Mad Hatter Cafe + Bakeshop

This was my first time visiting this bakeshop. I am out of state, but travel to Duke often.nI am giving a rating of two, but further down I also have some positive feedback. The reason for a two star rating are for the following reasons:nI was unhappy for the fact that all items in glass case were unlabeled and no prices given to the items.nThe staff was friendly and would answer questions when they weren't busy making espressos, however two employees were occupied in conversation while the third was working. I stood there for several minutes and felt like I was interrupting vs being professionally taken care of as a customer.nLike I said I was new and had my eldest daughter with me. We felt loss guessing what some of the items were and had to take a few minutes for the lady to describe the desserts so we could decide our choice based upon our likes and allergies for some.nOnce ordered it was a quick process.nnI highly suggest to the bakery manager/owner either having a chalk board over each glass casing advertising the items in that said case, or make small cardboard paper tags to which each item is and place on said item plate/front of case...please include prices because it is frustrating not knowing how much an item is.nnThe bars we purchased were absolutely delicious! I was very pleased with the quality of these items, the perfect balance of flavor to light sweetness.nThe espressos smelt great, didn't purchase any, and the shop was clean and looked well kept.nnI will definitely be giving the shop an opportunity for both a breakfast and lunch, then upon these purchases in the future, which do have their own board with prices, I will be curious if improvements on communication for their bakery prices changes my review above.nnThank you for taking efforts to put in place barriers to protect employees. I highly suggest enforcement of a mask rule to keep them safe and other customers, but I am happy with M/H.nn- Michelle S.

Cute little bake- and coffee shop. When I was at Duke I used to go to Mad Hatter all the time to sip on a latte and work on my laptop. The ambiance here is great. The food in good too, especially the huevos rancheros. The pastries are always delicious as well. It's usually pretty busy but is definitely worth dealing with the crowd.

Ordered the fresh mozzarella sandwich when the food runner brought the food we asked for more balsamic reduction, she came back and told us they didn’t have any I took my sandwich in to restaurant and asked for a refund. The lady asked me why. I started to speak and she told me to come closer and not using social distancing. I told her why I requested my refund and I told her the kitchen staff didn’t out the reduction on the sandwich and was told none is available. The lady was rude and tried to tell me it is on my sandwich I told her it wasn’t and she told me it seemed into the bread I told her there was none in there. Then magiacally the reduction appeared she put the cup of it and shoved the tray of food back to me. She was rude and wouldn’t listen to what I was trying to tell her.

Unreasonably slow service and mistakes on a simple order.nnWent to grab coffee and a quick bite on a Thursday afternoon and sat on the patio. We ordered 2 espresso drinks and 2 pastries. It took nearly 20 minutes for our order to come out, at which point we had to leave. When I got home, I found that I was given the wrong pastry. What frustrated me most was that no orders came out and only 2-3 people came in for to-go orders in that time.nnOne extra star given because the cappuccino was made well.

The food here is super delicious! However the customer service with the bakery has been subpar at best. I am an event planner and have reached out multiple times to use them for different events. However their communication is less than desired. On three separate occasions I've had issues trying to order from them. Once I wanted to order muffins for an event and it took over two weeks just to get a response on prices. Then this last time I ordered a cake to celebrate a staff's birthday. It was so frustrating working with them. I ordered online and then got an automated email that said they would confirm within 24 hours. That never happened, so I followed up with a call. I spoke with someone to confirm the order and they even took my credit card info. However over the weekend before the event, I got a phone call that the order needed confirming, otherwise it would be deleted. I finally got in touch to get the order confirmed. Then on the day of the delivery, no one showed up or even contacted me. I had to call the bakery to get the cake delivered. There are way too many other local bakeries to use and I refuse to keep banging my head against the wall. Save yourself a headache. Is there food good? YES! However their customer service and communication needs help desperately.