Grace Coffee Co. — Restaurant in Madison

Disappointing experience. They heavily stress placing an order 1 day ahead for pastries and baked goods. I placed my order 3 days ahead. I ordered on Thursday for a Sunday pickup (Mother's Day). I arrived inside the cafe at 9:57am for my 10am pickup. It took 20mins to get my order together. It get's better (better meaning worse).

Again, my order was placed 3 days in advance. I assume this is so they can meet the demand/volume. Yet, they told me they ran out of two of the three pastry items I ordered and paid for in advance. I was to select from "other pastries" they had...which was 2 plain croissants or cookies. Excuse me? I pre-paid for these items THREE days ago. You required ordering 1 day ahead, I exceed your requirements by two days! How do you run out of something that was already ordered and paid for? Why order ahead if there are only a finite number of available items? Then you proceed to substitute the missing items with items of lesser value? That is poor service to say the least.

They had this little macaroons/strawberry kit for Mother's Day. The arrangement, as advertised, was supposed to have M O M spelled across the macaroons and strawberries. I ordered one. Another customer ordered that item too. I overheard when she came to ask them why it didn't spell MOM, it was just macaroons and strawberries thrown in a container. Mine was no different. It may seem minor, but I assume the idea behind that Mother's Day kit is to present it as a gift and therefore presentation matters. Sell what you advertise.

I don't understand why they couldn't have prepared the orders in advance since all their orders are placed ahead of time! They require this! Each customer that came in needed to explain what they ordered then the runner would go look for the items on this huge, disorganized table. It's not like the items were being made fresh as customers arrived. They just handed items out as people came in with NO regard for ensuring all orders are properly filled. I assume if I placed my pickup time for 12pm I'd probably get a bag full or cookies and a participation ribbon or whatever they can find to substitute their failures. I won't be coming back, but they probably don't care as they already scored over $100 on my order with their overpriced items and dry cookies.

Note: I didn't bring up my concerns then and there because I'm not Karen, I don't speak to the manager. I'm not holding up the entire line to get my needs met. Everyone's time is important. I simply just don't bring my business there anymore, and leave my experiences on platforms like this to...

The food was decent but over priced for what you got. The potatoes had no seasoning at all not even salt. The gluten free options where nice. Coffee was better then stone creek but their coffee was awful. The main reason for the low rating was the two large dogs that are free to wonder the whole cafe with no supervision. I do not know how having two large breed dogs free roaming next to uncovered pastries (as shown in picture) is not violating health codes. I'm very allergic to dogs even though I work with animals I don't expect to have to interact with them in public places like a cafe or restaurant. Not only is this not sanitary it's a health risk for someone who has allergies. The staff also was rude and aloof to the fact this might be a problem to someone. I came wearing boots that I had worn the day before to visit my friends horse at a stable. I rode him and while they where clean i'm sure they smelled interesting to a dog, no excuse. While I was waiting in line one of the dogs came up to me and started nudging and licking at my boots. I moved away from him several times and he kept following me. The two women behind the counter could clearly see I was trying politely to move away from the dog but did nothing. He finally plopped down and was pawing and chewing on my boot! I tried nudging him off and he did not stop. Finally I had to say to one of them, " Excuse me, who's dog is this because it is literally chewing on my boot right now?" She stared at me blankly and I had to repeat myself. Finally she must have realized what I was saying and called the dog over to her next to the counter. I got no apology or explanation for the dogs and more so they proceeded to glare at me like I was a jerk for asking for their help with the dog while I waited for my to go order. The customer service sucked. And allowing to large dogs to wonder and touch people while they are eating is disgusting. If I touched that dog I would get hives because of my allergies. I love animals but for a business to have hair floating around near uncovered food is unacceptable. Animals don't belong near food service. I'll continue to go to and recommend EVP and...

I used to love going there to treat myself for a nice, wide selection of bakery items. I've tried several times, because I was in love with that building when it was Stone Creek.

My partner and I once received a cinnamon roll with too much cinnamon. It hurt our mouths so badly, we couldn't come near finishing it. And it was a quite large, expensive cinnamon roll. So we lost our breakfast AND a bunch of money. :( That cinnamon roll, along with several other baked goods we have received, were stale. The cinnamon roll only slightly--but others, unforgivably so. Like, days past the appropriate selling point. My drink of choice is a mocha, and I use it as the benchmark for how good a cafe is. It's soapy. The last 3 mochas I've had there were honestly the worst in the city. I'm a former barista, and I can tell you certainly that the espresso shots are regularly under extracted. Fun fact: if you sell macarons all the time, people will buy them. We don't need to do the "Well, some customers can order them at certain times but yOu CaN't" dance. Okay? It's rude. And it's what one of Grace's baristas told me upon asking a simple question when I saw a customer order of macarons set out for pick up and asked if I, too, could order some. I suppose I will order from elsewhere then.

I give Grace 2 stars because fresh food and drink availability is wide in selection and worth having as a treat. If an individual were to want to order something with their meal other than coffee, they could have a very enjoyable outing there.

That said, I won't be making the trip for Grace anymore and I will not be recommending...