Shirley's Bakery & Cafe — Restaurant in Provo

I normally love this bakery! The Food here is amazing! I had a horrible experience there today when I picked up a custom cookie order (I paid extra for custom). I asked for the cookies to be in individual bags when I placed the order and paid. When I showed up they were not individually in bags just all together in 2 boxes. I told the boy at the front, Josh and he apologized and was super kind and said sure let me fix that. He went it the back and was talking to someone back there for a while and then came back and said they would fix it it was just going to be a while. I appreciated the offer but I needed to get the cookies delivered asap, so I asked if they could just provide me the bags and I could do it. At that point a man (Justin) from the back of the house came out and brought some very large clear bags and twist ties... I asked if it was possible to get the smaller paper bags that an individual cookie would come in and he got all huffy and acted like he didn't know what I was talking about. Then Josh said "I think she means the individual pastry bags the cookies..." but before he could finish what he was saying Justin cut him off and said "I know what she wants!" He then said so you want a small pastry sleve? As he stared at me with an attitude. I then said yes that would be awesome, those are what they usually seen them come in.... I asked "could I get those instead and I will just put them in the bags myself since you are busy?" He then turned away rolled his eyes and said with a sarcastic attitude, "Sure Ma'am, let me just go get those for you!" I was appalled at how he was treating me as this was their mistake in the first place and he was making me late. He went in the back and came back out and still with his attitude put the bags on the box didn't say a word and walked in the back. It seemed like the front kid, Josh, was on edge and felt uncomfortable. I asked him what both of there names were and told him thank you for being kind! I have called the manager number today but have not heard back yet! I would be happy to change this review if the manager calls me back and resolves the issue with the rude employee. I have owned my own buisness, and ised to manage restaurants, and you never treat customers this way if you plan on being in buisness...

When it comes to food and baked goods, Shirley’s has it figured out, but they’re beyond clueless when it comes to efficiently serving their customers.

I went by today to pick up a dozen rolls that my wife ordered well ahead of time, only to be greeted by a long line stretching out the door. “No problem,” I figure, “it’s just a dozen rolls, I’ll just swing through the drive-thru since it’s such a small order.”

Nope, the drive-thru (without a single car in it this morning) doesn’t do bakery orders or pickups! So now, I have to pull back around and park, unbuckle my toddler from her car seat, and wait in the line that has continued to grow in the short amount of time that has passed since getting to the bakery. While waiting, I think every other new person that joined the line first came up to the front asking if there was another line for prepaid orders—“Sorry, apparently there’s only one line to serve the line snaking around the building, prepaid orders or no.”

Meanwhile, my toddler is now screaming because she wants to run around since we’ve been waiting in line for well over 20 minutes at this point. We finally get to the front, give our name, and the girl runs back to grab our single bag of rolls, a process that takes a minute tops. I leave the bakery, toddler still screaming, wondering why I didn’t just get rolls at Kneaders instead. And scene

Shirley’s, why why why is it so difficult to pick up an order that was called ahead? I get that tomorrow is a holiday and you’re busy, but let people who called ahead use a different line to pick up their orders. Or better yet, you’ve got a drive-thru that sat empty the entire time I was there, let us use that to pick up orders—I promise it will be ok if you let that happen, and it will actually give your drive-thru employees something to do on days like today.

I want to support you, you’re a small, locally owned business, and your rolls are delicious, but man if today didn’t turn me off to ordering from you in the future. Please consider making things easier for your customers in the future by improving your inefficient and horribly slow pickup process. If you can do that, I know you’d make lots of people happy and keep the business of people...

I work for a local office who orders our staff lunch from Shirley's quite often. We've had less-than-stellar experiences with them before, but this last time was by far the worst.

Usually we call at 9 or 9:30 to place our order and more often than not, they scoff when we ask it to be ready by 11:30 but they will usually do it after much humming and hawing (even if they sound like they don't want to). This last time, however, the menu made our way around the office slower than usual so we thought we would just go to the restaurant directly to order and wait while they made the food. Our order consisted of 9 sandwiches and 4 cups of soup. I realize that it's a larger than average order, but it's not an outrageous amount of food. I was told that they could not have them done while I waited and that I would have to return in an hour and half and that "usually people call these orders in". I told them that we usually do call them in but that since we did't get the menu back to the gal who orders lunch before 9:30, we thought we'd just stop in and wait while they made it.

There were literally no customers behind me, and no one in the drive thru. I cannot honestly figure out why they didn't just make it for us. Being in customer service, it baffles me how you could just turn a $100+ order away, or tell them to come back in 1.5-2 hours. If the customer is in front of you, why wouldn't you just serve them? I guess I could understand if they were short staffed or something, but no apology (sincere or no) was made. No reason was given, I was just treated like an inconvenience.

Then to add to it all, after I came back to get the food, I discovered that all the soups were missing and half the sandwiches were incorrect. Also, when I asked if the receipt was in the bag they said "yes" but after looking, it was not. Usually, that wouldn't be a huge deal but because I use the company credit card to pay for meals, I have to have a correct receipt. So then I had to go back in and wait to get a receipt re-printed.

It's just astounding to me how bad the customer service is at this restaurant. If Shirley's is suggested for lunch at my workplace again, I'm going to veto it. It's not...