Sweeter Things Bakery Cafe — Restaurant in Swansboro

I was really hoping to leave a 5-star review after placing my order, but honestly, even 3 stars feels generous.

I called ahead and asked for a favor— a gender reveal cake with just 24 hours’ notice. Since this wasn’t within their usual turnaround time, they had to get special approval, which I truly appreciated at the time. However, after everything that happened, I regret placing this order.

This cake was for my sister, and when she arrived to pick it up, the requested "Boy or Girl?" lettering was completely missing. They simply forgot. She went back inside and asked them to fix it, and they suggested fondant instead of buttercream, saying it would look better. But that it would take an extra 40 minutes. She lives 40 minutes away, so this was already a huge inconvenience, but she killed time in town.

When she returned, expecting the fondant lettering they had suggested, she was given something completely different—not fondant, not even close. It looks like loose cookie icing. On top of that, she was charged $50 after tip and tax (which she tipped assuming the job would be done correctly), and no one even apologized for the mistake or the wasted time.

If they had just been upfront and told me, "We aren’t skilled enough for the lettering you’re requesting," I would have understood and taken my business elsewhere. Instead, they accepted the order, botched the most important piece of this reveal, and left us scrambling on a day that was supposed to be special. I’m beyond disappointed.

This makes me unsure if the correct gender color will be inside.

Giving 3-stars for the efforts on the owner/managers part to do this for me/my sister and her husband on short notice.

I'm not looking for a defense and some "reasonable" explanation from the owner of this page, as I see with other bad reviews. A simple I'm sorry and a partial refund would have gone a long way.

in response to the owner below Funny how none of this was mentioned to me over text when you only offered a refund as a bribe to take down my bad review. Also kind of crazy to say my sister just "grabbed and left" as if the cake was just sitting out for anyone to grab. She spoke with a snotty blonde who avoided eye contact and gave her the cake. Asked if my sister had already paid, to which my sister said yes, then left. Plenty of opportunity to explain if you ask me.

If the owner could take reasonability and take a bad review maybe they'd run a better business but they're constantly lying about a situation to save their butt.

I'm not so shocked about the amount of good reviews they have as they have probably offered to pay others off for taking their bad reviews down.

And if the boss really thinks this cake looks good - they're half...

I visited the shop last summer when first opened. I thought it was great, so friendly! I visited again this spring. Not so impressed. Not being a regular customer, I have no idea what is in the bakery cases and had some questions. No one, I literally mean no one moved a muscle to come to me to see what I needed. Evidently you have to go to the register to place an order, which seems counter productive if you don't know what you are ordering. The girl at the register was glued to her station, didn't move. I thought maybe when the girl making a coffee drink was finished she would come over to see what I needed. Nope. She just disappeared. Finally got some questions answered place my order. Meh. Not baked in house, so so pastries. Not much variety either. I was back down a week or so ago, thought I would give it another go. Basically the same scenario. If you order something that needs to be heated, you have to heat it yourself! The excuse was that they didn't know how hot you would want your food. They have toaster over on the side bar that you have to figure out how to operate. I'm not sure if this is even allowed by health code? Anyway, I'm fumbling with my food (the toaster is sitting in a position that is not 100% easy to access) get it in the toaster, trying to be as sanitary as possible, not touching everything. Finally I think it is heated enough, I grab the tongs that are on top of the toaster and they are blazing hot. Tongs end up on the floor on the other side of the counter. I'm now using my hands to get my food out of the toaster. At that point I decided I had given these fine folks enough chances. Not...

Love this place. Awesome pastries, a gazillion options for any drink imaginable, and even baller loose leaf teas. Open early, service is outstanding every time. The small details like frozen coffee ice so the drink doesn’t water down is genius.

I hope the ownership reads this though and looks into it.

The baristas are always super friendly, helpful, knowledgeable, and whip things up in a jiffy. They definitely deserve a good tip. I imagine your average sale is under 10 bucks and having the percentage options at checkout is shortchanging their potential. Most people including myself are still wiping sleep out their eye when buying a coffee. Last time I hit 20% without thinking on a regular coffee and its like a $0.50 tip. Make it dollar amounts instead and program a threshold. If the sale is under 20 bucks have the tip options display as 1, 3, 5 dollars. Its not unreasonable and they’ll make more over the course of the day. If the total is over 20 bucks have the buttons switch to percentages. If you don’t know how to do that, contact the POS support. Its not unreasonable to tip a barista a couple bucks, it doesn’t affect your labor costs, and the employees will be happier. Throw a dawg a boneeeee.

Otherwise 5 gazillion stars y’all my fav coffee...