Violet Cakes — Restaurant in London

Violet Cakes ruined my wedding day.

Never have I experienced such a lack of care, due diligence or empathy from a company.

I ordered my wedding cake and cupcakes from Violet Cakes. A week before the wedding, I emailed to confirm the order and let the staff know that two of my friends would be collecting on the day.

Violet Cakes confirmed my order, but on the day, my wedding cake was no where to be seen. They had packaged up the cupcakes but omitted the star of the show. They also assured the people collecting that the entire order was there.

After calling the company on my wedding day multiple times, I finally got through to the founder on instagram. My emails and calls remained unanswered.

I ended up with no wedding cake.

The week after, I reached out to them again via email to sort a refund. In the week between the wedding and my follow up, they had not attempted to contact me to apologise.

When I finally got a response, I was told it was my fault for not specifically informing the company that it was a wedding cake, as I had bought one of their “celebration cake”. They then reluctantly offered me a refund.

This felt like the bare minimum compensation for the disruption they had caused. I asked if I could be fully compensated for my order, and that was denied. I was not offered any other form of apology, or a voucher.

Although I understand mistakes happen, I took every care before the day to ensure the order would be fulfilled. I’ve been so disappointed by the service and their lack of empathy afterwards, that I could never recommend buying with...

To be fair, there are probably some lovely cakes there, I just haven't found any. My fist experience was with cinnamon buns: 'At £3 each, the cinnamon bun needed to be first class. Unfortunately it was undercooked, floury and for the price, minuscule'.

So that was a while ago. I live locally and really want this to be a great addition to the local scene and choice. I dont go there a just a bit pricey for me but can see its a draw for some locals and seemingly a good number of visitors from further away, and going past the bakery it always smells lovely....

So back to the cakes. I have just been given a selection of 4 cakes so looked forward to a treat. I sampled the 2 mini cup cakes, very sweet and mainly icing so thumbs down; a shortbread with meringue, again very sweet, and the reason I dont buy Mr Kipling; lastly a lemon meringue pie which had lovely pastry, a filling tasting of lemon and almond, but very sweet again and just too soft and cloying with a soft sticky meringue on soft sticky filling(too much humectant?).,The meringue was definitely the best of the bunch and tasted very nice and the only one that someone else thought lovely. Everywhere has its good and not so good, but with violet I am yet to find the former.

Lastly a note on the exterior - the street front is pleasant especially with new canopy, but the side really is rather grubby and dingy - surprising for somewhere like this

So go and try, but may not live up to some of the...

A Disappointing Experience

I had high hopes for this place. Unfortunately, my visit was disappointing, and I wouldn’t recommend it for anything other than a quick coffee to-go.

I ordered the eggs on toast with avocado, but what I got was a laugh. The dish consisted of a single boiled egg, half an avocado, and a few tiny pieces of cheese. I think the pictures speaks for itself. This came on a plastic plate and was priced for a good £8. It felt like an overpriced, underwhelming meal, considering the actual cost of the ingredients was likely less than £1.50.

To make matters worse, the service was equally disappointing. After standing in line, we finally sat down and were presented with plastic plates, which didn't match the vibe I expected from a bakery that seemed so popular. After finishing our food, I politely asked the waitress if she could take our plates back, but she just pointed to a bin in the corner and instructed us to dispose of them ourselves. Not exactly what I'd call friendly or helpful service.

On a positive note, the coffee was decent, which is likely why the place had a queue. However, if you’re looking for a good lunch or exceptional service, this bakery isn't the place to go. They might be better off sticking to coffee and cupcakes, or they seriously need to rethink their lunch menu and train their staff to be more...