01 Sep Thu 2011
The wife and I were Secret Shoppers at a local Cafe
The Woodlands La Madeleine Visit
On Wednesday Aug. 31, 2011 the wife and I visited The
Woodlands La Madeleine Cafe between 7:30 and 8:15 pm. It
was a pleasant visit. My wife knowing that we were Secret
Shopping chose to be the difficult customer to see how
the staff would handle it.
Allow me to start from my first impressions. As we
approached the Cafe I noticed retail food jars neatly
displayed in the window. And the Cafe had WiFi. Upon
entering we were greeted by a friendly fella in a red
shirt and fancy French hat. We explained it was our first
visit and needed someone to walk us through the ordering
process.( that was not totally honest b'cause our
daughter had previously been employed at La Madeleine's
and we had visited her in the past as guests) Our red
shirted greeter explained the Rosemary Rotisserie Chicken
Dinner to my wife. My wife settled in on the mid range
price item but thought she was getting a side of
vegetable also. The youngest of the servers told her "Our
greeter doesn't know how the pricing works, I will not be
giving you Broccoli" After we paid and sat down my wife
returned to the cashier and fussed that she was given two
different stories at the door about how to order her
food. And the orange haired lady offered a dish of
Broccoli that my wife readily accepted.I found the Men's
restroom acceptable clean and organized. The wife comment
on the Women's restroom was. " Did you see dirty pipes
under the sink ? We had dirty pipes."
Now that we have the difficult customer handled let me
share my observations. I chose the Savory Sampler, I had
Spinach Pochette with a Caeser salad, Tomato basil soup
and I added a $1.79 cent version of Tiramisu. Upon going
to the self serve bar I chose Lemon ice water Several
pieces of 7 Grain bread, Honey and Berry Jam. Balancing
all of this on my tray I headed for the the dining room
that would allow me to observe the staff while we
visited. I started to lose my balance as I stepped from a
tile floor to a wooden floor. I caught myself and and
dinner was saved. I did agree with my wife that her 1/2
chicken was a little dry, yet at the same time my wife
prefers her food cooked med well. My wife and I enjoyed
each others company. Made plans to see a movie after
dinner and reminisced over past meals we had enjoyed
while visiting as guests when our daughter was employed
at La Madeleine's.
Other observations I made had to do with staff
attentiveness to the 20 customers that were in the cafe
while we visited. Mr. redshirt and gal with orange hair
visited continuously clearing tables and making sure our
needs and those of the other guests were being taken care
of. Servers behind the line would visit and when the
older of the two servers(dark hair) noticed a customer
they would both react to take care of customers needs.
Cook/chef in kitchen was the only employee in a
different hat (baseball cap). And the only comment to
make about the cooking area were the clutter of loose
life binders in the back corner on the top shelf.
Otherwise the area appeared to be organized. The serving
line also was well maintained. I would find it rewarding
to be part of this establishment. Especially as it
pertains to Fresh baked 7Grain bread every day and the
dining room staff attentiveness.