The Pennsylvania Bakery

Reviews 3

MY

Mys Trrre

Years ago I found this place & really enjoyed it. It was a cute with a nice atmosphere, friendly employees, & tasty treats. It was one of my favorite places to go & I would often eat in their tea room. Now that the daughters have taken over, the place has been going downhill and fast. The only reason I think they still have any business at all is the loyalty of customers who have been going there for years, the fact that they really have no competition at all, & I assume that every once in a while they get something right. Dont bother to go in there on a Saturday - the place is a nightmare, customers & staff are rude, & in the end they are so ready to get out of there that they start putting the food away early. If you want a large amount of something & have not placed an order, they act as if youve put them out & go grab food out of the freezer to complete your order. Yes, you read that right - the freezer. All of the items that are in the case are back in freezers already decorated, & the sad part is that there is no covers or anything on them to keep them from getting dry. (I wanted muffins & they pulled them out of the back, not wrapped at all, and when I got home I realized they were all freezer burned and inedible.) Their food is NOT baked fresh daily. I ordered a cake for a friends birthday, telling the lady in the front exactly what I wanted. She included a picture of the design, drew a picture to show the layout, and was very detailed in her order form. I sent my husband in to get the cake, and when he brought it home, it was nothing like what I had asked for. The only thing they got right was the flavor, and it was good, but not great. When I contacted them to let them know, the daughter blamed it all on me and the person who took the order. After being extremely rude to me, she offered to give me a gift certificate to come back and purchase more food. If I wanted my money back, I automatically lost part of it, even though they clearly did not follow the instructions at all, and gave me a cake that was, in all honesty, quite ugly. I was one of those people who felt a loyalty to this place, and I guess I just kept hoping that things would get better. Unfortunately, over the last few months, Ive seen things just get worse i.e. family screaming episodes out in the front where customers can see, disgusting behavior by employees (some examples: eating, then not washing their hands; consistent reuse of very cheap looking gloves, if they use them at all; an older woman absolutely refusing to do any work while the other people are running around trying to answer phones and take care of customers). Speaking of cookies - I watched one of the employees filling the cookie case the other day. They came out of boxes she had brought from the back and were stored in packaging without being covered by plastic. So... the cookies that they charge $17.55 a pound for are actually not cookies they make at all. I was shocked. On this same day, as I sat in their awkward and uncomfortable tea room (it used to be nice, but now the chairs and tables wobble and the tables are usually a mess), I watched one of the daughters (one who always has an attitude problem) yell at an employee because a cake was not done right. The look she gave that employee when the CUSTOMER told her it wasnt that employees fault, and that he should go and yell at the decorator who did whatever she wanted instead of what the customer had asked for, was scary. During that time, I had watched several complains from customers about how it wasnt what they ordered, and each time the daughters were rude to the customers, as if they should be honored to get what they were given. I saw a few, and they were just as ugly as the one I had received myself. I will never step foot in this bakery again and I wouldnt recommend anyone else do either. I cant believe this place hasnt been closed down by the health department, and if the owners were smart, theyd get someone else to come in and run their business because their daughters do a terrible job at it.

TC

Tc Beez

I bought five different items. Every single one tasted bad. chocolate eclair--the shell tasted old. The filling was the typical dense, poor quality fake vanilla pudding that you find at any big box bakery. The chocolate on top was exactly like any nasty grocery store eclair topping. I think they keep them frozen and pull them out as needed. Definitely not fresh. cannoli--The worst cannoli I have ever eaten anywhere. The shell was dark brown and tasted nearly burnt. It was obviously cooked for far too long. It also had clearly been made with shortening like Crisco not with butter. The hydrogenated grease from it made a film on the roof of my mouth. Pretty gross. While the overcooked, hard, and shortening loaded shell was bad, the filling was by far worse. It was cheap tasting and had an odd taste. It wasnt creamy. Instead, the filling was extremely firm and congealed. Seven layer bar--wow, by far the worst of everything. It was clearly old. My guess is also kept frozen. Every part of it was drier than it should be. There werent seven layers either. It was a very bad graham cracker base, a dry instead of chewie coconut filling, low quality chocolate chips that were waxy and grainy as though they had been frozen previously, and nuts. They should call it a "four horrid layers bar." Chocolate hazelnut cake--nastiest possible frosting. Not a frosting made with butter. Instead, it had that cheap hydrogenated oil based frosting taste. There was far too much frosting on it. The little bit of cake tasted old and a combination of dried out in the center and soggy from frosting at the perimeters. There was no hazelnut flavor to it at all. Adobe cake--Also very nasty frosting. Again, the frosting tasted like extremely cheap hydrogenated oil based frosting. Due to the shortening in it, the frosting stuck to the roof of my mouth instead of melting in my mouth. Gross, gross, gross. The cake layers again were a weird combination of dried out and soggy. If that doesnt seem possible, frost a cake, cut a piece, then leave that piece out for a week of more. Parts of the cake will dry out but the parts right up against the frosting will get soggy. Just nasty. I dont know how people can give this bakery good ratings...actually I do know. People with a horrible palate can taste absolutely terrible food and give it a high rating. If you dont know what I mean, ignore my review because you are one of those people and the bakery will taste just fine to you. If you know exactly what I am talking about because you live your life frustratingly surrounded by humans who cant taste anything very well, then dont try this bakery because the ingredients are extremely low quality and the products are old tasting.

JA

Jacqueline Peterson

Wonderful customer service & bent over backwards to help me even though I live in Calif & my sister in Harrisburg. Not to mention that I started calling bakeries Weds afternoon & her BD is Sat. Then I was finding most do not deliver or way over my budget or could not make a cat cake... After reading the negative reviews, I was apprehensive to call but decided to call just to see what I could find out. I was very pleasantly surprised & even though it was 6pm PA time~ the bakery staff bent over backwards [wish I could remember her name] to get the cake just as I wanted & then some. Not only did she make helpful suggestions, she said it could be delivered Fri by 11am WITH a tuxedo cat on top and strawberry filling...I was SO impressed.. come to find out that the PABAKERY is my sisters FAVORITE bakery that she goes to. They delivered the cake AS PROMISED & ON TIME! My sister was so happy & surprised and said the cake is absolutely delicious!!! My only regret is that I cant have a piece! That just shows that people should go with their gut feeling & not believe the first negative review they read. My sister says it is the BEST BAKERY in the Harrisburg area. I am so glad I called. THANK YOU PA BAKERY for making my sisters birthday special!!! If I knew how, I wouldve attached the picture of the cake (my sister sent to me) with this review. It was beautiful and professionally made and I hear tastes yummy!!! GREAT JOB!