FL BAKERY AND RESTAURANT ORLANDO — Restaurant in Winter Park

To be clear… this review is intended as constructive feedback for customer service and has NO bearing on the quality of food, speed of service, or cleanliness of the place which are all excellent.

In regards to customer service I recently had an experience in which i chose this establishment to treat a very important person to lunch and i chose it for how authentic and good the food is. The person that accompanied me requested a modification to the sandwich ordered which in hindsight was clearly communicated to the cashier. Apparently that modification made the sandwich go by a different name, so the sandwich was made incorrectly as a result. Upon KINDLY requesting this be corrected i was aggressively met with refusal to correct it with the accusation that this modification was never requested, which cant be true because the sandwich was modified, just incorrectly. As i brought this to her attention, a co-worker who was not there during the original order jumped in and just as aggressively sided with the cashier which I found disrespectful, distasteful, and egotistically tethered to “being right” which created a bit of a scene that I found quite embarrassing in front of all the clients in the establishment. As the cashier(s) escalated the intensity another coworker offered to correct one of the sandwiches and two of the people in my party just agreed to eat the sandwiches as-is. I am grateful for the kindness of the third employee, but very disheartened to see the initial inquiry (presented very peacefully and discretely) was met with a very toxic refusal to accept a simple request and could not be treated with a bit more class, education, and maturity. Had it not been for the 3rd employee, the first two would have left me to choose between disposing of the sandwich or giving it to someone who was pork-allergic and as a business owner myself, i would find this type of toxicity unacceptable to represent my company, namely when so well-poised with authenticity and quality.

Again this is intended as feedback for customer service, the food is otherwise great… the pastry assortment they have is among the BEST i have seen in Orlando, and I do plan to continue going there for lunch. I also find that most of the staff are very service driven and kind as well, but it only takes one bad apple to damage the reputation of an entire establishment and cast a negative light on us and our culture being in such a diverse setting like orlando when a scene like that was carried out so publicly, so please treat customers kindly, i was not implying anyone was incompetent nor was i treating it in a condescending light… i just wanted to enjoy my lunch with my person and not have one of them have an allergic reaction in the process. I am thankful it WAS eventually corrected, but it took a third person to get that done because the request was taken defensively and met with toxicity by two adults as though concerned about winning some sort of “fight”and i felt that warranted some feedback, but no complaints about the food or the rest of the staff, and no reason to stop going, but my objective is to break any patterns there may be with these two poorly-adapted employees...

My fiance and I came here on Sunday 9/28 morning. The place was packed but the service was pretty fast. The place is nice and bright, clean, everything looked great. We ordered 2 Cuban sandwiches with no mustard/pickles on both. Pan sobao and pan de agua, and empanadillas de pizza/carne. The cashier was an older lady and told us to give the order slowly. She read back our order correctly and we paid. We never got the bread from her, never got the 2 empanadillas. You get a Pager and you wait for it to vibrate to go pick up your food. When we got our sandwiches, they both had mustard/pickles and never got our bread/empanadillas. We had to go to another cashier and they gave it to us. To my understanding, if you order these items the cashier has to get it for you or let someone know but that wasnt the case. I returned my sandwich back and they asked if I had order it with no mustard/pickles to which I responded yes. They took my receipt and gave me another pager. 30+ mins waiting and no sandwich. I went up to the pick up counter to ask how long for my food and they didnt even have the receipt there was NO communication that my sandwich had to be re made. So if I wouldnt have gone to the pick up counter I would had been waiting forever. There seems to be some type of communication issue with the kitchen and when customers make request because there was another gentlemen there complaining his sandwich was missing things also. They made my sandwich in less than 5 mins. I understand they just opened and not everything will be perfect at first. I am not upset about what happened but would like to point out the areas that need improvement. I would go back and order from them again because the food is delicious and el pan sobao is the best thing...

Pros: Clean and representatable business environment, team members are prompt at taking orders. Reasonable prices. Pastries and desert options are good, but any pastries with filling are skimped. Sandwiches are delicious. Coffee is descent.

Cons: Disorganized work flow and structure; room for improvement. Lack of overall customer service; room for improvement. Attention to order preparation has always been an issue (missing items, not attentive to whether order is carry out or dine in, preparing drinks without asking for preferences prior to preperation—cashiers don’t take that information). In my opinion, lunch/dinner food selections are not the tastiest. Business is not fully prepared to serve the public once their doors open. Unresponsive communication through their direct business website.

I’ve visited at different hours of the day and the biggest disappointment are always mornings between the hours of 7am and 9am, as I’ve encountered. During those encounters there’s NEVER a variety of donuts ready for consumers. 1-2 variety trays the most during those hours is unacceptable. By 8:45am, they’ve already removed all breakfast items from their hot bar and were already serving lunch menu items. All in all, a stop during morning rush hour for said items is not ideal. The business is lacking a solid structure and consistency. I don’t think they are prepared to serve consumers as soon as doors open. You’ll be limited to options they have in their menu. For a comparison, in my opinion, the food and quesitos / guava & cheese pastries at Lechonera Orlando are by far tastier. Reached out to FL Bakery business via their direct website’s communication over a month ago and have not been acknowledged regarding my requests...