Klinger's Bread Co — Restaurant in South Burlington

It was Tuesday, April 12th around 8:30am when I came in with my 15-year-old daughter and my partner, who happens to be a person of color. We were initially greeted by a helpful, young worker who gave my daughter her cookie and began making my smoothie. I paid and we sat down to wait. Shortly thereafter, my partner decided he did want a croissant. I caught the tail end of their interaction as the croissant was placed in a paper bag and put on the counter. His back was to me, but he seemed to be having difficulty using the credit card pay system when the employee grabbed the bag with the croissant pulled it behind the counter and said to him, “well, you’ll just have to pay cash then” in a very accusatory tone. My partner was very calm and mentioned that he just needed a moment to figure it out. He apparently did what he always does in these situations and had to be hyper aware of his actions to adjust to her obvious discomfort. The transaction went through seconds later, but the damage had been done. I was shocked. I am always hearing of these things happening, but witnessing it absolutely shook me. We both walked out of there feeling hurt, sad, frustrated and embarrassed. The situation threw our whole day off and we discussed not feeling safe going back to Klinger’s anymore.

I am hopeful this is an isolated incident, but that shouldn’t excuse it. And while we've had many great experiences in your bakery with the food, drinks and service,...

Worst experience of my life; ordered an 8" and a 10" cake with vanilla buttercream frosting, lemon buttercream and fresh blueberry fillings and no piping of any kind. I planned to stack them in tiers for my daughter's wedding cake. On the big day a friend went to pick the order and was given a single 10" bright yellow cake with piping even though she told them she thought there were two cakes; she took it back from Monkon to S. Burlington where they "remade" it with vanilla buttercream filling and blueberry preserves (the fresh blueberries were used up in the first cakes), and vanilla frosting with piping so I couldn't put ribbon around the base as I'd planned, and I had no time to put the cake together properly at that point. A friend cut the dowels too long and uneven so the cake was a hot mess! The worst part was that the manager tried to blame me for all their mistakes: I didn't say it was for a wedding ( I did, and so what); I didn't say I wanted white frosting (I did, and what color is vanilla buttercream anyway), I didn't allow enough time for putting it together ( it would have been plenty of time for me if we hadn't had to return it), I shouldn't expect them to understand that "no decoration of any kind" means NO PIPING. Please save yourself the heartache of ordering a special cake...

I'm giving one star based on the admission that their baked goods are very good and they do good work in that regards, otherwise it would be zero. Klinger's lunch sandwiches are WAY overpriced. I've had co-workers say great things and after reading the menu on the website decided to give this local family establishment a try, as I always do. After tax for a "whole" is $8.23, which is about 6 to 7 inches long and an inch thick when I ordered the Chipotle Club. Their sandwiches are pre-made and packaged in a cheap thick cellophane packaging that I wouldn't trust at a gas station. 90% of my shopping I do at local establishments here in Burlington, as that is the way of life and pay higher prices knowing this and their ingredients. I legitimately felt like I was being ripped off. Yes, they make their own bread, which should not be that high of a price hike given how little bread you get, no sides or drinks. There are far better local alternatives with the same freshness, if not fresher, for half the cost. Their whole sandwich size should be the price of a half. This is the first time I've walked away from paying at a local establishment, ever. You can argue ingredients, ect. But presentation, freshness, and portion size does not equate to that price without offering sides...