Lilla Vanilla — Restaurant in Hamilton Township

Update to the owner’s reply - Lies again! When the police came in you couldn’t even prove that I yelled with your own cameras! I was with my wife and a 1 year old so please don’t make it look like I was there to do something bad!!! Please do file a complaint, the court will order for the release of videos and everyone will know who's lying? Anyway, lie as much as you want, I shared my experience.

tldr - To anyone considering Lilla Vanilla: beware. If something goes wrong, you may be blamed for their mistakes, denied a refund, and treated with hostility. There are plenty of other bakeries in the area that truly value their customers and take responsibility for their work. Lilla Vanilla has lost ours for good.

We have been loyal customers of Lilla Vanilla since they opened. We love supporting small family businesses and have even referred many friends to this bakery over the years. However, this recent experience has completely shattered our trust.

We ordered a custom cake for my son’s birthday 1.5 months ago, selecting a specific design for this special occasion. We even spoke to them twice in the past month to confirm the details, and not once did they mention any issues with the design or their ability to fulfill the order.

When we arrived to pick up the cake, my wife went inside and was informed that they had made the wrong cake. This was frustrating, but we wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt and see how they planned to fix it. They assured us it would only take 20 minutes to “fix,” so my wife waited inside while I stayed in the car with our 1-year-old daughter. After 40 minutes—twice the time they promised—my wife returned empty-handed. She explained that their “fix” was to scrape off the original decorations and apply a rushed and poorly executed design. It was so badly done it looked like a toddler had decorated it. When she asked for a refund, they refused, claiming their policy doesn’t allow refunds. Instead, they told her they would only redo the cake if she selected a completely different design—forcing us to abandon the design we had originally ordered 1.5 months ago! I decided to go inside myself to speak with the owner. I was polite but firm and explained that we simply wanted a refund since they had failed to deliver what we ordered. The owner, instead of apologizing, was dismissive and arrogant, repeatedly telling me to “read the receipt” and refusing to take responsibility. The same receipt they referred to also guarantees timely delivery of the promised product, which they clearly failed to provide. The owner’s attitude throughout the entire ordeal was shocking. At one point, she even questioned my wife rudely, asking, “What’s the problem if the design is different?” She also tried to blame us for the issue, saying their manager (who took our original order) had quit, so they didn’t know what we had ordered. How is it fair for us to be blamed for their internal management problems? The situation escalated unnecessarily when the owner called the police on us. We were stunned—why would a business owner involve law enforcement in what is clearly a customer service issue? To make matters worse, she told the police that I was “aggressive” and refusing to leave, which was completely untrue. I calmly explained my side to the officers and even offered to let them check the store’s cameras to verify my behavior. The owner and her staff had no response when this was pointed out. This entire experience has been deeply upsetting—not just because of the mishandled cake, but because of how dismissive, arrogant, and dishonest the owner was. Instead of taking responsibility and apologizing, they escalated the situation, refused to issue a refund, and treated us with complete disrespect. We’ve always made it a point to support small businesses like Lilla Vanilla, but experiences like this break our trust. A special occasion like a child’s birthday deserves better care and professionalism, especially when we placed our order...

Update: I keep coming back to Lilla Vanilla for their amazing pastries. Their pastries never cease to hit the spot. I've upped my review to 5 stars for the consistent quality of their pastries whenever I go there. I highly recommend the croissants, bikini killer cookies, macarons, turnovers (the spinach one is the best), and the petit gateaux (the fererro roche one is the most amazing thing ive ever eaten and im completely obsessed with it)

Original review: Cute bakery with tasty pastries! Their macarons and croissants are the best I've ever had. I'm obsessed with their macarons. The petit gateaux and the bourbon bread pudding are fantastic as well. The super croissants are amazing as well (coffee carmel and hot chocolate are my fave so far) My only less than stellar experience with Lilla vanilla was getting a custom vegan cake. I met with someone and showed them a drawing of the kind of thing i wanted (half birthday half college graduation cake with different colors on the 2 sides). The staff member helped talk through the design and suggested chocolate swirls around the flowers instead of black icing since she said black ising wouldnt taste good and i loved the idea and was very excited. I left them the drawing and when i came to pick it up it was NOTHING like i described. They did all the colors on all sides of the cake which didnt look good at all. It was barely decorated with tiny dollops of icing that didnt even look like flowers. I had to tell them this wasnt what i ordered and they told me they'd call the baker and fix it in a half hour. Luckily i came early and had a chance to come back or I wouldve been really upset to have to have used the cake the way it was. They did fix cake was how I wanted thankfully and it tasted good and was very moist (chocolate cake with cookies and cream filling....all vegan). It was an impressive vegan...

I recently made the trip to Lilla Vanilla to try the viral “Crunchies” for my daughter and her friends. We were excited because we’ve seen the hype online and really wanted to support a woman-owned local business. The crunchies themselves are definitely unique and fun to try. Some flavors we loved (the raspberry was our favorite!), and others just weren’t our taste – but that’s really a personal preference thing. They’re definitely something you try for the experience!

I hate to say anything negative, but I’m going to give an honest review. The only thing that took away from the visit was the service. There were only two people ahead of me getting just a few items (one just got a single cupcake,) but I ended up waiting about 20 minutes before I even got to the counter. It wasn’t busy, but the pace of the employees (and there were several in there) was very slow. Also, the person at the counter (not the owner or her daughter) was pretty short and didn’t come across as very friendly. I asked one question and felt like I was bothering her, even when I was placing my order she seemed annoyed. I promise you, I was very kind and friendly while ordering… smiled and said hello when I got to the counter and she was just irritated.

That said, the bakery itself is very cute, and I love supporting a small woman-owned business. The kids enjoyed doing the taste test together even if we probably won’t buy the crunchies again. I definitely recommend trying them at least once, especially if you’ve been curious or are looking for a fun little...