Sur La Table

Took a cooking class here. It was a small class with only 3 people so we had the opportunity to ask a lot of questions. The kitchen is well stocked and all the items for the three recipes we made were prepped beforehand. We also got a 10% off coupon to use in the store, a copy of the recipes and samples of cookies that were being sold in the store. I found it to be an informative and fun class. Not outrageously priced for what I learned today.
The store has every gadget you could ever think of. I could spend all day looking at all the tools alone…

Solid 3+ (add a star if you only come for the classes and aren’t paying)
Their service here has always been very satisfactory IF you can find someone to help you. I’ve never seen a staff member hiding, but it’s just that there’s often not enough of them at a given time to assist people. The registers are a little chaotic as well: sometimes one of these rare staff members will come to an unused register with a customer in-​tow, and ring them up while other customers are already waiting in line. While this might not seem like a big deal, it is. Customers already queued up have been waiting patiently, and the customer who was just being assisted on the floor not only received assistance in finding an item but now skips the line and is served first? This may also be one reason that employees are in short-​supply here; they’re doing double-​duty as register and floor staff.
The items here are great if you need to browse for inspiration (inspiration for what? I don’t know, I’m not the one browsing a cooking store for inspiration!) or pick something up last-​minute for a party, but the items can all be had (and usually a better quality item if one does a little research) from online retailers at a cheaper price.
Classes here abound, and make a GREAT gift. They seem a bit pricey however for casual cooks interested in learning a new technique; perhaps the more advanced classes offer better instruction that is worth the money.
The knife section is comparable to many online retailers, so it does pay to be able to come in and demo a few items before making a decision.

Went to a cooking class with my daughter yesterday. French menu classics. Great recipes. Was very upset that the chef/​instructor didn’t have everyone wash their hands at the beginning of the class. There were four other women in the class with us. At one point we were separating eggs into a bowl. Instead of one of the women passing the yolk back and forth from shell to shell to separate the white from the yolk, she broke the entire egg into her hand and let the white slip through her fingers into the bowl. Maybe she thought it was a cool method but all I could think about was that she hadn’t washed her hands before the class. Then, after the teacher wiped chocolate from the mixing bowl with his finger he licked it off in his mouth. When he was about to pick up our steaks with his fingers (I was waiting to see if he’d use tongs) I had to say ‘excuse me’!! He stopped what he was doing and looked at me. I then asked if he’d please wash his hands before picking up our steaks with this hands since his fingers had been in his mouth! He said of course he would and apologized profusely but in my mind the damage was done. Not cool. Not sanitary. Not professional.

My review is based on the customer service aspect, not the equipment and wares (which are pricy but good quality).
I visited this location in November to purchase some items from a bridal shower registry. They weren’t crowded but I wandered around for about 10 or 15 minutes looking for a free salesperson. I wasn’t ever noticed, welcomed or approached, I had to approach a cluster of 3 employees who were now free but chatting amongst themselves behind the registers. I asked about the registry and someone offered to print it out for me. She hit print and walked away.
A page or two printed but then it stopped midway. The printer was out of paper. I thought it would be quicker to refill myself since getting someone to help me in the first place wasn’t easy so I checked the cabinet underneath the printer, found the paper and refilled it. I grabbed the stack of papers off the printer and looked around for the items I wanted to buy.
I picked out several useful items and also noticed a Dachshund cookie cutter was on the registry. I thought it was odd because the couple owns a German Shepard, but that’s what they wanted so that’s what they were going to get. There weren’t any Dachshunds left so I bought the couple’s initials instead and tied them to the gift bag as decoration.
A few weeks later at the shower I sat in anticipation as the bride opened my gifts but seemed unimpressed at everything.
Later I asked my friend why in the world she requested a Dachshund cookie cutter and she said she hadn’t. It bothered me because I thought I was going crazy so since I still had the registry print out at home I was going to show her that it was on the registry and I wasn’t nuts. When I looked at it again I noticed that page 1 of the registry had my friend’s names on it but several of the middle pages were someone else’s registry! The only way I noticed this was at the tippy top of each page in the header it says the couple’s names, otherwise you wouldn’t know — the front page was the correct page but several middle pages were leftovers from the previous person grabbing the stack of papers and not realizing there were more pages that hadn’t printed because it ran out of paper that night at the store.
I called the store the next day to explain what happened because now there’s a bride-​to-​be somewhere who thinks she’s getting a pizza stone, among other things, but there will never be a pizza stone because someone else has it. Not to mention the embarrassment of giving someone gifts you spent a lot of money on that they didn’t really want and will probably never use or go through the trouble of exchanging for what they really wanted. The manager didn’t really care either way. I told him I still had the print out and know who the other person is and maybe they could contact them. They didn’t want to go through the trouble because they said there wasn’t a way of finding them. Of course there’s a way — I had their name and registry number — but apparently they didn’t want to go through the trouble of looking them up. I barely got an apology.

Impressed with the selection on the shelves and the view-​from-​the-​street cooking classes that showcases the wares, but the sandwich board outside advertising free ice cream for a 1-​year anniversary that was not accounted for inside was goonish. Prices are high and staff was distant but gotta respect the product here; sure beats yet another clothing store.

Impressive selection of kitchen supplies and hardware. Definitely on the pricey side but you’re getting long-​term quality out of it. I stopped here tonight with a co-​worker to pick up a holiday gift for our boss’ wife — got her a Christmas-​themed cookie tray with some red/​green sprinkles and snowflake-​shaped white sprinkles. The clearance area is very hit-​or-​miss but when it’s a hit, it’s a big hit. Try out the free espresso machine samples in the back of the store while you’re at it too, and don’t forget to take advantage of their fancy gift-​wrapping service if what you’re getting is a gift.