Victorian Bakery — Restaurant in Kalamazoo

On 11:10:2020 my wife and I stopped in to Victorian bakery to get some cannolis which are a little bit difficult to find in this area we ordered six cannolis which is what was in the display case after waiting for a few minutes for someone to serve us which is understandable The cannolis were handed off to a person who came over to work the register a different person than the one that had served us when I paid for these items the person at the register who I feel was very unprofessional asked us if we would like to leave a tip? A tip? What did this person do behind the register to deserve a tip Was my question? All this person did is ring up our order they didn't serve us they didn't cook us a meal it wasn't like we were waiting on on a table but yet had the audacity to ask if we wanted to leave a tip. I would assume that this person who worked behind the register is getting enough of a wage to remain employed at this establishment unlike servers who work in restaurants who work for a lower wage because they depend on their tips I felt this was very disrespectful for a person working a register to ask straight out to a customer if they wanted to leave a tip. I've worked in the service business for a good part of my life and what I do understand about working in a service business is that if you think that you deserve a tip you have to work for it. My other point is that if you have to ask for a tip you probably won't get one. More than likely after this experience I probably will not return to Victorian bakery even though the cannolis were fantastic this just put a bad taste in my mouth for someone to come straight out and ask me if I wanted to leave a tip, when they did nothing to deserve a tip, just because somebody rang up your order doesn't mean they deserve a tip does the person who bags your groceries at the grocery store or rings up your food at the grocery store ask for a tip? I highly doubt it, this is just part of the job that that person...

My Husband and I hired Victorian Bakery for our wedding desserts instead of a traditional cake. We met with the owner to discuss what we wanted and ordered a variety of pistachio macaroons, raspberry macaroons with raspberry filling, lavender macaroons with vanilla filling, a variety of other desserts, and a whole cheesecake to be the "cake" we'd cut during the reception. I sent the owner a final count of the items that needed multiples to align with our guest count.

The day of the wedding, there was no cheesecake in the collection of desserts and the macaroons were not as ordered. I called the owner and she said she thought we didn't want the cheesecake anymore, so she removed it from our order. She never confirmed with us that we did not want the cheesecake prior, just assumed we didn't want it. Additionally, the macaroons we received were pistachio, raspberry with a vanilla filling (not raspberry filling as ordered), and lavender with chocolate filling (not vanilla filling as ordered).

I've used Victorian Bakery before for small occasions or to pick up a dessert on the way to a friend's and never had issues. Unfortunately, I would not recommend hiring Victorian Bakery for large occasions or catering...

So bummed at how the employees are treated here. The chocolate croissants are my favorite sweet treat and im so sad that I'll never have them again, I really loved this place but when I found out they dock employees pay for simply making a mistake... I just can't support that. Sure it's legal but it's sure not ethical.

Edit to add in that multiple people over multiple years have made this claim. Seemingly, it has not been one recent indecent as the response claims. There is another review by a different customer talking about how poorly the owner treats employees in front of customers, so im not surprised. Super disappointing to know that not only can they not be honest, they can't hold themselves accountable while putting all the blame on minimum wage employees. If yoy cannot run a business well do not run a business. It's that simple. I loved this bakery dearly and im so bummed about...