Grind N Crepe — Restaurant in Occoquan

EDIT: wow. I’m completely disgusted with this place now. My mom left her review on yelp and someone (presumably an employee) left this message to her. I can understand being hurt by a bad review, but this is completely unprofessional behavior. Original review: TLDR: Didn’t try the food and was turned off by the rude customer service. Wouldn’t recommend coming last 4, even though they are listed to close at 5.

I came here the other day (8/13, 4:25-4:30pm) with my mom and nephew. We typically don’t walk around the Occoquan area and so when we saw a little crepe shop, we were interested in what was there to offer.

Upon entering, the vibe was immediately off. The woman at the counter barely acknowledged us and made us feel unwelcomed when we stepped in. I always give customer service employees the benefit of the doubt as I know some deal with difficult customers throughout the day, but this is a bit ridiculous. I’m not expecting the typical fake smile like some people do, nor do I expected to be waited on hand and foot. However, I do believe that the bare minimum is that customer service employees shouldn’t make their potential patrons feel like a burden simply for stepping in. A simple ‘let me know when you’re ready to order’ would’ve been nice, but she quite literally went up to go sweep as if she was uninterested.

We then perused through the menu for a minute or two to see what they offered all while she was doing who knows what. When we were finally ready to order our crepes, she spoke in a condescending tone saying ‘well we close at 5 and we already started turning off the grills so we can’t do that’. Uh. So let me get this straight. You sat there, saw a small trio of people come in to a place with the word CREPE in its name, look through the menu which offered CREPES and you’re only just now telling them that you won’t be able to make them when the place isn’t even closed yet? Granted, they do close at 5 and we arrived 30 minutes before closing so I can see why having latecomers can be annoying and why they might start cleaning up early (which I find ridiculous but ok) but this goes back to my earlier point with the initial greeting..she could’ve easily said ‘hey, welcome to the grind n crepe, we’re unfortunately not making any crepes since we’re about to close up but you’re free to order anything else.’ Or, you know, mention it to us as we were looking through the menu rather than make us feel stupid after ignoring us. And if this is a regular policy to not make crepes so late, have it posted somewhere so people can see. We wouldn’t have stepped in there if we knew this was the case.

I hate sounding like such a Karen towards customer service workers, and again I always try to give the benefit of the doubt, but I do find the mannerism of this woman to be completely unprofessional for this line of work. Again, I’m not expecting to be treated like royalty, but at the very least the person manning the register shouldn’t be acting like a moody teenager who is being forced to do chores. She looked well above teenager-age or college-student age, which makes this even more inexcusable in my opinion. You’re quite literally being paid to help people out. It’s one of your job duties I’m sure. If you don’t want to help people past a certain time, fine, but don’t sit there and act annoyed when they try to order when the place is supposedly still open. Communicate with them at the very least rather than just sit there. It doesn’t take long to speak a few sentences to...

I give this a "No star" but Google Review says I have to give at least 1.

Not recommended. Long read below but to make it short. Nothing special about the food and service was bad. We were there for 2 consecutive weekends --- and very recent.

We don't "write" reviews - when we like something we support the business all the way and really share about them with the community that we belong to. But I am compelled to write and share our experience because it was disheartening. Management need to teach their employees timing and good customer service. Sadly, we will not give Grind N Crepe another chance and we do not recommend it. Nice ambiance yes --- but that's all. Details below: This was a disappointment. One time is ok - you give them another shot but the 2nd time - it was even worse. I rely on reviews like these and though many commented that service was bad - we ignored it but unfortunately, here I am giving my own review (on behalf of a family of 5 who thought the same).

During both occasions that we were there for coffee, crepes and some paninis - the service was the same. Bad! Our order almost 1 hour and 20 min to arrive (would have been ok, really! though still unacceptable) but when 2 of the customers behind us got their orders first (and mind you, they were big orders) and no one even had the courtesy to check on us or let us know that our orders delayed...so we checked-in the counter and asked about our order. All the employee said was ours was on the grill. Really? Did they forget about our orders? People came and went. Worse was they were not apologetic at all! Sometimes, good customer service calls for the need to also empathize with your customers. No reason why our food was delayed. It was not a busy morning.

So we waited outside and we had to request to have our food to go instead because it was pointless to even eat at the place given their service. When the guy came to give us our food, we asked the same thing - what happened? He couldn't answer and again, no apologies (even if it's fake, guy didn't even bothered). So we spent almost over $80 and that was a big loss. As I mentioned, this was our 2nd time - the first time was the same and we thought to give it another chance.

We don't "write" reviews - when we like something we support the business all the way and really share about them with the community that we belong to. But I am compelled to write and share our experience because it was disheartening. Management need to teach their employees timing, customer service and how to handle things like this. Sadly, we will not give Grind N Crepe another chance and we will not...

Worst experience! Not planning on going back nor recommending to anymore. Bad experience from beginning to end. The food was alright, but the staff lacks hospitality, professionalism and customer service skills in general. I headed to the counter to place my order. I wasn't acknowledged at all. There were about six people behind the counter. I know they saw me and none of them acknowledged me. I waited for the person (a black girl) who later took my order to finish venting about her personal drama to the girl that was making coffee. She finished her conversation and came up the register to take my order. Not even an apology for making me wait. I was so annoyed and disappointed at how the staff thinks it's okay to do that. Placed my order (latte and the Donnie crepe), sat down and coffee came out within minutes. Waited for my crepe for almost an hour! I walked up to the counter and asked an employee about my order. She yelled out "did anyone make a Donnie?" The rest of the staff said "No"... great they forgot about my order. I was heated, by that time I was almost done with my coffee and not even hungry anymore. I was just over my whole experience there. Food isn't bad, it's just crapes but the staff is the worst. Left a bad taste in my mouth.

My first time and my last. Visit was on April 15th at around 2 pm.

Do better. Strongly recommend better customer service training. I get it, sometimes it gets busy and hectic but acknowledging someone goes a long way. There is absolutely no reason to wait an hr for a crepe unless it was done on purpose...

In response to the owner’s reply.

I did mention the time and date I visited the establishment. It wasn’t busy at all and no long lines. *the staff was no where near trying to greet every customer. My complaint isn’t about being greeted or not. Your staff doesn’t acknowledge customers. Instead they are having personal conversations OUTLOUD that has nothing to do with work. I clearly explained my experience but it seems like you’d rather justify their actions instead of taking accountability. I also completely understand and I’m very well aware that sometimes there could be 20 orders ahead of me but this wasn’t the case that day. Again, it wasn’t busy at all and they forgot my order. Trust me, I waited an hr and some change to get up and ask about my order. I never thought your restaurant was a fast food place. My entire experience was awful and I expect that from some fast food places, not yours. But...