Rosabella’s Garden Bakery

Beware! I am a local and live 2 miles from the place. Don’t waste your time here! The owners are trolls, hate humans, and do not understand business, especially small humans.

They don’t offer zero stars or I would have selected zero. My friend and I and our children decided to go into this barn for a bakery item after picking some delicious strawberries at a neighboring field. As we were selecting our items I asked if we could use the restroom. She told me they were for customer use only, which I was clearly confused as we were in the process of ordering our food. I asked again if we could use the restroom, we needed to wash our hands as we just got done picking strawberries. She told me that we needed to spend $ 10 in order to use the restroom and indicated the little signs all over the space that said we must purchase items in order to use restroom. The woman then said that we were allowed to use her hose outside to rinse our hands, and we did. We came back into the restaurant and finished our ordering process. At that point I asked her again… I said «just so I’m clear, you do or do not have a restroom that she (And i indicated my 4 year old daughter) can use?» She looked at us and said that their system would not be able to accommodate her using the toilet and flushing and then indicated another child flushing a toilet and went on until she indicated our party of six not being able to use and flush the toilet. Her husband was busy retrieving our bakery items and did not contribute to the conversation. Finally I said to her «I feel like we are imposing on you as customers» She replied that we were «overwhelming her» and used hand gestures to indicate us as a group of six. When we paid, she really scrutinized us when we used debit cards looking us over to see if we were who were on the cards and said they get ripped off all the time. At that point my ticket came to $ 13 and I should have gathered my daughter up and marched into the restroom. I had met my $ 10 required purchase, I should have left with her rude behavior. She asked me if we come up from Seattle often to pick berries. Seattle!!! I’m a local! But I guess any local should have known about Rosabellas. I do now and will never return.

Usually I find myself defending local businesses but in this case I can’t believe they have been so generous. Service is brutal and the baking was mediocre.
This is a cute building and a nice location, maybe a cute brewpub with a wood fired oven will buy it.
I can always hope!

On our way to the bread farm, taking Farm to Market Rd, we found and stopped at Rosabella’s. We didn’t have to use the bathroom, but if we had, I would not have been happy. She does need to open this up for free, she would make more fans that way. We got her 5 pound apple pie, and thought it was a bit on the pricey side. Got home and first thing we did was have a piece (it smelled so good in the car coming home). It is worth it. The best pie you can purchase, and it is huge. We will come back, we want to try the donuts.

So sad! I was told we would love this place, but sadly we didn’t! The concept is great and Lily the dog greeter was wonderful, but sadly the cookies we bought tasted like a poor store bought cookie! We threw them out at our next location! How in this day and age you would put shortening in a cookie is amazing ! Yuk! Promised my husband to make it up to him by making some real ones! Sorry,! Your concept is great, to bad it doesn’t deliver!

After reading all of the reviews of this business, I did not want to believe anything could be that bad. My wife and I decided to go see for ourselves. The reviews were correct. I have to describe this business as «The black hole of negativism». Entering the parking lot one is greeted with a wave of NO’s. KEEP YOUR PETS IN THE CAR. Signs indicating children are not really welcomed either. Upon entering the building we were exposed to more hostility. No credit card purchases under $ 10. No restroom unless you pay a fee. The restroom is complimentary if you PAY for a purchase of $ 10 or more. If no purchase, the restroom will cost you $ 2. As for the available food, a breakfast sandwich will set you back $ 12.95, an individual apple pie (tart size) is $ 6. The owners are not warm and welcoming. Customer service does not live here. I hope the owners wake up to the fact that a more friendly, positive environment generates more business. This is a really attractive store with a lot of potential.

