tl;dr cafe vibe is cute and well done, service was polite but only somewhat helpful, and food was…read morejust very mediocre
I placed my order online and debated on getting coffee, as their branding boldly proclaims "stupid good coffee," but ultimately decided against it, since I was already committed to the milk bread egg sando and half a dozen bagels.
Bagels:
As a big fan of Apollo Bagels in NYC, I'm no stranger to waiting in an absurdly long line for sourdough bagels. I so so SO desperately wanted these bagels from Mad Nice to be good. They absolutely were not it. They were small, thin, and overly chewy.
Milk Bread Sando:
Having never had the chance to go to Dang Wen Li, I was excited to try this at Mad Nice. While the egg itself was indeed custardy, there was nothing katsu about it. There was no panko breading on the egg, it was not deep-fried, and the milk bread not evenly toasted.
Experience:
I placed my order online. I opted for the half a dozen bagels, but there was nowhere for me to select which bagels or what kind of cream cheese I wanted. There wasn't no special instructions box at checkout either.
When I got to the cafe, there was a line of people waiting to order and a small crowd waiting for their drinks. Everyone was understandably busy, so I waited about 5-10 minutes until there was a good time for me to ask someone about my order.
Finally, one person was opening a new pack of cups, so I asked if I could get some help with my online order. I explained to her that there was no way for me to select what I wanted and she empathized, "It seems like there should be a way to pick your bagels..." and stood there looking at me. It was only when I asked her, "Is there someone I could talk to about my order?" that she said she'd go in the kitchen and ask.
Unfortunately for me, a guy standing near the counter asked her about his drink order before she could go into the kitchen and that was enough to make her forget she was helping me at all. Wanting to be patient and understanding, I ended up waiting another 10 minutes and was about to say something when the person bringing out the food orders brought mine out.
When I asked him about being able to pick my bagels, he said he gave me a little bit of everything, and asked me what I wanted. I asked if I could have 2 Gruyère, 2 salt, and 2 sesame and he said he could do that for me. He handed me the cream cheese and napkins he had put in the bag and left to take the bagels back into the kitchen. He already left, so I didn't have the heart to tell him that I actually wanted chive cream cheese and not plain, so I just accepted the plain.
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While everyone seemed nice and were definitely busy getting orders out, ultimately the food I tried was not worth returning for. The online ordering experience was also sub-par. I am very unlikely to return to Mad Nice Coffee, will not be recommending this to friends and family, and am now also extremely hesitant to ever visit the restaurant in Detroit.
