Vida Bakery — Restaurant in London

Vida Bakery thoroughly deserve the 5 Star rating from me. My experience from searching their website, ordering the cakes, and receiving them was excellent.

I was searching for a delicious treat to share with some of my friends and family, but one friend in particular who is both gluten and lactose intolerant. It is becoming easier to find some gluten-free products or vegan products, but still challenging to find either gluten-free and lactose free and delicious food or gluten-free and, for ease of purposes, vegan and delicious products. This is not true regarding Vida Bakery! They have a delicious range of gluten-free and dairy free cakes in exciting flavours. I ordered two, but I was tempted to buy more! I chose the coconut latte and carrot cakes. I opted for coconut milk as an alternative to cows milk.

Upon confirmation of my order, I immediately received a phone call from Vida Bakery. The intended purpose of the call was ensure that there were no allergies to soya or soya products. Personally, I appreciated this extra precaution. Although there is space on the order form to confirm intolerances and/or allergies, sometimes people forget. The phone call from Vida Bakery demonstrated, to me, their commitment to keeping customers safe and also their consideration.

On my chosen day of delivery, I left my phone at home with my sister for a few hours. Both my sister and mum were aware that the cakes were due that day. Upon my return home from the gym (in preparation for indulging in the cakes), I was delighted to discover that they had been delivered. I was home at 11.30 am. My sister fed back that the gentleman who had delivered the cakes was, "Lovely." He had called at 10.30 am to state he would be delivering at 11.00 am. Nearer to 11.00 am he called again, informed me sister he was nearby and confirmed where he could park. True to his word, the cakes were delivered at 11.00 am! This is, in my opinion, both very professional and exemplary. This, alone, is 5 star service.

The cakes.....delicious! Unfortunately I will have to increase my efforts in the gym, now that I have discovered this bakery. The textures of the cakes were smooth and not grainy, as some gluten-free products can be. The flavours were incredible. If I had not ordered the cakes myself, or seen the stickers on the boxes that noted the cakes were dairy free, gluten-free, and egg free, I would not have believed it.

I cannot thank the team enough for helping to make our afternoon/evening memorable. We were all extremely happy with the cakes, especially my friend who is lactose intolerant and gluten intolerant. It was a pleasure and novelty for her to share a truly delicious treat with everyone, as opposed to settling for something she doesn't particularly like or want or feeling singled out.

I would highly recommend Vida Bakery for delicious cakes and exemplary service. ...

Bought some cookie dough and a cake tub off their website on a Thursday morning during Lockdown 3.0. The website stated:

We bake all orders fresh, so placing an order doesn’t mean it will be processed and baked on the same day.

Place your orders no later than Mondays 4PM for guaranteed shipping on Tuesday/Wednesday.

Shipping days are as follows:

Brownies, cookies, tray bakes: Tuesday and Wednesday ONLY

Cookie THO: Tuesday to Friday

Delivery time: 1-3 business days after shipping

As I was placing the order on a Thursday morning, I was expecting my order to be shipped the following Tuesday or Wednesday, and hopefully arrive in time for my birthday which was the following Thursday. But no, it arrived within 24 hours on Friday.

Normally one might think this is excellent service, but when we're talking about baked goods and a special occasion that you have tried to plan for exceptionally, this was rather frustrating. I was left to eat my birthday cake a week in advance and now have no cake on my actual birthday unless I buy more.

The cake itself was okay, pretty tasteless and awfully sweet. It just tasted like sugar and made me think I hadn't been missing much these past 14 months since being diagnosed as coeliac.

Then there's the cookie dough. I wrote to them along with my complaint about the shipping to say I also don’t really get the cookie dough and think you should include some more messaging around this as to why it needs to be refrigerated when it arrived without any packaging to keep it fresh (e.g. ice packs) and asked whether the the refrigeration thing just to do with the quality of baking rather a perishable reason? The explanation I got back was "The cookie dough is safe to be out of the fridge for a certain amount of time (in this case less than or just 24 hours), and it has to be refrigerated once you get it. Then it lasts for at least 6 months. This has been microbiologically tested." Great info, so please include this on your website as I suggested or at least say "thank you for that suggestion, we will add it to our website".

Overall, the response I got to my complaint was poor. It blamed me for not writing a note on my order to say I didn't want the order until the following Thursday instead of acknowledging that their guidance on their website said they would only ship baked goods on Tuesday and Wednesday but in this case did so on a Thursday which led to the arrival of my order at the wrong time.

They also did not bother to acknowledge that I had ordered these things for my birthday, and generally left me feeling like they had no heart. Really a shame when they are catering to such a niche crowd that doesn't have a whole lot of other options at their disposal. I hope by taking my complaint more public they put a bit more effort into their customer service when I am only trying to help them be a stronger and...

On 10 November 2022, I pre-ordered a carrot cake from Vida Bakery and requested that it be made the same as the version shown in their catalogue. I paid for the cake on 19 November 2022, and I received it on 20 November 2022.

Unfortunately, my order request wasn’t fully fulfilled. The piped icing on the top of the cake and the base colour of the cake were cream instead of orange. The message was written in pink, which looked confusing and did not match the theme shown in the catalogue. Pecan nuts, which were present in the catalogue photo, were also missing.

Despite stating clearly that I wanted the cake to be made the same as in the catalogue, Vida Bakery decorated it in a different way without informing me. The definition of "same" is "resembling in every relevant respect" or "conforming in every detail." There were multiple opportunities during our email exchange for them to ask for clarification or notify me of changes, but they chose not to.

When I raised this on the day of delivery, I received a reply two days later with no apology or meaningful resolution. I was told, “If you wanted it to be exact (including the nuts), you should have let us know.” However, their own Terms and Conditions say, “We will put a lot of time and effort into being as accurate as possible,” and “If the product is missing elements stated on your order confirmation, we will credit or refund your purchase.” My order stated I wanted it to be the same as in the catalogue, and that standard was not met.

Their response felt dismissive and contradictory. If asking for something to be “exact” violates their T&C, then that should be made clearer. But if they claim to strive for accuracy, then significant changes like colour and missing toppings should have been confirmed with me, especially for a cake costing £84.

Additionally, the email correspondence lacked professionalism. I received incorrect bank details twice, which caused delays and confusion. Some emails included unnecessary or casual elements like “Sent from my iPhone,” and the overall communication was not polished or businesslike.

I followed up with another email on 23 November 2022, but I did not receive a reply.

Update: I received an apology and a...