Learning Bar

We went to this class this summer and it was over sold. They wanted people to volunteer to leave. Then the class was lame. They didn’t teach us anything, just how to fill a piping bag. They gave us a small piece of fondant and some cutters. They didn’t teach any techniques. That was it. I think the cupcakes were made from a box. It was a waste if time and money. I would never recommend this!

I wish Unilocal offered a ‘no star’ option.
This Groupon was a JOKE.
I sent this note below before posting on Unilocal to give Learning Bar a chance to maybe redeem themselves. I also asked for a refund.
To Whom It May Concern,
I attended your Cupcake Decorating class last night and was incredibly disappointed.
First of all, it was very unorganized. There were multiple addresses listed as potential spots for the classes and the source of where I bought my ticket (Groupon) was not the correct address. Thankfully, I had arrived early and looked up your website which had the correct address.
Another thing to mention about disorganization was the entire structure of the course. For instance, there was only ONE piping bag with the tip to fill cupcakes going around. There should have been more of these going around at once in the interest of time. I found myself sitting there doing nothing for almost ten minutes. We also ran into this same situation for mixing color into the bags.
It was very apparent Nicole had experience however I learned absolutely nothing new. This was a cupcake decorating course and all we were told was «get creative». I was happy with my outcome of my cupcakes but it was all my doing. I was hoping to learn how to make designs with different tips, how to work with fondant, etc. Instead, we did all things I could easily learn on a YouTube channel.
I wanted to share this in an email versus writing a public review because as we know, people always read reviews now before attending somewhere/​something new and I would prefer to share this directly.“
Of course, Customer Support replied, apologized and asked for an address to send a refund. I told them I appreciated the reply and refund and shared my address for a refund.
*This was in September, and I’ve chatted back multiple times through this thread and it’s become the same thing over and over. Apology + Refund Offer.

I purchased a coupon on Living Social for a sushi making class. I then spent 5 months attempting to schedule a class but the merchant only makes extremely limited classes available. Finally, when I got an email from living social that my coupon was set to expire, I tried emailing the merchant to ask how they would handle this. I attempted five times to email them but never got a response. This has been a monumental waste of time and I wish that I had never bothered. I did contact Living Social and received a refund on the coupon.

Um. I purchased the sushi-​making class on Groupon for $ 30/​person. It was held in some weird popup space in Bucktown, which — if they had remotely tried — *could* have been made nice via some nice tablecloths, lighting, or something… but it was literally just a dirty old room with stained floors/​walls and a ratty old AC unit that was so loud, I could barely hear the instructor.
For $ 30, I expected MUCH more than we got, which was paper/​styrofoam plates and bowls and cheap ingredients. The wasabi looked like some gross powdered paste and the only actual fish of the evening was a mushy «tuna» paste that looked cheap and tasted worse.
The instruction was fine; all very basic stuff, nothing particularly interesting. Again, they chose the cheapest ingredients and nothing about the experience felt elevated or classy or even educational.
I purchased the sushi and coffee-​making classes at once, but have asked for my coffee-​making class to be refunded now that I know what Learning Bar is like.
Do not recommend. Buy quality fish and watch a youtube tutorial at home.

This company is horible! To start I purchased a deal from livingsocial for a sushi rolling class for two. I went through 2 weeks of email correspondence with this company to even be able to sign up for their class because my voucher # was blocked out. After all that trouble I was finally able to pick a date.
My boyfriend and I take a nice drive down to wicker park and show up at the address listed on our voucher. We walk around the buildi my looking for a suite or an indication of where this class is, no suite number or room number was provided to us… after aimless walking around we decided to leave and go to Kuma’s Corner for lunch instead. This was a complete waste of my time and money. If I could give it zero stars I would.

I took a sushi class with daughter last night. It was very cramped and they made us wait a while for inevitably rude late people. It was at the fireplace inn so, it wasn’t dirty like the other reviews. But, they over sold a small space. The ingredients were inexpensive but, I have to say, it was a BLAST. Related to the 2 other reviews, the spicy tuna was fine-​kinda puréed but, tasted absolutely fine. They must be working out the kinks. My daughter won a free class so, it’ll be interesting to see if the certificate comes– given the other review. There was another child there too so, it’s definitely family friendly. When I saw it was in a bar, I was a little worried. The caliber of the instructors always make a big difference but, it wasn’t supposed to be some high end training. They were fun, very nice, taught us some good tips, we got to play with our food & and did I mention they made it a BLAST!
I’m looking forward to whatever my daughter’s next pick.

