MATCHA ZANMAI — Restaurant in Montreal

“wE DoN’T hAvE EteRniTy!” is what i was told by an employee, in a rude and condescending tone when I requested that part of my order be slightly delayed.

Receiving this type of treatment after supporting a business and tipping 15% on a takeout order (a percentage even most waiters who serve customers for hours rarely receive, and i’m speaking from observation and colleagues’ experiences) is insulting to say the least.

I’ve debated on whether I should publish this review for a couple days now, and have come to the conclusion that the distasteful conduct I’ve been subject to absolutely warrants it.

For context, my cousin and I visited the store on Friday night between 9-9:20pm. As i was aware that its closing time is 10pm and the cash register would likely be shut prior to that (a cash out procedure that is commonly done in most businesses), i did my “due diligence” and ordered as soon as i got there- another reason for this being that I did not want to inconvenience the employees by potentially delaying their close.

However, my cousin and I ordered for the two of us, as well as for a third person that hadn’t arrived yet (struggling to find parking). I will put it out there that we had forgotten to request that the third person’s dessert be made at a slightly later time, in the midst of ordering.

To be precise, the order consisted of two matcha ice cream cones and a signature parfait (this dish being for the third person).

A couple minutes later, the parfait was ready and we realized that this was a slip-up on our behalf. And so, i thought to myself: this is no issue- we simply requested that it be temporarily stored in the fridge to prevent the ice cream from melting too quickly (as we weren’t sure when our friend would be arriving). The cashier kindly accommodated us and asked whether we would like to wait for the two ice creams we had also ordered, to which we replied yes*.

Around 7 minutes passed and I decided to claim the already-made parfait as my own, seeing that it was increasingly melting and giving that to my unsuspecting friend would not be the ideal move.

I then told the cashier that I would be paying for the difference between the ice cream and a parfait, in order to obtain another parfait- *both desserts were requested to be made when our friend would arrive, a statement that I had also made earlier.

However, the new parfait and ice cream were made right after I had paid for the difference, entirely contradicting the request I had made.

Evidently, I politely told them that the information that had been conveyed was likely misunderstood and we were visibly still waiting for the third person. And to that, the other worker responded with an attitude and the retort stated above: (“we don’t have eternity!”)

This statement definitely caught me off guard and my initial reaction was that of shock, then it naturally turned into frustration- here I am, being spoken to in such a discourteous manner, due to a misunderstanding on her behalf.

Moreover, there was a line of customers that were waiting to order and go- however, the worker proceeded to turn a mutually beneficial situation into one that is mutually unfavourable by making my order (that was requested to be made afterwards) and therefore, delaying the orders of those who actually wish to have their orders ready as soon as possible.

All in all, my experience leads me to attribute a 2 star rating with this review; the reasoning being that the cashier remained kind and professional throughout this whole ordeal (unlike her coworker), as well as the fact that the desserts were alright and seemingly included fresh toppings, albeit the ice cream was a little too sweet to my personal taste.

I am well aware that this review seems unnecessarily long, however I believe that it is crucial to provide context and detail the situation that took place- instead of just simply giving a 1 star with no justification at all, rendering this a useless form...

‼️⛔️Warning‼️⛔️This shop some of their staffs are very cowardly and covertly racist, even if it doesn't show up on the cameras clearly if you complain. Their response to my comment is a lie and untrue. I have been exposed to covert and malicious racism more than 4 times from some of their staffs. They treated me with the utmost racial discrimination, as they are very rude. The mask has nothing to do with what happened. I was knocking on the glass and she deliberately did not respond. After she responded, she looked at me with a rude angry look and acted protectively in a covert and malicious way that only she and I understand and it does not show up clearly on the surveillance cameras, while with other customers of other races such as whites and Asians, they treat you with welcome. If you are not white or Asian, expect racism and rudeness, and they deliberately delay your order and treat you rudely in a covert, cowardly and very hidden way. Not all of their employees are like this, but four of them are the ones I found to be rude, racist, and devoid of respect, professionalism, and appreciation for me as a repeat customer who chooses their store. They are supposed to respect me as a customer who has repeatedly chosen their store and appreciate me for that, not to persist in being offensive, racist and rude to me. Even their response to me is devoid of maturity and professionalism in customer service, they take it personally as if I am in a war with them and not the professionalism of customer service that is based on the customer coming first and customer satisfaction coming first and customer preservation is the basis. They need a lot of professional maturity and to cleanse their inner selves of racism and get rid of cowardice and veiled methods and teach themselves the basics of customer service and not take customer comments personally as if it is a war and appreciate customers adequately If you do not have lack of melanin expect some of their staff will treat you with disrespect, rude, discrimination and racism. This is disrespectful and unprofessional treatment and I absolutely reject it and I am not satisfied for that. After she left, her colleague came who saw her unprofessional and disrespectful behavior and took the order from me. Instead of appreciating that I am a frequent customer, treat me in this rude and disrespectful intentional manner! If this happens to me again, I will boycott your shop and I will not advise anyone to come to it. also in September 20, ony of their staff treated me rudely and racistly, discriminating against me specifically. I visited your store and ordered a hot matcha latte, and the barista who served it to me gave me the order and went away and wanted a selfie, so I spoke to her other colleague, I said twice please and she was deliberately not hearing me, so I stuck my head in the window and said please, so she responded with sharp and rude looks and I said I want a selfie, so she went to bring it with rude body language and an angry and angry and rude and unwelcoming facial expressions, and she served it to me with unwelcoming facial expressions even without eye contact, while I saw her with other customers before and after me dealing with respect, welcoming and smiling. This is racism and discrimination against me specifically, and this is what I absolutely do not accept. I am completely dissatisfied and strongly reject this treatment that reflects your employee's racism, discrimination, lack of professionalism and respect. I used to say that your shop is the best matcha shop and I was a frequent customer of yours and I chose you specifically to drink my matcha and you meet me with racism, discrimination, hatred and lack of appreciation for my choice of you and support for their business ? This is not the first time, this is the third time that I have been experienced to discrimination and racism by some of their employees in...

I don't know if my expectations we're too high or what, but completely not impressed.

The wait time was about 20 minutes, because it was really crowded. When it was our turn to order, the cashier just decided to help at the bar and let us wait at least a 3-5 minutes before greeting us. We ordered the Zanmai Parfait and the Hojicha frappe with greentea soft serve as topping. The barista comes and let the cashier know that the Hojicha is oos, asked if we would like to replace it by something else. By this time, everything was paid already. We were hesitant, so he suggested the Yuzu frappe + greentea soft serve. He was looking at the menu and probably saw/know there's a 25 cents difference in the price. He never mentioned about paying us back the difference or whatsoever. I know it's only 25 cents but you have to be honest! Can at least mention it and I'm sure most people will say its fine for 25 cents!

The taste now! The soft serve is good! Has a relatively strong taste of matcha. However, the toppings in the Zanmai special are disappointing. It has all their toppings: mochi, cake, red bean, jelly. The mochi tasted like nothing, though very chewy. The texture was good, but they need to work on the taste of it. The jelly tasted like diluted matcha jello. The red bean was ok. And the cake had a slight taste of matcha. Overall, I think it lacks flavours for the toppings! It might be that the soft serve's taste is too strong compared to those, so it makes them less enjoyable.

My friend had the Yuzu drink with matcha soft serve on top. I didn't try it. To me it sounded like a weird mix. And she confirmed that it tasted weird together as well.

I eventually will go back to give their...