The Painted Penguin — Local services in Strongsville

Edit the owner of the store reached out to me today and apologized for the party. He was very kind and is trying to make it right. I will be returning with my daughter within the next few weeks to try the studio again and then rewrite my review.

January 12th, 2019 my daughter celebrated her 7th birthday at the Strongsville Ohio location. I have to say as a parent this was the worst birthday party ever and I was just embarrassed about the party for my child and the other kids. Having went through many other parties as a parent and guest at other venues there are some things that are to be expected. The Painted Penguin didn’t even hit one of these! When guest were arriving NO one was greeting them at the main register even though someone was sitting there. I had to shout from back at the party area for them to come over and join us as I watched all the little girls. When people were there we waited 15 minutes before telling someone, What are we supposed to be doing? It would have been nice for any employee to come over, introduce themselves and explain how the painting process went. Instead I found out the children should go to the wall, pick out a piece and bring it over to get their name put on. Ok, that was easy accept putting names took another 10 minutes. Once all 16 kids were sitting down I had to ask if we should get paint since there was nothing there. Another employee began getting the paint, another 10 minutes. We’re now almost 30 minutes into the party. Kids are doing well, painting and as they began to finish once again I have no clue what to do, no employee comes over, nothing is said. So we learn to take the pieces to the drying area as one of three employees is working as quickly as she can. Since the place is providing the pizza i assume they have this timed. Wrong. Kids sit again another 15 minutes. Kids don’t want to sit as long as we did at this party with no instruction and nothing to do. We eat the pizza and our 4:30 time has come. The pieces were dried, labeled and wrapped. You would think they would bring those to the party table. No I had to do this as well. In the mean time I had to clean the paint, water and brushes myself from the table because no employee would come help. The party is over, my daughter is almost in tears because they never put her hand print on the wall which was supposed to happen. Why wouldn’t they do this with her friends there? They hurry up and do that and it’s time to pay. I knew my cost and was fine with it before the party started but I did 90% of the work. The WORST party experience I or the guests have ever had. I even had my own daughter and other kids tell me how boring it was. They asked me if I wanted to pay a tip. I said no in which a “no?!” Was responded with a head motion that resembled “are you kidding me?” My husband gave her an additional $20 because he was so embarrassed and we just wanted to leave.

Knowing in advance about a large party one employee should be designated to a party. They never spoke to us or the guests not once. Nothing was explained, no greeting. I can not recommend this place and strongly urge parents to not attend here for parties unless they are ok with lack of service and poor quality materials. The brushes the provided us and dried paint stuck to most of them. They were the cheap bulk pack from the $1 store making painting difficult.

Thank you for listening to my review...

Edit: Since posting the review the owner, Mike, has reached out and has absolutely blown me away with his kindness and customer service. He explained multiple points about how things typically go in the store and wanted to ensure we are satisfied. That alone changes my rating to 5 stars, and we will be returning. It is never my intention when leaving reviews to gain something, but to leave an honest review of our experience. I appreciate when owners can take the time to listen when things don't go as expected or desired.

My son had a lot of fun painting there, and they have a good selection of items to paint. Pay attention to the posted prices so that you aren't surprised when you get to the register, especially if you are paying for multiple pieces.

Additionally make sure your pieces are actually dry before they wrap them. We failed to do this and when we got home noticed that there were impressions of the paper and even some stuck to the paint. When I called to ask about what they do in this situation was told that all they can offer is to let us peel the paper off and come in to paint the messed up areas. So again be wary of that. Looking back I wasn't offered the opportunity to inspect the piece before it was wrapped so I'd ask to do so the next...

We typically go to another pottery studio in Strongsville but they were VERY rude to us the last time we went so we wanted to go somewhere different. Our kids are also 5 now and we thought they were finally the perfect age for this activity. Definitely right! 5 is the perfect age! There was only one girl working... at times there was a line and then for a bit it would be dead. Honestly, she should have had someone else helping her. She was very pleasant though. It would've been a little better if all the things were organized by prices like under 15, under 20, under 25, etc . For four people to paint it was about 65 bucks for our family today where as the other studio for just my husband and I was usually 60-80! Will take our kids back again one day as they said it was the best family day ever! I liked that there was a choice between satin or glitter...