Pastries By Randolph — Restaurant in Arlington

My go to for pastries and cakes! We moved and are now only 10 minutes away, which is so dangerous. We drove over to pick up some pastries because our best friend was visiting our new home for the first time. Everyone agreed that the pastries were delicious and beautiful.

Fast forward to the week before Valentine's Day. I decided to surprise my husband with an afternoon tea experience at home, as it's one of our favorite pastimes. I had bought a three-tier stand and matching cups and saucers from a store in New York, and I had planned to make the tea sandwiches myself. However, I knew I wanted to purchase scones and sweets from a local bakery due to my limited skills in those categories.

Pastries by Randolph has an online ordering system, which made it very easy for me to select what I wanted and pay online. The morning of Valentine's Day, I drove over and picked up my selection. It was crowded, as I expected, but the line and process went quickly and smoothly. The woman who helped me at the store showed me all my selections before boxing them neatly.

Here's what I chose: blueberry scones chocolate dipped strawberries passionate romance rose (moist almond sponge cake with a dome of sweet strawberry mousse and a passion fruit center wrapped in white chocolate petals) key lime tart strawberry mousse cheesecake opera (layers of moist almond cake soaked in strong coffee syrup, layered with mocha buttercream and chocolate ganache, glazed in chocolate topped with a touch of gold)

The scones and sweets were fantastic - the perfect addition to our afternoon tea experience! We'll be...

Horrible service at this bakery, the manager Matt is clueless and doesn’t know what he’s doing. Not only that but he lies! We purchased a mousse cake and my brother having allergies we called to make sure this cake didn’t contain nuts, there were no nuts but the cake did contain alcohol, for religious purposes my family cannot have alcohol. After explaining this to Matt he refused to give us a refund or exchange. After asking if they had any labels on the cake to determine if it contained alcohol he said there were tiny labels for nuts (yellow) flour containing items (blue) and alcohol (red) with a key to the colors above the showcase. After about 10 minutes on the phone he finally said we could exchange the cake. Driving 40 minutes back to the shop to see there were no labels besides yellow for nuts and blue for flour but none for alcohol. Seeing there were no cakes to our liking we asked for a refund and the girl at the front kept pushing us to purchase something else asking multiple times “Is there anything else you would like” after I said no and explained specifically why and how I felt that lying made us feel more uncomfortable with purchasing anything from this bakery Matt refused to own up lying instead he stated there were no labels for alcohol and said there must’ve been a miscommunication. This left me furious to know this is how they treat clientele.This bakery has always been a family favorite for years but not anymore. Please see attached photos for the tiny yellow labels for nuts and flour and no other labels to specify alcohol...

This place deserves the praise. I'm not often motivated to leave reviews, but this is the best bakery I've visited in my five years in the D.C. area. The guy behind the counter was extremely helpful, taking the time to explain the ingredients in nearly every dessert (and there are many, all made fresh every morning, and all bearing something to make it aesthetically distinctive and appealing).

If you go for only one item, try the almond horseshoes (there's no doubt a proper name for them). I would have never ordered one, as they look dry, but they came recommended by the person working the counter. After hearing the description (and the price -- only about $2), I decided to give it a shot. As an almond lover, it was one of the best desserts I've ever tasted (they're made with almonds, almond paste, almond flour, and possibly almond extract). Simple, but perfect. Crunch on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside. Like a macaroon, but better.

The other desserts we tried were all...