Papillon Cafe & Creamery

Don’t go here. They don’t seem to care about making good food in the least. On with the review…
We came with a Groupon and high hopes. Ordered panini’s since that is what is best here, yes? My wife and I each ordered different paninis, I forget which. They were done in about 10 minutes, a reasonable wait considering only the owner was working at the time.
He handed us each the wrong panini, and since they were so similar, we were halfway through them before we realized it: –1 star.
He messed up my wife’s order: –1 star.
The panini’s were very flavorless, despite ordering the more meaty ones: –1 star.
The place claims to be the «Official Home of Ice Cream Sandwiches». No, you aren’t: –1 star.
…and that leaves us with a 1 star restaurant that isn’t worth returning to.
Side note: the wall decorations are creepy, with weird butterflies everywhere…

I must have caught him on a good day… or perhaps because i told him specifically «no rush» but i did ask for the IC sanny’s first… they’re actually overpriced compared to DR, small and $ 2.50 each, but tasty.
Now, the sandwiches… can’t understand why all the one stars, I’d give the lunch sannies at least 4 stars, if not 5! super tasty, only medium size (don’t expect to get stuffed on one sanny) but for only $ 5 (or less w/​a groupon), hey, it was pretty darn good. Good enough I’ll prob go back, and that’s saying something.
5 stars for service and the sanny, one star deduction for the IC sanny being a tad small for $ 2.50, esp compared to DR (which i had last night… mmmm). all in all, well worth your time. as for all the one star ppl, perhaps you should be nice when using a groupon where the owner is only getting $ 2.50 in his pocket, and you’re getting $ 10 worth of food (that’s how it works folks, for those uneducated on groupons).

Came here because of a groupon coupon pay $ 5 for $ 10. The line was longgg and they ran out of cookies but they were going to bake more in a hour so I decided to order a dozen white chocolate macadamia cookies and a strawberry smoothie… The smoothie was artificial not a ounce of fruit! so sugary!!! it was not worth it!
However, I will not be coming back… making customers wait and have to come back for dozen cookies and telling customers that they need to come before closing, and not after. It seems to be a family business and they take their sweet time to serve the customers and you can tell the owner doesn’t want to be there… seems very frustrated and can’t handle their own business. Waited for an hour for a batch of cookies. NEVER AGAIN!!! and the cookies were burnt and they were not gooddddd… ruined the rest of my dayyyy!~

Very Very disappointed at this little café, went there this afternoon, services VERY VERY BAD!!!
They tell me the cookies will be ready after 40mins, so i paid and wait. after that, i came back and wanna pick up my order, they said they ran out of COOKIES!!!
Make me really really MAD!
If they dont want to sell it or really out of it, shouldn’t tell me to wait earier, WAIST OF TIME…

The only thing that saved this place was the ice-​cream sandwiches, and the only reason why I opted to give them three stars instead of two.
Initially, I bought this groupon for when I’d be out and about in Pasadena with some friends, and use it to buy a couple of ice cream sandwiches for us, but they had closed early. I live in Long Beach, so the hour drive was a disappointment.
The groupon is going to expire in 2 days, so I drove by myself back to Pasadena to have lunch. Honestly, I wasted more gas just driving up here. I didn’t save that much with the certificate.
The shop is cute. Just cute. There were three people working there: the owner (who did not look friendly), the cashier lady (who was somewhat friendly), and a teenager/​young adult (who was courteous).
I ordered a Mozzarella and Tomato Panini, a Strawberry Passion Tea, and a Double Chocolate Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Sandwich.
VERDICT:
Sandwich: NASTY. It was plain. It was not grilled/​pressed for very long (no charred marks), the bread was pasty. It had what it said– mozzarella, tomato, basil, and secret Papillon sauce… which sauce did not save the sandwich at all. I tried to eat half, but ended up throwing it away.
Strawberry Tea: Good. I would buy it again. $ 2.00 was not a bad deal for this at all.
Ice-​Cream Sandwich– AWESOME. Well, at least the freshly baked double chocolate cookie w/​Thrifty Mint ‘n Chip ice cream was DELICIOUS! I’m a big fan of Thrifty ice cream. I would come back for this if I was in the area. I actually ate the sandwich outside, and when someone asked how my ice cream, all I could do was mumble and nod at how good it was.
I like their ice cream sandwich a lot better than Diddy Riese. In fact, I wouldn’t mind spending 2.50 for this sandwich… Heck, the Toll House Sandwich sold in liquor stores is 2.50, so this is a good deal!

