This is a lovely cafe but the service I received was pretty poor…read more
When you first walk in, you'll notice that it is a big open concept space with seating, and a small shop setup in the front. For the shop part, there's some baked goods and sort of deli items you can purchase--almost like a little market. For their restaurant portion, you'll actually have to order at the register and get a number. You can also order the baked items to enjoy at the counter.
There were so many unique baked items that looked delicious. As my friend and I awaited to order, we looked over the menu. Prices seemed to be as expected for a place that looks this pretty.
When I got to one of the female cashiers, she was not very friendly. She did not smile the whole time, and she made it seem like I was inconveniencing her from the get go, even though I had my order ready to go and I greeted her with a smile. I went ahead and ordered a crispy brunch potatoes and subbed the bacon for the mushroom which is noted to be the vegetarian option; she did have to quickly clarify whether I wanted to add mushrooms vs subbing, so I clarified. I also tried to order a latte with oat milk with their brown butter marzipan house syrup. She was trying to enter the drink order to the tablet and told me that she didn't have the brown butter marzipan button to select on her tablet and that they had brown sugar cinnamon. She tried to explain to me that brown sugar cinnamon and brown butter marzipan are the same. I was very confused by that comment, as that's not true, otherwise why are they separate names/labels? She asked if I wanted to get brown sugar cinnamon instead, and I told her no thanks, and asked to cancel the drink order. When I'm trying a new restaurant, I want to try the unique options. She then gave me a questioning, "are you serious" look, and confirmed if I wanted to cancel, and I said yes. Then I went ahead and paid, she didn't even say 'thank you' to close off, and wish I didn't tip her for that poor service...she wasn't even waiting my table... I don't expect service workers to chat me up, and all I expected was a "hi, what can I get for you?", "We don't have that, would you like something else?", and "Thank you." and also she should have either tried to figure out if 'brown butter marzipan' is in stock and that the button is just not on the tablet from a more senior staff member. It's on the menu, and I can get if you might be out of stock. Her overall reasoning just made it seem like she was being dishonest. I can't believe she tried to tell me essentially cinnamon and marzipan are the same with a bad attitude to top it all off. My friend also saw this interaction and was also frustrated by this experience. She noted that it seemed this lady's coworker noticed this poor interaction from the get go and that they seemed to try to compensate by giving friendlier service to my friend. I did notice later that this particular female cashier was smiling and friendly to other customers, so I have no idea what the problem was.
I actually ended up going to the Perenn market that's located in the next building over and they did have brown butter marzipan syrup. I also told them about the above incident and they were unsure of the brown butter marzipan stock in the restaurant and were confused by how the cashier lady's comment how cinnamon and marzipan are the same, and they apologized for it even though they didn't have to.
The person who served us our food was friendly. Later when I went to ask for a to-go box from a different cashier lady, this person was very friendly and accommodating.
Other than that, portions seemed pretty large. I would say the crispy brunch potatoes were crispy as noted, adequately salted. I think there was some flavors they could add that would take the dish further. If they added avocado, that would be nice, or some citrus flavor.
My friends ordered the traditional breakfast and they had varying experiences. Both of them were surprised by how large the dish was, however one person got scrambled eggs and the portion of eggs seemed way smaller than the one who got two sunny side up eggs. The potato pave had a flaked salt finish for one person, but not the other person, even though it wasn't a special request for either of them. The toast was delicious. It seems they use those large loaves, and give you two slices, to which they cut in half (you get 4 pieces of toast in total). Not sure what kind of bread they used, but the texture was lovely--crunchy crust and very soft center. With butter, the bread was perfect. They also used a very fresh peach jam. I would probably actually order this myself!
Restroom was very clean and it is located in the back. There is also outdoor patio seating, which looked so nice.
Overall, the restaurant is aesthetic, and food was pretty enjoyable, but the service was unfortunately lackluster.
