Note from a frequent customer: Think twice about ordering from TTC on the weekend!!!
My wife and I discovered the cafe during the COVID winter of 2021. We'd put through our online order and it'd be ready before we even left the house -- the staff wasn't that busy. The breakfast/lunch food and drinks were good, so we continued to online order and pick up inside once or twice a week -- mainly on weekends. We also appreciated their COVID precautions, which made everything feel safe and easy.
As of this spring, things have really changed. The staff seems completely overloaded and something always seems to go wrong: from smaller issues like being out of compostable utensils (really rough for bikers and tourists) or orders missing a bag of chips or cookie to huge issues like orders being extremely late or even completely lost.
*** I'll preface this by saying we all know that things happen and they can be unexpected and uncontrollable. That's why my rating isn't 1 star. But, as a frequent customer I'm starting to see a pattern develop, even in recent Yelp reviews, so I'm sharing this particular experience.
Last weekend, we placed a lunch order and it was 20-25 minutes late from the pick up time. We chalked it up to the increase in seasonal orders and made a mental note that it wouldn't be as easy as it was in the winter. But after my experience yesterday, like I mentioned above, I'm seeing a pattern develop.
Yesterday morning, we ordered breakfast from the cafe at 9:15am, went about our business, and left to go pick things up at around 9:35am. On the way, I received an email from Toast that there was a problem with my order because TTC had not yet approved my it -- whatever that means. After arriving, I showed the note to the TTC staff member at the register who said that they were having problems with the internet which disrupted orders and I'd have to re-place it online -- not through him. So I did and had him confirm that he received it. He didn't think to refund my first order though, so I had to go back in and make that happen so we weren't charged twice!
While I waited for order #2, I noticed that there were a lot of visibly frustrated people standing around with their arms crossed, waiting for orders. I overheard someone say to their partner (after waiting over 30 minutes): "This is ridiculous. How hard is it to pour a cup of coffee and grab a muffin?" As we continued waiting, it had me think "Yeah, what are they actually doing back there?" because the staff looked busy, but no orders were coming out. After wasting another 30 minutes waiting around, over an hour from when the first order was placed, I walked in to cancel my order and ask for a refund. The same staff member at the register was on the phone and had me wait over a minute to speak with him and then only said "Sorry about that" without offering up any solutions, like checking on the status of my order, or giving me something like a free muffin for my troubles. Someone was in back of me in line and also canceled/demanded a refund -- I'm assuming others did the same as well.
We'll be taking our business to Haute Coffee, and other breakfast/lunch spots in the area, until TTC is able to get back on track and reassess their customer service.
Also, beware of the $14+ salads! They're the same size as the $7 to $9 salads and will have you wondering what you paid all that extra money for. read more