Chocolate Cafe — Restaurant in San Diego

This review is based mainly on food and service

Food: Mini Cookies + Carrot Cake

Mini cookies were okay, there's nothing special about them, but they aren't bad. However, I feel like they would be priced $2.50 anywhere else

Why? They're incredibly tiny, you could go to the store and get a bag of the same (or better) stuff for $3

Carrot cake wasn't horrible, but it was expensive as hell. I'd pay $4 for it, from the quality of ingredients and taste. Actually no, maybe $6, it's just slightly above vons carrot cake quality... Kind of

I'm mentioning the price that these items should be worth because I don't want you to waste money like I did.

Both of these average, surprisingly mediocre items totaled to $18.

Service: Terrible. As a disclaimer, I care less about bad service if the food is good. I know that some people care about the experience though, so I'm inclined to mention that the lady and man there were both rather rude. Not in a blatant, insulting way, but they ignored me for almost 15 minutes when I was in front, ready to order food.

The lady actually looked at me, then looked over away from me, looked at me again, looked away to ignored me, came back for a second, then took 2 other people's orders before me. Then she looked at me, told me to wait, and helped some other people who already paid (this part is fine). She looked spaced out though, so I guess I'm not too bugged by it, but you might. The way she talked to me when I ordered wasn't polite, but I guess that's what you get when you're in downtown.

The guy was a grumpy d*ck in general, kind of stared like he was looking down at me, but didn't really address anything. I tried to talk to him but he ignored me and went somewhere else, so much of my time was around the lady Environment: Drunk people, some chaos in the area. I guess a fight broke outside, because there were police there. Bathroom was absolutely disgusting

Overall lesson: Sometimes these places get good reviews from tourists, drunk people, or people that just don't... Care? And I mean, it's fine if you really think this is wonderful. Hell, I can definitely get with overlooking bad service, because people might just have a bad day and we never know, but when the food quality, service, AND pricing suck... You have to ask, why the heck would I ever...

October 17, 2022.

Bery rude and unfriendly staff. It was not busy at all. In fact Me, my wife and kids were the only customers. We ordered two coffees and one Oreo ice cream. I paid around $17

From the moment I walked in the lady at the serving didn't show enthusiasm to serve.

I ordered and paid. Took the ice cream and sat out side with mu family. I went back in as I sensed the lady did not want to bring the drinks to us. The coffee a latte and cappuccino was good.

During the whole time no new customer came. When we finished we got up and when leving the restaurant the lady was as the exit. As I walked passed with the baby stroller and wanted to great her as we do in Europe, she looked threw me and didn't react. When my wife with two kids walked passed her. She asked my wife why she didn't clean and empty the table. I couldn't believe my ears. I went back and asked her. Is this normal to ask customers to clean the table and throw the cups. She said, "it's called respect!".

I said, this is rude and I want to talk to the manager. She said; " leave it. There is no need I will do it."

I am so embarrassed and have no words. I am paying for the coffee and ice cream not getting it for free. My job is not to clean the table and throw away the cups. The interesting thing is. If there was a waste bin we would have done it. But there wasn't even a waste bin there. So where did she expect us to through the cups? Take them home?

I have worked in restaurants for over 10 years. And in Europe this is no way to talk to a customer, who is paying, being polite, thanking you for your service and we kept everything clean. The only things on the table were the two cups of coffee and the empty cup of ice cream.

I will never go here again. I do not want you to go through whatbI went through, so avoided this place.

Sad, rude and unfriendly staff. Not really clean. Prices are normal for San Diego

If inwas the owner I would send this lady home as she has no passion for the job she is...

We are super excited to support the local businesses that are opening up for full service. We ate in the Gaslamp for dinner tonight and decided to get crepes afterward for dessert. It was our first time at Chocolat Cremerie. There was a young guy at the counter. My husband ordered mango gelato, and I ordered a crepe with a scoop of peanut butter gelato. (the two orders came to $26 which I wouldn't have minded if the food had been what we were hoping for) The worker got my husband's gelato, but then two other groups came in and he took their order. After waiting about 15 minutes for him to finish serving everyone else, he finally started my crepe. An older man (possibly the owner) came in and finished up the crepe--never said a word to me until it was done. (The young man who was serving did not wear a mask or gloves, and the older gentleman only put a mask on after he was behind the counter for awhile and never wore gloves) After the crepe was done he put it on the counter, and I told him I had paid for a scoop of gelato. He had to check the receipt to see if I was lying (still not saying anything polite to me). The terrible customer service aside--anyone who knows gelato knows that is supposed to super smooth and you shouldn't have to ask what flavor is. My husband's mango gelato was icy with several different textures (like it wasn't fresh and had possibly been melted and refrozen), and the flavor was so so. My crepe was chewey, my gelato was hard (he had to use a bit of force to scoop it up) the I'm still not sure what flavor it was. I am a small business owner in the area, and I love supporting local businesses. When our customers come in to my store I try to make sure they know how much I appreciate them. In this business climate. I assume that the business who really want to recover will go out of their way to make sure their customers have a great experience. Unfortunately, tonight, not only did we not feel appreciated, but the food was not...