Cassandra Cake Co — Restaurant in Port Coquitlam

Hello, just writing an honest review for my June 2nd order from Cassandra Cake Co.

This is my third order with them. My first was in May 2023 for my daughter’s LOL-themed birthday party. No issues from that order - at all! My second was this March for my gender reveal - the donuts and cake were nicely done. The pastel beehive cake turned out to be bright yellow - but I’m honestly not the type to complain for small things like this, and in all fairness, it was a nice cake overall so I ordered again. The latest experience - however - would be my last. For the amount I paid for, I expected quality work.

I posted a picture of the order I sent to them through email. I also attached a photo of the cake I wanted - for reference. The cake was priced at 545cad and the decorated donuts were 8cad each.

So here goes…

We went to pick up our order and I got surprised at how poorly the cake was done. The cake lacked vibrancy - and the color was definitely not the ones I wanted “copied”. I don’t expect it to be a 100 percent replicated - but it was a far cry from the “cake inspiration photo” I sent them. The Hello Kitty figure was naked and looked like a ghost when we first saw the cake - they had to “paint” Hello Kitty’s bow pink to match the one I ordered. The donuts turned out to be cake doughnuts with frosting on top (I ordered dipped / glazed donuts). It also lacked vibrancy - and the frosting - as you can tell from the photos, were done in a rush.

On top of this, the lady we spoke to was VERY rude and unfriendly. I had to show her pictures of my order to let her know why I was upset. She stated “you don’t expect us to refund you etc etc”, “we can refund you for the doughnuts but we will take them back”. To make it clear, I was not going to take my money back - and I have no interest in arguing for a refund. An apology and some courtesy would have sufficed.

I ended up taking the cake to another baker to have it quickly fixed (shown in picture).

P.S. There was a customer before me who was also upset with their order. I believe they ordered fresh flowers on their cake but that’s not what they got.

You may have lost only one customer here, but if you keep up with this kind of service - you’ll definitely see your rating...

We booked a high tea package for 11 guests many weeks ahead of our reservation. We asked multiple times if it would be okay to set up a few decorations as it was for a special occasion. When we walked in, the staff also said, "feel free to set up some decorations if you would like". 10 minutes later, we were met with incredibly unprofessional staff saying we were not allowed to tape up any decorations as it would ruin their paint (we used only 3 pieces of tape) and that us taking pictures was "disruptive" to their establishment. We would have loved to comply and cooperate with their decoration rules, had anyone communicated beforehand on at least one of the multiple occasions when we asked if it would be okay to do so. The owner was extremely rude when she spoke to us and we honestly wanted to leave, but didn't want to ruin our baby shower. We decided to stay, only to watch the owner and staff eating food at the front counters and not washing their hands before serving guests again. Worst experience, not food safe and absurdity in how they talk to and treat other human beings. We have no problem cooperating. Please be kind and communicate with your patrons before you say yes it's okay to bring small decorations to your establishment. And please don't eat infront of your patrons and then proceed to prepare/serve food to customers. Bottom line.

To speak to the service and food: very poor service in terms of the staff not coming by to attend to our needs. They didn't even have honey sticks (this is a Saturday...you know there's a high tea party booked for 11 people...but there's no honey on hand for the tea...not everyone prefers to add alternative sweeteners to the tea).

The desserts are too sweet. The savoury high tea items were average taste. The savoury waffle was the best.

Also, they didn't actually serve the menu that was pre-selected. Don't trust this establishment with your special events!

Just my honest appreciation of the food...

Just WOW! Did not expect this place to be this CUTE and Instagramy! We came for the hot chocolate festival, had the wine flavoured hot chocolate and the breakfast croissant. The breakfast croissant was the highlight with salted cream cheese it was a 10/10. The hot chocolate presentation although a 10/10 was not necessary that great. The cake however was red valvet and incredible cream cheese frosting. The hot chocolate was just too sweet, but very large serving sizes which were impressive. Lots of baked good and cakes, cookies, cupcakes on the menu but not much breakfast styled items which makes sense since its more of a cake/cupcakes/cookie shop. They do a lot of custom orders which we saw in the fridge that were so impressive. A very talented team works there. Seating is minimal so earlier the better to get a seat, we came in on a saturday around 10:30am and found the last seat for 3 people. This is a social spot for 2-4 people in a group, tables are not very large. What we could not figure out was how to order the high tea pretty sure that requires a reservation but it looked so good and will be back to try that at some point! Our understanding was that you reserve a table because one of the employees gently told us that we had to leave within 30 minutes as she had that table reserved which was fine. Feels like a local spot, very girli pop. Washrooms were alright, a bit dirty for the morning. No vegan options for any of the desserts which was a bit disappointing to see. Overall great experience would recommend to visit and maybe pick up...