Cafe Venetia — Restaurant in Palo Alto

We visited this coffee shop after seeing its excellent reviews on Google, but unfortunately, our experience was far from positive. My wife and I ordered a coffee and a hot chocolate, and right from the start, the cashier’s attitude was unnecessarily rude. We assumed she might be having a bad day and tried to give her the benefit of the doubt.

When our drinks were ready, she mumbled something and left them on the counter. Since it was noisy and crowded, I went to double-check if those were ours, and her response was, again, rude. Once we sipped the drinks, we realized both the coffee and hot chocolate were barely lukewarm. I went back and politely asked if they could heat them up. Her response? “You should have told us to make it hot when you ordered.” I was baffled—doesn’t ordering hot chocolate imply it should be hot?

After a few moments, she returned with the drinks, saying, “Here’s your drink, hot.” But when we tasted them, they were still lukewarm. At this point, we decided to return the drinks and speak with the manager. When he came over, his attitude was even worse. As we explained the situation, he dismissed us, saying, “We can’t make it hotter than this. We’re not Starbucks.” I asked a simple question: how can hot chocolate not be served hot? His response? Defensive and condescending, claiming he had served “1.5 million coffees” and that this is the temperature they serve them at.

But the most shocking part was when he concluded with, “We don’t deal with your kind of people.” We were stunned. This comment felt blatantly discriminatory, especially since, after looking at their reviews later, we noticed a pattern—most 1-star reviews came from South Asian individuals and mentioned rude or dismissive service.

This experience was not just disappointing; it felt like a case of racial bias. Needless to say, we won’t be returning, and we’d caution others to think twice before...

PLEASE DO NOT SUPPORT THIS BUSINESS!!!! PALO ALTO CITY OFFICIALS READ PLEASE!!!!!

I had arrived at this location, on a Friday evening around 730PM, with my service dog. My service dog is small, well trained, identified by her vest and I always have her identification on-hand, just in case someone doesn't know the laws when it comes to service dogs.

Upon entering the facility I approached the counter, smiled and greeted the Owner or attendee behind the cash register. Without saying a greetings back, he immediately told me to leave. I asked him why and he said that he would not serve me, with my dog. I politely told him him, "my apologies" and showed him her Identification card as a Service Dog.

He then proceeded to tell me that he didn't care and that service dogs are only for blind people. Which is completely untrue, completely discriminatory and breaking two laws at once. He began to yell and tell me to f* off and that I need to get out. In shock, I automatically called the police station in Palo Alto, to which the sergeant had notified me that this location has gotten hundreds of discrimination calls and suits against them.

You would think that a place like this would not exist in Silicon Valley, for as a community we do not support discrimination of any kind!

So to all people going to this location, please do not go there anymore!!! Make your voices heard and support the people that are being discriminated against by this establishment.

Apparently they only want to serve the people they feel comfortable...

Had a really bad experience at Cafe Venetia last night. Went in around 9:40 PM, just 20 minutes before closing, and the person at the counter, a guy with blue eyes and a flow-ish haircut, was very disrespectful. He told me in a dismissive and apathetic tone to hurry up with my order in a way that made it clear he didn’t want to deal with yet another customer 20 minutes before closing time. Of course, I knew that it was close to closing time and I wasn’t going to take long. Anyway, I ordered my coffee quickly and sat down. After waiting for a while with no update, I checked on my order only to discover that the same employee had not yet informed the barista of my order. When my coffee was finally ready and I asked where I could find some sugar, because I seriously couldn't find it(!), he took the sugar container from behind the counter, where I could not see it, and slammed it on the counter in front of me.

Honestly, I should have left right when I felt his bad attitude before I even ordered. It’s a lesson learned for me – don’t put up with that kind of disrespect. They shouldn’t treat customers like this, especially not when they’re offering mediocre products. The only good thing about this cafe was that it was close by and open until late, but I'd rather go somewhere else from now on. Really...