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| - I have younger brothers that we began taking to the Santa breakfast every Christmas and the tradition of visiting Mapleside continues with my niece. Last year, I don't remember having any complaints about the Santa breakfast. However, this year was a very different story. I'm not sure what is going on with the space, but this year, the breakfast was held in the newly built barn on Mapleside's grounds.
I arrived early than the rest of my family with children, who were running a bit late. As soon as I walked into the barn, I almost gagged on the dusty smell of the newly constructed barn. The barn seemed clean, but I couldn't get over the foul smell that should never be paired with enjoying a meal out. The food was being shuttled over to the barn from the main building. The plates were paper, and the silverware plastic. The buffet offered eggs, hash brown potatoes, sausage, bacon, biscuits and gravy and French toast sticks. All of the food was the same quality you would expect to find at a complimentary hotel breakfast. In fact, the whole meal for the most part, was exactly like a hotel breakfast. The difference at Mapleside though is that you are paying over $20 for this breakfast. The greatest highlight was that they served hot cider, and the kiddos all really enjoyed the chocolate fountain.
While other family members were about 15 minutes late, we were clearly being rushed out by the staff. Different staff came by our table one after another to ask if they could clear plates that we were still eating from. It was extremely frustrating given all of the other aspects of this breakfast that made for a poor experience.
I'm not sure what happened to our tradition, but as the years have passed, the price has skyrocketed and the quality decreased greatly. I'm sorry to say that unless something changes, we will not be returning to Mapleside for our annual breakfast with Santa.
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