Boudin SF

Baguette is hard as ROCK. We had lunch here and all of us left with the roof of our mouths hurting. I gave up and only ate the meat, lettuce, tomato and threw away the baguette bread. When we got back to work, people asked us where we went for lunch. When we told them, they all said the bread is too HARD.

Sorry, I must change my review. I tried to call in for take out FOUR times on Saturday at 1PM and the phone kept ringing and ringing. Seriously??? I’ve worked in restaurants before and that is highly unacceptable. I figured that they must have been really busy so I still went to the restaurant to order take-​out.
Guess what? Inside the restaurant was practically empty!!! Wow… Is all I can say. I called the number again once I was in the restaurant to see if I had the correct number and I did! How unprofessional… But of course there were plenty of employees laughing and having a good time. How disappointing…

This review is for the Sunnyvale location only. My rating is based not based on the food, but the location. The last two times we’ve visited this location, the entire restaurant smelled terrible. It is the towels they are using to wash the tables and failure to change their mop water more frequently. My family loves Boudin, but we go to a different location instead because of the experience the last two times. It was probably a month between visits as well. It doesn’t matter how good the food is if all we smell is rotten water.

Love their new Mango & Red Quinoa Salad!
Finally a salad that does not contain stuff that I have food intolerances and allergies with.

The bread was like a rock. The rest of the sandwich was tasteless. Can they make a bread that is not so hard?

It’s been awhile since my last review and my experience has been much better since that time. The sourdough bread continues to be outstanding. I enjoy the special designs for the holidays (Christmas tree, snowman, etc.). I like the burger and the grilled cheese is also great. I have had a couple of the large salads and they have been good.
The counter staff are very friendly. Finally, I have to reverse my comments regarding the rewards program. It’s great! It’s easy to get a free loaf of bread every month, a cookie on my birthday, and other bonus points that translate to cash discounts.
I’m glad it is so convenient and hope it stays for a long time!

It is my first visit to this location. I’ve been to the main SF brunch (hated it and the food) and to the Cupertino brunch (neglected to review it??), but never to the Sunnyvale brunch.
We came in the middle if lunch time and the place was half full, the short line to the cashier moved fast, and even faster after they opened another cashier.
The cashier was very welcoming and friendly, helping us with question (first time here, new menu items).
We ordered their new salads for the season and salad/​soup combinations.
After you pay at the cashier you receive a number sign to place on your table. You take your choice of beverage from the machine and take it to a table with your number sign. The food is served to the table.
Our orders start arriving to the table not too long after we set down,
The salad prices are not cheap, but the salads are big, none of us could finish it, and it came with a bun. A satisfying lunch if you ask me.
The Ingredients were fresh and they offer interesting and yummy salad options.
I’m always on the hunt after good places to eat salads since I’m always overeat at dinner and try to compensate for the guilty feeling at lunch.
The place is clean and quite. We were a group of a few freinds meeting for a short lunch break and we enjoyed the calm atmosphere and the convenient parking.
We were all happy with our newly discovered lunch spot and probably use this location again for our lunch meetings.

Decided to try something new so I stopped by. Ordered the chicken sandwich and roast beef sandwich for my friend. Let me just say the only thing edible wad the tomatoes and my chicken. The bread was rock hard on both sandwiches. Roast beef looked like a mini portion of Safeway prepackaged delivery meat. Our lettuce on the side was not that fresh at all. Only reason I’m not giving a 1 star is because there cookies looked amazing and the interior was nice. But definitely not worth $ 21.00 for 2 dry skimp flavorless sandwiches. Learned my lesson

Came here for clam chowder day and got a buy one get one free clam chowder bowl for takeout. Soup was still piping hot when I got home and there were lots of clams. I prefer to toast the bread bowl at home because I like it warm and a bit crunchy. We got a coupon for a buy one get one free entrée so I came back again and tried their roast beef dip. They use French bread and their roast beef is really soft and tender. The dip was also delicious, however, a bit salty. It balances out when you dip the sandwich in though.
Food is served pretty quickly and staff is always great. Shout out to Fredy C, who displayed really great service the last time I was there. Very friendly and personable and just really nice. Workers are always so helpful here.

This is just food reviews.
The rustic tomato and grill cheese were average.
The restaurant as a whole was clean neat and they took the order pretty quick.

Boudin is a solid type place with very typical types of sandwiches. I tried the Philly Cheesesteak today (a Seasonal specialty!), and it was okay. I asked them to keep off the garlic butter, which they did, but they forgot to also use multigrain instead of sourdough. In their defense, they did offer to change it out. In the end, my overwhelming hunger overcame my dislike of sourdough and I kept it as is.
My larger problem with the sandwich was that it all tasted sugared. The meat, the onions, etc. It shouldn’t have tasted that sweet! The sourdough made sense as the type of bread to use for it; however, the reason I dislike sourdough is that it’s too hard to bite into. In fact, at one point, I hurt my tooth trying to gnaw into the bread.
I tend to really like their chili, but their chili no longer likes me back. I’ll probably try the tuna salad next time I’m in, see if it gets me going. Otherwise, they’ll start to be the back-​up to the back-​up to the back-​up place.

