Cake and Custard Factory (Aldgate) — Restaurant in London

I ordered 3 cakes via the ‘Too Good To Go’ app (Google it if you’ve never heard of it. It’s basically an app that allows you to rescue unsold food from your local cafes, stores and restaurants for a discounted price with the aim to fight food waste. A win-win for all stakeholders).

When I arrived at the shop, there was a security guy standing in front who didn’t let me in as he first wanted to know if I wanted to buy something. I replied saying that I placed an order via the app and I showed him the app. He then wanted me to show him my order number as well as my name. He even went further by asking if I could show my account name on the app and a proof of order. This whole interrogation was very weird because I’ve never experienced anything like this before (with and without the app) but I still complied to get this done and dusted and focus on the food itself... (Perhaps this was the guy’s first day at the shop and he didn’t know how the app works or maybe something else happened in the past, which is why he was placed in front of the shop. Either way, I did not appreciate the negative vibe and his way of asking me questions...). Once I entered the shop, I spoke with a man behind the counter who showed a lack of interest. I’ve shown him my order from the app and he immediately pointed to a readily prepared bag and just left to continue with another task that he was supposedly doing before I entered the shop. I think this whole process inside the shop didn’t take more than 5 seconds, that’s how fast it went. When I was leaving the shop the guard kept staring at me and double checked if I indeed used the app.

Regarding the food, the cakes were very delicious, especially the coffee and salted caramel walnut cake. However, the entire experience for obtaining the cake was really unpleasant and bizar, which leaves a bitter taste. It’s a shame because having a good customer experience is equally important to getting good quality food (at least for me). Because of my experience, I will not go back to this...

Baklava cheesecake was very cold and hard and tangy, as though it was straight from the fridge and old. Really disappointed with this. They dont take £50 notes. Only customers eating in and hardly any other orders but not once were we checked on. Pop music playing nonstop which is off putting. Average coffee. I get the feeling management havent spent any time in the shop recently to keep things in check. You need to up your game.

Edit: The owner suggested I enjoyed the cheesecake which I can confirm I did not. I don’t like to waste food so i tried to eat as much of it as i could and had a friend help, but we still couldnt stomach it all. If its straight from the fridge, you might need to turn your fridge down a little. I’m sure it would have tasted great if it was fresh and room temp. The music point was more to do with it being close to prayer time and muslim customers and staff working there- completely your choice what you decide to play but my rating is based on personal preference. Glad the other feedback is being taken on board, its a shame to see local stores taking no love in their food and not being as busy as they could be- a few tweaks and this could be buzzing. Service rating updated from 1 to 4 given the owner took the time to respond...

To go honest me and my family went there for some deserts and we were literally horrified at the Alpine the cakes were staying is the custard was fairly well down to even a doughnut and I’m not on it was literally on Instagram and my family have waited so long because of all of this lockdown to go there and on our experience I know they were busy there was lots of people even very loud Tregallas to me and my family went there for some deserts and we were literally horrified at the Alpine the cakes were staying as the custard was fairly well down to even a doughnut and I’m not on it was literally on Instagram and my family have waited so long because of all of this lockdown to go there and on our experience I know they were busy there was lots of people even very loud Try to find out more emails then contacted there is no phone that I can get through to speak to somebody did express what happened on the day was told that we are very busy please if I just called back they were ever so sorry replace everything I’ll give a refund and it isn’t about any of this it’s about an actual family experience to go somewhere and to get such a terrible experience I know everybody has mistakes but they haven’t even tried to do...