Crepes Et Amis — Restaurant in Midland

So I was visiting my grandparents again who live in Midland, MI and I decided to go here with everyone (5 of us) for a nice breakfast.

Lauren was super fantastic. She was great with trying to adjust the menu to each of our dietary needs. Within our party of 5, some are gluten free, vegan, not vegan, dairy free, or like my grandpa - likes his coffee a certain way. (The 3 stars go to Lauren, but she deserves 7)

The downsides: Not the best place for my 87 year old grandparents. I would say probably not the best spot for 70+ age group. I wouldn’t take them back because it was a pretty small shop - the dining area is about 1/3 of the average Starbucks. And because it is so small, it is incredibly noisy even with just a few people in there because the chatter is just bouncing off the walls. As you can imagine, my 87 year old grandparents had an incredibly hard time hearing anything anyone was saying. I would have taken my grandparents outside to eat, but the seating looked very hard and uncomfortable. #2, Even though Lauren was trying her best to accommodate my vegan brother, there were zero items on the menu for vegans, which is very surprising being 2021 and clearly the vegan community continues to grow. #3, never seen a coffee shop that used a large jar for Stevia, that is shared upon everyone in the shop that wants Stevia. The jar did had a scoop inside to use. It was just weird that the shop didn’t have any single packets of Splenda (what my grandpa wanted for his coffee) or any other alternative sweetener. I do not know if the shop had sugar or not. So… when a table or person wants Stevia, they will have to go to the counter and ask for it, and that’s when someone will hand you a big jar of it. Then take it to your coffee or group, use it, and then return it. Hmm, I think having a small table somewhere on the side with single serve packets is much more sanitary and accessible. My brother went to the bathroom there, returned, then decided to grab some stevia for his first coffee, and joked, “good thing I washed my hands..” but winked as he said it. No one knows who’s washing their hands and who is not… but everyone sticking their hands in a jar of stevia at a public restaurant establishment is just weird.

Other than that, the coffee shop is cute...

after ordering online twenty minutes ahead and then waiting for abt 30 minutes in the shop, we went up to ask about our food (seeing people who had arrived much after us) and the baristas were very confused about our order. this was definitely a mistake - they had seen our order and forgotten about it (per what the barista working said, the grubhub machine had not printed a receipt and so there was no visual reminder) we had purchased about 100 dollars of food and needed to leave the shop in about 20 more minutes for class. the man working said we would need to wait probably at least thirty, and really we didn’t have time for that.

but - we were hungry people. and, asking for a refund wouldn’t have worked either because it’s through grubhub and would have taken us a bit to get our money back. we are broke high school students who don’t have the money to just go to a different shop to buy food when we just spent 100 bucks on lunch 😭 overall i think was a simple mistake but i wasn’t super pleased with the customer service, as we were sort of in a rush and after our food was made late and also not prioritized we were not really compensated or anything.

i believe the owners are nice people and this place is pretty - also the crepes are generally yummy. the coffee isnt my fav but they serve...

Pretty disappointed this Saturday morning.

I’m visiting Midland from the Detroit area, so I’ve been to and worked for a large number of cafés, bistros, and bakeries, often with more than twice the amount of guests at a given time and the same number of employees on staff. I’m confused how this shop can have comparatively poor service, even with it set up to have the exact opposite. I took a look at the other low reviews, and more often than not they’re mentioning the same beanie-wearing guy. My experience was no different.

In addition to the service, the crepe was equally disappointing, but I believe it’s mostly because I didn’t know what I was ordering. I got the Sweet Frenchman, which is not stuffed, although they still stuff the sugar and butter, and for that reason, the crepe was very dense.

Seeing as crepes are largely presentation and experience, in addition to the flavor, I was very disappointed in this shop. I hope the owner succeeds, as I love these types of businesses and they are very difficult to maintain long term, but there are certain aspects that will keep customers from returning that very desperately...