Joseph C.
Yelp
This was our first visit to The Farmer's Daughter, and sadly, it will be our last. It isn't even about the food--in fact, we never got around to tasting the food.
My partner and I visited on Friday, April 4 2025, and it was highly anticipated, as we heard so many positive comments about it. We first ordered coffees. Our waitress was cordial and our initial impression was good. We then ordered our breakfast: the Stonehill for me and The Farmer's Choice for my partner. We then patiently waited, delved into some conversation, and some time passed, we saw more patrons being seated, continued our chat, still more time went by. The patrons who showed up after us ordered, and we were growing more excited as the food surrounding us looked scrumptious. More minutes ticked away and we realized we hadn't seen our server, but we wanted to remain patient as it was surely worth the wait, assuming much care went to the food.
After 20 more minutes, we realized the other patrons who arrived after us were being served their food. We hadn't seen our own server in some time, so when the next one passed by, we asked if he could check our food for us, to which he seemed eager to help. Five more minutes by and that server did not return, nor did we see our own server--at this point we waited nearly 35 minutes from the time we ordered our food. We grew frustrated at this point, and got the attention of another server, a gentleman with red hair and a beard. We explained that we had waited as long as we had for our food, expressed our disappointment and wanted to know what was going on.
This server, in an irritated tone, replied "Well, I am not the manager. Do you want me to get the manager?" His temperament was off-putting, and it was at this point that we felt some shock at our experience thus far. We decided at that moment that we did in fact want to discuss our experience thus far with the manager. Shortly thereafter, our own waitress, who we hadn't seen in quite some time, arrived with our plates of food, with no apology or explanation as to the delay. At this point we made a tough decision, and I mean TOUGH, as we came with our appetites and it was heartbreaking to do this, but it was out of principle. We declined the plates.
The manager, named Andrew, showed up to our table and we expressed our dismay. He responded with a rather brusque, "we're sorry" and then went on to say "mistakes happen, I don't know what to tell you, maybe there was a ticket mix-up in the kitchen." We were both horrified that he didn't seem to even investigate exactly what happened, no desire to give any explanation. There was no sincere apology, no "what can we do to make your experience better?" "What can we do to restore your faith in our restaurant?" Rather, it was a response that seemed as if it didn't matter whether there were lost customers. My partner said, "well, have a good day!" and we were headed to the door.
Before we left, I asked for the owner's business card. Andrew curtly dropped the business card on the counter, and we were on our way. I called the number, and it turned out to be the wrong number printed on the card! The woman herself who answered was bemused and gave her the number to the restaurant to prevent them from giving any more business cards with her phone number printed on it. I then called the North Easton location and reached Izzy, who seemed genuinely regretful and was willing to help. She said she would refer us to the general manager. And email came in later in the day from the general manager, Ashley, who offered to chat over the phone the following day.
I called her and explained our experience, and at first I had the impression that she genuinely wanted to take accountability for what had happened, but then the subject of respect came into the conversation. She said "if you do return, we do expect everyone to be respectful" and at first I thought she perhaps meant the staff at the restaurant, and I asserted that my partner and I were respectful, albeit disappointed. I felt a strange feeling about the matter of "respect" being mentioned--it didn't sit well with me. I can only theorize that the staff had their own side of the story, and may have accused us of being disrespectful. To be honest, our conversation could've done without any consideration of respect. As the call closed, instead of being offered a gift card or something equivalent, I was told that if we'd like to visit or order take out in the future, that I can email her to arrange that, which also felt a bit unusual, as even restaurants such as Seasons 52 or Burton's would handle it through the offer of a gift card mailed or emailed. It just felt noncommittal. We decided following the call that we would not even take up that offer. To imply this expectation of "respect" during that phone call just added insult to injury. If we ate their food, we would only have a sour taste.
This was handled horribly, from beginning to end. Zero accountability.
