Passage to India Bakery & Mithai Shoppe

I just called this place, it’s my moms birthday and I need an eggless cake asap.
The gentleman that picked up the phone was very nice at first but when I asked if I could reserve a cake he didn’t seem to understand what I meant as he totally avoided my question and proceeded to end the call.
Now this wouldn’t be such a big deal, if they aren’t able to pull out a cake and have it ready for pick up when I arrive for whatever reason that’s fine but at least communicate. The guy just dodged my question and kept repeating «there are many cakes please come and look at them when you come for the pick up.» And then he told me that he had to go as he was having another phone call coming in, seriously! I’m not that dumb he was obviously just trying to hang up on me.
The whole thing is I know which cake I want and If possible I would have liked for it to be ready to go when I arrive. Learn to provide better service when running a business as well as provide to the customers needs. I don’t appreciate those that give others a hard time for no reason.

This review is for their dinner buffet.
Plus:
+ sandwiches
+ mini burgers served hot at your table (but you have to ask for it)
+ puff & pizza & bhel (average)
+ tea
Minus:
— No bottled/​mineral water, no soda even if you are ready to pay extra for that (r u kidding me?)
— all North Indian food in main course (looked and tasted as if it’s not freshly prepared for that day)
— all desserts (this is a bakery shop & expected something really good)
— Not worth the price you pay $$. I paid $ 15 for some special day event expecting something ‘special’ but was highly disappointed.

Their vegan cakes are amazing! I definitely recommend this place to everyone who can’t or don’t eat eggs.

Will recommend this place for weekday lunch.
Good buffet options for vegetarians and not as crowded as other restaurants on nearby mountain view downtown.

Love this place. Awesome Indian snacks and good service.

I’m going to start my review by telling you about the good stuff, because that’s what you do when you’re giving someone feedback. Passage to India has good cakes and pastries but unfortunately, their owner has no sense of how to treat her customers and communicate with them. If I only rated them on taste, I’d give them a 5 star rating but sadly, this about the whole customer experience, which I have to say was terrible. Sushma, the owner, has no respect for her customers and is rude, beyond words.
Here’s the story — I hosted my son’s 4^th birthday party and like year’s passed, I wanted to order the cake from Passage to India, because I am truly very fond of their stuff. However, my experience and interactions with Sushma through the process of placing this order were just abysmal. The party was on July 12 and I placed my order on Thursday, July 9, morning (this was after going personally to the store on a week night, before the July 4 holiday and being told by the dude behind the counter that he would call me back to confirm the pricing of my order). On the morning of July 9, Sushma took my call and was EXTREMELY rude, she spoke with me like she was doing me a favor by taking my order and went off on several rants. I kept my cool throughout the conversation and went ahead and placed the order. Later in the evening, I realized that I needed to make a change to the number of people I had ordered for and when I called to tell her that I need to make an alteration, she began yelling again about how I can’t change the number. Mind you, I wasn’t going from like a 100 people to 50, I was simply going from 50 people to 40. I mean, I’m calling you to change the order that very evening (i.e. 2 days ahead of the order and you’re telling me that I can’t change my order my a wee bit? Give me a break!) Anyway, we went past that and then I told her I would pick up the order at 10 a.m. on Sunday morning. The final order was a 2lb cake and 24 cupcakes.
Come Sunday morning, I arrive to pick up my cake and the guy at the counter goes, «order for Jyotsna, hmmm, I don’t know anything about this. Did you place it with Sushma?» and I responded by giving him all the details. He calls her and then she asks to speak with me and tells me that she has forgotten to place the order. GREAT!!! My party is in an hour and everyone who has ever thrown a birthday party for kids knows that it’s all about the CAKE!
Anyway, I was trying to be as calm as I could and even though she was being rude to me (shocking! not), I told her that I’ll just take two, two pound cakes that were in the window and she said, «yeah, if you don’t mind, can you please do that?» Ok. FINE. I needed cake, I got cake.
Honestly, I wasn’t mad about her not having my order ready because I knew there’s a way around it BUT what really pissed me off was the fact that this woman has no sense of how to speak with her customers. She was giving me excuses about why she forgot to place my order and then instead of listening to me, she kept talking over me and didn’t once, NOT ONCE, did she say she was sorry!!! I mean, who the hell does she think she is?! To top it all, she had already charged my credit card $ 110…WTF is that all about??!
Anyway, the bottom line is that although my liking for Passage to India cakes and pastries isn’t going to die BUT I will unfortunately, have to boycott this place.
Lastly, Sushma, if you’re reading this, and BELIEVE ME, YOU SHOULD, get some training on how to communicate with your customers, learn some manners and seriously, f*ing apologize. Accept that you were VERY WRONG and if you can’t do that, then seriously, you should let someone else run your business, because if you keep this up, you’re not going to last. Period.

