Sur La Table

Got helped by Blake at this location, who gave us some great recommendations and a good laugh. Knowledgeable about their inventory and a huge help. Will be coming back to take a look at their cooking classes.

exceeded expectations

theres an untold mystery
behind learning to use a
copper pan with chefs

My boyfriend surprised me with a "Date Night" cooking class at Sur La Table in Palo Alto just before Christmas. Coming from out of town, we were both so excited for this experience together. Upon travel and arrival, we were told the class had been CANCELLED - WITHOUT NOTICE! I was devastated, and frankly furious. They had our names (we were greeted by name), 3 different email addresses, and 3 different phone numbers they could've tried but there was no attempt to contact us. Despicable.
Being from the hospitality industry, I am disappointed in the "effort" (if you can call it that) shown - a refund, for the class they cancelled, without notice.
This one star review goes to the young front sales associate who was brave enough to break us the news.

This is based on our visit today, Evan go home, you're sick and you shouldn't be helping customers. Wiping your nose with you hand, really? And then handling the customers merchandise, totally disgusted by our experience, that's how you spread colds and flush around, I watched everything you touched and the only reason why I didn't speak to a manager was my wife dragging me out of the store telling me not to worry about it. I'm sorry but that is unacceptable in my opinion. To the managers, you need to do a better job and check in with your employees, anytime my employees come in I send them home because they shouldn't be at work interacting with other employees or customers.

Hm. Not sure I'll do another cooking class.

I really thought that, for the price, we'd each have our own cooktop to make our own meal. Instead it was ten of us sharing 4 cooktops making one family meal.

I also really didn't like hearing that the recipes hadn't been tested before and we were the "guinea pigs." Ugh. I spent a lot for that test run.

The food was yummy, and I learned one or two new techniques from the 4 recipes we made.

If you really suck at cooking, and want basic instruction with not a lot of responsibility in making it (think: 3 people sharing the task of putting prepared broccoli in a pot ) then these classes are for you.

If you're a really passionate cook, just follow a challenging YouTube tutorial at home for the same effect.

The Julia Child class was advertised as hands-on with 4 people per group which is similar to the half dozen other classes we have taken at other Sur la Table locations. What we got was not hands-on and there were 7 of us in our group. I highly advise against taking any classes at this location.

The instructor, while knowledgeable, was authoritarian and didn't let us do much in the way of cooking, prepping, etc. I brought my daughter and 5 of her friends for her 15th birthday and I didn't touch anything to give the kids a chance to participate. I don't consider stirring for 30 seconds or folding for 30 seconds hands on.

This was an expensive and disappointing choice to celebrate her birthday. At $69/person, this was not worth it at all.

We were told not to place anything on the butcher block tables because we were going to do prep/cooking there. We only used to the tables to eat standing up at the end of the class when we were rushed because they ran out of time. Poor time management.

The two gals helping were not pleasant nor were they helpful. They did all the prep work which should have been done by the participants in the class. At one point they chastised the kids for fooling around. The kids had been standing around doing hardly anything and had been very well behaved given the situation.

I spent the class chatting with one of the gals from the other group (another birthday group of 4 women celebrating a 40th birthday) and neither of us did any of the "hands-on" work to allow the others to have a chance at something.

My daughter and her friends were bored with nothing to do and at times no explanation of what was going on. I was bored.

At one point the chef was adding something for the mashed potatoes and barely explained what it was or where it came from. It was prepped as part of the class but seemed to be an important ingredient.

At the end with the chef and the helpers were plating the food (we didn't even get to do that), they miscounted and didn't have a plate for me. Fortunately they hadn't cleaned the pots and pans otherwise I would have been without even a bite of the food prepared. I had to point out that they were missing a plate.

At one point I asked to see the manager out on the shop floor and a guy said he could help me. I told him about the experience and how disappointing it was especially based on my experiences at the Walnut Creek and Los Gatos locations and he apologized, took my name and number, and said he would look into some sort of a discount and have someone get back to me. That was Saturday morning; it's now Monday morning and no one has reached out to me.

Avoid this location.

This is our go to place for our caffeine fix! There is a Nespresso counter inside the store where you can buy your coffee capsules and also sample their latest flavours.

I saved the little plastic sampler mug for my toddler and he loves it! Cool way to get him to start drinking water!

Also love Nespresso for heir recycling program. They collect used capsules and recycle them!

I also like Sur La Table for little knick knacks that make great presents for kids. I picked up an egg form in the shape of an owl and a pancake form in the shape of a smiley face which were both fun gifts.

My kid was excited to take a French cooking class with friends for their birthday. It was advertised as "Hands On" and groups of four. It was neither. They were lumped into a group of seven and given little opportunity to get hands on. And then scolded when they were talking because they were bored.

I manage a woodshop where we teach classes. If we taught classes this way we'd be out of business. Imagine signing up to learn how to make a cutting board, only to watch someone else make a cutting board, not be told all the steps and then handed a cutting board made by someone else. Nope.

Suffice it to say, we're getting some money back on this one and not credit towards more stuff. This isn't the end.

Not surprising that the rating was low. When I walked in a blonde employee accused me of returning a bunch of broken item without even looking what i brought in. I Ordered $700 worth of utensils and drove 40 min for them to tell me that there was nothing they could do without the credit card i used which it didn't not state anywhere on the return paper provided in my package. All they could do was give me $700 to sur la table...but i wasn't satisfied with my purchase so that wasn't helpful at all. Wish they could have acted like they would check to see if there was something they could do instead of sending me back on a 40 mun drive home with nothing accomplished

Terrible customer service. Cranky staff. Not interested in helping customers. I'm certain this is not how Sur La Table wants their stores run.