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Amphora Bakery
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Private Lot
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
16 reviews for Amphora Bakery
16 reviews in English
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Review from Nadine F.
5/10/2010
After admiring many of Amphora's cakes online, I finally got to try one. I am pleased to report that the cakes are as delicious as they are beautiful. I was truly impressed, and I'm quite the cake snob.
Unlike other fancy cakes, this one was moist and delicious, even when served cold. The one I tried was called the "double mousse", which has layers of white cake, white chocolate mousse, chocolate cake, and chocolate mousse, enveloped in a thick coating of chocolate mousse. It might be the best birthday cake I've ever had. They're also surprisingly affordable. I'll definitely come back to Amphora for birthdays or any other occasion that could use a cake. -
Review from Elizabeth G.
Loudoun, VA
3/9/2012
Check out this website and see the health code inspections on this place. http://www.city-data.c...
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Review from erin s.
Arlington, VA
11/2/2007
We got our wedding cake and grooms cake (my pic is the grooms cake from my wedding) and both were amazing! Their cakes taste as good as they look. They are moist and fabulous. Their frosting is a true butter cream with butter and sugar, no shortening here. They also use a fondant that is actually good. i usually hate fondant but their is pretty good, for fondant. The chocolate cake with chocolate mousse and raspberry is so very yummy! They also make one of the best carrot cakes I have eaten.
The bakery itself is a very cute spot for a pastry and coffee. I wish it was closer to where I live, but that would be dangerous! -
Review from ross f.
Sterling, VA
10/30/2009
meh, I've experienced better. It's you basics. It's 24/7. It's on the way home. Sometimes the staff is great, other times it's something to be disired.
The pies and cakes are cooked somewhere in Herndon and delivered to the Amphora stores. It's a great place and I consider it an open option always. A great place for tastey desserts. -
Review from Shawna M.
Silver Spring, MD
11/14/2010
I got married 4 weeks ago and I just wanted to warn everyone NOT to get their wedding cake from Amphora Bakery in Herndon, VA because they delivered a FROZEN 5 tier cake to my wedding reception. They delivered the cake at 5:30pm and when I cut the cake at 10pm - the whole center of the cake was still frozen. I will admit the cake was beautiful and the one bite I did eat was good.
My hotel told me that the cake was so hard they almost BROKE their knife trying to cut it and the pieces kept crumbling when they were cut. They also said there is no way that I got all the servings I paid for. Several people at my wedding were commenting about watching the guy trying to cut into the frozen cake. So embarrassing!!
When I contacted Amphora a few days after my wedding (while on my honeymoon) to let them know I wasn't happy. They didn't respond. When I called them to follow up - they just ran around in circles. All they would say is that they don't freeze their cakes and they don't know what happened. My wedding planner, the hotel and event staff have spoken to Amphora and it's still not good enough for them to offer me any kind of refund. They did not offer an apology either. They do not return any phone calls - I had to continue to call them and follow up.
To make this entire situation worse the owner, Maria Cholakis, was actually YELLING at me on the phone! She told me that they do not freeze their cakes and they don't even have a freezer big enough. I don't think they froze the cake after it was assembled, I think they froze the layers of cake and assembled it frozen and then decorated it. They tried to blame it on my hotel asking if they stored the cake after it was delivered - and it was not.
Maria told me that I should have saved her a piece of cake and she would know what's wrong with it. How was I supposed to save the cake - I was on my honeymoon for almost 2 weeks? She said I should have had the hotel save the cake. What difference would that have made - it would be thawed by then or stale by the time I got back from my honeymoon. That is completely unreasonable. Not to mention that as the BRIDE, I should not be concerned with saving a slice of cake for the bakery. She told me that as far as she's concerned once they deliver the cake her job is done. I told her no it's not - you need to stand behind your product and deliver quality.
She continued to yell at me that she would not issue any kind of refund until she personally interviewed every person at my hotel to find out what happened. I told her that her staff had already done that, I have an email from the hotel stating that they logged that the cake was extremely difficult to cut and they also spoke to my wedding planner who had the event staff tell her the cake was frozen the night of my wedding.
Amphora Bakery has all the information any reasonable person would need to offer an apology and some kind of reasonable refund to make a customer happy. The way they have handled the entire situation is wrong. My word as an unhappy customer should be enough for them to apologize and offer a reasonable refund. They will not do either and I've been dealing with this for 3 weeks now. Unacceptable.
Save yourself the trouble and DO NOT DEAL with Amphora Bakery!! They do not stand behind their cakes and don't care about their customer's happiness. -
Review from Pamela P.
Alexandria, VA
8/8/2009
Mmmmm pie. I've never had anything but pies from here and they've all been quite good. I've been in here and sometimes the selections seem limited, but I'm sure that depends on time of day and day of the week.
if you want a good solid no fail pie, this is definitely your go-to -
Review from Colleen C.
Washington, DC
11/8/2010
I'm usually on Yelp for two reasons:
Either I had the best experience with an establishment that I have to come here and rave about it OR if I had the worst experience of my life, I would be on here to write about it. Unfortunately with this place, it's the latter. If I could take away that 1 star and had an option to give none, it's more appropriate for what my sister and I went through this weekend for my niece's birthday.
