Thirsty Whale Bakery — Restaurant in Minneapolis

Choosing Thirsty Whale Bakery for our cake was by far our biggest wedding regret. My husband and I wanted our cake to be the highlight of our wedding and we spent a significant amount of money to make sure our cake would meet the expectations we had set. Our cake was supposed to arrive to our venue at 1pm. By 4 pm there was still no cake, no call from the bakery, and our guests were starting to file in. The cake arrived moments before the ceremony and cake was a complete disaster. Apparently, the cake was in an accident and the entire bottom tier was destroyed and the cake was leaning to one side. We were explicit about wanting real flowers on the cake and had a supply waiting on the cake table. However, these were discarded by Thirsty Whale when they arrived and instead there were sugar flowers on the cake. These large sugar flowers proceeded to fall off during the ceremony and left holes in the fondant. We had to call in a florist with extra flowers during our cocktail hour to patch up the holes in our cake! We had asked for a soft, natural gradient of gold throughout the cake and had discussed in length at our consultation the best way to achieve this look. We decided on hand-painted flecks and veining to compliment the fondant marbling we chose. I even emailed pictures after the consultation of exactly what we were asking. Instead the cake was decorated with bold gold stripes and had guests asking if our cake was “safari themed”. The actual cake itself was missing the chocolate fudge filling we had chose. We were so embarrassed and disappointed. Regardless all of the issues with our cake, our biggest problem with Thirsty Whale was the way we were treated. We get it, accidents happen, but at least be honest and upfront about it. No one from the bakery even attempted to contact me or any member of the bridal party to let them know about the cake accident. I found out about it from a guest who had seen the fallen flowers during our reviving line and spent our cocktail hour dealing with it. After the wedding, we contacted Thirsty Whale. They offered us a refund on the destroyed bottom tier and delivery fee. They did not apologize for the sugar flowers, the leaning cake, the missing filling, or gold striping. They told us they didn’t see my emails on decoration and stopped replying when we asked for a refund on the decoration fee. My husband and I went in to the bakery to talk to the owner in person. Megan was defensive, insincere, and curt with us. She blamed the event coordinator for not knowing if there should have been real flowers in our cake and claimed to have seen my emails on decoration but chose to take “artistic freedom” instead of going with what we agreed on in our consultation. She refused to comment on the fact that the cake we received was nothing like the cake we had contracted and paid for. We again asked for a refund that would reflect the appearance of the cake. She told us she could not make that decision by herself but would get back to us. Almost a week later we still hadn’t heard back. I emailed again and received a one line email saying would we be credited for the decoration. Mind you, we ended up paying a significant amount of money for this disaster of a cake. At the end of the day, our biggest issue with Thirsty Whale Bakery was lack of integrity and respect for their customers. On your wedding day, choose someone who will see you as people, not...

My wife and I were under contract to use Thirsty Whale for our wedding Saturday, March 21st, 2020 before the Covid-19 news started to really break out. We made the difficult decision of postponing our wedding Sunday, March 15th to a later date (November 2020) and starting calling our venues (wedding venue, food caterer, groom’s dinner, DJ, etc.) that day to try and transfer booking to the new date. In the coming days we were able to transfer not only the wedding venue but the other vendors to our new wedding date. The other vendors understood with this unforeseen circumstance we did not plan on cancelling last minute and were very accommodating to transferring the date with no transfer fees added to existing deposits. Unfortunately the only vendor we did have an issue with was Thirsty Whale Bakery. Family helping us with transferring vendors to the new date tried to call Thirsty Whale and got no response until Wednesday, March 18th where Thirsty Whale explained there would be no refunds issued. My fiancé and I spoke to the owner who explained the donuts/cupcakes/cookies were NOT made yet but the ingredients were ordered already so they had to make them and could deliver to our house or find a charity to donate them. Per their policy, no refunds can be issued after final payment is due. However, this was also the policy with the other vendors who were willing to accommodate us due to an unforeseen circumstance…....not because we were cancelling/transferring to a new date out of free will. We asked if they could keep our money and apply it to the new wedding date and she said it would have to be a whole new order…thus paying for 2 whole orders with the use of 1 event. We understood Thirsty Whale is a small business which is why we chose them along with the other vendors who are smaller as well. Instead of having the burden of added fees to an already frustrating situation of having to postpone our wedding, all the vendors besides Thirsty Whale gave us a positive outlook to our new date. If the deserts had already been made we would have been more understanding but things like flour/sugar/etc. can’t be preserved? I have a hard time believing that. Thirsty Whale ended up delivering our donuts/cupcakes/cookies on the day we were supposed to get married (Saturday, March 21st). I requested if they could set up the Donut Wall with white stands in my living room for the $75 we paid for since we were not getting refunded and the delivery person forgot to bring those. The owner ended up calling us after delivery and refunding that portion ($75) but there were other things like the $70 delivery cost I would have liked to avoid at least. I wish they would have been more accommodating and understanding during a difficult time in our lives where we were seeking help to transfer our dates. I would not recommend Thirsty Whale for your desert needs in any event hosting. At a time where other businesses were understanding and helpful in our transition, Thirsty Whale stood out as a thorn in an already frustrating situation for us. In the future I hope Thirsty Whale is more understanding and open to accommodating an unforeseen circumstance. In the end we found a new bakery and were able to get...

I can’t even begin to put into words how disappointed I am. I called in 3 weeks prior for my daughters birthday. I specifically informed the woman on the phone multiple times that I had wanted a hello kitty themed happy birthday message donuts. On the phone we talked about emailing pictures of some ideas of what I wanted. I did just that, the email clearly states HELLO KITTY DONUTS. The morning I was suppose to pick up the donuts I get a phone call from them, asking if they can give me the donuts the following day instead (keep in mind I had no other explanation as to why) I told them no the party is today not tomorrow? They end up pushing it back a few hours then when I was going to originally pick them up. Again I wish I had some explanation as to why. But no, nothing. At this point I had a feeling there was lack of professionalism. So I go to pick them up, the woman hands them to with no heads up about anything I was about to see or anything, I go into my car and open the box, I see plain decorated donuts, 67 dollars worth of plain donuts I could’ve got done anywhere. No hello kitty theme not even a bow. This was for a huge birthday party, I was livid that I wasn’t even informed that they couldn’t do it. PROFESSIONALLY I could’ve gotten a heads up at least that they wouldn’t be able to do it but no I got nothing. I walked out thinking it was what I had ordered. I called the women and told her how I upset I was and she tried lying to my face saying they were never informed it was hello kitty theme?! Uh the email itself was subjected HELLO KITTY DONUTS. She then proceeded to tell me that the only decorator had her house burnt down and dog die that morning. Ok. Again professionally you couldn’t told me that the morning you called me to ask if I can pick them up the next day or few hours later then scheduled, don’t scam people into thinking they were getting what they ordered. Needless to say I was very upset with the professionalism of this place. What I dealt with was very unprofessional and I can’t and won’t ever rely on this place for any...