A diner from Ventura, CA
May 8, 2011
I am so disappointed in what has happened to this cafe. The new owners obviously don’t care about training their staff to be polite and professional with the customers. We used to be regulars at this place, but because of the economy we haven’t been going lately because it isn’t a cheap place to eat. We stood at the podium waiting to be acknowledged for 5 mins, and then a rude waitress asked if we had a reservation, when we said no she acted like it was a ridiculous thing, even though over half the restaurant was empty. Then she handed us our menus and our utensils to seat ourselves. We sat outside since we had our dog (the old wait staff used to love it when customers brought their dogs - they used to keep dog treats and water bowls for customers who brought their dogs) and our table was right in front of the hostess station. We sat there for nearly 10 mins without anyone coming to wait on us. Finally we had to go back to the hostess station and ask for a waiter to come take our order. The hostess said she didn’t even see us (5 feet away from her). When the waiter finally deigned to come take our order he did not said "Hello, how can I help you?" or "I'm sorry for the wait" or even just "Hello my name is." Instead he said, "Drink?" and then "Do you need more time?" No, ten mins to look at a very short menu is plenty. Then the rude waitress brought our food, didn’t ask if we needed anything, just walked away. Then no one checked on us until we were over half way done with our food. Hardly anyone was checking on the patio tables and eventually a homeless lady came up and sat herself and began speaking very loudly to the customers, the hostess tried to pretend she wasn’t there. A customer offered to pay for the drink the homeless lady wanted to buy but no one brought it out. Also let me say both of us were waiters for years and usually understand that everyone has a bad day, but this wasn’t a case of one waiter being in over his head. This was the entire staff not being courteous to anyone. I even heard another customer order a bagel from our waiter and he said "We have 6 kinds, I don’t know what kinds there are, you need to go back to the bakery and pick one out yourself." Really? Also, one of the reasons why we always liked coming here was for the coffee, it used to be some of the best in the city but today's was awful, no amount of sugar and cream will fix that. Sadly, the food was still good. That is the one thing the new owners didn’t change. We were hoping the food would be bad so that we could just write this place off, but it wasn’t. I will be honest and say the food was still good. But two omelets with gratin potatoes and toast and two coffees shouldn't cost $32. But no matter the quality of the food the service was so insulting we will never be back. Also, they changed the tables and chairs. The tables are too small for even two people and the chairs are those awful metal and nylon stackable office chairs. And our table was sticky. Gross.
