I ordered a cake from the Contemporary bakery for Crystal Palace for my DD's 10th Birthday. When ordering, I asked for a Disney Nerds themed cake with fondant or gum paste characters on top. I was told they couldn't do that. So we went with an 8" cake with a 2D decoration on top. I ordered a marble cake with chocolate mousse and vanilla buttercream icing. They told me they would really make it nice.
When we got to the restaurant and checked in, the restaurant manager came out to see me. She took me aside and told me that they didn't have my cake!

It wasn't on their order sheet of all of the cakes that had come over for the night, and they didn't see it in their refrigerator. My heart sank. While this cake was a surprise for my daughter, it was her birthday dinner, and I wanted to make 10 special.
Lesson Learned: Make sure to check on your cake in the days before. We had so many things going on in the two days before, and I didn't even think about calling to make sure everything was in place.
She told me that she would do some more checking in their kitchen, but at the very least, they had podium cakes available, and while they couldn't decorate it according to what I had ordered, they could write happy birthday on it, and she would not charge me for it. She told me that if she came by the table once we were seated, it meant that she couldn't find the cake, and she would prepare the podium cake for us.
We got into the restaurant, and got seated. When the waiter was serving our drinks, she came over and gave our waiter a note. Again my heart sank... confirmation... they didn't have our cake.
We went about enjoying our dinner. It would be fine. DD would still have a cake and we were still celebrating. She wouldn't know that wasn't the plan. But when I went up to get some more food, the manager stopped me and told me that she had found our cake!

It had been put in a place in the refrigerator that cakes normally don't get put, and had no paperwork with it. But it was there! She brought me back to the server's station so I could see it. It wasn't what I was expecting. When they said they would really make it nice, I was hoping that they would do more with the theme.
Lesson Learned: If you really want your cake to be what you want it, be explicit with your instructions. Don't leave it up to the bakery unless you don't mind.
Once the plates were cleared, our waiter, Michael, brought it out. DD's eyes lit up! She was completely surprised.
Then he got on one knee and serenaded her. She was eating it up.
She was so happy and surprised. She loved her cake. What I was hoping for with the cake didn't matter. What she got was exactly what she wanted. It all worked out.
The cake was yummy... moist and delicious.

The cost: $65 for the cake, plus tax and tip (since there were six of us, it was automatically added to the cake bill)... total $83.