Rao's Bakery & Coffee Cafe — Restaurant in Texas

I rarely write reviews but after this experience I had to. First off, when my partner and I came into the cafe, we were ignored by all of the staff who were standing around the register doing nothing. Nobody greeted us or acknowledged us. It wasn’t until almost 5-10 minutes later that a girl finally came up to the counter and said hello. Next, upon looking at the selection in the display fridge, many of the items were out of stock. Hardly anything seemed fresh. Most of the items looked days old. They didn’t provide us with a menu, and there wasn’t one posted anywhere. When we asked the staff for one they pointed at a QR code with a lot of attitude. Fine. After scanning the code, I had about 5 seconds to look at the drink menu before another employee (who was just standing around the counter not doing anything) asked us in a rude tone “are you ready yet?” To which we said no and proceeded to continue looking at the menu. Not even a minute later the employee standing next to him asked us the same thing again, after just hearing us say no. At this point we were irritated. There was absolutely no friendly attitude at all. It seemed like we were being rushed into making a choice. My partner and I stepped aside to make our decision without being bothered and finally when we were ready, we ordered. We got one cold brew, one dirty chai, a cheesecake slice, a what I assumed to be raspberry turnover, and a chocolate chip muffin. The price alone was ridiculous. Almost $7 for a SLICE of cheesecake??? Wild. Anyway, while waiting, I went to use their restroom. The toilets were hardly cleaned. The sink was almost completely detached from the wall and soap wasn’t refilled. After coming back, the chai latte still wasn’t made yet. Let me clarify, the cafe was practically empty aside from 3 people who were sitting there before we got there. I wasn’t sure what was taking so long. We waited over 5 minutes and in that time frame I noticed how absolutely filthy this cafe was. I witnessed one of the employees take the trash out and left a trail of mystery liquid all over the middle of the floor and didn’t clean it up. There was no utensils available at the front “bar” area as it never got restocked. There was about 3 or 4 tables dirty with crumbs, spilled liquid, and garbage sitting around. The whole cafe is littered with Easter decorations that were messy and still had tags on. Nothing was organized or cleaned. The gelato display freezer had serving spoons sprawled across, with the handles facing in random directions, all of the ice cream looked half melted and had the spoon laying bare in them. It was disgusting. Finally after a long wait, my drink was ready. My partner and I decided to eat outside. That’s when we opened our box and the pastries immediately looked off. After taking a bite of the muffin, it was stale. Hard as a rock and definitely a few days old. Nothing was warmed up either. Then we tried the turnover thing, also stale. The crème on top was a sour gross flavor and the “puff pastry” was soggy and not crunchy or puffed. And worst of all, the overpriced cheesecake slice. What a monstrosity. I could tell by the color of it that it was not fresh. It almost had a green hue to it. After taking one bite, I had to spit it out. Absolutely VILE taste. This cheesecake had the most disgusting after taste. I wanted to give this place a chance and after a particularly rough day, I figured I’d support a local bakery near me and try this place out. But oh my please SAVE YOUR MONEY. This place is ridiculously overpriced, the staff is rude and have terrible attitudes, the food is not fresh at all and tastes just as bad as it looked. The establishment isn’t clean. Even the cold brew was burnt. The only decent thing was my dirty chai latte that took about 10 minutes to make for some reason. We threw away the food and coffee immediately. What a disappointment and shame it is to have such high prices and horrible customer service and food. I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone. Find another bakery and hire some...

