Gourmand! in Warrington

An accidental find. Strolling the boulevards of Warrington. The smell of fresh baking grabbed my nose and the bright furnishings caught my eye, but the pain au chocolat captured my heart. All the food is made here using as many authentic ingredients as possible. The welcome is warm, the chocolat chaud and the ambiance parfait! I’ll be back.

We had the brunch for two and it was superb! Fantastic food with a big selection of everything. Needless to say we ate it all! The coffee was nice, tasty and strong, as coffee should be. The staff were lovely too. We'll be back.

Three visits now so I feel it is worthy of our very positive review as we have enjoyed it each time. We have tried a few different menu items now and have loved in all... Jambon Comte sandwich, quiche, croque monsieur, tarte tatin, creme brulee. Mmmmmm. Really lovely coffee too (which makes me happy). So pleased we have found this place for our special lunch treats.

Enjoyed my sandwich but had to wait nearly half an hour for it to be made/served. “You’ll have to wait because someone has ordered something before you”. Not exactly a friendly, cheerful welcome, more like ‘we’re doing you a favour’! Won’t be dashing back in a hurry, if at all.

A really authentic French town centre cafe; well worth a visit. Superb home made food with a definite French influence. Great to see an independent like this opening up in Warrington.

I absolutely love this place. The staff are so lovely and polite and the food is always delicious! Truly authentic French food. The Sunday brunch is excellent value for money, I highly recommend. A real gem of Warrington.

I really want to like this cafe and I really want it to succeed because I love anything French. I’ve been here twice now because I wanted to give it a fair go, and it’s just disappointing. First time I visited was around 12.45pm. I went deliberately to buy French pastries and found there was only one baguette and some pain au chocolat, so I bought those feeling a bit disappointed that I’d gone out of my way. I also spoke French and was replied to in English, though persevered until the lady owner switched into French eventually. The bread was quite hard when I got home for lunch, not like a baguette you’d buy in France. The second time I visited for lunch at 1pm and again found only one baguette left, and this was used to make my sandwich. There are no menus on the table, so you have to read the menu while you stand at the counter, and I felt pressured to make a fast choice. I took the menu to my table because I wanted to read the preamble about the owners’ French background, but I was asked to give it back, so I’m not sure why their ‘story’ is written up - there’s no opportunity to read it! Food arrived promptly, there was very little butter on the bread, and again the bread was quite hard, so it wasn’t enjoyable. At this point, the owners put a note on the door saying they’d run out of bread, so no more sandwiches - at 1pm! I noticed a family sit down and ask for Croque Monsieur to be told rather curtly ‘no bread, no Croque Monsieur,’ which they raised their eyebrows at (I think partly because of the lack of bread and partly because of the way they were spoken to by the lady owner). Another couple walked in and left when they realised there were no sandwiches. It’s hard to believe that a French cafe can consistently run out of bread by lunchtime - and you don’t even need baguette to make a Croque - id certainly nip out and buy bread to make a Croque rather than turn business away in these early days. There are 12 seats and four stools, so 16 covers in total, it’s not a big place, but if this is going to be successful, it needs enough bread to last the day, at the very least. I’ve given it a go, at least!

Went in for a coffee and some lunch, just after 1pm. The man working was really friendly and welcoming, but I feel like the lady let’s that side of the customer service down, unfortunately. There was no croissants, pan au chocolates etc as they had all been sold it. No bread left so no sandwiches, either. Which was not the end of the world, we just thought it was a one off and we just had a coffee and went elsewhere for food. Decided to come back and try again, came this time around 11am. Again, no croissants, pan au chocolates - all sold out. Wanted to order scrambled eggs but was told he needs to start prepping for lunch, even though the time says breakfast until 11:30? Ordered some coffees, no exaggeration, we waited 20/25 minutes for them!!!! I honestly would understand if it was busy but there was one other table of two and a table of 1 in. The lady brought it over and didn’t apologise. We wanted to eat here and try the food, but given the coffees took that long we didn’t want to wait ages for a sandwich, so again, went elsewhere. Given these two experiences, I unfortunately will not be returning. It could be such a lovely cafe, they could do with one extra pair of hands and having plenty of food in for the day.

The patisserie is excellent! It’s so nice to have freshly prepared desserts. I had the pear and chocolate entremets - a tastegasm! So delicious! The beautiful yellow wall cheered us up on a cold afternoon.

I have eaten here on numerous occasions and it is faultless. The food is exceptional and freshness outstanding as it is all cooked on site. The owners are amazing people with a passion for customer service- unquestionably the best cafe in Warrington.

Cafe Gourmand is the best French cafe this side of Montpellier, the region in France the owners are from. It thoroughly deserved to be voted the best cafe in Warrington!

I’ve been meaning to visit this café for ages and it did not disappoint. Lovely welcome and delicious food! It was quiet when we visited, I have no idea why this café isn’t packed out as the food is delicious and a little taste of France! We will definitely be visiting again. I do have 1 small criticism though, the blackboard menus are pretty small with small writing, and you can hardly read what is on the menu. I think this may put people puff as they don’t know they have on offer. Maybe a thought to have bigger blackboards with clearer food descriptions. But this is only feedback to try and get this place busier! Love it!

I discovered that coffee shop last week. Julien the French owner is very pleasant. I bought 2 blueberries tarts to bring back home. They melted in our mouth. The shop sells some lovely deserts ( made in the premises) and much more. I will be back next time I come to Warrington and I am looking forward to stop for a coffee and a croissant. So happy that finally there is a French pâtisserie in Warrington.

What a fantastic find. Gourmand is like being in a cafe in France. The food is all prepared and cooked by the owners. I’m slowly working my way through the menu. I’d recommend the pain au chocolat, thé cookies are incredible, their jams and chocolate spreads too. (I’ve only been for breakfast a few times so far) For breakfast they serve pain au chocolat, croissant and baguette with their homemade chocolate spread or incredible flavoured jams. So many lunch choices - soups, quiche, salads, French style sausage and platters. The platters vary but one really tasty sounding one is called raclette - melted cheese, baby potatoes, ham, salad, cornichons and salami. I took a sausage roll home to try - the flavour was intense. The dessert items are amazing. Fruit tarts, chocolate mousse, rum babas, biscuit de Savoie, croquettes, fondant choc noisette. I loved the chocolate cookie - jam packed with high class chocolate chunks. Speciality teas and delicious coffees too. They also sell items to take away - salami, saucisson, jam, chestnut spread, rillettes du canard, cheeses etc. Please give Gourmand a try.

Often thought why aren’t there more French eateries around, especially without the pomp & circumstance of French fine dining, so was happy to discover Gourmand in Warrington town centre. Popped in for French Onion Soup, followed by Coffee, Lemon Posset & some Chouquettes. A nice enough experience.