European Bakery — Restaurant in Falmouth

The cakes and pastries from here are goosebump-inducingly good, truly second to none in flavor and quality. Why the 2-star review, then? The customer service is badly lacking as of late. My sweet coworkers knew that I have a tree nut allergy but also a love for this bakery, so for my 40th birthday, they ordered a cake for me, and when ordering they specifically asked if there were nuts and were told the cake they'd chosen was nut-free.

Everyone could taste almonds when eating it, though, and when calling the bakery to ask, they were told "well, the cake has marzipan and everyone knows marzipan is made with almond paste." Actually, NO, not everyone knows that! Especially when they had ASKED and were told the cake was nut-free when ordering. My boss attempted to tell the person on the phone that, but they took no responsibility and gaslit her, telling her that the nut question had never been asked. They offered no meaningful apology for something that could have sent me to the hospital.

What should have been a happy, joy-filled 40th birthday celebration with my colleagues turned into everyone freaking out about whether the cake was going to cause me to have an allergic reaction. Thankfully, I tolerate almonds much better than other tree nuts, and my allergic reaction was mild and not life-threatening. But after this, I was left feeling SO embarrassed for so highly recommending this place to them. Plus, I wasn't able to enjoy my own very expensive birthday cake. Thanks a lot,...

I haven't been in a long time. I used to work here back in the 90's I live in Virginia but do come back to Maine every once in a while. Today my mom and I stopped by. It was great seeing all the things I used to help make. After trying to decide what delicious treat to get CJ helped us. She seemed very distracted with the couple of boy that came in behind us. I told her what I wanted and noticed she grabbed the cookie without gloves or the tissue. My mom told her and the something happened. She was getting a box ready for our things and I asked for a bag. She said our bags are small and everything won't fit. I said only two of those things were mine and I wanted a bag. She tossed the box on the counter and seemed very annoyed. Then placing my mom's things in the box, she again didn't use gloves or a tissue. At the register she rang us up and started talking to the two boys. I got her attention and said we are still in front of you, we need a receipt and next time use gloves and don't touch the food the your bare hands. I will say that another employee did have a chat with us. She knew the previous owners and did share that probably 70% of the desserts were still the same as the previous owner. She was pleasant to speak with. I am sorry I don't remember her name. After all of that, the desserts were...

Copied over from my review on yelp in 2022:

I had previously (very excitedly) picked up a 6 inch apricot/honey buttercream birthday cake here, but things went WAY south after the birthday girl had cut into the cake.....

Specifically, -The buttercream frosting was dry, hard, and crumbly (i love buttercream but this was one of the worst ones i've ever had) -The vanilla angel cake was dry, dense, and not moist at all Cake layers were VERY uneven and cut in varying different sizes (the most uneven layers that i've ever seen) -The ratio of frosting to cake was really off and there was way too much frosting (most likely due to the bakery trying to correct the heavily uneven cake layers). The decoration of the cake (although still pretty) was quite different from the one presented on the bakery's website

Some real life comments that were received from friends and family: "Omg that's crazy. The bottom layer is sooo much larger??" "YO what the beep is that???" "AHAHAHAHAHA" "That's not the sort of cake you give to a friend!" =D "You should ask for a refund" "The frosting is so crumbly" "Dang that's a lot of frosting" "The cake is very dense" "What's the name of the place? Need to avoid it like covid 19"

"The cake was perfect!" - comment came from the birthday girl. god bless her kindness,...