Artoven Cafe & Patisserie - Canberra

Bought a large chocolate cake. Took it home and served it to visiting relatives. I thought it was hard to cut. No one ate more than a mouthful. The cake was completely stale, dry, and tasted like wholemeal bread. The bakery wanted the missing slices for refund. I asked the owner to cut a slice and taste it. She spat the piece out and apologised, explaining that they don't actually bake the cakes, but she would talk to her supplier. If I wanted a factory cake, I would have gone to Coles. At least it would have been fresh and edible. This place is more like a factory outlet than a bakery... At least when it comes to cakes. Will never return.

This isn't a patisserie anymore, just a regular vietnamese bakeryHowever they do the best bacon and egg rolls I've had in a long time.

Stopped in here for a lunch. Inside it does look like a pretty ordinary cafe with average furnishings, and the very limited array of cakes/slices, etc. on display does not make it a patisserie. Ordered foccacias, toasties and coffees,. Coffees came out in 5 minutes, but waiting over a further 15 minutes for the food. Coffees OK, but nothing to write home about. Seems as if a very low priority is placed on table service if there are any take away customers present, and they had many take away customers while we were waiting. Had finished our drinks well and truly before the food arrived, and when it did, it was just average.There are so many other places in that strip for lunch, and we unfortunately chose the wrong one. Might be OK if you are a take away customer, but based on our experience, we won't be going back.

Good location next to the cinema and a good bakery feel. However it has slipped with staff that have no real feel for customer service.

Looking at some other reviews, I suspect this place used to be good. The pie I ate had a reasonable beef and mushroom filling, but the border of the crust was so hard I had difficulty cutting it, so 1/10 for the pie. It's certainly not a patisserie - the cakes are the basic mass produced rubbish you see in many Aussie bakeries