Bobbette & Belle Artisanal Pastries — Restaurant in Toronto

Let me start of my review by saying that I've reported this business not only to their Head Office, but to the City for not complying with the mask by-law. Clearly they haven't read it in its entirety. I take this kind of matter very seriously because we are also business owners and would never treat our customers the way we were treated. My family was refused service today for the first time ever because my 2 healthy toddlers were not wearing masks. Not once has this ever happened to us in any store in this city or the GTA. Both my husband and I were masked but my 3 & 4 years old were not because they're exempt. Funny thing is, we've visited this establishment several times this year with our healthy bare-faced toddlers and no word has been said to us. We've always been warmly greeted and well served but today was different. When we walked in, a tall, white, brunette, female server who I did not recognize saw us and immediately walked over to her colleague, black, male server with a British accent and whispered something in his ear. As she was quietly talking to him, my toddlers were picking out some treats that they wanted. A few minutes later the black server walked over to use to tell us our children had to be masked. First of all, she should be ashamed of herself, sending over her black colleague who was actually busy, to speak to us when she could have done so herself. Is it because we're black that she felt she had to send him to speak to us when she was closest to us and actually saw us first? She saw us all come in first and therefore should have addressed us herself. Anyway. When I told him my children won't be masked because they aren't able to wear masks, he asked another lady who served us a few weeks prior (the manage maybe??) if they had to be masked and she very rudely responded with "they have to wear masks". What she should have said actually is "Hi, if they have an exemption, no problem. What would you all like today?" But no. She didn't greet us or say anything else to us besides those 5 words in a rude tone. My husband took the things my children picked up and put them back and we left. First, we're unlawfully refused service, and then someone fully capable of addressing us, sends a black server to speak to us because we're black, I guess (pathetic is an understatement). Needless to say, we will NEVER visit this establishment again. They don't value their customers who support them. Only a person with no sense would turn away good business. We were in their store for at least 5 minutes. In that time we could've purchased our items and left. But they were more concerned about our perfectly healthy toddlers' faces being uncovered. Sad and ridiculous. So many businesses have shutdown around the city and customers like us, there would be no Bobbette & Belle. It was sad to see my children crying not understanding why they couldn't get what they wanted. Shame on you. We ended up driving 15 minutes up the street to a wonderful vegan bakery where they welcomed us warmly with smiles and served us really really well. REPORTED x2 & CANCELLED! I expect to hear back from the city's by-law officers and from your Head Office next week. I will see this matter all the way to the end because nobody deserves to be...

Artisanal bakeshop? I think not. Very disappointed - broken macarons falling off on a $95 custom cake?! You be the judge (see real life pics vs. instagram)

Ordered $95 6" Cookies n creme Macaron Ombre Cake My expectations: Knew going in I was intentionally paying a premium for the design of the cake so I was expecting the aesthetics and presentation to be immaculate (perhaps not as pristine as what instragram shown) Outcome: Terrible construction and finish, quality control, falling apart; good taste, terrible value

When presented the cake for inspection prior to payment, two of the macarons already fell off. Largest complaint I have was with the overall construction and finish. You would think that an almost $100 cake would look close to perfect. Instead, the macarons were already sliding off when picking up (in hindsight, I guess I could have refused the cake and requested a refund of sorts but it was the day of the birthday and who in my position would've prepared a backup plan as I never had this experience elsewhere before). When it came around to serving in the evening, somehow a couple of the macarons were cracked and needless to say, four of them also slid off the surface of the cake (I manually put them back on for the purpose of photo taking). Mind you, we were extra careful when transporting the cake like anyone would for a $100 cake and followed storage instructions to keep at room temp. Does it require such difficult technique to set some macarons vertically on a cake especially if you're considered a bonafide professional cakemaker, and so much for being specialists in macarons.

At the end of the day, I just wanted a very nicely designed cake and was willing to pay more for the visual appeal. Let alone visually underwhelming, the cake failed to meet the most basic quality standards. Although the cake tasted great, it was essentially a chocolate cake, takes nothing special to do well. I could have gotten equally great tasting chocolate cakes for less than half the price with better construction and finish. These self proclaimed artisanal bakeshops are overrated. Please don't call yourself an artisan if you can't make a macaron stand upright. I reckon some of your bakers are rudimentary, novice at best. To all prospective buyers, just stick to a custom LaRocca or pickup from Pusateri's. Was so excited for this cake but instead put a damper on the birthday girl's sentimental day.

Not sure what B&B has going on for them in terms of cakes cause if they can't do luxury custom cakes well, I'm not sure how they are differentiating themselves from the market especially when you need to pay $20-25 more for their most basic cakes, perhaps their small pastries are better. They have certainly lost credibility for me - would not recommend for custom cakes.

PS. B&B - If you're reading this, please don't sell a product that you haven't sufficiently and successfully tested in your test kitchens, I suspect this could also be a reason behind the poor...

First of all, I would like to make it clear that I have ordered their cakes twice and had a friend buy one for my wife and they tasted delicious each time...a tip, heat up the cake slices in the microwave for abt 20 seconds to have the cake soften a bit.

However, the reason for the 2 star review is their customer service..or lack of it thereof. I had ordered a cake last year, paid extra for delivery, an extra $5 for the words "Happy Birthday" to be written on a sugar plaque...all well and good, except that when the cake arrived, there was no writing on it ! Called them up to inform them of the missing plaque and they asked me to go over personally to collect the plaque ! This was when I had paid a significant amt for delivery earlier ! No effort to even offer to deliver it for free considering its their mistake ! Needless to say, I had to go and collect it personally...when I reached, they were gracious enough to offer me a coffee while I waited for the plaque.

Circa 2021, another year, another cake, this time a hazelnut cake with chocolate swirls on top. My wife had placed the order by calling them..she called 2 days prior to my bday and asked if they could have the cake delivered the day previous to my bday so that we could cut it at midnight ! She was promptly asked to go to their office in Queen street and that there was nothing more they could do abt it...ok, at least that is understandable from a logistics perspective, but quite astonished by the lack of empathy. Anyway, Dday arrives..wife goes to their bakery to pick up the cake..lo behold, no chocolate swirls on the cake ! Which of course led to a very upset customer...she was apologised to for the inconvenience, offered the bald cake and a refund...which was not the point ! The point was to have the same cake as depicted on their website with the choclte swirls on top. My wife insisted to have the cake replaced with a one with the swirls...to which they asked if she could visit their store in Queens to pick it up! The cake which they had messed up ! Of course she said no way and then they agreed to get a new cake delivered to her..thankfully it was delivered to her in a good and complete condition.

Now both times during the mixup, the ladies at Bobbette and Belle were apologetic, however what astounds us is the lack of empathy to our situation and not going an extra mile or taking an extra effort to deliver what was promised and paid for in the first place. Really wish they pull up their socks to offer better customer service, both in terms of delivering whats paid for and promised and also in going the extra mile for customer satisfaction..all the...