Josh, or To whom it may concern: I have usually not had a very hard time in the past when I use your bakery. I will mention that there is always a different person in charge, or a different manager, or a different baker...seems like a lot of revolving doors. I rarely speak to the same person twice, Last week, I ordered a cake and cupcakes for my daugher's birthday...via email. Brian called me back to go over details. We went over details. I placed my order. I know from experience you don't make strawberry cake. But - you do make strawberry cupcakes???? I know, weird right? So - I really wanted strawberry cake cupcakes...that is what I ordered, and Brian verified my order. There was an issue with the image for the cake order....I sent a better image for the cake. I called to verify this image would work (the 2nd image I sent over) and I paid for the cake over the phone, like I always do. I gave Brian my cc info, exp date and code on the back.....we agreed pick up time would be between 10a-12p on Sunday 1/13. The day of the party, at 10:12am. I receive a call from Rao's Spring, it was Brian. He left a voice mail....because it is the day of the party and I was busy I missed his call but I called back at 11am. ME: Hi, I'm returning Brian's call. This is Veronica Orosco RAOS: "Brian is not here" ME: What?..... okay, well I just received a message from him FROM THIS NUMBER...he says there is an issue with my cupcakes??? The cupcakes and cake I am sending my husband over now, to pick up right now, he's on his way!" I didn't know my husband had already been there and was told the order was not ready ( We don't live around the corner either?) At this time, I am placed on hold...and another person comes on the line. Asks me how they can help....I explain again, why I am calling. ME: Yes I am calling about my order? I missed a call from Brian? My cupcakes aren't ready? RAOS: Oh, yeah, we cannot make your cupcakes. Not strawberry anyway. ME: Why? RAOS: We don't have the ingredients. (what????? utter shock) Yeah....let that just sink in for a minute.....a bakery, didn't have the ingredients to fill an order I placed days ago....a bakery, didn't have the ingredients...????? ME: Shocked and quiet....then... RAOS: "we can use white cupcakes with strawberry frosting..." ME: "well no...that doesn't match the theme - it doesn't match my cake..." RAOS: She responds..."oh, you have a cake too???" (OH MY GOD) ME: I say, "yes...now I am very uncomfortable and super stressed because my event starts in 2 hours and you don't have my order? My husband should be there, is he there waiting...can you please fix this????" I get placed on hold....another woman, not the same one, comes on the phone.... RAOS: "ok ma am what we can do is put strawberry filling in the cupcakes and use blue frosting to match the theme....will that work???" "We do have your cake order, the girl just picked up the phone and didn't realize you had a cake order too" ME: "well I guess it has to work. I have no choice at this point" RAOS: okay we'll get that ready for you! SO my husband goes back to the store..now, remember, I gave Brian my cc info the day before?..and they make my husband pay for the cake again??? If they didn't charge my card...why did he take down all of the critical info ? Did Brian forget? Is this store understaffed? It really defeated the whole point of me asking someone else to pick up the cake, which I am sure is common as most people are busy that day and we send someone to pick up the cake! Not to mention how uneasy it is to know I gave someone all of my cc info and it was not used for the purpose intended?...

Bought their tropical coconut cake for my mother's birthday. It was awful. Better fruit cakes at whole foods. Dry cake and pineapples tasted like they've been sitting a while. I don't think I'll ever buy a cake from them again and that should be what they do best.

They also didn't have the accessory to write on the cake so it didn't say happy birthday on it. I've had there food and pastrys before and I remember liking them but this was just an awful experience.

EDIT 10/16/18 I emailed the bakery back as requested in the response and was asked some questions which were answered right away. After I responded I never heard back from them. With them having such great reviews, I don't think they care very much about a straggler bad review here and there. So in conclusion, hopefully you have a great experience, but if you don't, I wouldn't expect much from them if they respond asking you to contact them. All in all, as I said; I liked their food and small pastry's very much. It was only the cake (which I feel should be their specialty) that was an awful experience. If they were a cafe that offered cakes, I would have been more forgiving, but since they are a bakery that offers coffee, they need to stand behind their work a little better. AND WHAT BAKERY CAN'T WRITE HAPPY BIRTHDAY ON A CAKE???

Edit: 6/25/19

I've since gone back and I will say they deserve a little more credit due to other pastrys and food being good. With that being said I wouldn't get another birthday cake from then but I would definitely try the pastrys and other...