Alison's Cafe House — Restaurant in Turlock

Great Shop, but Deceptive Menu

I just left Alison’s Cafe and have to say that I am sad to write this review. The shop is cute and the staff quite pleasant.

So why am I sad to write this review? It has to do with the menu and how clueless the staff was to what they were serving. The way the menu is written combined with their ignorance could be a real problem for people with medical conditions.

I had the “blended no sugar added Chai” and it was quite good. When I ordered it I assumed from the name that it was unsweetened. When it came, it was sweet. So I assumed the sweetness was from a sugar substitute. Now, I usually hate sugar substitutes, but this one didn’t have an after taste. In fact it was so good that I told them so on the way out. Then I asked what substitute they used because I wanted to get some for my house. The girl responded, “I don’t know. The ingredients are blocked out from the powder we use. But we don’t add any sugar.”

“OMG!” I thought to myself. “It was so sweet without added sugar! How much sugar did it have?! How badly will this affect my blood glucose level? How badly will it affect my A1c? Thankfully I’m just fighting diabetes and don’t have it. What would it do to someone who was an actual diabetic?”

I tried to be nice about it, but said, “It’s a little deceptive. Your menu says, ‘No sugar added’. For the health of others, you might want to change that.”

“But we didn’t add any sugar.” the girl said to me.

I decided that I wasn’t going to get into a debate about the semantics of the phrase “no sugar added”. So I told her, “thank you” and started to walk out.

“There’s no sugar in the powder though..” she said.

Silly me should have continued walking but I asked, “Oh, how do you know?”

Her response- “It says 20 percent less sugar.”

I have no words.

I know that most people don’t care about this, but if you are diabetic, watching your sugar intake or your caloric intake, I’d...

This isn’t Starbucks or dutch bros. This is Alison’s Cafe house, a local family owned establishment that serves high quality specialty drinks which are truly made with love and care. You’ll be paying a little more here for your drinks but trust me when I say you are paying for quality that is unmatched (specifically I recommend the matcha I’ve never had better).

Along with their top quality drinks you’ll be getting excellent service. I come here so often and feel like I’m at home. Customers here truly are treated as part of the community, as neighbors and family. For example Today I had come in to get drinks for myself and coworkers. The front of hose staff at the time Onela had offered to help me take drinks to me car. Me being stubborn declined and ended up spilling one of my the drinks as I got into my car. I came back in and let Onela know what had happened. She offered me rags that I could use to clean up and immediately began to remake the spilled drink. I offered to pay as I love to support this business and the incident was only my own fault. She declined and insisted that I take the drink on the house.

This is why Alison’s will always have my support as there are very few places like. My deepest thanks to the staff and Onela for always looking out for the community and create brighter days for everyone who stops by.

P.S. I would have attached pictures of the drinks (They all looked amazing) but once I brought the drinks back myself and my coworkers drank through them with little...

I went to Alison's twice. The first time it was a satisfying experience. I ordered a Dragonfruit Matcha and it was one of the most delicious drinks I've ever had at a cafe. I believe the employee who prepared it was named Sophie. She made sure she understood what I was ordering and what I expected, which only took a few extra seconds. The second time I went to Alison's I tried to order the same drink, but the person who made it (a different employee) decided to put caramel and powder chai mix in it. If you frequent cafes often, then you know that these two ingredients can quickly overtake the flavor of a drink. When I told the employee this was not what I ordered, she assured me that I should try it and that I would still like it. So not only was she implying that she knew that she did not make what I ordered, but she was also insisting that I should just accept her deciding for me. Do not get me wrong, she was completely polite and cheerful. However, customer service is not all demeanor. It's also--or maybe mostly?--serving the customer what they are requesting. I never went back, and I have heard from other people in town that they too have been served with a "take it, like it, or leave...