Auntie's Bakery & Cafe — Restaurant in Whittier

On February 27 my husband and I decided to come for brunch. For the most part service is okay and food is always tasty. However, today was the worst experience we've had with them. As a Culinary major I'm taught that a successful restaurant thrives on good hospitality. And when the restaurant makes a mistake they do their best to accommodate their guest in order for the guest to continue coming back. That being said, there was a 20 minute wait time to be seated. Which I don't understand because the inside had many tables available. When we were finally seated, we waited another 20min to be helped. When our waitress, Autumn finally came to offer us any drinks we went ahead and ordered our drinks and she asked if we needed more time to look at the menu. Which we responded yes, she went ahead and gave us 15 additional minutes. And when she came she served the customers that were seated after we were their drinks first. When she finally took our order we waited an additional 30min for our food to arrive. When it finally arrived I had only taken two small bites out of my food when I noticed that my eggs were raw, I had ordered them over medium. The egg white was completely undercooked. That is a big no in the culinary business, because now you run the risk of your customers getting salmonella. Salmonella bacteria cause about 1.35 million infections, and 420 deaths in the US every year. Which is something as a restaurant owner you want to take seriously because now you run the risk of your customers health. The waitress went ahead and took the dish back and said she was going to go ahead and take it off my tab and that they would pack the food to go for me. When my husband was finished with his meal the girl brought my tab and I noticed that I was still being charged for the dish. When I approached her about it she responded back with a snobby attitude and said, " Well you're still going to take the dish anyway." And I went ahead and told her not to give me the food then which either way was still not ready. It was unbelievable how she still expected me to make accommodations for her. She said the best she could do is give me a discount. And I said then I'm okay without it thank you. At this point I already lost my patience because I had already waited so long for my food. And I'm the type of person that I loose my appetite easily especially after waiting so long, being served something raw, and having horrible service. Having said that, we will never be returning here, which is such a shame because something so simple could have easily been...

WOW! I'm at a loss for words with how amazing this restaurant is. My wife had been telling me about how great her first experience was, and how good the food was. I finally experienced Auntie's today and it was everything she described and more. We had the lemon ricotta pancakes, potato wedges, scrambled eggs, and lox and cream cheese toast. Everything was on point!

The toast was rustic with a thick slice, crispy but not hard crust, and soft but not weak bread. The cream cheese had herbs that really complimented the flavor. The waitress called the lox salmon, which was more appropriate a the slices were more substantial than the lox supplied by most establishments, but it was still delicate and buttery. Topped with whole pickled capers, miniature pickles, and red onions... It was superb.

The pancakes were unbelievable. They were obviously fresh, but their recipe and technique creates a pancake that is warm and fluffy while still being filling without any doughy heaviness. The lemon drizzle had the perfect flavor kick to add a little bite to the ricotta flavor, and the berry topping is the perfect portion and fresh. A waiter mentioned their strawberry syrup, which we'll have to try next time. We are these pancakes too fast to wait for the strawberries!

The potato wedges were perfection. Slightly crispy outside and still fluffy inside. Good seasoning to add flavor without being off putting for anyone who is averse to seasoning. The scrambled eggs were fairly standard, but I also usually hate restaurant scrambled eggs but really enjoyed these.

To top it off, their water is fresh and always refilled. The iced coffee was wonderful. I drink it black, and it was a good cup with a real coffee taste.

On top of all that, their service is top notch. EVERY person there was friendly, considerate, helpful, and aware of all the customers. They work like a team where everyone helps each other for the good of the entire establishment. Things may move a little slow at times, but it feels appropriate for the atmosphere. You forget you're sitting in uptown Whittier and you feel like you're in a small mom and pop establishment in the country.

I could continue, but likely this is already too wordy. I'll just say that we will happily be repeat customers adventuring in their experimentally...

Food was good, but that was just about the only thing that was good about this little place. My girlfriend and I came here for our first visit, and won't be coming back unless changes are made.

We came in for breakfast as we were heading for another local by spot. We noticed an abundance of open tables so we figured we would try this place. Upon checking in, the hostess told us there would be a 20-30 minute wait despite there being about 10 or so open tables. I'm not talking tables that weren't turned over and cleaned yet, these were all clean with silverware ready for guests to sit and eat.

Despite bringing this to the attention of the 2-3 hostesses (maybe train one of these as a waiter?) they insisted the tables were already booked and we would have to wait. We were NOT the only ones to point this out. After about 15 minutes of waiting, literally no one had taken any of the open tables so the hostess sat us where we asked to be seated the minute we walked in. It actually became a pleasant viewing experience watching full parties of people walk in and ask for a table only to walk away muttering about "how many open tables there are". Not sure what the point of any of this was as all it did was drive away potential customers while making the few that chose to give you business wait. Not cool by any means and completely unnecessary.

I saw my waitress once when ordering and a final time when getting my check. There was no stops for refills or to check if everything was ok. I can only think they have too few servers since they don't come out to check on you and have half the tables empty which brings up my point from earlier.... Why 3 hostesses? They did nothing at all but say empty tables are full.

I was going to leave this as a 3 star review, but after having to write about this experience and all the bad memories it has brought up, I give it 1 star. There's better places walking distance from here where you don't need to put up with any of...