Love their pastries and puffs.
had tried their buffet on a weekday and was not bad. Service was very good (but there were just two tables occupied)

Such an unprofessional customer service and staff these guys have here. I have been here thrice already and the place is overrated. But since I have only 2 weeks left for my son’s birthday and came up with a theme after a final decision, I decided to call up and ask if they could do the cake for me. As soon they pick up a phone, a female says «hold on I am too busy now». I hold onto the phone, after like five minutes she comes back to the phone and in such an impolite voice says, «this is the wrong time to call me and talk». Oh really why do you list your phone number and says we are open then if you guys are that busy? Seriously? I will never stop by this place again. Being rude is the worst thing when you do a business.
I attended a baby shower party here. The food was less tastier than any other average restaurant in mountain view. The place is so congested that no one can walk in between. If you are starving to death and have no other place open to feed then go here and I’m sure you’ll be back to write a bad review.

Bakery stuff is good but rest are ok. My kids liked it better than us. My kids comments below
I believe this is a hidden treasure because their buffet has almost every kind of north indian cusine you can think of and their desserts are some of the best i have eaten. I would personally give this 4 stars.

The mini-​burgers here are so yum! I just became a huge fan of those, when I had these at a friend’s party. However, their lunch buffet was such a disappointing experience. Other than the mini-​burgers, bhel and pastries, there was not a single item that tasted good.
If it were not for the cake that we ordered from here (blackforest cake) and the mini-​burger, I would have rated them even lower!

The buffet is such a big let down. Though they had a very interesting spread with pizza, pav bhaji, chaats, pastries, burgers, soups to the usual run of the mill curries, rice and rotis, not even a single item was commendable. I would have rated it at 2 stars had it not been for their mini sized appetizer platters which are always a party hit. Oh, and I am not a fan of their cakes, way too much cream.

I absolutely love this place ! I wanted a cake for my friend’s baby shower and was wondering if these guys could make the cake the way I wanted ! I called them, Sushma ji the manager and Sachin both were super friendly and helpful doing the job in just three days !! I sent them a picture of the cake I wanted and to my surprise they did a wonderful job ! All our friends loved the cake ! It got over within minutes the cake was cut !! thank u so much sushmaji and sachin ! I will always get back to you for my special occasion cakes !

Came after a year or so, looking fwd to lunch buffet over the weekend. Highly disappointed !
Very bad customer service, it took 20 min to bring bread. One person taking care of everything.
Food very stale and did not even have good flavor. Very limited curry selection.
Not coming back. Pls stay away !

This place has the best eggless cake. I personally love the pineapple cake. The staff here is so sweet and I m definitely coming. I would like to give a special shoutout to Sachin who opened the door for us even after the store was closed. He saved the day by letting us buy the cake we wanted/​needed.