I bought the cupcake decorating class Groupon for my mom and myself. The class was held in a re-​purposed apartment. When we got to the door, there was a hand written sign saying the class was on the third floor and to ring the buzzer. We stood outside with 5 other people for several minutes, continually ringing the bell. Finally, they buzzed us in.
When we got into the room, it was run down and dirty (dirty spaces seem to be a recurring theme with this company). We sat down at the table and had three cupcakes and a bowl of frosting at each place. My mom pointed out that she saw a few Pillsbury frosting containers laying around, which was disappointing – I thought they’d have homemade frosting, which leads me to believe the cupcakes were most likely box mixes as well.
The teachers introduced themselves and then said they were waiting for another guy to show up and help them. They waited about ten minutes after the class was supposed to start to finally begin. (He showed up about half way thorough the class.)
The first half hour of class consisted of learning how to properly cut and fill a frosting bag. Then we got to use one tip and practice piping the frosting on wax paper. When we used all our frosting we were asked to scoop it all back into the bag, which took another half hour since it’s hard to get sticky frosting into a sticky used bag.
Our first cupcake was decorated using the frosting and tip we had been practicing with. We could either make little stars or swirl the frosting around in a spiral to cover the whole cupcake. I figured we’d have to start simple, so I wasn’t overly upset. I wish we had at least gotten colored frosting or sprinkles to liven it up a bit, though.
Our second cupcake was covered with white fondant and we learned to make petals for a flower with more white fondant. (So, a totally white cupcake. Very imaginative…) It wasn’t exactly rocket science to figure out how to implement this amazing «technique». We used an extra piping tip to cut out shapes and were told to «blow through it» to dislodge the fondant – I hope this is not a professional practice at most bakeries, as that is not very sanitary.
Our third cupcake was a «freestyle». We got to use any and all of the «techniques» we had learned – which amounted to swirling frosting on a cupcake and making petals. Mostly people just used the fondant like Play-​Doh to create shapes on the cupcake. At least we got colors this time, I guess.
I actually «won» the best freestyle cupcake. I was told my prize was a free Learning Bar class. The guy took my email after class and said I would receive and email in the next couple of days. It’s been a week and a half and I’ve not heard anything. I contemplated writing an email and asking for my class, but then I read the other reviews on Unilocal and saw most people had a similar experience, so I decided to just let it go. (They offer a sushi making class and I can’t imagine they use quality, sushi-​grade fish if they expect us to reuse Pillsbury frosting.)
On Groupon, the class was $ 30. I don’t think the class was worth that much, let alone the $ 60 they typically charge for it.

Echoing the other reviews… Went to «cupcake decorating class» in a closed down store front. It was dirty. My materials were dirty. And I’m sure the cupcakes were made from a box mix. I didn’t learn anything.
My expectations were much higher than reality. I thought it would be held in a bakery and we would get gourmet cupcakes or, at the very least, home made. It would have been nice to learn some fondant techniques or more than one way to pipe frosting but I’m pretty sure the teacher didn’t know any more than what she showed us.
They also had 9 more people there than they had room for and asked two people to volunteer to leave. No one wanted to go so the helper told us that if no one volunteerd they’d have to kick two people, who weren’t on the original list, out. That’s pretty unacceptable customer service in my opinion. After 10 minutes of waiting he said that we’d use cupcakes from the next class and someone would make more for them which is the solution they should have thought of in the first place.
Overall, it was a pretty terrible experience.

I bought the Groupon for a cupcake decorating class for 4 people — I am pretty sure I paid $ 100 for it. It was a 2-​hour class (3:00 — 5:00) It was difficult to schedule, since they didn’t have a lot of days to choose from. Class was a BYOB, which is nice. My group was the only one to bring wine though.
We took the class at the Wicker Park location (1562 N. Milwaukee). There isn’t a sign anywhere to be found. The class it taught in the back room at Bru (a coffee shop). The back room was just a big ‘olé disorganized dirty room. I don’t believe any food type class should be held here.
There was 1 instructor and 2 helpers. We all had 3 tiny cupcakes in front of us, a bowl of white frosting, a pastry bag, and a star tip. The first 10 minutes was spent on how to fill the pastry bag with the white frosting. Then you could decorate one of the cupcakes anyway you like. There really wasn’t any instruction, other fancy tools, any candy, sprinkles, or other garnishes you see on cupcakes. There was white frosting.
We were then each given a small ball of white fondant to roll out and plop onto a cupcake. Then they walked around and let us choose 2 colors of fondant, and they gave us tiny pieces.
There was no instruction. You didn’t learn anything. This class was a f’cking joke. I could teach this class better out of my home. A complete rip-​off. Everyone was done in 1-​hour. So, it wasn’t even a 2-​hour class.
Seriously, DO NOT BUY THE GROUPON. A complete waste of money. Note — I know there is also a Groupon out there for a sushi-​making class. If it is held in the same place as the cupcake class, it has to violate some sort of food sanitary standard.

I took a sushi making class through Learning Bar. I have no idea what their other events/​classes are like, but I would not recommend this one. Everything was very disorganized and the glasswear they provided was smudged and dirty. I didn’t even want to eat my sushi rolls because the avocado they provided for one roll was literally brown and mushy, and the «spicy tuna» just looked like a weird pink paste. Ew. Never again.