Melissa's Bakery — Restaurant in Gulfport

The shop is cute and the birthday cake we ordered was delicious (as they always are), but the positive review stops there with owner, Melissa, completely ruining our experience and turning this long time customer away from ever returning.

The company I work for has made a habit of ordering every employee birthday cake from Melissa (about 12 per year) along with ordering custom goodies for client holiday gifts. With our last birthday cake order, we simply requested a purple cake with white icing and matching purple trim/writing icing and even provided a photo print out of what we were looking for color-wise. Upon ordering in person (roughly a week in advance), I was told they can do any color and this wouldn't be a problem. Pick up day arrived, only to open a box to a cake with royal blue trim/writing icing. Our concern was expressed and quickly shut down by the cashier with "that's purple, we make cakes all the time, and that's purple".

The cashier then took the cake to the back, which quickly returned in the hands of Melissa who proceeded to sit the cake down and repeat "that's purple" and they do not guarantee colors as posted near the register. We told her that's fine, but this was not the expectation set upon ordering the cake. Nor was there any phone call prior to pick up about the color varying from our request. She continued to argue with us for the next 20 or so minutes about what is purple, what is blue, and that our eyes see colors differently - continuing to state that the color on the cake was purple. I have to point out too that one of the people in our group picking up the cake is a color theory teacher and creative art director so not exactly the person to argue with about color. Regardless, Melissa told us that she will NOT be scraping the cake. Keep in mind, this is only addressing the icing color, as we haven't seen the inside cake color.

A friend of Melissa walked in, who she waved over to come look at the cake. Expecting her to ask a neutral question like "what color is that" she instead asked "is that purple"? The friend first said yes, but then wavered between it being purple or blue. Suddenly, Melissa picked up the cake (which we have already paid for) and took it to the back without saying anything. We weren't sure if she took it to the back to scrape, toss, or what so we asked an employee where the cake went. Melissa peeked her head from the back to rudely state "I'm scraping the cake" and went back into the kitchen. Still confused, we asked the employee if we were supposed to wait for the cake or come back to pick up as Melissa had not been clear of her solution to handling the situation. They instructed us to come back.

We left the shop baffled that this small business owner would behave in such a way. Not long after, we got the call that the cake was ready and sent someone to pick up. The cake returned to the office with an icing color more on the purple color spectrum. What was originally gold glitter was now a barely noticeable dusting of silver glitter. And worse of all, Melissa had misspelled "Fascinating" in the Happy Birthday message. (see photo)

At this point, we can't help but laugh at the situation with the birthday girl, explaining that we REALLY tried hard to get her a purple cake, and decide the cake cutting will be a "reveal" cutting like you do for a gender reveal. We cut the cake - and hallelujah, it was purple!! Not the color purple we asked for, but definitely purple and not blue (or green or pink, because at this point, we weren't sure WHAT we were going to get).

I will reiterate, the cake was delicious. But customer service goes a long way and we will no longer support Melissa if she treats her customers, especially long time returning customers, in...

Poor customer service and grossly overpriced for lackluster cakes. I ordered a cupcake cake for my son's 5th birthday. I sent my dad to pick it up as I was busy with last minute birthday party errands, and he took my son on his 5th birthday to pick up his cake. He told the staff that he would like a brownie as well for the birthday boy and that they would eat it there. They gave him the cake, which he dropped off in the van and came back inside to enjoy the brownie with the birthday boy. This was all unknown to me- when they arrived with the cake, the frosting top was falling down in between the cupcakes. So I was confused because I have never seen a cupcake cake do this before and brought it back to Melissa's bakery. The staff there proceeded to tell me in great detail, remembering my son's name and how it was his birthday today and how my dad and son had picked up the cake, dropped it off in the car and had come back in to sit down and eat their brownie. I was shocked. Melissa stated it had been exposed to heat and melted, and said she would try to see if maybe she could fix it. I was grateful, but still shocked at the staff. I asked the employee if she had ever considered saying anything to my dad when he came back in, as she had seen everything that happened, and she simply smiled and said no, because he had already picked up the cake. Frustrated in the moment but in a normal tone, I said it would have been helpful and saved me a lot of trouble. I then had to leave to run some more birthday errands. I did not expect that Melissa would be able to fix it as it looked so horrible, but I decided to call back anyways to see if there was any hope. When I called back, Melissa proceeded to name call me and yell at me, stating she was about to fix it but now will not as she did not like the way I treated her staff. I never yelled or name called any of her staff like she did me, and instead of expressing any kind of sympathy for a frustrated and stressed mother a few hours before her son's birthday party, she decides to name call me and yell at me. The only thing she said to me that actually made any sense was that after I pick up the cake, they are not responsible for what happens to the cake. I understand that; I never said they were responsible. This is not about responsibility, this is about caring about your customers and showing consideration, concepts that are foreign to Melissa and her staff. They don't actually care about their customers, they only care about delivering a product, and a poor product at that. Cake melting aside, the cake itself looked very sad and definitely not worth $120. The cupcakes were flat and small in height and width, and there was not very much frosting on the top either. I have had may cupcake cakes before from Sam's Club and Rouses which are beautiful presentations. The only reason I went with Melissa's bakery this time was because Sam's Club was booked on that day and I thought I would do something a little more special for his 5th birthday. What a huge mistake. We ended up being late to his birthday party because we had to run around to find a cake...

My Fiancé and I scheduled a wedding cake tasting with Melissa's Bakery after hearing many positive reviews and a few recommendations from friends. It wasn't until after we went to the tasting and proceeded to place a half deposit on a 300+ wedding cake, did we realize that we had made a mistake. Melissa showed up to the tasting late after already canceling our first appointment the week previous. She didn't introduce herself (I just assume that was Melissa we spoke with) nor did she ask our names. She took the example pictures we brought with us to design our cake by and offered no help or suggestions in order to make this cake our own. The cake in the example pictures had flowers shown on it and her only suggestions were that we go to a florist and purchase real flowers and she would then put them on the cake...there was no option given to do eatable flowers or decorations on the cake (I know because I asked). The tasting itself included 4 cupcakes in flavors we didn't really want, but we were never given the option either. In the end, we ended up settling on very plain cake and placing a deposit on it. Now, we both realize that we should have not been so quick to put a deposit, but it wasn't until we later that we realized how awful this tasting and the design of our cake had gone. We went to another cake place had a far better experience and placed an order for the cake we really wanted in the initial visit to Melissa's. With over 3 months left before the wedding, we figured we had a good shot at getting our deposit back, but according to the receipt, it was at the owners discretion. We just happened to show up at the bakery when the person we assumed was Melissa was at the store and asked for a refund. Once we explained the situation, the person we think might be Melissa seemed to get upset and refused to give us a refund for our deposit and instead would only offer a store credit which she gave us. We now have a gift card with over $150 to a bakery we don't want to use for anything. Lesson learned on our part, however I hope this is also a lesson for anyone thinking about using Melissa's Bakery for their wedding cake purchase. Do not expect to receive any help with the design of your cake. Please shop around...trust me, there are many more reputable...