Cinnaholic — Restaurant in Ottawa

Adding to my review from 4 years ago, it’s mostly unchanged. This place calls itself cinnaholic and what I just ate was a dinner roll with icing sugar. There was no cinnamon in it. At nearly $7/dinner roll I’m sorry but do you have any quality control…?

From 4 years ago:

You need to take look at your staff and product offering...

It took 15 minutes to get a coffee and a basic bun, and I was only 4th in line and everyone in front of me was ordering basics. Then my coffee was made and sat on the espresso machine for 5 minutes while the cashier served others. I had to ask for my coffee to be handed to me.

Staff seem unenthusiastic, and in zero rush to serve anybody. Icing was just slopped on top of the bun like it was shot out of a cannon. Also, it wasn't busy and you temporarily ran out of buns, that's kinda a critical failure when that's your main selling item. At $5 bun I was expecting to be wowed, but I wasn't. Now I realize why the lines are out the door, I thought people were willing to wait because it was so good, but it's actually because the service it so bad and it takes literally forever to get your food.

I get that you're all vegan and that's great that your main products are vegan friendly but really, you don't even offer milk or cream for your coffee?!? Not everyone is vegan so you may want to offer your other customers options, otherwise your basically just deterring people from your business. I won't go back simply because of this, and everyone I was with who normally takes milk or cream in their coffee commented on the shortcoming. Not everyone wants soy or almond milk in their coffee, even though you want to push the vegan thing. You can't tell people what they want, they want what they want, and you’re not doing yourself any favors...

Very disappointed in the product I received as a birthday gift from my son. The cinnamon buns were flat and chewy, practically inedible. I called the store and was informed that their first batch, from which mine came, had not properly risen that morning, as indicated by the time shown on my receipt. Regardless, the employees still knowingly chose to sell these flat cinnamon buns, despite the fact they were identified as substandard. I asked for a refund to my son and was told that the cost would be refunded. I called again a week later and spoke to the same employee who said she would check later that day and call me back. I followed up a few days later and was told there was no manager in the store I could speak with. I have waited 17 days and received no call back, and there has been no refund. This experience has been very disappointing, lack of quality control and customer service. I would not recommend Cinnaholic to my friends and family. These 4 buns cost over $30 and I can buy far superior cinnamon buns at the local grocery store at a much lower price.

Update: It's now February 8, 2023 and still no resolution. I was offered a store credit, but no amount specified, and they won't send me a digital credit. Also, now they're claiming there was a promotion, but I have the original receipt and there was no promotion. My son paid for 4 cinnamon buns, there were no freebies. And they won't tell me how much I would receive in a store credit. It shouldn't be this difficult to...

Cinnamon bun was ok but not exceptional. Ordering off the menu is unnecessarily complex, as it does not specify that they also sell ice cream. I ordered a cinnamon bun with some toppings, and they gave me ice cream instead- without first relaying my order back to me to confirm whether it was a cinnamon bun. They served me a strange ice cream then seemed irritated when I seemed confused, stating that I had in fact ordered a cinnamon bun. One employee seemed particularly upset and disgusted with me about all this, and her attitude was the ‘cherry on top’ that solidified the fact that I will not be a repeat customer.

To be honest, almost every employee here was rude. A gentleman stood for 5-10 minutes while holding garbage bags, just staring instead of asking me and my friend to step aside so he could take the trash out. This was not a warm, welcoming atmosphere by any means. Employees here act like your presence is an inconvenience. Cinnabon in the mall is a much more pleasant experience. The cinnamon buns at this location are overly sweet, and piled up with so many unnecessary, illustrious toppings that I suppose the employees may think that this gives them the right to treat customers as sub- human. Very strange experience.

I hope anyone else who has the unfortunate pleasure of visiting this establishment has a much better...