Black Lion Cafe Coffee & Pastry — Restaurant in Maryland

Today was very unfortunate. I’ve heard of this cafe and have read reviews and i thought it would be a good idea to go today for my birthday and enjoy a nice ambiance with friends. The cafe is beautiful but this has been the most unpleasant customer service i have ever experienced and it’s not an exaggeration. We get there and we order an egg and ham (i think or it has another meat i wasn’t paying attention )breakfast sandwich. I ordered spinach wrap and other things. First, We pay for everything and then we are told one of the egg sandwiches my friend ordered wasn’t available. This is understandable, things happen right? She is told she can choose something else from the menu. We ask if we can choose anything else and she says yes they have everything except what she paid for. She chooses the item that has salmon. Then the lady says no she can’t choose that because they ran out of salmon either. Okay… weird because we asked if we could choose anything for that reason because we wanted to know what was out of stock. Okay she ends up choosing the chicken salad croissant. The lady said okay but I point out the price difference. She didn’t even mention or offer to refund until i pointed it out. Second thing, Two people of our group got their food first which i understand cafes slow down but it took 10 minutes for me and my other friend to get our food and no one was ahead of us. We get up and wait by the register and made sure to wait at a distance so they wouldn’t feel pressured because again i know it can get tough but i started to notice everyone was getting their desserts and drinks except us. They finally look at us and talk to eachother and the guy that is making the drinks goes to the back and i see that the cook is raising and flaring his hands as if they were arguing. then he comes out looks at us, says something to the lady and she goes to the back. she comes out and finally tells us that actually , the spinach wrap is also out. Honestly, this is my first review and this level of unprofessionalism is very very unnecessary. Why didn’t they just tell us what they did and didn’t have in stock? We would’ve picked something else or just gone somewhere else. They should both have waisted our time or money. It is extremely overpriced for the bad tasting food, drinks and horrible customer service. I ended up asking for a refund because i was fed up with their lack of communication and transparency. The lady stared at me and spoke Amharic to the guy and he said he would handle it the. she pointed me to the other register. He apologized and said he was going to try to fix it i said it was okay and i just wanted my refund. Please understand this whole time i was patient and did not make any scene because i don’t wanna be that kind of person. When he said he would fix it he just went to the mini fridge, grabbed a milk carton and began to make drinks i cannot make this up!! They had me waiting there after everything that had happened to give me a refund and it wasn’t even in card how we paid it was through CASH FROM THE TIP JAR!!! The lady was so rude, she stared at us the whole time when we just wanted our food. Every time we asked for clarification or any questions about the whole food situation she just stared at us at times and talked to the other guy in amharic and would look back at us. EXTREMELY unprofessional, rude, and disrespectful. It was not a difficult situation!!!! All they needed to do was tell us what was available like we asked and we would have been able to come to a simple solution. TOO OVERPRICED AND HORRIBLE SERVICE. I work in retail and i understand how overwhelming customer service can be but this was straight up so rude and unprofessional. Please please...

March 2023 update: They did indeed make it up to me and have also corrected the price of the chai latte on the menu (offering small sizes now). Thank you Black Lion for that! I’ve been back a few times and it’s consistently great coffee/teas, pastries and food. Awesome addition to downtown silver spring!

Long review ahead:

I went to Black Lion Cafe for their soft opening. I ordered the chai latte and an opera cake (to go). The total was ~$13/$14 which in this inflated economy is probably accurate but I still thought was a bit pricey for just a coffee and cake. I was mostly shocked that the chai alone was $7.00. I think it would be help if I was able to order a smaller size. The smallest size available for the chai was a medium (I believe) which was too big in my opinion. However the taste was good. It tastes pretty much like an Oregon chai (for any tea connoisseurs out there). The opera cake was tasty especially if you have a sweet tooth. If you don’t, I think it would be perfect to share. There were plenty of other baked goods and a few other cakes to choose from. Since it’s a soft opening I’m sure there will be an even a larger assortment of items to choose from in the future. The few staff I saw there seemed friendly and affable. It certainly will be/and already is a great addition to the selection of downtown silver spring coffee shops. My prediction is, that in a few months it will be the ‘go-to’ spot.

Note: I have not been to the Black Lion Cafe in Rockville so I cannot compare my experience to there.

Overall Pros: Beautiful decor/environment Lots of food, pastry, and drink options Rather empty (at least for now) during soft opening Friendly staff

Cons Range of size offerings for drinks/price of drinks Current unpredictability given the several changes in opening dates. When I arrived there was a ‘temporarily closed’ sign but either the owner/manager came and let a few of us inside. Had that not happened I would have left. Others that tried to come inside after us were locked out so I can only imagine their confusion seeing people being served but not able...

Overall, it is a good cafe in terms of environment/decor and quality of coffee. I've visited this cafe about 5 times, and each time, the product itself tasted pretty good, however, the customer service in general is really lacking. The cafe could also benefit from a bus boy or bus girl to pick up the various cups, straws, stirrers, pastry crumbs on vacant tables and the floor. Customers get confused when they see cups/waste on the table thinking that it is occupied and end up taking their coffee to-go, even though it'd be nice to sit down. The various lattes, coffee selections, Americano, sandwiches (I agree with other reviews that the egg/cheese can be a bit greasy), and the pastries are made well. My latest visit left a lot of room for improvement - the Latina employee (dark hair/bangs with blonde highlights) was not instructed properly on how to make iced tea (it was basically a lukewarm cup of tea-flavored water filled to the brim with no ice - we did not finish it) - the tea should be steeped first separately, and then poured over a lot of ice. When we initially asked about the teas, this employee directed us to look at the list of teas in front of her at the register, even though only 2 of the 5/6 total teas were available (so each time we asked for/intended to purchase a certain tea from the list, she said it was unavailable, defeating the purpose of directing the customer to choose from the list). When I first asked her about a certain tea behind her, she ignored my question completely until I asked again toward the end of our transaction since nothing else was available. The place could benefit from perhaps another front of house employee to do stock-ups, cleaning swipes, engage with customers. In general, the employees here do not greet/welcome customers, give big blank stares, and generally make the customer feel rushed. The cafe could benefit from more outlets for laptop use at the two-seater tables...