Nikki D.
Yelp
I booked 3 weeks in advance, I phoned and was told we don't take bookings after 10:30am and we have a minimum of 14 for a booking size. The minimum number suited our group, and 10:30am was also fine. Yesterday I also received a voice message with a follow up call to check we were still coming today and if there were any changes in our numbers to call them. Which there weren't so we were all set for brunch today.
We arrived at 10:30, one couple was running late (but they were only coming for coffee). We went up to start ordering our coffees and meals - but I was then approached by a lady who then told
Me "IM the business owner" to tell me that when I booked the staff member I spoke to "TOLD" me that there are no split bills. This was not true, I was not told this whatsoever, and again there was NO reminder in the message yesterday - had I'd been told, I would have told our entire group to brig cash. As there are NO ATMS in a convenient location to the cafe and I know our group well, we don't carry cash.
So we told the owner this wasn't suitable to our group as we were all heading our separate ways after and some catching flights we didn't have time to mess around with cash or find ATMS. She then continued to say "we can't handle bookings this size and this is why we do not take separate orders", so, what's the different if 7 tables of 2 order individually or one table of 14!? Nothing. It's pretty simple, we thought. We decided then to order takeaway coffees and go else where for breakfast, when she finally came to an agreement and said if we ordered and paid in pairs that she would do this today for us.
We agreed with her, (we had all read mixed reviews for this place and wanted to try it out). By this time it was 10:45/11am. We had ordered coffees and ordered our meals. Mine and my partners coffees came 25 minutes after ordering and our meals didn't come out until 12noon, our meals were all taken at the same time however, they came out in dribs and drabs over a 45 minute timeframe. One of our vegetarian friends had ordered the beans, and it took 1 hour to come out and she was on a time limit to leave at 12noon and her meal came out 2 minutes to 12. (Also don't get the eggs benne with the hock ham unless you like a ton of salt on your plate, I couldn't eat my meal and it wasn't a side it was under my eggs so it was really hard to remove it and keep some hollandaise sauce). It was not worth the wait!
After we had all received/eaten our meals there was more and more meals being brought to our table so there was definitely some mix ups with the ordering system as it was obvious we all had a meal each but the staff were so friendly and continued to apologise for the length of time and even one young girl said sorry for the poor service. Myself and all the girls from our group tried to thank the owner, but she totally shrugged us off, turned her nose up and was not at all thankful. If you're not in a hurry then give this place ago. Best part was seeing our friends even though we were sat on two separate tables, (would have been nice to be told also) Not sure we will be back.. Coffee was nice though!