I try to support mom & pop shops, but you have to give me something!
Went in today, since my $ 10 Groupon expires tomorrow. I decided to stay away from the paninis/​subs with meat, since the meat portions were so paltry last time.
I ordered a mushroom wrap (the lady raved about it saying they grill the mushrooms themselves) and an avocado panini. She gave me the total due, which was basically tax since each cost $ 4.99. But she said a total of close to $ 2. I questioned it. She was charging me for cheese in the mushroom wrap. I said «the mushroom wrap comes with cheese.» She says, «it does?» I point to the menu behind her. So, she removes the circle around the cheese and charges me the correct tax.
The owner handled the mushroom wrap. First of all, the grilled mushrooms, yes they grill them in house. In fact, grilling consists of button mushrooms being tossed on the panini press. They did not appear to be marinated, just put on there to warm them up. I felt a bit deceived, but technically it was not a lie. He finished first and was standing 100 feet from the counter. He tosses the wrap onto the counter and points at it and say, «this is your wrap, he has the panini.» You couldn’t wait the two second it would have taken me to walk over even though you didn’t call me? Talk about pride in your product, that good that you just toss it around? The wrap was bland. Lettuce was watery (you know how it gets transparent when it’s been refrigerated too long?). NO CHEESE! Apparently, nobody in this place knows the 15 items they have on the menu.
There was a younger gentleman helping out today, he handled the avocado panini. Honestly, I had no complaints and this was probably the best out of the four menu items I tasted. He was pleasant, owner could take a few pointers.
Beware of funky math, missing items and attempts to overcharge. The attitude from the owner is foul and should keep everyone from walking through the door. The portions are puny and nothing really special about the product.
I confirmed, the only cheese they have is mozarella (sliced). Hmmm, really for a sandwich shop? I have three different cheeses in my fridge at home right now.

Good food and great service

Really disappointed at this little café — it has so much potential as other Unilocalers say, the owner looks like he doesn’t want to be there at all. I tried to talk to him but he was very disinterested. The meat in the sandwich was so thin — I think there were wafer 2 slices of meat — ridiculous. I took it home to put some lunch meat in it.
The place was empty at lunch time — if you want people to come, you need to make more of an effort There are tons of fast food take out restaurants all along the street.

I was a little disappointed by my experience here. Came in during the lunch hour on a Sunday to use my Groupon. I guess it was the owner that was working there… he wasn’t particularly friendly or unfriendly, just doesn’t look very pleased to be there.
I ordered two ice cream sandwiches for $ 2.50 each. One was pistachio ice cream with chocolate chip cookie and white chocolate chip cookie. The other one was a peanut butter cookie and double chocolate cookie with rocky road ice cream. I had a taste of the pistachio ice cream and it was good, the cookies looked good too. My rocky road ice cream sandwich was missing half the ice cream. He literally gave me a smear of it so it only covered about ¹⁄₃ of the sandwich. Maybe he thinks since I got a discount with the Groupon, I should only get half the ice cream but I was pretty disappointed with that.
I ordered the Spicy Italian panini with mozzarella (I think the cheese cost $ 1 extra). I like my paninis well toasted but this one wasn’t. It came with a few very thinly sliced Italian meats and mozzarella. It was okay, but I’ve had better paninis at the Ralphs deli counter.

I came here because I had a groupon. I tried their Mozzarella and tomato panini. I didn’t like it so much. The bread was fresh though, it really lacked flavor. Too much basil and not enough mozzarella.
I also got two ice cream sandwiches which were very disappointing. I think the owner also raise the price by 50 cents, because I read previously that they were 2 bucks.
So I got the white chocolate macadamia cookie with butter pecan ice cream. The cookie was okay, kinda hard. I also got the Sugar cookie with pistachio ice cream. The cookie was hard as a rock. I threw it out and just ate the ice cream because I couldn’t even bite into it. Overall, don’t get the ice cream cookie sandwich here.
I suggest, keeping the cookies in a tight seal container to preserve the freshness and keep them more chewy and soft.

Had a groupon here so I came to check it out. It’s a cute looking spot near Pasadena City College and the first thing you see when you come in are the bright colors and the menu of different ice cream and cookie combos.
The food:
Chicken salad sandwich
Mushroom wrap
Peach iced tea
Chocolate chip cookie/​mint chip ice cream
The sandwiches were pretty ehhhhh. They had an interesting mustard that had a weird after taste… I didn’t really enjoy either sandwich but perhaps I made the wrong choice because other Unilocalers seemed to like their sandwiches. My favorite of all the things I ordered was the peach iced tea. It was sweet and definitely had a peach flavoring that was refreshing. The ice cream sandwich was also pretty basic — the cookie was a bit hard and the ice cream wasn’t very flavorful. All in all, I probably won’t be coming back for food, but I might stop by for their iced tea if I’m in the area again!

I used to haunt this neighborhood a lot when I was a student at PCC, and this little section of Colorado Blvd. where Papillon is situated has become a very nice place to come eat and relax on a break between classes. While this eatery wasn’t around in my JC school days, I made a special trip out with my mom for lunch after I’d purchased a Groupon for it.
We ordered:
Avocado Onion Tomato Panini #19 and Mozzarella and Tomato Panini #20. I’m usually expecting an oil-​bomb when I order panini, but these were very light and not greasy at all. Ingredients were just average, but the portions were reasonable for $ 4.99 a pop.
Dessert was an ice cream sandwich: white chocolate macadamia nut cookie with pistachio ice cream. This was very good! Love the customization element where you can choose between half dozen different cookie types and the same variety of ice cream flavors.
I think this is the perfect kind of café for the location and demographic, and if I were in the ‘hood I’d definitely pop in for ice cream.
Oh, and they have free wifi, too!

