I had really been looking forward to visiting this restaurant, having heard about it a few months…read moreback. It was an enormous disappointment.
When we arrived, we were waiting for a table. That's fine, except there were at four tables empty that we could see from where we were standing and more further into the restaurant where we couldn't see. We were the second party waiting, and it took about 10 minutes for just to be seated, which wasn't really an issue... but whilst we were waiting, a party of two walked in--when there were three parties of two waiting--and they immediately seated that party that came in several minutes after the rest of use who were still waiting had been standing there. Several minutes prior one of the servers had come to make a list of the waiting parties, so I'm not sure why these folks weren't added to that list and instead seated.
The service was agonizingly slow. I don't know what the issue was; if they were short staffed or this was a normal day, but it was 15 minutes or so before our server came to take our order after she brought us water (which was of course a few minutes after we were seated). She apologized for the wait when she came for our order, so that suggested maybe it was unusual. I let her know when I placed the order that if my daughter's food was ready before mine, it was okay to bring that out ahead. But things didn't improve from there. Somehow, the people that were behind us in line and seated after us got their order before us, about nine minutes after we even got to place our order. We ordered our food at 9:54 am. Our order was a kids platter which is a pancake, egg, and a piece of bacon, and a McKenzie omelette without mushrooms. Nothing too crazy and not a lot of food, right?
Our server didn't come back to us once after she took our order--not to ask if we wanted more water, if I wanted another lemonade, nothing. She walked by and looked apologetically at us a few times though, which I guess was supposed to make up for any service. After waiting about 25 minutes I finally had to wave the server over and asked her how much longer it was gonna be for our food to show up. She said that ours was the next order up and I asked her in minutes how long that was gonna be because I didn't know how long I was going to keep my toddler in an okay mood (she's an exceedingly patient and easy going child, but by this time we'd been at this restaurant over an hour). She went back and brought out my toddler's food. Fantastic, but imagine my surprise when it wasn't what was ordered. I had ordered the kids platter, remember? What came out was the Mickey Mouse pancake with a scrambled egg. I don't know how those two things could possibly have gotten mixed up because they're completely different from each other to the extent that they shouldn't even be entered similarly, since the only item that is the same is the pancake. But it had finally come out, it was cheaper than what I ordered, and at that point I just needed to give her something to eat. (She had sipped most of my marionberry lemonade by that time, so at least one of us got to enjoy it.)
It was 33 minutes from the time we placed our order for a Mickey Mouse pancake and the single scrambled egg to show up at our table. I told the woman that I wanted the bill corrected since what she brought was $7.50 (the pancake $5.50, the egg a $2 add-on). My McKenzie Omelette didn't arrive until after 10:30, more than 36 minutes after I placed the order. When she brought it out, the server asked if I wanted a box and then asked if I wanted her to box it for me. Yes, I said, since I was not going to be able to stay and eat it there. She came back shortly thereafter with my meal boxed, along with my receipt which she said she took $5 off of (or her manager did, I guess, since she had said earlier that she needed her manager to correct the charge for the pancake for me). My thought was not to pat herself on the back too hard; they really only took $3 off the bill because I asked them to correct it and be charged for what we'd received, not for what I ordered.
Beyond the service, one item to note is that the chairs at the tables all have arms, which isn't very comfortable for bigger folks. They appear not to have high chairs, but they do have a kid's menu and crayons. It seems like everyone else has a great experience here, and as I said at the start it may just have been an off day for them, but I'm not willing to bother finding out for myself. I left a tip and I shouldn't have; there was almost zero service and it was honestly one of if not the WORST experience I have ever had in a restaurant. I'm never coming here again and will make sure my friends and family know to skip it too.
