SimplyCake — Restaurant in San Mateo

Update 2025: After visiting Simply Cake a year or so later, I am taking off two stars from my rating.

During my recent visit, I saw that the bakery now has a variety of pastries out on the shelves. Meanwhile, I was disappointed to see that the white bread w/raisin had been discontinued. They only have green tea bread w/raisin now. Frankly, I really don't think green tea taste goes well with raisin. Some pastries are still as delicious as before (e.g. pork bun).

It was a little difficult to shop, because some of the pastries have nice names (e.g. "Snow Top") on the signage, but without any description of what's inside the bread. I wanted to ask the staff, but all of them were busy helping customers in line. I don't blame them, the bakery was now so much busier than before. The stressful, overworked look on the cashiers' face definitely reflected that. So I wasn't too surprised to find the cashiers impatient and making mistake on my order. One woman cut in front of us, and the cashier didn't even bother to tell her to go wait in line. Although the staff was still courteous, the mediocre customer service was far from the friendly and attentive customer service I experienced during Simply Cake's 1st year of business.

With the Mid-Autumn Festival near, the bakery was selling some mini mooncakes too. I got a few to try. They were one of the worst mooncakes I've eaten. The lotus paste mooncakes had an unknown ingredient that looked like it belonged to a different mooncake filling. Also, the egg yolk was so dry. It didn't look like duck egg yolk to me. Maybe they used chicken egg yolk instead?

Not sure if I want to visit this bakery again...

2023: When I first heard of a new Asian bakery in the area, I was just happy, since there was no bakery in Downtown San Mateo. It's now one of my favorite bakeries. The store atmosphere is welcoming and has a unique touch to it. The customer service is the best I've seen in all the bakeries I've been to.

Some of my favorite pastries include the various toast breads, pork bun, bacon bun, milk raisin bun, and chocolate delight. I love how the pork bun filling is made from scratch, without the sweetness and artificial reddish color that commercial sauce typically has. It definitely stands out, a must-try! The milk raisin bun is also one of a kind. The sweetness of the milk raisin filling is just right.

The cakes are quite impressive. The overall sweetness is towards the lighter side. So if you prefer the sweet, rich taste of western cakes, this might not be the place for you.

I really like how they sell sliced cakes in rotating flavors every day. I highly recommend the mango cake, and the chestnut cake. They have one of the best chestnut cakes--the filling is soft and light, with a lot of real chestnut chunks. The mango cake would be perfect for a mango lover--mango in every bite, yum! The only thing about the mango cake is that, they could really leave out the dry cranberries and raisins on the top. Dry fruits and mango just don't mix well.

The cake decorations could use some improvement. For example, there doesn't need to be fresh strawberries on top of every single cake (the chestnut cake would be better without the fruit). And the strawberries, some of them don't look that fresh.

Nevertheless, this is a very nice bakery. I look forward to seeing more selections of baked goods...

I have to write it down to express my concern of the cashier training at this place.

Me and my pregnant wife were at the checkout counter when a cashier, falsely accused us of cutting in line, yelled and kept arguing with my wife. It was made without any prior investigation or clarification, and the cashier seemed to automatically assume we were at fault.

Here is what happened: We are waiting in the line about 5 - 10 mins The cashier left the counter for about 2 mins, then the customer checking out also left the place As my wife is pregnant and felt tired holding the tray, so she put the tray on the counter, and waited for the cashier to come back When the cashier came back, he told us that we should wait in the line, and directly called the next customer to come to check out We told him that we are the first in the line, just because my wife is pregnant and wants to put the tray on the counter, she moves forward and waits until you come back He rudely said that it is making him confusing, but finally checkout our orders

It does not make sense at all to any customer, unless they can answer these questions: If someone cut the line, should the complaints firstly come from the people who are standing in the line? At that time, there were at least 10 people standing in line and behind us How come the cashiers don't even know who is the next customer in the line? Are they trained to be serving professionally? Could you help check your CCTV to confirm if we were cutting the line? If the cashier had a compelling reason to say we cut the line, why did he check us out? If he did not have a compelling reason, why did he blame us first without asking, just because he was not happy? When a cashier finds a customer standing in front of the counter, and no one behind complains, why did he assume the customer cut the line rather than assume the customer coming down from the line? Did he do this to every customer stand by the counter? Or Is that assumption only applied to certain groups of people?

There is a huge problem on their customer...

New review (07/18/2024)

My friends and I decided to try their mango cake this time around, and we were surprisingly very disappointed. Some pieces of mango were unripe, and some were not fresh. We also tried the cream puff (I think that's what it was). The cream was okay, but the puff was dry and a bit too dense. Old review-

My friends and I accidently stumbled upon this place, and we are glad we decided to try a few things from their menu. We got 4 of their sponge cake slices- strawberry, mango, mixed fruit, and chocolate. We also tried their coconut cookies. The sponge cake slices were light, airy, and moist with just the right amount of sweetness. My personal favorites were strawberry and mango spong cakes. Their coconut cookies were also very good. They were thin and crispy.

The place was super busy with constant foot traffic stopping by to either purchase their breads and other baked goods or their celebration cakes. They have a small seating section, so please keep that in mind in case you decide to eat there. Honestly, it might be easier to get it to go.

Their service can be a bit better. The people at the counter were fast, so the checkout process was efficient. They have a lot of signs everywhere, and sometimes, it can be hard to keep up with all of them with so many people around. The place is small, so it felt less organized and a bit chaotic with so many people shopping. The modern interior and the big wall art were very appealing, which to some extent contributed to my high expectations from this place, and surprisingly, this place was really good....