Mocha Cafe and Pastry — Restaurant in Arlington

Placed an order with Mocha Cafe & Pastry for a dozen macarons, three days in advance. When I arrived, as scheduled, there were four employees behind the counter, and only two other customers in the cafe, so not a busy Sunday afternoon by any standards, however, all the employees seemed frazzled and frenzied, as if they had a task to complete, but were unsure of what the task was, exactly. I approached the counter and informed the “cashier” that I had placed an order three days ago for a dozen macarons. He started ask questions about the order, but before I could answer, we were abruptly interrupted by another employee behind the counter, presumably the owner's daughter? She proceeded to look through several spiral notebooks in a file cabinet before finding my order which had been hand-written in one of the tattered pages in the notebook. Fine, it's a small operation, I don't expect every aspect of the operation to be computerized or automated. But then she tells me that they don't have my order. In fact, they stopped making coconut macarons, of which I had ordered 4; nor do they have red velvet macarons, or lemon macarons, all of which I had ordered.

She apologizes about the misunderstanding, tells me that if she had taken the order, she would have gotten it right, and furthermore, she would have advised me to pick up my order on Monday, instead of Sunday, because they turn over their week-old pastries every Sunday and receive a new delivery of fresh pastries on Mondays. Great, so not only do they not have my order in stock, but I'm also getting stale macarons. For the record, the cookie part of the macaron was palatable, but the ganache filling was inedibly stale. Also, several of the tables were visibly dirty, but went unnoticed by all of the employees nervously standing behind the counter. I had read the rave reviews about their coffee, so I decided to order a caramel latte. It was surprisingly smooth, not too sweet. Overall, I give them one star for the coffee. This place has potential, mostly because of the quality of their coffee, but only if they can overcome their mismanagement issues. They need to empower, and (re)train their employees, as well as improve their customer service. Simply apologizing for a missing order, and then proceeding to sell an already unhappy customer a stale product is no way to win...

I have been at this Cafe couple of times before covid. …Good memories.. I’ve mentioned about it to friends specially about the pizza and the vibe of the place. I became happy to realize they have brought dining option back when I called yesterday. Despite the distance, for the Persian New Year, I thought of treating myself with their pizza. It took me 45 minutes as I expected 20 to get there.

The person greeted me nicely in the beginning. I’m unsure whether he’s one the managers or not, but I experienced a total change in his demeanor, when I told him one of their pastry containers has big fruit flies. Those pastries must have had hundreds of fruit flies’ eggs. It made me ponder how often they check everything out! That issue couldn’t have been missed at a glance!, let alone in a daily routine check. It was after I ordered coffee and that scene gave me such Terrible feeling. He trashed the pastries and behaved to be okay that they are only fruit flies!! I did enjoy my Mixed Special Pizza before this happened and ended up ordering the same for my Dad and family; however, that scene did not let me enjoy my coffee and made it worse noticing one flying around the table.

The Cafe’s cleanliness and hygiene is on absolute Low grade; however, I drew my attention to the decorations that still reminded me of good times.

I told the person to exclude the charge for the coffee on the check. With having a total change of demeanor from that nice chatty person in the beginning, he became a different character! He pronounced himself with the word of “extortion” in front of the other customers. Provided that my expectation was out of his accommodation, a professional manager would have responded with level of etiquette that is the true art of handling customer service in uneasy situations with respect and grace rather than “how was your coffee question” with no sincere care to make it up to/understand an unhappy customer.

That man started nicely, but made it a very improper ending.

-If you want to turn the story around that would be your moral. Those customers missed out on part of the scenario and “shock”. I would have definitely written a review on how you handled this in the position of manager/owner as I have thoroughly imaged...

I stopped by Mocha Café & Pastry after eating lunch next door at El Charrito Caminante for a quick caffeine digestif. From the outside, it doesn't look like much but once you step inside, it's like you've been transported to a quiet, Parisian-style café. There is a lot of Parisian décor from tiny Eiffel Tower statues to wall decals and even colorful upholstered chairs. They also sponsor local artists so there's some café-inspired artwork on the wall (for sale!).

I decided to try their Turkish coffee, which the barista took to explain what it was and what he was going to do. The process takes a couple of minutes, but he was very diligent about informing me how long it would take and what he was doing. He seemed really passionate about his work, and he was very friendly and approachable. Great service!

The Turkish coffee was fantastic. It was my first time trying it and it is definitely something I would have again. It's unfiltered coffee that's served in an espresso-sized cup where the grounds settle at the bottom. But unlike espresso, Turkish coffee is meant to be indulged in slowly. In fact, you should really take your time allowing the grounds to re-mix with the water. Since it's unfiltered, the coffee doesn't completely dissolves. A little thicker than typical coffee but well-balanced.

Lovely, quiet place to enjoy coffee/tea and house...