Victorias Cafe & Bakery Jätkäsaari — Restaurant in Helsinki sub-region

Truly disappointing. I really wanted to like this cafe as I love Spanish pastries plus I had seen the good reviews on Google. I also like to support small local businesses when I can rather than the big chains. However, I really would not recommend this cafe to anyone. I asked for an iced latte and what I received was a watery cappuccino. Never in my life have I been served an iced latte like that, therefore I returned it and asked for it to be remade but the same problem arose. I politely went up to the owner and asked for a refund as both times the latte was sub par and tasted like old dishwater. I was happy to pay for the rest of my order as the custard tart was really nice. The owner refused to refund me despite me not drinking my coffee due to it being undrinkable and he would not accept that I had been served a watery cappuccino rather than an iced latte. He didn’t even apologise and just kept making excuses. I ended up buying a pre-made iced latte from the supermarket which was considerably better. Don’t waste your money going here because if the owner doesn’t know the difference between a latte and a cappuccino they shouldn’t be running a cafe. Additionally the quality of the food and beverages were not up to the prices they are charging and the cafe looked run down. The other food was definitely not fresh and looked like it had been standing out for days.

Update after owners response:

I hope people can see the level of pettiness and the poor customer service from this establishment. I in fact do live in Helsinki so the owners assumption about me is inaccurate and just rude. I have been to many cafe establishments within Helsinki and have always had a good experience, apart from this cafe. The reason I politely declined his request to make a third was I didn’t want to waste his time and ingredients. Also if they have already failed twice to make the coffee why would a third make a difference? I returned both the previous coffees after one sip so clearly it wasn’t up to standard. It wasn’t like I had drank both coffees fully and suddenly kicked up a fuss. If that was the case I would understand the owners response.

If you look at my other reviews for all different places around the world you can see I pretty much always give 5 star reviews and rarely give negative feedback. To claim I am poisonous is unfair and frankly just nasty when you can clearly see that isn’t the case.

I just don’t want people to waste their time or hard earned money when the owner is living on former glory. There are better places for coffee nearby with beautiful premises and fantastic customer service but for the purposes of this review being up to guidelines unfortunately I can’t list them. If you want to charge Helsinki prices that’s fine but you have to back it up by providing a good experience and good coffee- which other nearby establishments achieve.

Moreover, you can see by other reviews that this isn’t the first time the owner has been called out on his run down cafe and his substandard coffee and behaviour. I understand everyone is in a difficult time economically but that’s why you have to set yourself apart from the competition. I think the owner should take this time to reflect to ensure that his cafe and business raise their standards rather than just making excuses for his lack of customer service and lack of barista skills and just take constructive criticism on the chin and learn from it rather than arguing...

It's ok. The guy is definitely nice enough but the place doesn't feel cozy enough to stay in and have your coffee. My advice. Move everything that blocks the view and light from the window out of the way. Put all the UPS packages and other boxes in the back, out of view from the customers. Get some nicer chairs and tables and most importantly clean the hair off the floor and put a rug down on the cold stone floor. The price of food is also quite high compared to the coffee which is more fairly priced. Might come...

I’m sorry but I don’t understand how this place has gotten so many good reviews. We came here with my fiancéé and to say we were dissappointed would be an understatement. The desserts smelled a bit bad. The place has 0 atmosphere, the place is as quiet as a morque (no music, bright lights, no toilet) and the owner was watching tiktok/facebook videos behind the counter and it was quite loud. This place has a lot of work to do. We were unable to finish our...