Casual fast eat that pleases on a hot afternoon. The ice cream sandwiches are the treat, but for a lunch starter I recommend the Turkey Pastrami Sandwich. Most of the sandwiches are only $ 4.95, and it’s a cheap deal that leaves you without the feeling of being cheated. There are about 8 different cookies and about 12 ice cream flavors to choose from, they go for the uncommon bargain price of $ 2.00. There not quite as good as D.D. Reese in Westwood, but then again, you don’t have to stand in line for a half hour — this is an upside. For cheap eats and treats, it earns a good rating on those modest terms.

Kind of out of the way for me, but a great little spot for a yummy summer treat! $ 2 gets you an ice cream sandwich consisting of flavors that you choose yourself. They weren’t as big as I pictured, but still good. The owner served us and was friendly. The place itself seems like a cool place to hang. I might come back if I were in the hood.

This was a waste of time and money.
The ice cream is very artificial tasting and sickeningly sugary.
My sister and I both purchased ice cream sandwiches with strawberry and the sugar/​artificiality was so overwhelming neither of us could tell it was strawberry flavored.
I’m glad the cookies are baked on premise but I wish they were softer and also used less sugar.
Papillon has potential. If the owner switched out the ice cream brand and worked on the cookie recipe, this place could be legendary.

This butterfly decorated ice cream café is cute and full of potential. Dealing mainly with sandwiches, paninis, smoothies and their signature ice cream sandwiches, you can tell their main target are nearby PCC students. The summer must be hard because there weren’t that many people at the café when we went.
One man (the owner?) was manning the store when we got there and it slowed down service a bit. He has to run around making sandwiches and putting cookies in the oven before running back to the register to take orders. The cookie sandwiches are usually $ 2 each– you pick your cookie and your ice cream, which he sandwiches together and hands you in a hotdog tray. Taste-​wise, it’s not bad, the cookies are fresh if a bit small and although it’s not gourmet ice cream, it’s creamy and sweet. (I liked K’s pistachio with chocolate chip. My french vanilla with peanut butter cookie was a bit more plain.)
We had a club panini as well which was decent in size and taste. All in all, I like Papillon for the potential it has. If they could find some way of distinguishing themselves (bigger ice cream sandwiches, cheaper prices, more flavours, prettier sandwiches), just find /​something/​that would make you drive out of the way to visit, I could see it doing well. Worth the groupon and the drive.

mmmmm … ice cream sandwiches!
There’s a Groupon TODAY Thu 7÷7÷11: $ 5 for $ 10 worth of sandwiches, paninis, and ice cream

How can you say no to ice cream sandwiches? Or anything that has to do with ice cream?
This shop is cute, clean, and the owner is SO very nice. I had a mozzarella and tomato panini and it was really good. The mango iced tea was delicious! They make it with 4 different types of tea the owner said — wow, they should really advertise that! And it was less than $ 2, a steal.
I brought back some ice cream sandwiches for co-​workers, and those were really yummy as well. The owner said he bakes the cookies in house.
I hope this little mom n’ pop shop does well! High quality food for a very reasonable price!

OMG I’m hooked. Ice cream sandwiches for $ 2 its a win win situation. Bought a Groupon Coupon for this place and me and my coworker each created our own ice cream sandwiches. Just imagine fresh baked chocolate chip, double chocolate, macadamia nut, sugar, peanut butter cookies stuffed with your choice of vanilla, strawberry pistachio, pecan, rocky road or my favorite min n chip. The staff is super friendly and offered their personal favorite combinations. Please, please come and support this establishment. I don’t want to see it go away. Remember the days are getting hotter it’s time for ice cream.

Cute mom and pop Café just a few blocks from Target. If I were a college student at PCC (which is literally caddy corner to this place), I’d be grabbing food and dessert here to eat every day.
I came here today with the Mr. and we were both pleased. We were in the mood to eat a sub sandwich that wasn’t overpriced and stuffed with heavy ingredients. You have the option of ordering your food as a panini or a sandwich. He ordered the turkey sandwich with avocado and I, the club. I was already full from only eating half of my sandwich. Score. I also loved that the veggie sandwiches/​paninis weren’t more expensive, as they usually are at other places.
We both wanted to try the ice cream cookies that we had read about on Unilocal,especially after seeing on the menu that they were only $ 2. We asked the guy at the register if we could mix the cookies in the ice cream sandwich and he said, yes. Music to our ears. The Mr. ordered a white macadamia nut and peanut butter cookie with french vanilla ice cream, while I ordered a white macadamia nut cookie and butter pecan ice cream. Good God, man. warm cookies, not too soft but just soft enough — one word: YUM. I wanted more but held out.
Overall: Nice and friendly service and the sandwiches are made in good proportions, as well as priced well. Sat-​is-​fied.