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| - Overall: Awesome breakfast cooking, but service attitude left much to be desired. We felt rushed at the end and miffed with the overall dining experience.
This place has really awesome food, if you are willing to accept the somewhat aloof server attitude...
* Norwegian Benedict: Fantastic combo of perfectly golden poached eggs and smoked salmon, covered with a smooth hollandaise sauce that has just the right tartness and creaminess, delightfully paired with a small bowl of fresh fruit. $11.
* Malibu Omelette: Hearty portion of scrambled eggs wrapping generous slices of avocado, mushroom, and spinach, paired sumptuously with delicious home fries. $10.
* Pancake: Yum! $3 for a single.
* Breakfast Sandwich: Very tasty set of scrambled eggs, cheese, and thick slice of ham held loosely between buttered and lightly toasted ciabatta bread. $5.
* Coffee: bland and served in an overly small cup (6 oz?!), with refills slightly difficult to come by. $3.
* Hot chocolate: bland, despite being specially made and blended to kid's temperature. $3.
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What follows is borderline TMI on why we felt dissatisfied with the service we received. Depending on your familiarity with the staff, YMMV, so take it with a grain of salt and a light heart. If you are the establishment reading this, I hope it helps you in a constructive manner to figure out how add new clientele, or at least make the present clientele dine more happily.
Perhaps this *is* the Sharpsburg of Pittsburgh. Perhaps it's been a tough year. Perhaps we were just too different, too out of place. Perhaps the servers have had a tough morning, what with the rain n'at. Whatever the cause, we felt neglected from the moment we entered the cafe door into an ordering area bordering a fully-staffed kitchen of 5: no greetings, barely an acknowledgment despite my radiant smile to convey that, "We came in peace, and very hungry!" The sign into the dining area told us to wait to be seated, so we did. More than 5 minutes later, a managing lady finally came out to ask how many we had, and proceeded to get a table ready by cleaning up a just-eaten table, when we could see two other unoccupied tables. She at least asked if we needed a high chair for the baby.
In contrast to the rest of the staff, server Lisa was much more attentive and all smiles. She came by with a drawing board for our older child, asked if he wanted crayons instead, and also to ask if we got our drinks ordered while the main server was busy elsewhere. She brightened our day!
When the main server finally came by, other than one chitchat comment about our baby being adorable, she plainly asked for our drink order, to which we responded that we'd already given it...perhaps that's when it went south. After our drinks were brought to us, she asked if we were ready to order; we told her we were, at which point she left to tend to other tables, only to come back a few minutes later to ask again if we were ready to order. Our main server seemed less than patient and barely attentive when my wife was ordering. In any case, by the time we placed our order, at least 15 minutes had transpired from our initial entry.
Food preparation took place quite promptly, and we had food on our table in a little under 10 minutes. Very soon after we had seated, while we waited, my wife began feeding the little one, a process that usually took 15 minutes. So when our food arrived, we were able to focus and eat, tending to the snack needs of the little one occasionally when he screamed a bit. If the occasional screams bothered the staff or other patrons, they only protested with, "Aw, what a cute baby!"
Partway through our munching, the main server came by with our check, which seemed fairly normal. However, what followed didn't seem quite the norm to us. In short, less than half an hour from when we got our food, our main server came by to collect payment, saying something to the effect that a party of 9 was waiting outside and that her manager just wanted to close out transactions. No kidding?! We were not entirely finished with our food; and I'd only had ONE coffee refill, nothing close to the 300mg caffeine I required to operate. I looked at a nearby 6-person table whose 2-party patron was nearly done. I was a bit miffed at being rushed. So while I took out my payment, I told our server that I felt a bit rushed. She asked for my tip due to my card having a chip (really?!?!), and then told us that we could take our time, keeping in mind that the 9 are waiting.
Not wanting to keep a crowd more than twice our headcount waiting in severe hunger, we quickly up'd and left, with no intentions of coming back, however mouthwatering my favorite benedict. Really, the server could have waited a few more minutes; I also would have happily paid at the counter. In my model of restaurant service, this experience deserved a one star, had server Lisa not been there, and if not for the delicious cooking.
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