My friends and I wanted to try a new place for brunch so we checked out the Overlea. We likely won't be back!
Here are the good: the food was decent with clearly fresh ingredients. It had poured before we got there and then got sunny so we sat inside and it's beautiful inside and out. Lots of windows make the space feel open and welcoming. The patio looked gorgeous and had it not been for the rain, I'm sure it would have been a beautiful place to have brunch. Even being inside was a cool, calm, sophisticated vibe.
Here's the bad: Our waiter! He seemed to have an attitude from before we even walked in. Our almost first interaction was me asking if they had iced coffee and I got a very clipped "I could make it". My friend then asked about the coffee/tea options and noted that maybe we missed where the drinks are mentioned. He again seemed bothered and said we have the usual suspects for tea and they could make any sort of coffee and told us "there's the drink menu" and pointed to a menu that was just alcohol. My friend ended up getting a London Fog, which didn't have any vanilla so it was just tea and milk, and yet he tried to point out he saved her money by not charging her for a "latte" which was $7, and instead charged $6.42 which was a combo of the tea and a two pumps of vanilla syrup (at $1/pump). That was at the end of the meal when he brought the checks and decided to try and be nice. Prior to the niceness with the bills, the guy wouldn't even look at us and just had such a strange and dismissive attitude.
We did have one of our guests who ran quite a bit late so the waiter's distance could have been him assuming we were waiting for her. The attitude, however, is not explained by that. You could suggest it was because we were occupying a table without ordering which isn't great from a service perspective. I'd buy that if it wasn't for the fact that we were surrounded by a number of empty tables. So basically, the attitude just felt crazy undeserved and VERY off putting.
The food was good but not good enough to offset that experience. Not to mention it's a relatively pricey meal with a limited menu so next time we can just go elsewhere and pay a fraction of the price and for more options and less attitude.
Other weird side note - the salt was in a black shaker and the pepper was in a white shaker, which just feels incorrect. This isn't a reason for us not liking the place, just something to watch for. read more