Shirini Sara Pastry House — Restaurant in Toronto

The food is excellent, but, the service is not for everyone.

I tried to give this places 3 chances, but, unfortunately, I left disappointed each time.

First time: Went close to Persian new year, long line up understandable, but, the lady serving the cake handled all the cakes with her bare hands which felt a bit unhygienic.

Second time: Was the only customer helped by older gentleman who I presume is the owner. Gave stern looks at me and made a big deal out of it every time I asked a question. When other customers come in, you just become dirt on the floor to him, body language is completely different if you're part of their social bubble, they get greeted warmly, given patience, care, and attention.

Third time: Was the second customer to show up, I waited patiently in line while the owner finished serving the customer ahead of me. He then purposely looked past me and tried REALLY hard not to make eye contact with me. He then waved over to the person who just entered the store to squeeze in front of me and blocked me with his hand without taking a look at me and not explaining a single thing. He helped that person and when he finished a flood of people came in, he walked away proceeding to help other people and let another 2 people cut in front of me. I was right up against the display case so there's no reason to not think I'm in line.

I have no idea what I have done to offend him as I always tried to keep a smile on my face, speak in polite tone, and give patience. I came to this place for my wife because she liked the desserts and I tried very hard to give it a chance. But, I cannot tolerate such a chasm of treatment customers, I almost feel like I've insulted them by eating their food as if I wasn't supposed to be the one buying it. Not going back for obvious reasons. To be fair, not everyone that works there is like that - there was another lady there that treats you like a normal...

Absolutely unprofessional.

I have been to the bakery several times and must say every time I have come in, I get ignored and treated in a much less friendly manner than other customers.

I ordered a custom cake several weeks in advance and was told to email the picture of what I wanted along with a picture of my custom cake form. I did it right in the store before leaving. I didn’t receive any confirmation that they had received it so I emailed back several days before my event to ensure they had it. They confirmed over email that they had received my picture and that everything would be fine. The day of my event comes and my cake is supposed to be picked up at 11am. At 10:55am they called me to tell me that they never received my picture. I told them I had even confirmed with them the few days prior and then the lady on the phone checked again and said she had it and it would be ready in 30 minutes. How could she only be checking this 5 minutes before the cake was supposed to be picked up? It was ready well over an hour later. My husband who picked it up had to be late for his own daughter’s birthday because of their blatant unprofessionalism. To make matters worse, it was not exactly what I wanted, I could see the cake through the icing and my cake was crooked and leaning to the side and only looked nice at certain angles in pictures.

It looked like it came out of one of those baking fail TV shows and not from a professional bakery. I expect better for the price I paid (in advance I might add!).

Not to mention they offered NO apology and no compensation or discount.

I will never buy from this fraud of a place again and highly recommend my friends and family...

Edited to reply to owner’s response The guy working should remember because I pointed out that he had inputted the wrong item and the price was incorrect while pointing at the price on your wall. He insisted the price would come out to the same after taxes, i did not have time to argue with him so i paid and left. Because he was an older gentleman I assumed he was the owner, but if he is not and you are actually serious about fixing this issue then you can go through your records as i was there yesterday (aug 13) around 4pm and paid with a mastercard. For me personally, the couple of dollars is not worth going back. But it is an ethical matter where taxes need to be paid to the government on what you are charging.

Original message Watch out for prices/tax evasion? The Ice Americano was posted $3.30 on wall, i purchased three of them. The guy working punched in a different item at cash register (assorted cookies) which was $4.50 @3 (no tax for 6 or more baked goods) total came out to $13.50. When i pointed out the error he told me it came out to the same after tax. I was in a hurry so i paid and left. But so many things wrong with this…

1. $3.30@3 +tax is =$11.19 NOT $13.50 so they are NOT transparent and OVER charged.

2. he did NOT charge the tax on his cash register… and therefore not paying the taxes he is collecting from customers to the government. (Taxes I paid!!!, he is skimming)

3. and even more importantly…. the “Iced Americano” was made improperly and tasted meh at best! What a waste of...