I don't usually write reviews about places I visit, but today I had such a unique experience that I…read morefeel like I should share it.
The place is Garden Berry Cafe in Ottawa. The name is quite a mouthful, but it definitely makes you curious enough to go inside and see what it's about.
The interior is very grey and urban, with some fake flowers here and there. The menu is pretty large and has a lot of interesting-sounding options. After we looked through it for a minute, one of the waitresses brought us another menu saying, "Here's our special menu." It was mostly coffee drinks, which, unfortunately, didn't look particularly appealing to me.
I ordered the Route 14 crepes, and apparently the name was quite challenging. The waitress asked me "What?" at least twice, so eventually I just pointed to it on the menu. Then she proceeded to write down my order by basically cheat-sheeting from my menu. Lol.
My husband ordered one of the breakfast skillets.
The food looked good when it arrived. But oh boy...
My crepes were stuffed with mushrooms, onions, cheddar cheese, and spinach, topped with hollandaise sauce. The cheddar was melted and the spinach was fine. The crepes themselves actually tasted good.
But the onions were raw and crunchy, and the mushrooms were so undercooked that they were rubbery and hadn't even been properly browned. The hollandaise was sprinkled with something that looked like paprika, although it smelled strongly of cinnamon, which was... interesting.
When one of the waitresses asked how everything was going, I politely explained what was wrong with my dish. They apologized, said they would tell the kitchen, and offered to replace it. I declined because, honestly, I wasn't interested in taking the chance of getting the exact same thing again. I was perfectly willing to just finish what I could, pay, and quietly never come back.
But then the waitress came back.
And this time, instead of simply acknowledging the issue, she explained that next time I need to make sure to ask for my vegetables to be "well done." She also added that she always eats raw mushrooms.
Soooo... am I supposed to order breakfast and specifically say, "Could you please make sure my vegetables are actually cooked?"
I've never thought I needed to specify that mushrooms and onions should be cooked when ordering a breakfast dish. It felt like I had to take responsibility for the kitchen not properly cooking the ingredients in the first place.
That second conversation honestly upset me more than the food itself. I had already accepted the situation and wasn't demanding anything. But being told that it was essentially my mistake for not ordering the vegetables correctly was not something I expected.
The total was $36 for two meals and one regular coffee.
The food had potential, and my crepes themselves were actually tasty. But unfortunately, the experience -- especially the way the complaint was handled -- was enough for me to decide that I won't be coming back.
