Sur La Table — Attraction in Palo Alto

Took the “Chef’s Table” class for a celebration with my partner, start to finish it was a disaster.

Small kitchen was filled with 16 people. Due to the sheer fact that there wasn’t enough space to accommodate everyone, we had to form groups of 8 to make chocolate soufflé and the only opportunity each of the attendee had in actually making the soufflé was taking turns in stirring a pot or putting some ingredients in a bowl 20 seconds at a time. It felt like we were watching people cook rather than actually taking part in it. If the space of the kitchen is limited, maybe the organizers should consider reducing the size of the class, rather than trying to sell as many classes as possible.

Same with the fennel salad- 8 people were supposed to make the salad, and as the recipe was just mixing the pre-cut fennel with olive oil and herbs, only one person ended up doing it and the rest of the 7 attendees just watched her. My only contribution to the salad was putting salt and pepper. It’s quite astonishing to see the organizers didn’t feel to need to give enough ingredients for groups of 4(not ideal but would have been the best case in this situation). What kind of cooking class would make 8 grown-ups do one single fennel salad? Now we know.

As we moved to making risotto and scallops, the groups got smaller, though the chaotic organization of the whole class got worse. The recipe and instructions weren’t printed out. We were told that the recipes were emailed to us, as if its safe, feasible or sanitary for the attendees to use their phones and follow the recipe on small screens, when trying to sear scallops on a hot pan. Or touch the screen of the phone which contains millions of bacteria to go on to touch the utensils that everybody uses? Is it that hard to bring print out recipes and give it to the attendees, so that at least they could have some peace of mind when 16 people are cooking at the same time? I guess it was.

As there was only two stoves available, the two groups were given portable stoves which affected the quality of the dishes we were making, especially when we needed to sear the scallops. Making things worse, the staff kept giving mixed instructions that conflicted with the chef’s, which was extremely frustrating. The chef would come and increase the heat, a minute later the staff would decrease it, saying it was too hot. At the end our scallops weren’t seared as they were supposed to, and they were swimming in liquid. The chef would tell us to scrap the bottom of the pan as we were making the sauce for the scallops, the staff would say the opposite - telling that it was unnecessary. All this was happening while 4 strangers were trying to cook together around a tiny stove. I’d recommend the staff and the cook to have a quick conversation before a class starts so they don’t give out conflicting information to the attendees.

On top of all of that, while the staff had the attitude of following kitchen sanitation diligently, they gave us a dusty pan. When they realized that, they failed to apologize. Maybe before going around the room with an intimidating attitude with a packet of hair ties in their hands and asking female attendees to tie their hairs before even welcoming them into the class, they should fulfill their primary responsibility and make sure the kitchen equipment is properly cleaned before classes begin.

When we told them that the pan had burnt residue after we cooked the scallops and expressed our concern as a group, the staff told us that we should work with what we have, because they didn’t have any other pan? A cooking and dining supplies store filled with shelves of pans doesn’t have enough pans in the kitchen? Very hard to comprehend the absurdity of this.

Overall, it was a waste of our money and more importantly our time. To those considering taking a class, either watch a youtube video and cook food at the comfort of your home with clean utensils or go to a restaurant and enjoy a good meal. There is a high chance you’d have a...

These folks sad to say are the worst to deal which I've ever had the experience to know! Their return policy I have just learned is unlike any other store that I have ever dealt with. Last week I wanted to purchase some plain white mugs for my tea and since I have purchased many times Himalayan sea salt from the store I decided to check out their mugs. I am not a coffee drinker so I was only going by the image I saw on their website. It made the espresso mug look like the same size as an average size mug so I was going by the picture. I had been feeling stressed since my daughter's home in LA has been surrounded by those terrible fires and perhaps if I was more focused I would not have missed seeing the size of it if I had seen the drop-down description. After ordering the mugs for same day delivery & I paid the $5.99 delivery charge I was surprised when I opened up the bag to see the size of the mugs was not what I had expected. Right away I called Sur La table and their representative told me he could not issue me a refund label as it was too soon and for me to call back in a few days. I called Sur La table back this morning and kept being put on hold at such a length it was frustrating to say the least. Finally the gentleman told me that in order to issue me a return label they would have to charge me half the cost of my order! I was shocked! I reminded him that I had already paid $5.99 delivery fee and now I learned I was going to be charged $12.99 just to return this item which in fact was delivered to me in a bag so that would mean I'd also have to pay for a box in order to return these five little espresso mugs! There is no way that UPS would charge that much on something that small and that lightweight! That is what I call price gauging on behalf of Sur La Table! They again told me that my only alternative would be to drive to their store and return it in person! I explained yet again that I was partially disabled and had difficulty driving long distances. Their closest store to me is three cities over! They simply didn't care and stated, "no exceptions !" I have never experienced this with any other store that I've shopped online with such as Amazon, Walmart, Target, Shein, and Nordstrom! These other stores always work well with their customers! Perhaps that's why most of the Sur La table stores that used to be in my location are gone! They just have terrible customer service practices! Shame on them! P.S. I responded an emailed them as requested but they never...

I recently attended a cooking class with a large group of friends at the Sur La Table location in Palo Alto. The class was advertised to start at 7pm but due to the staff being short-handed and overall disorganization, it started about 15-20 minutes late.

The night continued to slowly go downhill from there. The dish ended up taking close to 3 hours to complete when everything was said and done. It was a dish that in all likelihood, with proper organization and instruction, could have been completed in 45 minutes to an hour MAX. The overall mood in the room slowly began to erode. While everyone was upbeat and happy to be with good company in the beginning, after about an hour with little to zero progress being made it became clear this was going to be a long evening.

The length aside, it was not a collaborate effort at all. There were no cooking stations for each person to contribute. There were long, long stretches of time in which 13-14 people were watching 1 person complete a medial task. The instructor even mentioned it was like “watching paint dry”. Rather than a festive environment it turned into a bunch of standing around and staring. 90-95% of everyone’s time was spent just sitting and listening to the instructor talk. There was a small table of crackers at the back of the room, but besides that there were no food options to tide any of the guests over. It was clear everyone in the room was starving/tired after a few hours into the operation. An individual in the party ENDED UP IN TEARS due to how hungry/frustrated she was. After nearly 3 hours of waiting, the food (which ended up being average to good) was an incredibly minuscule serving size. For the expensive cost of the class, it was a disproportional amount.

I cook frequently with my girlfriend and it has turned into a fun hobby over the past few years. I was looking forward to learning new tricks & asking questions to improve certain techniques. I am a target audience to try cooking classes and was genuinely excited about attending. However, this experience at Sur La Table has ensured I won’t be attending any cooking classes in the near future. I strongly urge those to not attend unless you would like to have a frustrating, long, and...