Jiimy S.
Yelp
All it takes is one really bad experience to unfortunately make me not return. I've enjoyed this restaurant for years now. But I don't think I'll be returning. Manager, if you'd like to address this with your staff, this is for Check #62532, and was approximately 3:30 p.m Jan 11.
Service: The hostess greeted us and seated us promptly. No problems there. Our waitress was friendly and took our orders as soon as we were ready, however she started to dash off before we were done ordering. One of our meals was to include a soup or salad, we were not offered that choice nor were we asked for our drinks. We had to stop her from dashing off, So that we could finish placing our order. At the time I assumed she was just hurried or inexperienced. The restaurant was active but not super crowded So this seemed odd.
Fast forward, one of our meals arrives (without the included salad) and our waitress dashes off again, I assumed at the time to get my meal next.
For the next 15 minutes our table was actively ignored. No explanation, no one noticing while we tried to motion for attention. Certainly no acknowledgment at the fact that I was without food while my table mate was faced with the decision to either start eating without me or let their food go cold waiting for mine. At some point somebody else came to refill my water, and I asked them when I can expect my plate to come out... they did not even look in my direction nor acknowledge that I spoke to them. They simply moved on to the next stable. Frankly I think my meal was just forgotten about. It was a burger and fries, certainly not something that takes such a long time. As I began to get fully agitated, and was about to simply storm out, my meal arrives.
Again no acknowledgment, no apology, no explanation whatsoever. It was simply placed on the table unceremoniously and without them taking ownership of the mistake whatsoever. The level of service was pretty unacceptable and communication was non-existent. All it would have required was the most basic explanation. "There was a mix-up with your order and we had to remake it." " We're so sorry the order didn't go in properly., we're working on that now" "Thank you for your patience, we're getting your order out as soon as we can." Any of those statements would have been enough to communicate that they acknowledged there's a problem and they're working to fix it. But none of that happened. I don't need the staff to kiss my ass but you can't simply pretend the problem never occurred.
Food: Now we get to the next problem: the actual food. The meal that arrived first was meatloaf with mashed potatoes and corn. The mashed potatoes were great. The corn was canned and maybe sat around a little too long but it was fine. The meatloaf... Well the best way I can describe that is sort of like a ground beef flavored dog biscuit. It was vaguely reminiscent of meatloaf but not in texture and it was burnt like a hockey puck. The fact that this was served was laughable. The fact that we both had to nibble on this single meal, in absence of my own, was awkward and led to a pretty uncomfortable meal for both of us.
The second meal, mine, the one which took an additional 15 minutes to get to the table was hamburger with fries. The fries were steak fries and terribly stale. Clearly they had been sitting around getting reheated. The bacon on my burger was burnt enough for me to simply take it off. And the actual burger... Now this is interesting. I ordered it medium, something I have done countless times before at this very same restaurant. What I received was cooked to a crisp on one half and nearly raw on the other half.. in the middle, it was mostly edible so I ate around the bad parts.
The pickle was excellent.
This completely unremarkable and barely edible meal cost me $49.50... I left a $0.50 tip and I actually struggled with that because having family in the food service industry, I always tend to overtip. I never not leave a tip. But my experience was so bad today that I needed to leave an insulting tip to match the service I received. I figure a 50-cent tip is probably more insulting than nothing. Hopefully the message was received but this review should provide any needed clarification.
This review actually hurts a little because I've been enjoying cobble hill coffee shop for years... But looking at some of the other recent troubling reviews combined with my own experience now, it's clear that the direction of this establishment has changed and not for the better. I won't be returning. There are so many quality restaurants in this neighborhood that I have no reason to risk another bad experience. It's a shame really.
By the way after this meal we walked a block down and across the street, and decided to wash the figurative and literal bad taste out of our mouth by treating ourselves to dessert at the chocolate room. This served to highlight the stark differences in the way these businesses are run. The chocolate