My sister was planning for her daughter's 1st birthday over the weekend and when my brother in law went over to Amphora to pick up the cake at noon (the party was hosted in the same shopping center as Amphora location), they simply told him the cake was never made. WHHHHOA?! WHAT?!!! BACK UP FOR MOMENT, here. My sister ordered 2 tier cake with 12 cupcakes for this Saturday, paid $400 up front in FULL and you have NOTHING ready for us?? The party started at 12:30 and they said they would make a cake and 12 cupcakes by 12:45. I'm not a much of a baker but you can make a fancy cake within an hour with decoration and all?? The cake finally arrived by 1:15, it was nothing like what she had described and the cupcakes were complete mess! One of the cupcake wrapper was even different from the rest (11 were brown and 1 was white, what happened there, Amphora? Did you run out of a most simple and necessity supply??) What do you expect from a cake that was ready in less then an hour? I could've done a better job with Betty Crocker cake mix. You could just tell it was "half ass." job.
Fast forward to today, when my sister spoke with the General Manager (you should be ashamed of yourself, if you are reading this), describing her what took place with the cake, her response was "you took the cake, you ate the cake". Well.... because we had no other choice but to accept this ONLY cake that we paid $400 for!!! If she declined to accept the cake, would Amphora have given her back full refund? I don't think so...
Adding insult to the injury, only thing she could offer was $35 GC.
How about a sincere apology and "let's see what we could do to make it better for you?"
Hey Amphora, have you heard of customer service??
When she asked for her boss's contact information, she simply replied "I can't give that out to you."
It's suffice to say that I, along with other readers on here will not be giving you any business going forward, Amphora. -
Review from Joshua N.
Herndon, VA
3/19/2008
Great baked goods. Nice shop. High prices and unfriendly staff. They open early enough that you can get very fresh baked goods before work and their baked goods are easily some of the best in the area. The staff is authentic european and with that comes authentic european stuffiness. Put up with that and you've got a seriously good bakery with added cafe.
Update:
Went for a later morning visit and had a pretty bad experience this time. The dough tasted more sour than before, so not as good. To top it all off, the way management has the cash registers set up, the regular cashiers can't use the credit card machines. I had to pay with cash or have the call me back later to charge the card. The manager wouldn't help the clerk out over the phone. Seems to be a mismanaged place to me...Listed in: The Local Beat
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Review from r m.
Herndon, VA
11/16/2010
Rude customer service, really! Not only their cakes are overpriced, but the customer service was so rude. The staff was very unhelpful and made me feel unwelcomed as soon as I walked in.
The cakes quality could be better. I love cakes and pastries therefore, I've been to so many bakeries/pastry shops. Amphora by far disappointed me the most.
Although I have to say the bakery setup was nice, the window lets you see the daily operation of the bakery, but that's pretty much it. Unless you want to deal with a rude snobby employees and pay overprice for a piece of cake, try else where. -
Review from Cindy B.
Saddle Brook, NJ
5/12/2008
I ordered Amphora's German Chocolate cake for my husband's 40th birthday. Very delicious, a fresh moist cake that's not too terribly sweet. Also reasonably priced, can't wait to try their other flavors.
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Review from Rubio S.
San Diego, CA
9/19/2010
I always joke that San Diego would be perfect if my parent's lived here and there was an Amphora's...The strawberry cheesecake is worth every penny and if anyone you know loves strawberry cheesecake they need to try it here...It's a tradition for my mom to call and rub it in my face that she is eating a slice...I just remind her that I got to see the ocean today so it all in all balances out...Visit Amphoras!
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Review from B B.
Reston, VA
Updated - 1/9/2010
This is for the Amphora Bakery in Herndon off of Spring Street/Sunrise Valley Drive - not the diner. During flu season, the tall blond woman who was waiting on customers sneezed right into her hands. She kept waiting on customers - getting cookies, handing people bags, giving cc receipts to sign - without washing her hands. BTW, tthere is a sink right behind the cash register - not two steps away from her.
I backed up so someone else would wait on me. I asked the young man who waited on me if it was their policy to wash their hands after sneezing right into them and he said of course. I told him what happened and he told me she was a manager. Good grief.1 Previous Review: Show all »
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7/11/2009
Sometimes nice staff, sometimes not. Some bakery goods are good, some not. Sometimes they get your… Read more »
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Review from jac j.
Herndon, VA
12/7/2010
Bottom line. . .we have been in here for dinner and breakfast and both were borderline awful as far as taste. Service was decent (that's why they got a one) and their cake and cookies. . .dry and no taste, kinda like they have been sitting around for quite a while. i WON'T BE BACK EVER!
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Review from Stacie K.
Reston, VA
2/20/2010
Great selection of desserts, pastries and cakes! Good coffee to go with your selection.
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Review from S N.
Falls Church, VA
7/31/2009
This is my favorite place to get dessert in the DC metro area. They have a large variety of desserts that are very unique and also taste great! I highly recommend the cakes/ baked goods from here for special occasions like birthdays or weddings.
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Review from reviewer J.
Ashburn, VA
7/22/2008
Very good cakes - a little over priced. Horrible staff and horrible Services. The lady at the counter in herndon was extremely rude and even attended a personal phone call while we were trying to order the cake for my niece's birthday. Will not go back again !
