Cafe Cristal — Restaurant in Ottawa

0/5 HORRIFYING SERVICE. Owner should not be business owner.

I am a bride trying to plan my bridal shower. I initially called this place twice to confirm April 29 as my bridal shower date. I asked for the time to be 11-3 pm for high tea. I was told that the date is available and the time was blocked for me for my event. I asked my coordinator to take care of the rest.

My coordinator then called the owner and she had initially said it was available and told her they cannot provide availability until after 3pm. My coordinator called me back with the details and I was a little confused cause I had already spoken with the staff and they had told me the time is available.

My coordinator gets a call back from the owner and tells her “this date is no longer available since someone else already booked it, but we have other dates available at 3pm to 6pm”. My coordinator tried to meet in the middle and start it at 2pm but the owner would not budge, she was extremely rude and unwilling to compromise. She didn’t even allow us to decorate early so we had to use one hour (3pm to 4pm) ti decorate. I’m sorry, how is a high tea event suppose to start at 3 or 4pm and end at 6 or 7pm ?

I called her back personally and I was very frustrated! How do you book my event for me after I’ve confirmed with you twice the availability and then change your mind because it doesn’t make sense to you money wise? I understand it’s your business but lying is so unethical. I already let my guest know the time and location and I’ve already coordinated my decorators to come at the time I was initially given. I was waiting to pay a deposit and they would not answer me to take it. This is the most stressed I’ve ever been, planning a wedding, moving into a new house, the process of planning a bridal shower should not be this stressful and if I pay a coordinator, she should not have to tell me she’s having difficulties with the venue I already confirmed with.

to top this all off, the owner was a the most completely rude, disrespectful, unprofessional person I have ever encountered in my life. She was threatening to sue me because I told her I’ll be giving her a bad review and will be sharing this on my social media. Apparently wanting to give a bad review for horrible service is “threatening” to her when I don’t see anything illegal in sharing my bad experience, especially in order for this not not happen to any other bride or any person planning an event in the future… threatening to sue me is EXTREMELY unprofessional.

She kept yelling at me on the phone and telling me she doesn’t even want me to come to her cafe and she had the audacity to hang up in my face. I called her back to tell her it’s very rude to hang up in her client’s face and she does it AGAIN!!!

I can’t believe i just experienced something so disrespectful and so dirty like this, I feel like I need to take a shower from the disgusting situation she just put me through. I’ve been crying and scrambling trying to find a new venue for my bridal shower. This is the worst experience I’ve ever been through and I am telling every single bride to run as fast as they can, away from this location. Very...

BEWARE OF RUDE, MONEY HUNGRY OWNER

Let’s start with the good stuff: food is great, staff is sweet, place is beautiful and classy, vibes are cute! Everything in this place is perfect except the person who owns it. Call her Cruella Deville.

WHERE do I begin? I’ve had to book 3 events with this woman and EVERY single time I did, it was a nightmare. The first time I booked an event was for my sisters baby shower. She initially told me the place was available and asked me to come in on a certain date to drop a deposit. I drove all the way to her location (40min) and she wasn’t there. She made an excuse that she was in Toronto. I told her ok when can I send a deposit cause the event is in 2 weeks? She tried to tell me she actually had someone else booked that day and there’s another date available for 3pm to 6pm. How is a high tea suppose to be conducted at that time? We argued back and forth and because the event date was so close she let it slide.

Fast forward two years, I’m trying to book a bridal shower for a client, she does the SAME exact thing. She tells me the date is no longer available and only availability is from 3pm to 6pm. She explains that her customers get upset when her location gets closed for events. SO WHY ARE YOU OFFERING EVENTS THEN? She wants to maximize her profits because her busy peak is in the morning and wants to fill her dead times with events. Understandable If that’s the case but then maybe you should adjust your prices instead of LYING and fighting your clients.

I’ve had to run after her for WEEKS confirming events, trying to pay deposits. She’s unprofessional, she’s snappy, she’s money hungry. Honestly the only reason why her store is still running is because of her amazing staff and chefs. She’s horrible and I feel sorry for her staff cause I’m sure she treats them the same way she treats her clients.

My third event was my birthday. 3 girls didn’t show up to my high tea and she tried to FORCE ME to pay $40+ tax for the people that didn’t show up!!!! Imagine you’re going to a restaurant and 3 people don’t come to your event and you have to pay for their plates! If that’s her rule that’s ok, BUT SHE NEEDS TO MENTION IT TO CLIENTS BEFORE SUCKING MONEY OUT OF THEIR POCKETS.

horrible, horrible, horrible. Zero stars for Sophie the owner of...

I have it a 3 because I’ve been here a few times and I feel they can improve with good management.

I’ll say the good and the bad

The good:

A) Nice decorations

B)When they have wifi, the wifi is fast or doesn’t work at all. Need to check if it’s working that day.

C) the bread is good. It’s not healthy though, no gluten free options on the menu so this is not where you go for healthy options. It’s delicious but unhealthy. The salad is not great.

The bad:

A) service sucks, really bad. They don’t clean the tables often and I sat for 2 hours and no one cleaned the table next to me, and I did have to clean my own table when I sat down.

B) wifi sometimes doesn’t work at all, they say sorry and it it’s not working for the whole day so maybe call to see if it is working first if you came to the cafe to study or do work. Really disappointed I came all the way to here just to use wifi for it only to not work.

C) it’s very very loud

D) I had not had healthy food here. The croissants are good. The desserts are good. But no healthy options

E) $5 for a tea. Water with a tea bag in it. If you’re gonna do that then at least present it nice with a little cookie or something.

F) $20 for a panini with salad and the panini is tasty but the salad is not great. It’s so oily. But the paninis are way too oily. They pile on oil on the salad so ask for on the side. The dressing is also not amazing. The bread is tasty though

Overall. It’s a cute cafe. Cute to meet a friend and have coffee. If you’re up for eating sweets and junk food then this is your place. If you want healthy then they don’t have that

They need to train their staff. I mean really train. Clean the tables, give service. We pay a lot here so we expect what we pay for. I don’t mind paying more if you make better food that’s healthy also.

No...