Novello Desserts — Restaurant in Markham

Can we put 0 for Service in this review??

I cannot agreed more with all others who complained about worst customer service. I don't usually give many 1 star, but this place's customer service is 0 star. The lady who own the place is extremely rude!!!

We went in and order a birthday cake, my little one initially wanted a gelato cake, the lady who took our order looked like she was in a bad mood already. We told her our LO has nut and peanut allergy and they could not include any nuts in the cake at all.  She warned us about cross contamination cause they are not nut free facilities and we told them as long as no nut or peanut were used in the cake, that would be ok. When we cashed out, my LO asked if he could change it to a cheesecake cause the strawberry gelato had a strange aftertaste. The lady said it's ok cause they are the same price, we apologized for the inconvenience for the change.

When we served our cake at the party, I saw walnut in the cake base. Luckily, none of my guests had allergies and I had to tell my LO to not have it (yes, no bday cake for the birthday boy 😆), cause that would give him an anaphylaxis reaction.

I called the store after I got home to let them know about the issue.  The owner came on the phone, she basically blamed it on us changing cake and said the original gelato cake did not have nuts and we didn't not remind her AGAIN when we changed.  My LO was telling the lady he has allergies the whole time (literally over 15 times 🤣) and the whole ordering was in and out 10 minutes. Then she went on to ask me what I asking for from her? I was really upset by her tone and her reaction. The conversation went on and at one point she said you are welcome to have you money back (from her tone, she clearly meant if you don't want to pay for your cake, here is your money back). My point is it's not about the money. We are talking about anaphylaxis reaction that will send a kid to the hospital/possibly dead.  We have had their mini cheesecake and gelato from this place in the past and have no issues.  When we ordered, we specifically requested no nuts or peanuts are to be added cause that is how he gets a reaction. If she told us on the spot that the ingredients has walnut, then we would have went with something else. For her to be thinking about not being responsible for warning us or making changes (which some bakeries are willing to, and we ordered 2 weeks before, and not just pick one up) and treating us like we are begging for our money back is totally unacceptable.  She mentioned the cake was made and there was man-made error. Yes, I totally understand we all made mistakes, but no sincere apologies after that is a...

Went Saturday April 23rd for a hot table lunch. Overall the food was decent considering.

The customer service on the other hand - not great. Stood in front of the hot food counter for at least 8 minutes before someone decided to acknowledge us. She was a young girl, sweet - trying her best. We asked for 2 veal sandwiches. They only had two buns on display, which we said we would like a different from the bread section. She went to get more - nice. She started to prepare the sandwiches. very messy, no organization. Another girl decided to take an order - both on top of each other at this point fighting for counter space. The gentleman ordering beside us asked for the same bread we did...random man out of no where comes with bread in bare hands after touching god only knows what (no mask, no gloves..)...customer asked for cheese, no idea that was even an option as it wasn't offered to us or stated on a menu..no communication between staff and customer. No mushrooms were left, didn't ask if we wanted anything else as a substitution. The process of making 2 simple sandwiches (with literally bread, sauce and one pepper) took 15 minutes. My husband wanted a drink, but didn't want to wait another 15 minutes for her to get that.

She said she would meet us at the cash - I mentioned I would look at the pastries.. waiting again for at least 8 minutes to be served while the girl stood at the cash with our sandwiches...could she not have served me the bakery items? Ended up doing 2 transactions because of all the confusion.

Overall, the food was decent as mentioned, but the service was the worst. It is a small space, busy at times. There needs to be some sort of flow and customer control - seems to be lacking management skills. Not sure if I...

The customer service at this place is terrible and I am not one to trash a place and give bad reviews. I will call it like it is. This business does not seem to be centered around serving it's customers. A few times I've dealt with Novello and they seem like they could care less about your business. An example: I called for a cake (weekday), they said they had one, I said great can you hold for me and I'll come in to pick it up and they said no, sorry we don't do that, you need to just drop in and take your chance if it is still here. Ridiculous, I was ready to give my name, info and pay for it over the phone if required but that's they response I got. Then when I arrived, despite several staff around (and it wasn't busy, just 1 customer paying), no one would help - you really need 3 people to work at the cash? When I did ask for help (and there were 2 people now at the front, and one went to the back - and this time no other customers there) I was told I need to wait for someone in the back to help me. So I waited, several minutes, nobody came out. The girls at the cash not busy saw me waiting, didn't help and didn't even seem to care. I don't know... it's really made me wonder why I am even spending my money here to support this business - terrible customer service! I mention this to several I know who live in the area and they also have had similar bad experiences with Novello's poor service. It's too bad, it's a nice place and they have good stuff but the bad service...