Aroma Espresso Bar — Restaurant in Niagara-on-the-Lake

My partner and I were visiting from Toronto so we are used to waiting for our food and understand the nature of food service. However, we were here on a Monday morning during a cold March day, so the place was not busy at all. There were two barista’s and one left at 11AM after only being open from 10AM — where are they going and why are you taking a break so early in the day? This left one barista alone by themselves to take care of about 8 people. We ordered two drinks and 2 croissants — 1 croissant came out instantly but the 2 drinks we waited 10 minutes for, and only after my partner asked for sweetener when they make their drink and only after the 1 barista asked, “Oh do you want me to make those now?” There was no one else ordering, everyone else was seated. What do you mean? Of course we want our drinks. Then, when we got our drinks, we reminded him of the 1 croissant; he asked whether we wanted it heated up, we said yes. They put the croissant in an oven behind the counter. We watched this barista run back and forth doing things behind the counter, we assumed it was a 5 minute heating process. He said, “Please sit down, I’ll bring it to you.” When we heard the beep of the oven, we saw this barista take out a FULL TRAY of croissants and stick it back in. Why are you baking a batch of croissants as we’re waiting for the 1 pre-made one we wanted? At this time, it had been 30 minutes from our first interaction with the barista and we still did not have our complete order of 2 drinks and 2 croissants. I noticed another customer who waited for 1 drink for 20 minutes as well. When my partner came up to remind them AGAIN of the 1 croissant, he said “I put it on the counter for you. Maybe someone else took it.” We watched the entire time and no croissant was ever prepared or placed on the counter; plus, you told us you would bring it to our table. We saw the barista call their coworker who had left, and we heard them respond back on the cellphone on speaker, “Are you kidding me?” Sounded like the barista was expecting a long break without interruption. They finally came back and helped out. We waited 30 MINUTES for 1 croissant. 1 CROISSANT that you needed to just heat up? Horrible representation of an otherwise great franchise; go to Toronto locations instead and be less...

So I was here at the same time as the two most recent reviews beside mine. I would start off by saying the food and service was amazing (as it always is, I’m a regular here). I was at the cashier at the same time their eggless sandwich (sandwich that comes with eggs- requested without) came out and yes- there were eggs on it. The man became irate pretty quickly about the eggs, not giving the ladies working a chance to fix it before he started giving them trouble for it. Of course the ladies became defensive, because they’re being yelled at by a middle aged man-child. The cashiers/baristas tried to explain how their processes work and he would not have any of it. He stormed back to his table where his family was waiting. While I waited for my food there was some more arguing between him and the ladies. After awhile the ladies stopped trying to reason with the man because he wouldn’t listen to any of it. While I was eating I noticed they started arguing again, with both the man and woman at the table fighting with a single cashier. I think people forget that we are just getting out of a pandemic and that people in the service industry are just trying their best. Mistakes happen. It’s a lot easier to approach and kindly mention that there may have been a mistake than to jump right to fighting with the people who are just trying to do their job. Have compassion people! Mistakes happen, service workers are NOT robots. They have families and lives and bad days happen. Don’t make bad days worse because of some stupid eggs on your sandwich. The two reviews before mine are biased and quite likely people who don’t understand the service industry. Please disregard them and support this amazing team because they worked tirelessly through the pandemic to provide tasty food. I strongly recommend the avocado chicken sandwich and side salad. Plus, the blueberry peach cobbler bar is to die for! Make your own judgements about this place, but don’t discount it for some people who don’t understand how...

I ordered from Uber and driver did not deliver all items. I called driver first and he refused to return. Then I called the store, was hung up on 4 times before someone finally spoke with me and she was so rude. Spoke over me and told me there’s nothing she can do and I need to contact Uber myself. Horrible customer service as she wouldn’t even try to resolve it for example speaking with manager or anyone. Sorry but even though I ordered from Uber, this is still mainly concern of restaurant because they are getting my money. I have ordered many times from this location so to be brushed off like this is quite rude. Actually even if I was first time customer that would be rude. Anyway, she got frazzled because obv she has no problem solving skills and hung up on me.

I have worked many years in restaurants and not once in my life have I ever been so dismissive, rude, and unhelpful. I’ve had back of house mess up so bad on orders but being honest, respectful, and hearing customers out has always kept clients coming back. Im sorry for this person that she has such a poor personality and 0 listening skills. Not to mention, if the phone is ringing: PICK UP and ask the person to hold. One of most unprofessional things is to just hang up.

I will not order from this location again. Who knows what goes on behind the scenes if the front face of the store is so...