Chef John’s European Bakery & Cafe

Quality food, they have a great selection and this is def not fast food. It’s cost a bit more than panera but it’s better

4.5 stars for this gem.
Good food, reasonable prices, cute idea.
Think of it as a type of… local Panera.
This place is off the main street but I thought it was a good stop on a cold fall day. We stopped for lunch and got soups and sandwiches. The sandwiches are big so at a table of 5 we got 2 sandwiches, 2 cups and 1 bowl of soup and a quiche.
We were all very satisfied with our food (eggplant sandwich, french dip, havarti soup, minestrone, and quiche). This place seems supported by the community our waitress was telling us that many of the tablecloths and things were donated by the people in the community. What a fun idea!
I will say the inside could use a little sprucing so I took .5 star away but there’s no doubt that I would visit this place again.

Good food

This place smells heavenly when you walk in. The food is good, and the atmosphere is charming, with eclectic dishes, tablecloths, snd knick knacks on display. The salt and pepper shakers are really cute!

Very good soups – we had crab bisque and dill havarti. Also had the melting cheese salad. Slow service but sweet staff.

What a pleasant find! We stopped on for a coffee and snack. Got the dill havarti soup and tried the cream of asparagus. Both were great. The cannoli were perfect (not so hard, not too soft). Food is made fresh. Service was friendly and attentive. Bathrooms are super clean and have character. Lots of cookie options.

A very simple but eloquent menu. Incredible baked goods. Terrific and friendly service. Great coffee!

Chef John’s is an amazing find! Yes, the service is on a relaxed pace, but if you want crappy fast food then go to McDonalds. The food you get at Chef Johns is superb and made fresh to order. Cute vintage atmosphere and a deli/​bakery with food options for any appetite.
All of our food choices were outstanding, and each one super delicious.
Soup — Havarti Dill, Minestrone, and Pepper Crab Bisque — Yum
Sandwiches — Eggplant and Reuben — Amazing
Sweets — German Chocolate Cookie, Phantom Cookie, and Brownie — Sinfully good.
The only thing that would be great, is if they had a ½ sandwich ½ soup option.
Quit reading this and go there immediately.

Friendly, inviting and delicious! We tried the dill havarti soup (divine!), chicken asparagus soup (amazing!) and the reuben and the roast beef sandwiches. Everything was good and portions were perfect for a light lunch. The german chocolate cookie was so good we took some home from the sale shelves! Do not miss this gem!

Had Lunch Here Today, Tried 4 different soups, They were All Great !! The Bread Pudding & German Chocolate Cookie were both Amazing! ! My Server Wendy was Extremely Helpful & Very Pleasant! ! Nice Place

Breakfast took us 70 min from start to finish. I agree with the other reviews that the food was good, but they seem to be understaffed. Don’t eat here if you are in a hurry. Breakfast is served until 11am.

This is a little off the main drag of Ludington but is a cute breakfast or lunch place with bakery. The tables are a hodgepodge with different vintage tablecloths and each coffee cup is unique. The food was really great (we had apple French toast and the breakfast sandwich) but was very slow. Come here if you’re looking for something tasty but don’t mind chatting over a cup of coffee.
The quiche, roulade and torte were sold out and I’m guessing that means they were prett tasty. Next time I’ll try lunch– the soup and baguette looked great!

Great food. My favorite is the French dip sandwich and the vegetarian sandwich. His Harvarti soup is also amazing.
Also make sure to try the desserts, you can take them home with you as well!

4 stars for having the best breakfast in town but beware of the awful and slow service. Their menu is pretty small but each of our dishes were very good. I’d recommend the egg roulade. The service it self was bad. Very slow and the waitress constantly forgot things. A few times I just had to get up to get them myself.

Such a wonderful place. Service and food is so good. Soups, sandwiches and desserts are the best ever!
Wish they were open year round and sundays!

This is a great place to grab a lunch in Ludington. Not far off the main drag, and a short walk from the marina, this place offers large portions of delicious food in a friendly setting. Be prepared to be tempted by their baked goods. Their soups are worth the visit alone. Service isn’t awesome, be prepared to be a little proactive. I’d hate to be here when every table is occupied.

Let start out by being honest. The French dip that I ordered was probably the best I have ever eaten. It was perfectly tasty and the bread was soft. We really wanted to love this place but it all went down hill from there. They had some sample cookies out for you to try. They were nasty. I should have known that this place didn’t know what chocolate was at that point. My wife was irritated that they only had 3 dressings and the oil one she got was not very good. We splurged and each got a dessert. The chocolate peanut butter bar was flavorless yet bitter at the same time. My wife went with the chocolate crème pie. It was also flavorless. The chocolate filling didn’t taste like chocolate either.
Overall, we were highly disappointed, and it was a $ 35 lunch at that.

Second time visiting this place. Come to find out it’s hit or miss. I traveled to Ludington recently and was excited to show the café off to a friend.
First, our service was awful. The café was full, (14 tables) on a Saturday afternoon. We asked our waitress to drinks three times before getting glasses of water, instead of the coffee and orange juice we asked for. She never came by to see how we were doing and tables around us got served much sooner by the other servers.
We ordered 2 sandwiches. This took 2 hours. I ordered the veggie deluxe. The bread was great, but the veggies on the inside were bland. The best spiced thing on my plate was the pickle, out of the jar, that came with it. My friend got a toasted roast beef. It was so wet and cold, the bread turned to mush when he picked it up.
My first experience was fast and fresh and pretty tasty (chipotle chicken sandwich.) I was pretty disappointed this time.
Don’t think I’ll be going back anytime soon

If you are like me, and fear menus that read like a novel, then most of the dining options available in Ludington are slightly terrifying. I went through the tourist guides at the hotel and could pick out the same 5 – 10 appetizers on every rambling American standards menu.
Also, there is a restaurant in Ludington called «P.M. Steamers». Gross.
This place is small, with a small menu and fresh food. I had a perfectly composed breakfast sandwich with eggs, pancetta, havarti and grainy mustard. It was soundly structured, which means it stayed together when I started tearing into it. Love that.
Had to go with three stars due to aesthetics. This place is uglier than shit.

Chef John’s was the best meal I’ve had in a very, very long time. You might not imagine soups and sandwiches could be so good, but I fell in love with a Havarti Dill Soup and a Reuben.
The soup was thick and flavorful. It was so creamy and cheesy. I wanted 5 more bowls when I finished and was hoping to get in on some Crab Bisque action, but that’s a Friday flavor.
My Reuben was a second choice. I had originally wanted something else, but it was late in the afternoon and they had run out of baguettes. I «settled» for the Reuben and was completely stunned when I took a bite. It was the best sandwich I’ve ever had anywhere!
I rounded off the meal with a Snickerdoodle cookie. It was delicious! They put just the right amount of cream of tartar in to give it a nice bite. The cookie was fresh and chewy. I’m ordering a dozen next time!