La Placa Family Bakery — Restaurant in California

I'm really sad to give this rating.

I was so incredibly thrilled and excited when this place opened was really hoping a local bakery would open up. I was over the moon at the possibility of fresh baked bread. Which never did happen, but I digress.

This place had a lot of potential. It still does but it needs to make some pretty big changes. We used to come here a lot. I don't think I've been here since December of 2021. At one point this was a weekly stop for us for dinner. We would stop for coffee and pastries all the time. When this place is good, it's great. When it's bad, it's awful.

Which unfortunately has become more often than not, in my experience.

The customer service is appalling.

Sometimes even non-existent. Every once in awhile you'll get someone who treats you decently. So to be concise, the thing that needs to be worked on the most is consistency. Both with product and service.

When you do have a problem, do not expect to get treated decently, do not expect to have your problem resolved.

They don't seem to care that they're alienating all of the locals and seem to be relying on tourists.

Which really is a shame because we really needed a local bakery.

I stopped coming when I realized that I was throwing entire pizzas in the garbage, whole cakes, and boxes of pastries, because they were burned or rotten.

I hadmade attempts in the past to try to talk to them about these issues only to be ignored rebuffed or flat out told no. I believe the last time I spoke to an employee, about a pizza that was burned so badly on the bottom that it was completely charred black, she said: " What do you expect me to do about it?" I told her that I expected to get my money back. She told me that I would have to talk to the manager and then she'd have the manager call me. No call. 3 days later I called again. The manager put me on hold, I waited for 15 minutes and hung up and called back. She then acted very confused and didn't understand why I wanted my money back.

I think it was a pretty simple situation. I ordered two of their largest size pizzas and one of them was completely burned black on the bottom. No I didn't have the pizza anymore I had thrown it in the trash because that was 4 days ago now. I'm not in the habit of keeping food around that long. She told me she couldn't give me a refund if I didn't have the pizza. I'm going to be honest I'm not even really sure it was the manager I was speaking to because I've talked to her before and it didn't sound like her.

Either way. Gross.

Bottom line I decided it wasn't worth my money or my time.

Please read this and know that I'm not posting this review to disparage your business, nor am I doing it and the heat of anger as obviously this was almost half a year ago.

I was thinking about it today, and remembering how good it was when it first opened. How cheerful and happy everyone was then, and I missed it.

Good luck...

When its good it's very good but after several sour bad pastries and a cake that not one of 30 guests could eat I can't give stars for the good parts. I tried working with this business to get a gift certificate after a cake that not one child or adult could eat but they only wanted to offer another cake. At first I was okay with this but after several other bad experiences I just wanted a gift certificate so I could use it for coffee or icecream which would be safer. I didn't want to risk ruining another party with bad cake. I was only asking for a partial store credit since the cake was aesthetically quite impressive. Just as bad as being told I could only get another cake the manager ignored 3 attempts to contact her. When I finally caught her at the store it was clear she was ignoring me. She didn't even care about the other wrotten pastry. I really wanted to love this place since I live in the community but I was shocked at this treatment. Guess they count on tourists because after talking to a few friends I am not the only one to have bad food and bad treatment. I truly hope they change. The regular staff seem very nice but at the top this place lacks quality control...

Awesome spot for authentic, high quality Italian food and desserts. The owners are actually from Italy. My partner is also from Italy, so we love to support any businesses owned by other Italians in our community. We live in Watsonville and had a great day taking a little drive up to Ben Lomond just to go to this bakery! Their baked items are beautiful! We tried so many because we just couldn't decide. Their ricotta is house made so any of their pastries with the ricotta are a great choice! We tried and loved the mixed berry creme brulee! We definitely will be getting the tiramisu next time. I also got a delicious latte and we got some savory items as well, a spinach calzone and a puff pastry with prosciutto and cheeses. The calzone was made with brioche which was so soft and flavorful. We also tried their Bolognese pasta, which was delicious. They serve their pizza starting at 11:30 am, so we will also need to go back for that too. Definitely worth the visit for this authentic bakery! Everything was absolutely gorgeous and just as delicious! The staff are all very, very kind and helpful. We will love to go visit them...