Cecil G.
Yelp
Close this Sprinkles
I just wanna start off by saying I absolutely love Sprinkles in La Jolla and Beverly Hills. Somehow, just somehow this Sprinkles in the Bay Area is the absolute worst cupcakes I've ever had. Let's talk about the ambience for a second so it's located in a mall and it's one of the outside stores but when you go into it, it's half a Sprinkles with a little counter and then it also shares space with a bank. It's very strange so you can't really tell if the tables are for the people waiting in line at the bank or if they're for the Sprinkles customers. Regardless, it's strange because it's not a lively environment like other Sprinkles because banks are quiet and sterile so I don't know who thought of that real estate option but it's not it. But when you notice the cupcakes it look so bad it's embarrassing. I mean you're paying over five dollars per cupcake and the fact that they let their staff put those for display shows the respect that they have for their customers, so now if you decide to purchase one that looks like an off brand Temu version of an actual sprinkles cupcake, you will be just as disappointed with the taste as you will with their appearance.
We purchased a box of four different flavors. I could see in the display that they had the cupcake I wanted it, but it wasn't on the POS so I asked them and they said it's because it's the last one, order it as a red velvet, and I will change it out for you. I had to ask the girl at the counter why all of the cupcakes were not uniformly baked some were spilling over on the side some were under frosted, some were uneven, they just looked horrible and her response was "we've had some customers complain about too much frosting", which answered nothing and also Sprinkles has a signature way of frosting and the amount of frosting used and if people don't like that, then Sprinkles isn't for you. You don't cater to a new demographic when Candace opened up Sprinkles and had her vision of the cupcake to frosting ratio that's to be expected and that's the Sprinkles standard. It's not what you think or what a customer thinks, theres a Sprinkles standard and that's what I expect. Back to the ordering, I thought it was very strange because I work in the culinary industry myself, and it's going to throw off your sales because if you're putting in a different cupcake that was sold and selling a completely different cupcake, how are you gonna be able to properly know sales if it looks like different items are being sold than the actual product? Anyhow I was excited, even though they were the ugliest Sprinkles cupcakes I'd ever seen I got to my car, I opened the box and I realized they put the wrong cupcakes in the box so I had to go back in; the girl took my cupcakes from my box and put them back into the display. She then handed me the right cupcakes and I walked back to my car. I'd been hyping up to my boyfriend how wonderful these cupcakes are going to be because he's never tried them before, I bite into the strawberry cupcake, he takes a bite and then I go to take another and he grabs the cupcake and says there's a hair in it. I didn't believe him, but sure enough there was a hair baked into the cupcake.
Long story short, the district manager reached out to me and we talked on the phone for over a half an hour, and she told me how much they were working on their baking and their customer service at this location and to please give them another try that she was sending a coupon code to my email and we got off the phone. She sent a coupon code for four free cupcakes extremely cheap of her, we went back. Cupcakes were still garbage, dry, not uniform and the employees once again look like they've never showered.
I've been in the baking industry for over 17 years. I do not understand what their issue is. They have the same equipment as all of their Sprinkles with the same recipes. It's just poor management. The district manager doesn't know what she's doing or isn't putting enough time in whatever the cases they have horrible customer service. This location has none of that and their reviews show it, they should just close because they're giving Sprinkles a bad name. I can't say one good thing about this place, I will never go back.
