Cafe Sweet Street — Restaurant in Reading

NEVER SAY NEVER! If you scroll down, you'll find my previous review...It was far from glowing. However, I must give credit where it's due. After posting that review, the head chef at Café Sweet Street tracked me down through a mutual friend and contacted me personally! He was genuinely interested in getting my feedback and addressing the issues I'd had. First of all, I think that alone is FANTASTIC! Secondly, I gave him my feedback which was hard to hear, but he welcomed it cheerfully and promised to work on it with his staff...also admirable in my opinion. As it happened, the very next day, I forgot to bring my lunch to work. I am on a fairly strict diet at the moment and there aren't many healthy options near my office, so I decided (a bit begrudgingly) to give Sweet Street another try. I ordered a salad over the phone and asked for the calorie content only giving my first name. The woman who took my order said she was unsure, but that they would have it ready for me when I got there. When I arrived to pick up my salad, the chef himself was waiting at the counter for me with the salad itself and a breakdown of the calorie content. He quickly realized I was the same Jessica who'd written the review, and he shook my hand. The redhead (from my previous review) was also there, but this time with a smile on her face. Everything was ideal and they'd clearly gone out of their way to take the time, during a busy lunch rush, to make a special effort for a customer. The salad was fresh and YUMMY! So, I'm changing my review from 1 star to 5, and will be a loyal café sweet street customer going forward. Thanks to everyone there for bringing me back!

I am so irritated with Café Sweet Street. Since my office is right down the street many of my coworkers and I stop there for coffee, breakfast, or lunch. The quality of the food is by in large excellent...salads are fresh, coffee is organic, and scones are often fresh out of the oven in the morning. So here's why I hate it....EVERY single time I go there in the morning I wait forever (this is maybe once a week). To me, breakfast places should be quick and efficient with friendly staff. But at Sweet Street, you get a pasty young redhead who never smiles and always looks disheveled. She is grumpy and miserable and couldn't care less. Today I went in to treat myself to a warm scone and a coffee on my way to work. I was greeted by no one. There was literally no one at the counter. I waited for about 3-4 minutes until finally the redhead came out from the kitchen and say "hold on a sec" and went back to the kitchen again. As I was waiting, I looked around. There was almost nothing in the display cases. Nothing was ready. When she came back, I asked for my scone and coffee. She told me that the scones we not ready yet (I'd suspected this would be the case). So, I promptly said 'forget it' and walked out the door. To me (having worked at and managed several coffee shops/cafes in my college days) a place like that needs to be ready for business when they open, they need to have a morning person on staff, and they need to be efficient so that customers can get to work. Since this isn't the first time that this type of thing happened to me there, I won't be going...

We met at 4pm for and early dinner before a class at Goggleworks. I ordered a Cobb Salad and my niece Mac and Cheese. The salad was nicely presented with rows of chicken, blue cheese, chopped egg and veggies arranged on top of mixed greens..the chicken was tough and chewy and the dressing watery. Just edible. The mac and cheese came hot out of the microwave in a small plastic cup. While it may have tasted ok, the idea of eating bubbling hot food out of plastic is off- putting at best. Our supper was a tad lackluster, but we were at Sweet Street and looked at the dessert case with anticipation. We ordered 2 desserts to share. A small round citrus cheese cake which was zesty , creamy and delicious and a piece of peanut butter crunch cake which was nearly inedible. It was hard to tell if the cake layers were supposed to be cookie- like as they were very hard to cut through, or if it was just super stale cake. Either way it was unpleasantly dry and dense. I think it was supposed to be chocolate although it was hard to tell. The peanut butter crunch filling and icing was yummy as was the caramel topping which were the only redeemable features of this sad cake. Being a professional pastry chef, I should have returned it to the counter but we were short on time. All in all a disappointing experience. My decaf coffee was freshly poured into a paper cup, but I was dismayed to see the plastic creamer cups as the only option. They are trying to be environmentally friendly with what looked like compostable or biodegradable containers and " plasticware", but to me this was just greenwashing as everything went into one trash can. Unless they send it off to a facility that separates the trash down to the plastic creamer cups, it is gimmicky and discouraging at best. We won't...

Accused of disturbing customers and asked to leave by an overly rude security guard after purchasing a Dulce Cheesecake. So I purchase my cheesecake and exit the store. I get to my car and notice my windshield is dirty. I clean it. I get back in my car and figured, while I have the paper towel from cleaning the windshield, I'll do my dash too. All this takes no more then 10 minutes. Then, knock knock knock on my driver side window. I role down the window...

Security Guard: (in a harsh and accusatory tone) What are you doing? I got a call from inside (fom one of the staff in the store I suppose) that you're out here disturbing customers. You have to leave. This is private property.

Now, mind you, it's closing time and there was only one other customer that I could see.

Me: (bewildered) I just bought a cheesecake. My windshield was dirty so I cleaned it. Am I not allowed to do that?

Security Guard: All I know is I got a call from one of the ladies inside and they said you're disturbing customers. You have to leave.

I couldn't believe it. All I did was walk in the store, buy a cheesecake, and exit the store. I never said a word to anyone except the lady at the register, who I asked if they had a Dulce Cheesecake. So, Cafe Sweet Street, I give you one star because your cheesecakes are awesome, but you need to work on how you treat your customers. Why you had to be a dick today is beyond me. You couldn't give me 10 minutes to clean my windshield? To my understanding, it was closing time anyway (6pm). If you didn't want me cleaning my windshield in your parking lot you could have asked me nicely to leave and I would've been happy to oblige. "Wow," is all I have to say. Way to show customer...