This is getting 1 star only because there is no option for zero.
Unbelievably poor customer service and attitude. The same thing happened to us today (7÷25÷14) that happened to a reviewer a few years ago. By the way, the «employee» is actually the owner. She doesn’t have a clue about how to run a business. We went in because my husband wanted to buy some donuts. I wanted to shop but had to use the bathroom first. Saw her note on the locked bathroom door that required a $ 10 minimum purchase or else there would be a $ 2 charge for using the bathroom. She was rude and clueless about how to create customer good will. We once stopped at a shop at the bottom of Pike’s Peak in Colorado that had a sign outside saying «free bathroom». Very smart business plan. We used their free bathroom, and went on to spend $ 600 in their store! Great prices on crystals and jewelry. That was 12 years ago and we still talk about it and refer people there. Rosabella’s complains about not getting customers who buy, but she’s the one chasing them away. The food is overpriced and not fresh. The trinkets she sells are made in China. Do not stop here!

Time for an update: this place sucks. Long drive but cute on outside so had high hopes. (Did not read reviews first.) Lots of «do nots» like other reviews. No photo sign not obvious so was accosted by rude owner when tried to take photo. Was able to pry reason for the rule out of her: all those flash bulbs would ruin the art AND her décor is proprietary. What a crock.
Food high priced. Dog walking around (cute but sheds.)
Walked out. She can keep her proprietary hole ALL TO HERSELF.

I live on Whidbey and was told this was a cute store. We came to check it out. Outside was nice, the inside was cute, the people inside were considerably rude. Instead of a welcome the woman behind the counter came out and sternly told me that no pictures were to be takin inside their store. They said they didn’t want to be duplicated and the flash ruins the artwork, although I didn’t see anything not available at any thrift shop or junk yard.
We decided to just have coffee and go. We were about to order and asked to use the restroom and saw a sign that we needed to spend at least $ 5 before you get the privilege of using their restroom. The pastries looked really dry and there is no cappuccino. Didn’t even see a cake in the dirty display case. Although we are dog lovers It concerned me when a dog that was shedding pretty good walked out from kitchen.
Summary. This place is unbelievable. More no signs than anything else. No kids, no public restroom, no trespassing, no touching. This place sucked really bad. Don’t waste your time checking this place out unless you want to deal with a nasty unreasonable undeserving owner.

Avoid this place! They’re jerks.

RUDE! About to shop & refused use of restroom. She asked to loan her $ 2 to use the bathroom. VERY CONFRONTATIONAL! We were going to buy apples and shop for products. Truly lady, you just lost at least $ 20 of business and my relatives will never return.

My family and I are waiting for our food as I write this and if I were a ruder person who wasnt hungry, I would up and leave before our food arrives. The owner of this store is awful – rude, impatient, no sense of hospitality. The store is cute but we refuse to buy anything on principle. The bathroom situation is ridiculous. If I’m spending $ 13 for a turkey sandwich, I shouldn’t be harassed about using the bathroom. Foods here now. Sandwich is fine but way over priced. The pie and coffee are quite nice.

I found Rosabella’s through the tulip festival website and had been so excited to stop in. Their website and blurb in the festival pamphlet had me sold but the experience was the exact opposite of what I expected,.
I came in with my husband and one of our friends and got what can only be described as hostile treatment. From their website, I had expected to come in, have a nice lunch, and buy some delicious baked goods. I had even encouraged the other two not to eat too much beforehand because I thought this place would be so good! When we got there, there was a group in front of us ordering food. My friend and I both needed to use the restroom so we went in search of it while the other group was being helped. When she was finally free, the owner refused to let us use it, as we were not «paying customers.» When we tried to explain that we had every intention of buying food, she acted as if she did not believe this at all and said we could use it after we ordered and paid.
I WISH we had left at this point but such a huge part of me didn’t want her to have the satisfaction of thinking she was right about us. So we went back to the counter area to look at the chalkboard menu and pastry items… where the owner then hurried us along as if we were taking an unnecessary amount of time. There was nobody behind us waiting to order and I would have happily moved aside if there had been. My friend asked for lunch recommendations and the owner grumpily just referred to the chalkboard menu without further explanation. Not that there was much, besides $ 6 slices of pizza and $ 13 cold sandwich/​chips combos, as well as overpriced soup. At this point we all just decided to do lunch elsewhere and try some pie ($ 5/​slice). She just seemed so impatient with us the whole time as we decided what we wanted. I tend to think out loud and said something like, «I don’t know what I want but the strawberry-​rhubarb looks good…» at which point she said, «Ok, the strawberry rhubarb, do you want ice cream with that?» I just gave up and ordered it. Water costs 50 cents for a paper cup from the tap (and lucky if your cup is more than half full.)
When she rang us up, she overcharged us by $ 2.50 but we didn’t notice it until later looking at the receipt (and at that point just didn’t feel like it was worth it to fix it.) Also, she didn’t think to let us into the bathroom after we completed our transaction so I went outside, ate my piece of pie (mine was ok, my friend found a hair in hers and quit eating it) and went back in to use the bathroom. However, a couple different groups had come in at that point so I had to stand around for 10 minutes until she was free again. When I asked her to let me in, she looked at me and said, «Were you one of the one’s that ordered food?» Ugh. Really?
Overall, this place was the reason I finally got on Unilocal.I’ve had poor service before in the form of slow waiters, incorrect orders, bad food… but never a person that has just had such a toxic attitude where I’ve left in a really terrible mood. I’ve worked in customer service and can understand the annoyance when someone is clearly taking advantage of your business but it seems like Rosabella’s assumes everyone is there to take advantage of them and treats them poorly for it.

