Tasty Junction (Elyssia's Kitchen/Cloud Cake/Cafe Pikunikku) — Restaurant in Glen Rock

2/21/2025 EDIT: Thank you for your response. It was a Monday and not* a Wednesday; still a weekday.

Regardless of the day, this is what I'm worried about; lack of experience and poor management practices. Your first course of action was to check security footage AND demand for proof of sale.

Acknowledge the issue, extend empathy, offer an apology. Those three things are essential. Don't go on the defense.

Honestly, save your time and money.

Weekday Experience

Wait Time: We arrived at 12:45 pm on a Wednesday, lined up, and placed our order at 12:51 pm (as seen from the receipt). It took over an hour to get a seat, despite being told it would be "40 minutes to an hour." Finally seated after 1 hr and 15 minutes, our drinks didn’t arrive until 2:18 pm, and food came at 2:35 pm. Yes, I timed everything. No apology or acknowledgment for the delay!

Food: I kept hoping the food would make up for the wait, but it didn’t. Here's a breakdown: *Sweet Coffee Drinks: Way too sweet, even for someone already expecting a sugary drink. *Fluffy Pancakes: Good but bordering on dry and quite bland. The Ube topping was also one-dimensional. Both needs flavors and layers. *Fried Dumplings: Greasy but decent. *Fried Rice: Same—greasy but okay.

Set-up: The space could be arranged better to maximize seating. The multiple menus and food options create a confusing, unfocused experience, and there’s no clear guidance on how to order. It feels like they’re trying for an Asian food court vibe, but it’s chaotic.

Overall: While I appreciate the "made from scratch" approach, they need to refine their process. The food is not complex enough to justify a 2-hour wait!!! They should streamline operations, improve flow, and definitely hire more staff. Waiting this long for pancakes, dumplings, and rice is unacceptable if they want to succeed.

Take a day off. Or two, and revamp the flow. That was a really bad experience. I didn't even mention how unfriendly they were but that's not part of my review; it's okay if they're not friendly, don't care for that. But please fix everything else. And for the love of God, hire more people.

This experience was...

I suggest you thoroughly check your order before eating at Elyssia's and here's why: my order of red bean dumplings was tasty -- that is until I sampled the second dumpling (wedged under the whipped cream) -- and bit into what turned out to be pork rather than the sweet taste of red bean paste; only made less palatable by the whipped cream. At that point I cut open the remaining dumplings and found another pork dumpling. I removed the two pork dumplings, concerned that they may not have been cooked thoroughly since the cook believed she was heating up red bean dumplings.

I called the owner and told her two of the dumplings were not red bean, but pork. She told one of the staff that they made a mistake, and though I couldnt make out their conversation, I think they discussed it. The owner, nor any of the staff, acknowledged the error to me, nor apologized to me, nor did they make an attempt to correct the order or compensate for the incorrect order, which I had already paid for. No one even came to my table to inspect the food after I raised the issue, just unbelievable.

I finished and packed up to leave and noticed the owner and staff looking at me and after an awkward moment I said "thanks" and then they thanked me for coming, ignoring another opportunity to apologize, or at least acknowledge their error.

Due to my concerns about whether the pork was thoroughly cooked and lack of action by management, I cannot give this establishment a favorable review and given the other great restaurants in town would not return...

Summary: A little hole in the wall soup dumpling and regular dumpling place. Don't think that you'll be full from one or two orders. Portions are small and really more of appetizer sizes. I was disappointed with the soup dumplings as they didn't have much soup in them. Also the wonton soup is good but not worth the price. During covid times, the restaurant practiced safety precautions where staff wore masks, plexi glass barriers were present, and hand sanitizer was provided.

I ordered takeout from here for the first time because of all the positive reviews. Gotta say I wasn't satisfied with my order. I could tell that everything is homemade which is great but not the best I've had. We ordered 2 orders of the soup dumplings and one order of the wonton soup, total cost was about $25. As mentioned, the soup dumplings didn't have much soup in them. And only having 6 small soup dumplings per order didn't fill us up at all. I will give them credit for the thoughtful packaging, putting each soup dumpling in individual tins so the soup doesn't leak everywhere, but there wasn't any soup to leak. We ordered the wonton soup too thinking that may fill us up but nope, the soup was only a pint container for $7!! Yikes. Would have been cheaper to order wonton soup at a regular Chinese restaurant. The soup and wontons tasted great but not worth the $7 unfortunately. Wait time was about 20 minutes. I wonder how the other items on the menu are but sad to say I probably won't be...