Garden Cafe

07/31/11

European-style eating, as in you'll be there ALL DAY

by gbelleza at Citysearch

I want to like this place. It's on my street and the food is pretty good and reasonably priced, but the owner has staffed his restaurant with a bunch of teenagers who clearly have no idea how to run an eatery. The food ALWAYS takes FOREVER! I'm talking 40 minutes+ for eggs, or a sandwich. The food is decent, but not good enough to wait all afternoon. I gave them a second chance one Sunday several months ago and I was shocked to see that, instead of them trying to fix the problem, they just put signs everywhere telling people the food is going to take about 45 minutes to an hour. In all my years of eating out, I have never seen this. Instead of hiring people who know what they're doing and a manager to oversee operations, they put out a sign that says, essentially, our service sucks but since we're telling you ahead of time, it's ok. Not only is that insulting, it's pretty audacious. That isn't how you run a business. I gave them a third chance today because my car wasn't working and I can walk there. I saw very few customers so I thought surely it won't take as long as normal. I was wrong. Same story as always. Today it took about 35 or 40 minutes, and two out the four of us ordered chicken and dumplings, which is already made. It only requires ladling it into a bowl!!! That was your last chance, Garden Cafe. Until you can get your s**t together, you've lost me and several of my friends as customers. And PS, where is the "garden" on the menu? I would expect to see a lot more herbs and lettuces and vegetables, seeing as your whole gimmick is that you grow a lot of your own ingredients.........

10/31/10

Not worth the wait

by musselhaus at Citysearch

Very cute place, but service way below par. Asked status of our order (omelet and a sandwich) after 30 min and was told a couple orders ahead of us. Inside has only 12-15 tables of which maybe half were empty. 20 min later still didn't have food. Saw at least one couple get a refund because they couldn't wait. Kitchen looked like it had about half a dozen people in there and another half a dozen wait staff (no one seemed old enough to drink) so not sure why there is any wait. I've lived in the neighborhood for 18 years and have tried going several times but left because there was a wait for a table. Today, plenty of tables were free but we had to get food to go. Five cups of coffee and over an hour later, omelet was very tasty, but hash browns ordered cooked well were not and toast arrived uncooked. Best bet seems to be avoiding the weekend and clear your schedule to allow for disappointingly slow service.

09/07/09

good weekday breakfast

by mehungry32 at Citysearch

I first brought my wife here on a Sunday morning. Big mistake! I had no idea we would have to wait nearly an hour for our food, but it was worth it. The food was hot and fresh(I got the sweet potato pancakes, my wife had an omelet) and sitting in the garden was nice. I went back on a week day since the staff assured me they weren't as busy then. I did not have to wait in line, and the restaurant was not packed like it was for my previous visit. I will be going back, but not on a Sunday as they seem too busy.

• Pros: Good food, relaxed atmosphere, garden in back,friendly staff
• Cons: Busy on weekends, long wait for food

03/22/09

service is terrible and could care less

by ponyscott at Citysearch

They had terrible problems with their delivery of food after ordering and were totally unprepared and unprofessional when confronted about waiting for over an hour for the food to the table. The staff was surley and were quick to pass the buck on someone else as if it were the patrons fault.

Please don't waste your time here.

• Pros: plenty of parking
• Cons: they could care less about their patrons...apathetic

12/27/08

Crappy food

by OCMichelle at Citysearch

My first indication that this wasn't going to be great. Bottled, and way past its prime OJ. I received my large glass of old oj before we had finished paying. The cashier complained to the cook when he asked about why the OJ was pulled, said that I had said it was 'gross'. Wrong! I said it was turning bad, and 'tangy'. She did not offer to replace it with a free beverage and refund my money for the bad oj. The only beverage available was lemonade was from a mix that had tons of sugar. The hot chocolate was powdered mix. Ick. There was 1 kind of hot tea available, and not one I liked. The omelette I ordered was greasy, the biscuit looked like a mistake. I think it was supposed to be a 'drop' biscuit, but it looked like leftover dough. The hashbrowns looked like they came out of the frozen food section. The bacon my daughters got with their food, was 90% fat. My husband's oatmeal was bland. He asked for more brown sugar, so they did that 'passive aggressive' move of giving a side of about 1/2 cup of brown sugar. That is so RUDE.

This is the 2nd time I have eaten here, and trust me I won't be going back. And of course on a Saturday am at 11, it should have been a minimum of half full. There were 2 other tables there. . . That was a sign we should have turned around and left.

My other pet peeve, and I have been to great restaurants all over the US; when you walk in, there was no 'good food' smell. It didn't smell like anything. That should have had me turned around and walking out the door.

So to consolidate my lengthy review. DONT' GO HERE. You'd get a better breakfast with much less attitude from McDonald's. . .

• Pros: good if you're starving
• Cons: everything else