Do not, do not go here. Read the reviews & consider yourself warned. No cameras, no kids & no people of color allowed. Three hours of my only Saturday with my husband & our 2 kids last month was wasted in the car going to & from Rosabella’s. & we were only there all of 4 minutes. We made the trek from Seattle for the sole purpose of visiting Rosabella’s. Of course I was planning to buy something! But my 4-​year old was not allowed to use their porta-​potty until after I made my purchase. How many people know what they want to buy the minute they walk in the door? So I actually considered pre-​paying for our pie just so he could go to the bathroom until my husband overheard the owner being a jerk to another customer (a lovely person of color) and we quickly left.
These people should honestly consider the mortuary business. They act like they can’t stand people. Utterly disappointing experience.
Would rate zero stars, if Unilocal allowed! I’m sure I would have loved their hot-​apple pie since I didn’t know at the time it was served with a side of PREJUDICE.

No public restrooms. No picture taking. No touching. No … ugh … the word «welcoming» doesn’t even come close to Rosabella’s customer service. If I wasn’t pregnant and tired, we would’ve drove on and found a different place — regrettably, we stayed and experienced sub-​par yet expensive apple pie, and ridiculous porta-​potties which they keep strictly padlocked. Seems like they put so much attention to their porta-​potties they forgot to make actually yummy pies!
Consider yourself warned.

a-​ha! that explains it! I had to pee but was told there was no public restroom. Yes, I did see the big sign telling me «No Public Restroom» in bold print above the door, but on the door was a sign explaining the restroom was for customers only. Fair enough. We were hungry so we bought a cinnamon roll. It was okay. We asked the indeed cranky lady if there was a restroom we could use and were told ‘No, sorry.’ I see now from a fellow Unilocaler review that there is a minimum $ 5 purchase and the cinnamon rolls were only $ 4.50 (and not worth $ 4.50, in case you were wondering.) I guess if you spend $ 5 you get to borrow the key to use the padlocked porta-​potties.
To heck with that. I regret spending the $ 4.50 for an okay cinnamon roll and an irritable employee. But I will say this, I do appreciate how they don’t sell bread because they don’t want to compete with the bakery down the street. Kudos and an extra star to them for that.
The best thing about Rosabella’s are the amusing reviews on Unilocal that the place has spawned, lol.

I happened upon this general store while tooling around the area and I’ve been back a few times after and will go back again. My experience parallels many of the other Unilocalers (nice fellow, cranky gal, signage that’s a bit of a put off about what not to do, etc.). Perhaps past unpleasant experiences with obnoxious tourists are the culprit for current conditions. They do offer a variety of yummy eats, a monstrous apple pie, canned goods, greeting cards, kitchen fun stuff, etc. in their store. So I return for reliably delicious items like the dilled garlic and cherry butter, not for a warm welcome. If you’re in the Skagit Valley do stop by, keep your kids behaved, say hello, buy some nice things, be kind, and say goodbye. Smiles are contagious.

