I grew up here and have stopped by Hilda's on and off for decades. I used to love it because it remained a real breakfast diner as the rest of Marin gentrified. By "real breakfast diner" I mean you could sit down, get coffee, order, eat a good diner breakfast--not fancy--pay, and leave in 35 minutes. If it was busy, they'd tell you the wait and you could decide to stay or go.
Unfortunately, I'm done with the place after today. The service was abysmal. I don't mind waiting, especially now that's it's so difficult to find help. I know the financial hit from the pandemic may require them to run the place short-staffed. But, the staff's lousy communication and borderline rudeness made the experience too much of a pain in the neck for me to waste another Saturday morning at Hilda's.
When the two of us arrived, the sign at the door said, "Please wait to be seated." We waited. As they went in and out the front door to the outdoor dining area, the servers gave us one quick "Hi" and then proceeded to ignore us for 15 minutes. Finally, as she passed by us on her way back in the door, one of the servers said over her shoulder, "If you sit inside, you don't have to wait." How confusing! Should we ignore the posted sign and seat ourselves inside, (which would have been fine), or should we continue to wait? The gentleman behind us walked right in, seated himself and immediately got service. Having lost our place in line, we seated ourselves.
We waited some more. The two servers took care of some other customers, worked behind the counter, and continued to walk back and forth to the outdoor dining area. We flagged the guy bussing the tables, who seemed to be the only person who cared. Finally, a server came over and explained that we should've waited to be seated because that would have somehow indicated that we had not ordered. He politely took our order and we ate. I was annoyed with the confusion THEY CAUSED, but his discrete apology went a long way. We went out of our way to be polite ourselves. I was glad to see them so busy. It had been a very sub-par experience, but the food was good and came in a timely manner, as usual.
The final straw was paying. By now, the place had emptied out. We sat politely waiting for the check. We waited some more. Finally, it came. I plunked down my card. More waiting. Even fewer customers now. We began to get the feeling this final delay was on purpose. It was our payback for flagging the staff for help rather than just passively waiting. I see a lot of reviews similar to mine. I hope they get it figured out. read more