St. Louis Kolache — Restaurant in Ballwin

Probably the worst experience I've ever had in a restaurant. St. Louis Kolache makes a great meal at a great price.

What people don't realize is that they RUN OUT constantly - I guess they make their products in the early morning/night and serve all day like a donut shop or something.

We started a monthly family outing tradition in September where we'd do an Escape Room then a visit to Smoothie King and St. Louis Kolache for lunch. The first time we went, we spent a lot of time taking orders from the kids and walked in to find that 75% of what we wanted wasn't even available. I'm not really sure why they have a menu - that's more or less a list of all the disappointments you'll encounter when you visit the store.

So we went in, list in hand, and had to make compromise upon compromise picking from the leftovers. We were warned "next time order early to make sure you get what you want!"

In October (18th) we were smart (we thought) and went online to order at 8:30 AM. WOO HOO!

We arrived at 12:30PM to pickup or order and arrived to find three guys standing there literally doing nothing (not a customer in the store). The three were all confused - they didn't have our order and had no idea what we were talking about. They took my wife's phone in their gloved hands (not very sanitary!) and looked on their Point of Sale and were like "oh here it is!"... looking behind them, they were out of 50% of their items... I said "I guess we aren't getting our order" and they were very flippant - you can choose from what we got!"...

Me: "What's the point of ordering ahead if you aren't going to fill the order?" Dude: "Well sir, we've been here since 6:30 filling orders!"Me: "What's the point of taking orders at 8:30AM when 4 hours later you still haven't processed it or even seen it!" Dude: "Well sir, we've been BUSY!"

Then he turned his computer screen around to show me, literally maybe 20-30 orders I'd guess... At this point, I'm livid. I said "just cancel our order, I want my money back" and the guy said "well, we can't do that - I'm NOT calling to wake up my mom to figure out how to refund!"

Wow. Two other customers have arrived at this point and are standing behind my wife and I.

Then I added "I don't give a s* about how many orders you've had today" at that point dude almost comes over the counter and yells "Get the f* out of my store and don't ever come back!"

I said "I'll put that in your review"

It is now 4 weeks later and I finally got my refund. Took me three calls - first to Kyle then to Caleb and then Jessica got my refund.

To whomever owns this business: If I owned a business with this much interest, I'd sure fix my customer service and: Use some statistics to calculate how many of each flavor to make every day so customers aren't presented with 100 Jalapeño Bacons and no "St. Louis Pizza" Turn off online ordering if you can't keep up with it - having a nice website is pointless if you can't fill orders Train your people how to use the Point of Sale - that is pathetic Train your son not to refer to his Mom and instead call her the manager (or owner?) and train your son not to refer to his sleeping mom at noon.. I'm not saying your lazy and sleeping one off - I'm sure you are up all night making food (I hope that's what's going on) but it is extremely unprofessional to talk about a mom that way at noon. "Sorry, my boss is the only one who can give refunds and she isn't available right now. Let me take your name and number and I will personally follow up with you tomorrow about your refund" See how easy that is? Instead of COMPLAINING about how many orders you have, embrace it and love it. If you can't keep up with the demand, raise your prices.

While I was speaking to Jessica as it took her many minutes to scroll back to a month ago to give me a refund, I said, "wow, you must have a LOT of orders" and she said "yea, unfortunately... I mean, well, I guess, that's a good thing". Your opinions are showing.

Can someone in St. Louis with an ounce of business sense please open a...

I remember arriving at the new Ballin location of StL Kolache at 550am the morning of their opening, back around the fall of 2016. I didn't even know what a kolache was, but lived within walking distance and wanted to support a new business. I fell in love at first bite (sorry!) with the jalepeño popper kolache, and have loved the occasional Saturday mornings ever since that my wife and I will pick up several kolaches for just ourselves or for company in town.

I am not the regular I once was here, but the staff over time has remained friendly and the higher-ups (at least judging from their social media) seem very committed to small business in the St. Louis region. I've tried basically every kolache and you can't really go wrong, but my favorites are the aforementioned jalepeño popper and the sausage and gravy, mac & cheese & bacon, or chicken bacon ranch varities--depending on whether it's for breakfast or lunch. Great for a quick solo meal, for a small group of friends or family, or even for a whole office--which seems to bring in a lot of...

I don’t know what’s happening with these new front desk people but it’s a lot of non-customer oriented support. They are newer as I am a regular. Haven’t had the amount of trouble getting a Kolache. Today I went in at 9:40 and you don’t close till 2. I asked, “are you all out for Sausage Egg and Cheese?” She said yes. Then I proceeded to ask, “for the day?” As I was ready to wait for a new batch to be made. She continued to say, “yes.” No extra clarification or support from there. Not only to add I experienced a customer in line in front of me. Ask for 2 of the last pork Kolache’s prior to the other customer at the second check out customer. The lady did not get the Kolache she asked. Then the other checkout customer asked after. That lady grabbed the 2. The lady who felt it was unfair expressed herself saying, “wait I asked for those first.” And all the lady could say was sorry. Just not a great experience for 2 people...