American Girl Place - Los Angeles — Restaurant in Los Angeles

I have an original Samantha doll from 1987 from Pleasant Company. I have every outfit and accessory and passed my love of American Girl dolls onto my daughters. We have 2 Bitty Babies, 2 Truly Me Dolls, and Kit. Yesterday I took my daughters to the American Girl flagship store at The Grove in Los Angeles to celebrate my older daughter's 9th birthday. I am appalled at the way we were treated.

A little background information will be helpful. We drove 10 hours from Utah for this experience to celebrate my daughter's birthday. No small feat for a 9 year old and 21 month old. On our way we learned that their grandmother had become comatose and she actually passed away this morning.

My daughter found a doll tent she liked but we couldn't see a price so when I asked a sales associate how much it was she responded, "It's very expensive." Implying I couldn't possibly afford it. We ventured into another section of the store which was poor judgement on my part. My 9 year old picked up a Wellie Wisher doll and was quickly and rudely told that this is a store where you look, don't touch. Shortly after my baby of 21 months picked up a bitty baby that was on display at a height she could reach and was looking at it, not hurting it. One of your associates ripped it out of her hands and knocked her to the ground, scaring her and causing her to scream. I was 3 feet from her. That is absolutely uncalled for. It is NEVER OK o rip something out of a child's hands let alone knock them over. The sales associate was so abrasive and rude that my 9 year old burst into tears while my baby continued to scream. Have you seen Pretty Woman? The scene where the snobby sales associate won't wait on Julia Roberts? This is exactly how we felt. Because of your unkind and completely unprofessional sales associates, my two little girls were made to feel less than. On a day when they had traveled all day for this experience and found out they were losing their grandmother, no less.

I understand there is no way for any of your sales associates to know that we had driven hundreds of miles or that we had lost a loved one that day but that's exactly the point. You should treat every person that walks through your doors as if they had journeyed a long way under difficult circumstances for what should have been a magical birthday experience for us all to remember fondly. Instead all three of us left in tears and with a bitter taste in our mouths for American Girl. Today I took my hundreds of dollars I was planning to spend in your store and spent it in Downtown Disney instead, trying like hell to make the sting of yesterday a little less for my girls. Of course Disney went above and beyond and treated my girls and I with respect and kindness. I should have gone there to begin with.

I am making sure to let every person I know what a terrible experience we had in your Grove Los Angeles store so that no one has to be made to feel less than worthy. And so that no one else's baby gets knocked to the floor for touching a toy in...

We came to the American girl place to celebrate my daughters 5th birthday but we’re met with nothing but poor service and comments with a racist undertone.

No one greeted us when we walked in. Gave them the benefit of the doubt, they’re busy. But the American girl place is supposed to be special and fun! Right? My daughter picked out the some things but wanted a doll. An employee checked to see if a particular doll was in stock for us since it was not on the shelf. She said she’s get right back to me. She disappeared. Never heard back from her. But I did see another employee put the doll we asked for on the shelf. My daughter was so excited and went to grab it! The worker had it in her hands and looked at her and said in a rather condescending tone; “don’t you want the doll that looks like you?” This comment was really odd to me. My daughter picked a fair skin and blonde doll and she has darker skin and brown eyes. I guess the employee thought this wasn’t okay?

Nevertheless we made our purchase and she so excited to get upstairs for tea time. This was the main event! She knew the dolls could sit at the table with us and couldn’t wait.

There was nobody there to be found up there. No hostess. No one. I waited around for 10 minutes and went to the bathroom. I finally spotted someone but was hesitant to talk with them. They had no name tag and they were wearing a Victoria’s Secret “pink” hoodie. I really did not think she worked there. But she did and we were checked in. Took them 25 minutes to seat us. We are seated and our tea cups/plates and napkins were all dirty. I don’t mean spots. Noticeably dirty. The napkins had chocolate all over them. Really gross. Again we’re here I’m trying to make the best of it and have fun.

30 minutes to by. The waiter gave us water. Tea time tower food came out next. The sandwiches were old. The bread was so dry it thought it was toasted. The mayo on the sandwiches had dissolved. I’ve had fresher food at McDonald’s. This was embarrassing for a cafe that is supposed to be an upscale experience.

The funniest but not funny part of this trip? They never brought the tea!!! They never brought the tea to tea time! At this point I’m over it. The waiter came by to give water/ food. The next time I saw him he gave us the check!!! And they charged me for my baby!! One who wasn’t even eating the food. Ridiculous. To top it off there was no birthday cupcake, celebration nothing because they never brought it! So I have no idea what the cafe does for birthdays. I guess nothing.

All in all for all the money we spent. All the miles traveled(over 120!) this was a joke. I’m so disappointed in American girl LA. Who is...

This review is for the American Girl Doll Store and the Cafe. This was the worst tea we have ever experienced. I take my daughter pretty regularly for tea service throughout California and abroad and never have I felt such disappointment. At $40 per person you expect a certain level of quality especially since this is considered an “upscale” shopping location. The food portions are beyond ridiculous as they were half the size of regular finger sandwiches. They looked fit for dolls. This would have all been excusable had the service and ambiance been better. We could have chalked it up to “it was an experience.” But this really was an experience and I mean a bad one. We spent more time waiting than actually having tea. We had to wait 20 minutes to be seated, then wait another 10 minutes until I flagged down a server to ask when our tea service would start. She brought out lukewarm water and tea bags but no cutlery, cream, sweeteners, or napkins. Another 15 minutes went by and she brought out the tray, but did not bring spoons, cream, or sugar. I had to flag down another server to get those things. When my server finally brought them over, my tea was cold and didn’t taste like tea at all because the water was so cold that it did not steep properly. I asked for hot water and again she brought out lukewarm water. Just couldn’t understand why they couldn’t even provide hot water for tea. Since the portions were so tiny, I asked for another menu to order off of. She told me that they don’t do that and that she would have to get her manager’s approval. We waited so long and she neither brought the menu or an approval from her manager that we asked for the bill so we could leave because it was terrible service. Then she charged my card the neighboring table’s bill. I finally asked for a supervisor. The manager did refund us and offered to make our next visit better, but I can’t imagine ever going again to the cafe, let alone the tea service. Shopping was also a disappointment as they display tons of merchandise that is actually out of stock or not being sold anymore. My daughter asked for several big ticket items and each one of them was out of stock in store and online. Why would it be on display if you can’t buy it?! I would recommend shopping on their website, and only if you’re already in Los Angeles maybe stop at the store, but forgo the cafe and have your meal anywhere else at the Westfield Mall. Don’t make a special trip to this location. You will be...