Fairly quaint place; smallish dining room, but pretty clean, and the plaza it is located in is nice. I find it pretty funny that they are located directly across a Panera Bread. The employees are pretty nice and helpful from what I’ve seen, although there is one guy who smiles too much.
I’ve had the clam chowder in sourdough bread bowl, sourdough french dip, the original baguette burger, the bowl of soup and half sandwich combo, and their seasonal ham ‘n brie on rosemary focaccia.
Their clam chowder is delicious although just a little on the salty side, but that didn’t deter me from scarfing down every last bit of soup moisture I could find. The sourdough bread bowls are cold and just slightly stale and tough, but was still fine to eat. I always find it rather wasteful when the bowl is just thrown out, so I try to eat as much of it as I can — still tastes pretty okay, but again, tough to eat and chew. There is one main complaint about the clam chowder — the parsley they top it with is way too strong. The parsley bits are not chopped enough, so it makes the clam chowder have an overwhelming taste of parsley in some bites.
The sourdough french dip was quite yummy, with a good amount of roast beef with a warm and delicious au jus that had tasty, earthy notes of mushroom. At the $ 10 price point it is at though, and with a specialty restaurant super close by on El Camino that serves french dips, you should literally go there instead. They also forgot the side of horseradish when they served it to me.
Their original baguette burger is actually pretty good! When I received it, it was toasted perfectly, and the generously thick portion of burger patty was cooked medium yet still juicy. I also liked that the onions served with were cut thinly and just the right amount to not be overwhelming or give me onion breath. Cheese is melted well, lettuce and tomato tasted fresh and crisp, and this was overall a good burger that tasted way less oilier than the standard burger. Only complaint is that I cannot taste the garlic-​butter it claims to have (almost absent of garlic flavor), although I did get a hint of butter from the sourdough.
Their combo deal, which seems to be a good meal to get for $ 8.59, comes with enough soup to fit inside their sourdough bread bowl, and a well sized smaller sandwich. I tried the chicken pesto sandwich for this, and it tasted great!
Finally, their seasonal special focaccia was delicious, but only because I toasted it to be warm myself when I got home: it included applewood smoked ham, brie, arugula, cranberry dijon, and rosemary focaccia, which are delicious together, but turned infinitely better when it was toasted.
All in all, this branch of the chain serves decent food. But I would not go here without a promotional deal as there are existing places with similar items that are not as expensive, and may even taste better. In my opinion, a lot of their menu items would taste better if they were toasted just a bit before serving, or if items were just… more hot in general. For example, the clam chowder would be amazing if served steaming hot, but from my experience here, it’s just been sort of warm. But I understand they cannot change procedure much, being part of a chain company. Alright food with some easily fixed downfalls; lack of enticement to come here makes this place mediocre.

Good sandwiches. Cookies good.
Of course cookies good when little flies aren’t around them and landing on them. You would think the cashier would at least get rid of the cookie that I told them they landed on. Nope. Just said certain time of year they come and even if they get rid of the flies they back in morning. Um yeah.

I am hoping it was just an off night for this location as I usually love me some Boudin’s. We ordered and sat down and then it begins. «We are out of grilled cheese.» Okay. We get a ham sandwich for our daughter instead. Then they come back and «we are out of chowder.» Okay. Let’s do two of the broccoli Cheddars. «Oh no, we are out of that too.»
20 minutes later we still have not received the rest of our food, though the manager did kindly refund our entire meal. I hope its good.
Wow. Just wow. So many things going wrong in their kitchen tonight. Corporate come fix this!

Rustic tomato soup is tasty with shredded cheese and croutons, blue note Berger is a long burger (not round), with blue melted blue cheese and arugula on a toasted crispy baguette, comes with green salad, the Asian chicken salad is massive.
Chicken and cranberry on toasted sour dough slides. The place is always nice and clean with good service.

Come here a lot for the tomato soup, it’s a fave. My gma and I ordered pick up and her burger wasn’t good. I’m not one to complain but I thought it looked pretty dry and unappetizing as well. Used to good quality from this place, hope this won’t happen again.
«McDonald’s meat is better»
–gma

Their clam chowder is amazingly tasty. The option to get it served in a bread bowl is definitely a must-​do and get the whole thing sufficient for lunch. The possibility to get some bread at the same time to take home or to buy a can of their clam chowder makes it even better.
Their grilled cheese sandwich is also succulent and perfect with their tomato soup.
Place is highly recommended for a quick tasty lunch!

Happy National Clam Chowder Day! Thanks Boudin for offering a BOGO deal for your clam chowder bread bowls. The best part was that you can come back in a couple weeks with the receipt and get another BOGO offer.
I came here for dinner last night with Ken L. The line wasn’t too bad. I went to the location in Cupertino lat year on this day and it was busy… so busy they ran out of clam chowder and offered their other soups instead. Our clam chowder bread bowls came out quickly and our soup was hot. Love their freshly baked sourdough bread too.
I don’t think you can go wrong with any of their bread bowls, sandwiches, or salads. Everything is made to order and always tastes fresh.

