Crumbl — Restaurant in North Haven

BEWARE!! I found what appears to be mouse droppings or mold in my carrot cake. It was certainly some type of foreign object that would need to be carefully researched in order to determine exactly what it is!

This discovery was so alarming and obviously jeopardized the health and safety of my family that I immediately called the store. No one picked up. I sent an email on Saturday, April 5th and realized on Tuesday, April 8th almost 4 days had passed with no reply. I decided to forward my email again and finally received a response that they did not receive my original email although the same email address I received the reply from was the exact same email address I originally emailed. Interesting…. Not to mention the forwarded email had a timestamp on it. Nevertheless, I expressed my concerns along with resending the photos.

Here’s where the situation gets worse …. I advised the email respondent that I saved the cake and would be more than happy to drop it off for them to have it carefully inspected. Instead, they decided to email me back and advise me that they had “carefully inspected the photos”, and determined it was a carrot that underwent a chemical reaction and not a concern. SERIOUSLY!?!?

Firstly, I read through the ingredients list and there isn’t anything listed that should be green. Secondly, I watched the videos of at least 8 vloggers who bit into the carrot cake and turned it towards the camera and NEVER once did I see anything green. So let me guess… this “chemical reaction” just so happen to ONLY happen to my cake? Lastly, and the most disappointing part of the email stated, as a “gesture of goodwill”, I would be happy to offer you a “complementary replacement cake.” Complementary as in ‘Free’, haha! How in the world could something be ‘complementary’ when you already paid for it?! Which is exactly what I asked them in my response. At the bare minimum, I should’ve been offered a refund. And asked to bring in the piece of cake so they can carefully inspect it to protect the health and safety of ALL the North Haven, CT Crumbl patrons! UNBELIEVABLE, the way this matter was handled! Of course, I respectfully declined the cake and let the respondent know that I would never step foot back into the North Haven Crumbl again, except to drop off their contaminated product. This type of customer service is extremely poor and shows a clear picture of the type of person/persons running the North Haven establishment which I found out are two brothers by the names of Scott and Justin Cinnamon. I will not be visiting any of their locations.

Certainly a missed opportunity to right a wrong. And by the way, my daughter and I are Pink Status Crumbl members. For those of you who don’t know, that is the highest status you can get. The way you become Pink Status is by patronizing Crumbl regularly and earning points. So No - I am not some one-time customer complaining. We actually love their product and enjoy reviewing them. North Haven Crumbl has certainly loss at least one customer due to this.

Photos are below…See...

There's a lot to unpack here and it really doesn't have to do with the cookies.

Honestly, they're fine. Not better than Insomnia, but decent. I'd go for whatever flavor is available that's not chocolate chip.

The real issue isn't the subpar product it's the ineffective way they sell them. You might notice a line when you stop there and they're kind of infamous for them, but it doesn't seem to be due to popularity, volume of orders, or COVID restrictions (which was the reasoning we were given when we arrived).

Basically there are 3 ways to order from this store: online through their website or a third party, in person with the cashier, or on a tablet in the store. What ends up happening is there are mostly people ordering in person with a few online orders coming in.

They don't have an efficient way to separate online and in person orders. If you ordered a flavor and they're running low, they opt to give it to someone in line even though you technically ordered and payed for it first. SO if you ordered through Door dash, your delivery person might arrive and the store has given away your order to someone else. We saw this happen a couple times while we waited. We saw a few drivers have to call their clients and apologize on Crumbl's behalf. A simpler solution would be to update their online menu when cookies are low so people wouldn't order them. If you order online and they sell out of your flavor you're given whatever else is left since you already paid for it.

The order by tablet in the store takes longer than just going to the cashier. I'm not sure why people even bother to use it. What they SHOULD do is eliminate that option entirely and give the tablet to the person monitoring the line outside so they can take orders (similar to Chick Fil A). This would speed things up.

The line itself was completely unnecessary. The door person kept saying it was due to COVID guidelines but those are virtually nonexistent right now and there was no signage stating maximum capacity. The store could have easily fit 10-15 customers at a time while the person monitoring the line was only letting a handful in at a time. Once inside our transaction and getting the cookies took about 2 minutes. We really didn't understand why there was a line other than giving someone who worked there something to do or attempting to generate hype. It was apparent the line got a lot of attention from people driving by so that might have been the intention.

All in all, cookies were mid. The line was weird and unnecessary. But once we were inside the employees were great, and our cookies came out quickly. If you only order in person through the cashier, you're in and out in seconds. Don't bother ordering online and putting your poor delivery person through that.

Even though the cookies themselves were pretty alright, we most likely won't return because they weren't good enough to put up...

My first visit. When they opened, it took a few months for the line outside to die down. I was at the tj max next door and saw the place relatively empty for a change so I hopped in. I saw a customer at a self order/checkout machine, and I followed suit. You can order and pay for everything, then just wait. Their selection was chocolate chip, snicker doodle , I think a red velvet (?) And some other flavor. I went with the classic chocolate chip. You could buy single cookie or packs.i got a pack of 4. They have models of the cookies up front. I noted they were big but thought that was to show detail. So I was surprised when my box came out with these 4 huge cookies in it! Boy oh boy! I did eat one half, but gave the rest to my sisters and her kids. Those would be dangerous in my house! Lol.. they were warm, gooey, and not too sweet. Comes in a pretty box too. I have to say I have mixed review. They were good, but at the same time had that taste of preservatives to it that I can't explain any better. That kind of turned me off. But the warmth and gooeyness of it have me the feel goods that come with comfort food. Next time I'll know to just order a single cookie. My 4 cookies were about $17.

Sept 2023 note: I have tried them again, bc I always like to give second chances, plus they aren't HORRIBLE cookies. But I still get that taste in my mouth. It's like the cookie is trying to fool my mouth into believing this is a homemade cookie with fresh, natural ingredients, but my mouth isn't buying it.

I'm definitely into soft baked cookies and I have to say you can get a better cookie across the street at chickfile, but it's also always a long line!

That being said, I'll still eat one every now and then from...