Blue Mountains Chocolate Company — Restaurant in Sydney

My daughter and I were in the Blue Mountains Chocolate Company on Saturday 5th July, just after lunch. There were a couple of people on the porch, and a family inside about to leave. There were 2 girls behind the counter, a dark haired girl and a fair haired girl, and they were having a great time laughing and joking loudly while both trying to make the same coffees for the outside couple. There was a very young dark haired boy just standing in the corner beside the register doing nothing. We waited at the counter for over 10 minutes, just being ignored by everyone. Then finally the boy came over and I asked for 2 large hot chocolates to have at the table. He told me I had to order and pay at the register. So we went there, and I told him that I also wanted to buy some chocolates, and he said we'd have to pay again separately for those. On ordering the hot chocolates he told us that we couldn't have them in mugs, and I asked why. He said "we're only serving in takeaway". My daughter asked if we could still sit in and he said yes. So we sat down and waited, and waited. After 10 or 15 minutes, and all the people who came in after us had been served we still had nothing. I went to the counter and told the dark haired girl that I don't think the young boy had passed our order on to anyone, and he hadn't. About 5 minutes later she called out our order and my daughter went and picked it up. At this time the fair haired girl had left, never to be seen again, so it was just the dark haired girl serving everyone. A few minutes after we got our drinks the dark haired girl brought over 2 more hot chocolates to us but they were meant for the family at the next table. The place was filthy and the tables hadn't been cleaned at all. The young boy who was just standing there doing nothing could have at least wiped over the tables. A lot of groups of tourists came in after that, and we watched as a lot of them just walked back out in disgust. I don't know what happened to the fair haired girl, as the dark haired girl was left to look after everyone. There was an older brown haired girl, who seemed to be in charge. She came out from the back a couple of times, but never stayed out to help. We never ended up buying any of the chocolates that we came there for, as everything was just a chaotic mess. We're locals, and have been there many times over the decades, and we've never seen it this messy or badly managed as it was that day. As my daughter said, if we'd never been there before and known how good it usually was, we would have walked out and never gone back again. We were there for at least an hour, and were able to see everything going on. On leaving we had to go out the entry door as tourists wanting to come in had blocked the exit door. It was the worst service we've ever had there and seen there. I emailed the Chocolate Company, and received a reply from the Owner. He apologized for the poor service we received. He also made a lovely gesture to post me "some goodies". Sadly, he never followed through with that gesture. We'll go to the Chocolate Company again, but not on a weekend, and if it's that bad during the week then they'll be losing...

Make Humility Cool Again!

I had an unfortunate experience here and will never return, and I'll tell you why.

Firstly though, I'll explain that I'm not the type of person to casually or wantonly leave negative reviews on a whim, knowing that everyone has their good days and bad days, and the actions or attitudes of individual employees may not reflect the values of the overall business. But looking through past reviews, I see patterns that cannot be ignored.

We are locals. A new friend of ours was excited to bring us here after bushwalking. It was a bit chaotic, but we all enjoyed our gelatos. We didn't realise that our friend never received her hot chocolate until we were ready to leave about 25 minutes later.

She timidly inquired to the owner (soft looking guy in his 50s) about the drink and was met by rudeness by him and the young girl working behind the counter. The girl rolled her eyes and said "I called out for a hot chocolate with almond milk several times." But we had been issued with a number for the table, and the place was loud, and we assumed that it was table service. Why else would they give us a number for the table??

The owner brought the dink out to the table, after it has been sitting there for ages and gone cold. He coldly stated that he supposed he could warm it up and then begrudgingly brought it back behind the counter and then demanded "Is it take away or for here?!!" defiantly. I said "we'll take a refund" and to his credit he refunded the drink, but with attitude, whilst the girl continued to shake her head and roll her eyes. A real gentleman would have apologised for dropping the ball, refunded the drink, and heated it up and sent it away in a to go cup, on the house.

But this was no gentleman, and unfortunately as evidenced by my experience and those of others, this a culture accepted if not encouraged by management. It's all too common in holiday towns like this, where operators tend to resent their customers (you know, the ones for whom you were once grateful and aided significantly in your success), rather than appreciate them for their patronage.

Most of all I was embarrassed for our friend. It was sort of awkward, and no one deserves that treatment, alone or in front of others.

I gave him a little piece of my mind on the way out, but he waved me off with an insincere apology, just to get me gone.

Shame on you; absolutely disgraceful experience. You need to get back to basics and show some humility; you're a big fish in a very small pond. To be clear, this review is not about a hot chocolate that never turned up, but rather about the toxic and unfriendly attitude of management and staff.

Update: My wife just received an SMS from our friend, thanking me for speaking up...

What an absolute disappointment!

We use to LOVE coming to this place all the way from Sydney. It was a quite iconic and delicious place where experience of making your hot chocolate was very fun and delicious!

Few weeks ago I was in the area with my family and the family of my partner and friends. The whole time we were driving there i was talking this place up and promising them that they will love it and will definitely would want to return to!

When we have entered the premises I was shocked to see that ALL tables were pure filthy! (I use to work in hospitality and know that that was unspeakable) and it only takes not even 5min to wipe all tables. We were not comfortable to sit anywhere so we have asked the girl to wipe a table for us. She came in and wiped the table quickly without removing everything that was standing in the middle and dirty. She also looked at the tables next to us (that had chocolate all over it) and just walked away....

Further disappointment was when we went to order hot chocolate and were told that it is take away only! People come to your store for a an experience that no one else offers, and its not a take away cup! All of our hot chocolate were EXTREMELY sweet and some of my family members couldn't even drink it because it was like drinking a melted chocolate in a cup.

I felt so embarrassed in front of our families and friends. This place is no longer what it use to be.......