Simply Desserts now Caked Goods — Restaurant in Seattle

I don't think I've ever written a negative Google review. In fact, I went back and forth for awhile on if I should write this. After trying to privately reach out to the business multiple times, Its been 5 months and I've had no response. My family has been coming to this bakery for 40 years. My grandparents came here, my parents came here, my siblings and I came here, and I planned on bringing my future children and possible grandchildren here some day. Every major moment in our lives has been shared with these cakes. So when I got engaged I called right away. I was told I was too far out to put an order in, understandable. They told me to call back in a few months. So I called a few months later, and was told to call back maybe a month before the wedding. I called a month before- the person on the phone seemed... annoyed, maybe just overwhelmed, but she took my order (1 chocolate fudge, 1 Baileys, 1 white chocolate strawberry... no extra writing/decoration or anything crazy). She told me that in the future I should call no sooner than 1 week before I need it. Fair enough. (We live out of state now otherwise I would have just gone in-person.) I always tried to be polite, to the point, and understanding when I called. So a week before our wedding I called to check in. The person that answered seemed confused and said they didn't have an order for me. After a bit of back and forth, I was surprised to find out they recently changed ownership. She said they were a few weeks booked out on orders and couldn't really help me. I called back a little later and asked if I could talk to the new owner. I was told they weren't available but they would forward my message. The woman on the phone was kind and sympathetic, even when I awkwardly broke down crying. She said she would try to see what she could do. I ended up being able to pick up 1 premade frozen cake the morning of my wedding. It was fine, it reminded me of childhood and family, but the situation still left a bad taste in my mouth. I never heard from the new owner. Over the last few months I've called and left a voicemail once or twice, reached out over Facebook, briefly left reviews on Yelp and Google asking them to reach out... and never heard anything. So I took the reviews down and waited, thinking maybe they were just busy/overwhelmed and would eventually get back to me. That's when I noticed a post I had made to the new owner's Facebook page had disappeared. I hate to make assumptions, or sound like an insensitive/entitled a-hole... but I think it's fair to say that if you have time to go on Facebook and take down a post, you have time to message/call someone back. Making a mistake, especially for a wedding, is disappointing for sure, but completely understandable. Ignoring someone and refusing to acknowledge your mess-up is not. I never wanted nor asked for any sort of refund, discount, or freebie. An apology, or at the very least some sort of acknowledgment would have been nice.

Honestly despite my experience I wish nothing but the best for Simply Desserts, and the new owner. I understand that owning a business is a lot of work, especially taking on one with so much history and high expectations. I appreciate you keeping this Seattle treasure alive. But I will add that after reading some of the recent negative reviews, it might help to be more up-front/transparent about the change in ownership. I don't believe it's mentioned on the website, Google, or Facebook page.

While I and my family might not be back, at least not for awhile, I'll still recommend the white chocolate strawberry cake I've loved since I was little (attached photo). I hope that maybe this can be a reminder that while cake is sweet, treating people with kindness and dignity is...

Having been a long time customer of Simply Desserts, it was my first choice for ordering a 1/4 sheet cake for a birthday party. I called 3.5 weeks in advance and placed an order, it seemed simple enough and no additional info was either provided or required beyond payment and what to write on the cake. Fast forward to me picking up the cake on the day of the party. The person behind the counter opens it up and it looks really sad - plain off-white frosting, with one strawberry that has been quartered and each piece placed in the four corners of the cake. The writing was chocolate colored, off-center and written in a somewhat sloppy manner. I looked at the cake and asked if anything else could be done to make it more festive, given it was to be presented at a surprise birthday party. The person asked the baker and told me they could add a border of frosting around the cake, and it will be 10-15 minutes. I agreed, and waited. They added the border, which dressed the cake up a tiny bit but it still looked very plain and sad. But I was going to cut my losses and go. Then the counter person informs me that "usually we would charge for this additional decoration but we won't today as a courtesy". This is where I had to say something, and expressed my disappointment with the look of the cake and shared that I would have happily paid extra to decorate it if only someone told me at any point in the ordering process that that was an option. The person listened to me with an impassive face, and once I was done, proceeded as if I said nothing, told me to leave the cake out for 2 hours and to have a nice day. That's it. There was no "hey, sorry about that, that's on us, we will make sure to do a better job informing customers next time" or "hey, we hear you, we will do better next time." Nothing. And for that lack of customer service, I will no longer be supporting this establishment and will be ordering any celebration cakes at Deep Sea Sugar &...

For quality of cakes, this place is great, if pricey, but not so much as other cake-oriented boutiques like Lady M. They have interesting and classic flavors of cakes. If you want to cater a party or have top-tier desserts at other events, I would recommend this business.

That said, the reason for my ranking is due to the way business is conducted in the store. On multiple visits, I have felt that whoever is responsible is not taking some simple steps to make the location more customer-friendly. For example, there is not much space in the store, which is understandable given the location, but there is no signage or anything of the sort to indicate prices or selection that might help understand quickly and efficiently what is available and what to expect. They can only have one person browse and shop at the same time; it is awkward to navigate, even for casual browsing.

Speaking of awkward, on my recent visit, there were some specialty desserts on the counter alongside where they normally have smaller, non-cake items. I was told at time of checkout that these could only be purchased through Venmo to an unknown third-party, a "friend" who lacked a storefront of their own. Venmo is a service I don't use and don't want to use; I didn't even have my phone on me. This highly unorthodox method of doing business was more than a little awkward for me and spoke poorly of Simply Desserts' management, as I felt frustrated and confused in the moment by being asked to do something outside the system of consumer protection. There were other ways to facilitate their friend that would not have burdened the customer, but it felt like Simply Desserts either couldn't be bothered or wasn't willing to take on the liability.

Maybe they do things differently down in Fremont but some things are the way they are for good reason. I'm hesitant to visit again, despite the quality of the...