History: C. This is the former site of Burger King, Baja Fresh and now Boudin’s. Anything was an improvement on Burger King, but the verdict is still out on whether Boudin’s is an improvement on Baja Fresh.
Name: B-​. When I first saw Boudin’s being built, I thought it was a French restaurant –quite unusual for Silicon Valley. How many French restraurants around here? None.
Location: A. We’ve live about a 7 minute walk from this Boudin, so we come here quite often –when we have coupons from the mail.
Nearby Competiton: A. This place is located right in the heart of fast food row in Sunnyvale, with Rubios, Pizza my Heart, Panera Bread, Habit Hamburger, and Five Guys Hamburger all located within 150 feet, in case you don’t like what you see at Boudin’s, or you get stood up on a date here!
Parking: A. Plenty of parking now that Trader Joe’s has moved around the block, and with it the huge throng of customers. Total woman, Big 5, Habit Hamburger, Yumeya Japanese restaurant, and Peets Coffee don’t have a fraction of the pulling power of Trader Joe’s.
Ambiance: B-​: Boudin and ambiance are both French words, but that’s all they have in common. This is not a place for romantic candle light dinners. It might be the place for a lunch date –a feeler first date where the woman invites the man out, with no romantic connotations in mind.
Service: B-​: You go up to the counter, check out the overhead menu, place your order, lighten your wallet, and take a number to put on the vacant table of your choice. Service with a smile –all graduates of charm school!
Nothing wrong with this, except that I always get stuck behind people who either place an order worthy of Octomom and her kids, or are asking questions left and right about the various choices. My wife is always guilty of the last, and by the time we order, the line behind us has lengthened to 3 parties, all wearing black and all probably with coupons!
Hygiene: C: tables are often unclean, especially the limited number of high demand booths. Our waiter simply brushed the crumbs off the table onto the fake hardwood floor. Not up to even Sweet Tomatoes standards, where they clean the table, the seats, and sweep the floors under the tables.
Food: B: Their $ 7 New England clam chowder sour dough bread bowl is their piece de resistance. On New Year’s eve they ran out of sour dough bread bowls, so gave us a 2 for 1 on the $ 6 soup alone. The soup is very tasty, creamy with potatoes, with a fish flavor, but not a lot of claims. Better than Fish Market. Not sure if our cats would like it, even though they like fish.
I’m not a sourdough bread fan, and always get the multigrain bread as a substitute in my sandwiches. $ 8 turkey avocado sandwich had way too much mayo, and not enough avocado. Turkey seemed fresh, but hard to taste. My wife had the ham and cheese, and said it had way too much mustard. Sandwiches come with a side of lettuce.
I have tried their $ 9 swiss cheese mushroom hamburger, and found the burger to be overcooked, a bit dry, and not enough pickles, and the bread crusty and hard.
Value: C: not a good deal unless you have a 2 for 1 coupon. We had two sets of four 2 for 1 coupons, one for our neighbors which was put in our mail box by mistake –which we did not return! $ 9 hamburgers, $ 8 sandwiches with lettuce, or $ 6 bowls of soups, hard to justify even for SF sourdough fans. You can get a a $ 5 meal at Habit Hamburger, or Rubios right next door.
Specials: A: Periodically Boudin has specials, like their salmon dishes in the summer: salmon salad with oriental noodles, salmon burger, salmon sandwich. I was in salmon heaven, out of control, day and night, getting 2 for 1 coupons from my neighbors left and right, and eating salmon like a Grizzly Bear!
Bathrooms: C: bathroom was clean but cramped –no puddles in front of the urinal. They ran out of paper towels to dry my hands. Didn’t check it that also applied to toilet paper!
Finale: C: There was a French family in the next booth to us with two toddlers. Naturally I had wife sit next to them in the booth. As they were getting ready to leave, the two toddlers climbed over the partition next to my wife saying goo goo gaga over and over. Even I can understand that French! Leaving just in time! This French family learned the hard way that Boudin may be a French name, but it is definitely not a French restaurant!

I need to a quick lunch near work and want to stuff my face with a comforting grilled cheese sandwich and hot tomato soup. This is the place.
I keep ordering the Grilled Brie with Apples and Fig Jam served with a side of mixed green salad — YUM. I liked this grilled cheese so much that I bought the Boudin multi-​grain bread, then headed over to Trader Joe’s for St. Andre Triple Crème Brie, Granny Smith apples and Trader Joe’s brand fig butter. I’m sure they have the ingredients at Whole Foods, but I don’t have that kind of paycheck.
Rustic Tomato Soup — yum! A good complement to the sweet and savory grilled cheese sando. Trader Joe’s Tomato and Roasted Red Pepper soup is a good substitute…
Roasted Cremini Mushroom and Swiss Baguette Burger with mixed greens, no mayo. Made with California-​grown Black Angus USDA Certified beef. A-​OK, however I find it difficult to eat a burger on a baguette. As much as I love grinding on a baguette, a different type of roll might work better for those without razor sharp teeth. If it were up to me, I’d rather have the burger on toasted sliced sourdough bread, so I’m not wrestling with biting through the baguette with each bite! Haha.
This location can be a bit busy during lunch, but employees come by often to take away dirty plates.