Had some time so decided to write a review. «Why do I have time,» you ask? Well, because the cake order I placed over a week ago by phone is not ready yet. The good news is they at least found it, though after they tried to pawn off a phony to pacify me.
Rewind to a week and a half ago… I emailed PtI and the owner replied by email that she was in India and told me to call the bakery. Called to bakery to place the cake order for a surprise baby shower for the guests of honor who has dietary restrictions (no ovo). Couldn’t tell by the way the guy who took my order answered, that this was a professional business. There was a language and connection issue. Finally got my order placed for a cake and hung up feeling uneasy about the whole thing. I emailed back asking for a confirmation and total amount — things I never got from the guy taking my order. She got someone else to call me, basically telling me not to worry, that the order was fine and that they’d take care of it.
Fast forward to today… Pick up time, 2:00pm. I walk and say I have a cake order for so and so. There’s a look of confusion and scramble to find the order. The guy is looking through the order book and the display cases. The cake is nowhere to be found. He actually asks me what is is (eggless, chocolate, pink) and pulls a small pre-​made cake out. I tell him I was charged $ 100, and that does not look like a $ 100 cake. Re-​fricken-​diculous!
Another guy steps in and says, «Oh! That cake!» They run to the back and return, only to tell me the baker from last night did not tell the baker for today to complete my order so it’s not ready yet. WTF? So, if you order something for a certain pick up time, say 2:00pm, it won’t be ready. Nice. Especially when it’s now a few minutes to 3:00pm and the surprise party is at 3:30pm and you’re still standing in the bakery.
At this point, I don’t give a squat if this cake tastes like rainbows served from an angel’s wing. This is poor business management and horrible customer service. I should also mention, there isn’t another soul in the place except for the employees. How is this place still in business???
Lesson learned, I will never order anything from here again. You shouldn’t either if you have an important event you need a cake for.

The best place for Indian vegetarian snack items, especially love Indian burger and pizza here

The bakery component and the dining component seem like two different worlds. The retail is this very nice, clean organization. The dining is hidden off and it’s basically a buffet at lunch. Chana masala, daal, malai kofta, lemon rice, saag… many other veggie items. Gobi manchurian and desi noodles also are on the list. However if you go late, the selection has basically sat out and a bit blah. You pay up front so there’s not much service just enough to keep plates clean. You do get to sample some desserts from the bakery but not nearly the sample of what they have. Id say stick to the bakery and eat the savory at many other capable places

A local favorite of mine, came here for dinner and it comes out to be a little over $ 10 for buffet. (vegetarian)
Other than a selection of rice/​noodles/​curries/​baked cauliflowers and potatoes, it also has baked bread and mini burgers fresh from the kitchen (sometimes a waiter will walk over to ask if you’d like an order) On certain days they also serve Dolsa from the kitchen.
I had a cup of Masala chai with five pieces of cookies to wash it down afterwards. You won’t find this many flavors and textures when eating alone elsewhere!

I’m not familiar with Indian sweets, but I passed this place many times and I always wanted to try this out. Finally I stopped by today!
I had no idea what to try, because there was a lot of choice. I asked a waitor and he was very nice, I got milk/​cheese like mochi (I forgot the name oops), and it’s tasty. I need to come back and want to try other things.

Cold winter evenings. Missing the bakeries in India, wait I have passage to India that I can walk to and yes coming here is all about nostalgia for me.
The snacks– all the fried vegetarian ones have been consistently good. My faovrites are the samosas and the vegetarian puffs. I love the stuffed buns but don’t like having them often. I also love love their plum cake — there are times when I can finish half a pound by the time I walk from the bakery home ;)
About the buffet, love the variety, but not a fan of the main course, the bakery items on the buffet menu are great, but the rice sabzis are quite average, I again like the snacks– the pizza, the pakoras, the puff and the desserts in the buffet. The service is hit or miss. At one time when the resturant was relatively empty, the waiter was only attentive until we asked for the naan.
At another time, when the owner was around, she ensured that the waiters enquired about the food and served water regularly. I can while away time slowly munching on the food, amusing myself looking at fellow desis and sometimes watching an all too familiar popular movie/​movie song on the television in the dining area.