fearfully imagine that leftovers are given a quick wipe and returned to service. Individual mini-jars are perhaps more costly but far more elegant and hygienic. Furthermore, the ubiquitous use of puff pastry, throughout the Café trade, by no means just limited to French franchises, is so very disappointing with its cardboard texture. Returning to Paul specifically, the coffee may well be freshly ground for each cup, so perhaps it is the quality of the beans or their storage since my espresso was neither aromatic nor rich and the filter coffee similar and weak. So, to recap, pleasanter surroundings than most other Paul outlets but similarly disappointing food and drink.
Now that is a restaurant critique at its finest.
please don’t get me wrong i liked paul restaurant when i experienced it in dubai and i’m a big fan. that’s why i looked forward to their long-delayed opening in jeddah. so when i visited them a couple of months back during their soft opening, i was filled with high expectations. i took along some friends to show off the restaurant in the hope that they will also become fans. the decor and furniture was grand and very european- no complaints there. the service seemed efficient. but when it came to the food, i had some issues. although the french onion soup was scrumptious, their chicken breast sandwich that i ordered was disappointing because the bread was not fresh, it was chewy, tough and a little cold! i still don’t know when my next visit will be as i intend to give it another try …hopefully it will be different next time.
When i stepped into Paul it was ahhhh.. love at first sight! Everything in my field of vision promised me i was in for a good time. The illumination, the décor, the impeccable manners of the waiters, the voice of Edith Piaf together with the heavenly sensation (by then in my mouth!) of the sweet and intriguingly crunchy chocolate mille feuilles.
Hmmmmm….It was like sinning in heaven sans guilt.
Merci, Paul, I seenk we weel be seeing a lot of each ozerrr
Disappointed!went there for bfast ,lunch and diner! they need more waiters n more selection on the menu!good for coffee and piece of tarte!
I’ve been to Paul once for dinner ,the food was good but not excellent ,I liked their pizza and Sandwiches,The service was quick and extremely excellent ,the place is clean and cozy,I went to Paul later for take away they have marvellous macarones and melfe and the best thing in Paul in my opinion is their customer service which is really outstanding.
same experience – compared to ohter Paul outlets like the one in Dubai or in Beirut it is a BIG DISAPPOINTMENT… the shop manager is just a non-smiling and the worst customer service i saw in the kingdom… be aware that during weekend they only accept families therefore i stopped going there as it is no go option in this setup… not a good deal
Disappointed !
I went there for a breakfast, but it was the worst breakfast ever! :S
Could not say more, Rayan say it all, it is a rip off, Paul fake, I went to it last Wednesday to have a quick snack with my family and we were shocked with a lot of things, from the waiting time until we receive our orders until we were receive the sandwiches, and finely until our desert comes on
Jeddah Paul, it is only related to Paris Paul by name, you can see it is another Lebanese caffe that copy cat what is there in Paris (while it is a short sandwiches menu), ridicules staff (where I have to repeat my request several times to the Philippine waiter so he can understand my order, even the when I asked if the served beer is flavored or plan he couldn’t understand and he request his manager to interfere (the Lebanese manager)
The Macaron we had was not that good and it could be worse (I had better) and the point that they are not showing ready sandwiches like Paris, it does make a different
below is my order and the price of each item (and my rating out of 10):
6 Cereals Croque: SR 30 (5/10)
Moelleux Poulet: SR 35 (6/10)
Pizza Pepperoni: SR 22 (8/10)
Hambourgeois: SR 60 (5/10)
Water: SR 6
Pepsi: SR 6
Virgin Mohito: SR 25 (8/10)
Fondant Au Chocolat: SR 30 (4/10)
Macaron Chocolat: SR 14 (6/10)
Service time: (3/10)
Bathroom: (6/10)
Decore: (6/10)
we were Three persons, me, my wife and my sister, and I’m sure that will not be our last visit to them (maybe they are still preparing them self, so I put another visit after three months),In the mean time, I will give it two star
I tried Paul in Wafi city in Dubai. Both my wife and I loved it. its really woth it and now im going to try the one in Jeddah
Paul is a french franchise that was brought to jeddah recently. I was at paul having lunch yesterday and it resembles nothing to Paul in france. I’m big paul fan, every time I’m in paris i must stop by Paul to have there amazing sandwiches.
Paul Jeddah is a rip off, there menu includes only 4 sandwiches, thats a shame.
The service at paul is extremely slow i had to wait 20 minutes for a few sandwiches in france they are ready made for you to pick up, in jeddah everything is behind doors and the sandwiches are not the same as i had in Paul Paris.
So my review is 1 out of 5
I’m a big fan of Pule cafe since I tried it everywhere staring from Dubai which was the best branch ever to Beirut which was not that good comparing to Dubai & moving forward to the original branch in Paris & even when they have only a smaller branches but it was excellent as expected &I always wander when they will open a branch in Jeddah since it’s a big market for restaurants & café, last week my husband invited me for a surprise café as he said & it was a pleasant one when I saw Pule sign across the street.
The place looked nice from inside even when its different than all other branches I visited before since it looked like a restaurant more than a café but I was so excited to try the Millefeuille Fraise & my husband favorite chocolate tart, the quality of service was slow & it took us sometime to get the waiter to take our orders the dessert quality was not what we expected since it wasn’t fresh & the chocolate tart looked frozen!! but the cappuccino was ok when we asked the store manager he mentioned that since it’s a soft launch only they need some time to get things right which I really hope since I really like this place & we waited for such long time to have it here.