Oh, Unilocal!How I wish I’d come to you before coordinating a four-​family fall outing and driving an hour and a half to reach this establishment. Rarely have I been treated as rudely by a fellow human being, and having worked in mental health, that’s saying a lot. (And at least in mental health treatment, usually the person can’t help it!) NEVER have I encountered such HOSTILITY at a place of business. Reading the other reviews, it’s becoming clear that they simply HATE CHILDREN AND FAMILIES (and people of color? Read James’ review at the other Rosabella’s listing).
We arrived with cash in hand ready to have a lovely day with our little ones, picking apples, eating doughnuts, and maybe taking home some local jam or other goodies. Instead the owner (Rose Meritt) told us we needed to leave because our toddlers were eating cheese we brought from home. «I’m sorry, I should have asked first,» I said, making a move to put stuff away and purchase some pastries… but then… «Well there’s a sign and your problem is you don’t read and I’m just so shocked at how discourteous you people are and we’re in the business of making a living and we’re losing money because of PEOPLE LIKE YOU and you need to leave the property.» (A collage of all the things she said in the course of our conversation while I tried to explain I was there to spend lots of money and so were the other 3 families. This conversation took place inside and, once she pursued us out, in front of the establishment, at which point she was actually yelling at me and my friend in front of our children while we both tried to calmly pacify the situation.)
Whew. This woman is driving business away and wondering why she can’t make a living? Her husband was very calm and a bit more reasonable, and I left feeling sorry for him.
Our children were crying as we left! Those of us that left together had a fantastic time at a different, low-​key, honest, and very friendly farm:
Go to Mother Flight Farm instead, for a relaxing u-​pick experience (apples, raspberries and farm-​fresh produce, all organic with excellent prices and very friendky staff) just off Exit 221 to the west (follow signs). Open seasonally F, S, & Sunday.

I’m surprised you don’t have to pay a fee to sneeze at this place. Upon arrival, there are many signs telling you all of things you cannot do while there. You can’t use the potty unless you spend $ 5 (per person that needs to go potty). If you sit at one of the tables outside, you should only be eating something you purchased there, or there is a table rental fee. If your kid only eats Cheerios… they better eat them in private. If you take your children inside, you better hold onto them… or better yet, bind their little hands… or you will probably be chastised. There is sign after sign telling you what you can’t do… rather than helpful information as to what you can do to have fun. Seriously… it is clear that the owners (at least the wife… the husband is quite pleasant) just don’t like people. I can pay less for organic apples that have already been picked as well as pumpkins that have already been picked. If I am doing it myself… why should I pay more?
This was our second time going to this place to pick apples. The apples aren’t the greatest price, but it’s fun to pick our own and to enjoy a few apple doughnuts while we are there. My boys had a great time playing with the resident dog (there are signs about how to play with her, of course). The location is nice enough with great views of the mountains… but I believe this was our last time there. We’ll be looking for other u-​pick apple places for next year. Even when picking our own apples, it was made clear to us that we needed to pick at least 7 – 8 pounds per person to make it worth their time to deal with the inconvenience of dealing with us. Thank heaven we picked 26 pounds between the four of us or we might have had to go back and pick more.
Done with this place.

My husband and I were driving around Tulip country in Skagit Valley and got a little off the beaten path. It was about 3 in the afternoon on a Saturday, and the perfect time for some kind of snack or dessert. .. maybe a cup of coffee…
First, walking in the store, it’s a super cute place with all kinds of country-​fied gifts and jams and jellies etc. I’m not country but it was a pretty cute store. I do kind of wonder what makes people want to buy jelly on vacation. .. but hey.
I wandered back into an area for wine tasting, but I wasn’t into wine that day. .. I really wanted some pie! Glorious pie!
Colin ordered a slice of strawberry rhubarb (THE LAST SLICE!) a la mode, and I got a mixed berry mini-​tart, which was actually only $ 3.50, what a deal. Two cups of coffee and a cookie for later, we were down about $ 15 and had in front of us two glorious, handmade pieces of pastry.
mmmmmmmmmmmmm