Sur La Table — Local services in Austin

Updated to 1 Star. I emailed corporate to kindly ask for a refund and laid out my reasons as stated in this review. It took several weeks for them to respond and they basically said, “sorry that the class didn’t meet your expectations,” and they offered nothing to make it right. Very disappointing

Hubby and I went to our first class at Sur la Table in Austin last night to celebrate our anniversary. We were very excited for the class, but left feeling disappointed and here are the reasons why: We signed up for a Date Night class so obviously that means people will sign up in pairs. There were 3 couples including us, but only 2 work stations. They planned to either split a couple, or have 4 people at one work station. It felt very awkward trying to figure out where we belong. Our expectation was that we would cook together and eat the food that we prepared, but instead we had to share each others food. Everyone was very nice, and there was enough food to go around. It just wasn't what we were expecting and again, felt super awkward. I feel like for $200 per couple, we should have our own work station. The class is 2 hours long and you are expected to stand the whole time. No chairs or stools. I wish I had known this because I did not wear comfortable shoes for standing that long. Stools are not expensive and they have plenty of space. We just found this very odd and uncomfortable. I felt bad for one of the guys in the class because he kept leaning over on the counter. I knew he was uncomfortable standing. Date nights should be relaxing... give the people a place to sit! The class was mostly just adding ingredients to a hot pan. Several ingredients were already prepped. We chopped like 2 vegetables and after that it was just adding and stirring. I understand this helps with saving time, but the class was 2 hours long so I felt like we had plenty of time to do everything ourselves. Most of the time was spent listening to the chef teach about the ingredients we were using... Like the difference between 3 different soy sauces and when to use each one. Personally, I would rather DO the things than listen about the things. There was also a 15min break in the middle to go shopping in the store. That made the experience feel gimicky and again, wasted time. We came here to cook, not shop.

This is not to bad mouth anybody. The chef was super nice and we liked all the people. I just hope that management will see this review and consider our feedback. Maybe my expectations weren't realistic, but we have done one other cooking class that was significantly less expensive, more fun, and more hands-on learning. Will likely not come back...

Their idea of "Customer Service" is really nothing more than "LIP SERVICE"

Their first impression from the website did not at all match the impression I got on the phone. I'd read about their knife sharpening service and wanted to make sure I knew what to expect before driving all the way there. The website says it takes only a few minutes. They also indicate their professionals can show us how to keep them sharp at home. Sounds real good for what we need. But the chicky on the phone told me it needs to be dropped off and picked up 24 hours later. How does that enable me to learn what to do? Also it's contrary to the info on the website. When I asked about the difference, I was told, that each store is different. I DON'T CARE about other stores. I"M LOOKING AT THE WEBSITE WITH THEIR ADDRESS. That's the store I called... Sort of seemed like I was looking at a website for MACY's, but when I called, I got WALMART instead. How does that help?

I realize that something as simple as a knife sharpening service is not a huge money maker for the store and they'd rather sell me a $500 knife set but the purpose of the service is to get me into the store where I can see the other things they have. With this type of bate and switch customer service, I don't think I'll ever visit their store.

A simple rule for them to learn is to UNDER promise and OVER deliver. They have it exactly backwards.

I also understand the nature of retail business and the difficulty with staffing a store, BUT, how hard is it to get your website accurate? And you wonder why so many people are leaving the brick and motor stores for online shopping....well, here's your answer, just open...

My mom was in town for only 2 days, so we decided a fun activity would be to do the cooking class. We paid the $70 each and made the reservations online.

We show up and when we get there they say they don’t have us on their list, because apparently we signed up too late? But they said to get an apron and name tag and started setting us up. They said they would fit us in.

5 minutes later a different person comes in and announces to the whole class “who are the three ladies who’s names were not on the list?” We raise our hands. “You three need to leave sorry we don’t actually have enough food prepared for you.” So we pack up and head out the door while everyone stared at us. It was so embarrassing.

Once we get to the front of the store, they say a half hearted sorry and that their computer system is “updating” and it should not have let us sign up? So they say they will refund us. We say “ok we understand that technology messes up sometimes. But we would have planned something else had we not been able to get in the class, so essentially you ruined one of only two days we had with our mom in town.” We asked if we could at least get a free or discounted class for the future and they basically said no sorry. He said that “he works a lot so if we call to sign up next time we should probably be able to get a 20% off because that’s the normal discount they give for the second class you sign up for.” But he didn’t give us a voucher or anything to redeem it so I don’t feel confident that will be followed through on.

Overall - I feel they could have handled the situation completely differently. From my experience, Sur la table does not have very good...