Crème — Restaurant in Halifax

Creme is a beautiful restaurant, however the experience and service was absolutely terrible from the very start. We visited the cafe on Saturday. Knowing it would be busy, and unable to secure a reservation, we thought we would try a walk-in option knowing we may have to wait a bit of time before we could be seated. Upon entering the cafe, all three staff at the counter ignored my friend and I. The cafe was half full, with the other half of tables set and open, and no one else in the cafe waiting to be seated. When I finally approached one of the servers, I was told "we are really busy, you should make a reservation for the weekend". When I inquired about walk-in service or wait lists, I was looked at like it was an unheard of concept and told "you can take something to go". When we asked again if there was an option to join a waitlist, or an estimated time of wait, the server looked at the tablet and said "we're completely booked until 8pm". In this moment I already had the reservation slots up on my phone, we were waiting & hoping for a cancellation all morning, so I knew 8pm was an incredible stretch...the website was showing 4:30 and beyond as open. We informed her we would figure out our own plan and hopefully be back. As soon as we walked out, we referred to the open table site to see a 2, 2:30, and 3pm (and more beyond that) open. We booked the 2pm and joined the OpenTable cancellation list, gaining a reservation for 12:30. We flagged on the reservation we were celebrating a birthday which wasnt acknowledged during our visit, while I saw others being celebrated with pastry and candles. When we returned at 12:30 we were once again ignored at the counter by the same staff member. I informed them we had secured a reservation, and were escorted to our table with our menus. Our server came over some amount of time later, and instead of welcoming us or asking if we had questions she said "Do you know what you want?". Explaining we were new to the cafe, and unsure of how the process works, I told the server we were considering the afternoon tea. She said "ok so you want that menu?", she walked over, obtained the separate menu, and when provided to us, insisted we return the main lunch menu. We both ordered the afternoon tea with a $14 mimosa. Upon ordering the server explained because we were ordering a cocktail we would be charged the "Cocktail Afternoon Tea" price of $75/pp. The original/basic cost is $55. When I inquired why adding a $14 drink elevated the price by $20, I was informed that's how it is, and I could not pay for the drink separately. The server stated I could upgrade my drink to get my moneys worth - but it is important to note, no drink costs as much as $20, and so the increased price simply did not make sense - and was some sort of backwards cash grab. When I inquired about the tea, again reiterating we had never been to the cafe before, and wondered if we each ordered our own, if we shared a pot, etc. the server coldly stated "you're getting a cocktail, you can have the tea if you want" and had no interest in answering my questions or helping walk us through the process. We received our sandwiches without any explanation of what was what. When dessert arrived, our pastries were placed down in front of us, again without explanation of what everything was. I had to request our side plates be returned. Our server did not return until it was time to take payment. Full disclosure - your server did absolutely nothing to earn a tip for service during our visit, but because she felt the need to hover over my shoulder and watch me complete payment, I felt pressured to do so. Coming from the serving industry, I also recognize there are many more people to tip out, and didn't want them to suffer due to the two incredibly rude and cold servers on hand that day. Overall - an incredibly over priced meal, which I wouldn't have minded paying for if the service and experience match it. 0/10 would not recommend. There are other, much more beautiful and welcoming venues to experience high tea...

NOT WORTH THE HYPE!

Long, but honest & detailed review.

We were very excited to try this place for weeks leading up to our trip to Halifax. While the interior & decor is pink, plush and visually enticing, the food, service and some prices are not.

Upon arrival, we were 'greeted' by a hostess who asked if we were sitting to eat or getting items to go. Once we answered we were sitting, next thing she quite emphatically states is that we will have a table for 1 hour. Keep in mind, it was mid morning, mid week and at that point, only had customers at 2 tables with no other patrons waiting. She rather abruptly seated us and provided a menu. Not the friendliest first impression of this place to say the least, but we were still hopeful.

It took almost 10 minutes before a waitress appeared to take our orders. After we ordered, our food arrived approximately 15 minutes later (I will review that shortly). The waitress did not check back on us at all to see how our meal was or if we needed anything. I had to literally get up to find her twice during our meal for condiments, creamers, etc.

Drinks. I ordered an Americano - black and requested less water in a to-go cup. Cup was filled to brim, looking & tasting watery. Got waitress after trying to get her attention 3 times. Asked if she could re-make it but with only 2/3 of the water as I had requested. She takes drink, brings me another cup (same size) FILLED to brim (maybe was the same drink, not sure). I showed her right away and told her I didn't want that much water. She leaves again and we can hear the guy who makes the drinks telling her to tell me "that is how they are made" and otherwise he will just "make her an espresso!" Clearly, my whole table, along with all others around us can hear him so I go up to the counter and tell them to forget my americano, I will have an espresso. So that is what I got, (yet was charged for the americano). This was embarrassing, not cool & very rude. The other ladies had coffee and had to ask for more cream and sugar, they said the flavour was merely ok. Not what we expected from a bakery/ coffee house.

Food. Sadly, a complete disappointment :( We each ordered the Creme Breakfast and we all had same issues. Eggs were cold and tasteless, no seasoning of any sort, not even a sprinkle of an herb! Mine were scrambled, one 'over easy' was served fully cooked. The other was 'over hard' and both ladies said eggs were tasteless with a 'poached' texture. Neither of them ate their egg. Only hot item was the sausage so perhaps rest of items sat on plates while sausages finished cooking is our best guess. Sausage, mushrooms and back bacon were tasty! The little sample of Baked beans were complete mush and seems they were scraped from bottom of the pot. Grilled tomato was overcooked, soggy, lacking any flavour. The tiny potato croquette was cold, dried out. Oddly, the only toast option was white bread which was strange for a bakery type of restaurant. We were hoping for other options like brown, rye, sour dough - something! NO offer of a jam, fruit puree or any type of spread for the 1 slice of toast that came with meal. Believe the meal price was $22 pre tax.

We thought maybe get some cute cupcakes to go at $6/ each, however, the ONLY variety was chocolate peanut butter. The fancy ganache desserts were beautifully created but at $12 and up per item and having such disappointment with everything else, we decided not to bother for fear of more let down.

We were well aware of prices and menu items prior to going so price was never an issue since we expected the quality to be there. Unfortunately, it was not and this was the biggest disappointment of our entire trip. Speaking to a few locals afterward, they relayed similar experiences and said they would not have...

Our first time here was amazing on Valentines Day a group of us came and were treated so well despite it being packed. The server on staff was very attentive even took photos of our group despite it being busy and didn't rush us. The food was delicious with huge plates for the cheese and lots of varieties. For the cost and the quality we loved it. I wss happy to tip 100% of my meal between cash and card to show the server how much we appreciated her effort and care to make everything feel special.

We recently went back yesterday to book for a friend's bday an evening slot so we could have cute cocktails as they dont serve much else but a few snacks in evening. However one we arrived we were told they were out of all cocktails and couldn't make any. This was a large part why we booked an evening slot. So instead we ordered some tea etc. The previous time we had seen beautiful tea pots and cute butterfly's coming out of books but this time I had to ask for the butterfly so my friend could see and she was just given a standard tea.cup with tea bag.

We decided to order some fruit and veggies for her and many of the fruitd veggies were old and withered ( not fresh) and it was a very tiny portion for the price despite not being good fruit. We had to ask for bread and it took a long time.

The server didn't check on us once despite us wanting to order more food so I finally called to her, despite there only being maybe 2 other tables. We ordered the same cheese flight and we're so dissapoonted. While.last time we had jams and spreads , breads, fruits and an assortment of cheese this time we had some pretty awful cheeses, no spreads or breada until we pointed it out again on menu and we're pretty dissapointed by the amount and presentation having gone so down hill from the previous time.

While we also told the person it was our pals bday also nothing was done in any effort to celebrate her. Which we found dissapointing as when you reserve you can say that and we mentioned it a few times.

The server then came up and asked us if we can write reviews as she didn't know why the reviews recently weren't that good. This is after she had seen us clearly unhappy with the experience.

I am not saying I won't go back but this resteraunt needs consistency in quality of both food and service. At night you also should let people know if you have e 0 cocktails upon booking as clearly we can't actually order meals past that time at their resteraunt.

We will give it one more try as every place has bad days. If I return I'll be happy to change my review because honestly the first time was magical and beautiful and good quality. Maybe the kitchen and servers were different maybe they want to cut costs now with cheese and fruit...