Mad Hatter Cafe

Disappointed in the new menu. This used to be my trusted gluten free and good restaurant. It’s hard to find good gluten free food in restaurants. The ramen has been taken off the menu, ok maybe it wasn’t popular enough. But now the crab cake is no longer gluten free and the Gluten free bread has a different texture. No sure when we will be back as we aren’t impressed with the changes in one of our favorite places. And the parking lot is a mess.

Aesthetically this restaurant was nice and my wife and I wanted to try it out. We’re from out of town so we relied on a close friend’s recommendation so we were initially excited to try. We tried this place on Friday, November 29th, around 11:40 in the morning. Our server, a gentlemen in his mid 20’s with a septum piercing was very nice and went above and beyond to ensure my wife and I had a nice time. Yet, he was inattentive considering it was less than 10 people in there and he was taking everyone’s orders. No fault of his, but where were his other colleagues to serve and assist him? My wife and I ordered the S’mores “Latte” to start. While the presentation was to die for, the taste was horrible. It essentially was iced chocolate milk with marshmallows, chocolate syrup, and a graham cracker. Adding the fact that it was “iced” would’ve been helpful considering the description is a tad misleading. The oyster Rockefeller was disgraceful. The crab drip was the best out of the appetizers we tried. As a native Salisburian, the weird tiger sauce/raisin tasting, gluten-free bread crumb combo was egregious to say the least. They ran out of crab imperial for the fried green tomatoes, they ran out of calamari (though we were interested), and then a child was wandering around the restaurant for a few minutes, perhaps the owners daughter? Unfortunately, the best thing on the menu was the mimosa flight and unfortunately during my travels back from my suburban DC to visit Salisbury, I won’t be visiting this restaurant any longer. Suggestions would be to focus back on the basics: Reduce the menu options to what the chef and owners identify as their “bread and butter”, try to have at least 2-3 servers available, and don’t have your servers on double/triple duty with having to make drinks, prepare food, and serve. I understand times are hard but a little bit of effort will ensure this place stays open in business; Godspeed.

It’s been a while since we have been to Mad Hatter Cafe. A member of our party is recently gluten-free so we decided to visit because of a decent selection of gluten free items. It was Labor Day so we expected a crowd. When we arrived the restaurant was relatively empty (only 4 parties seated). We initially only saw the bartender and no waitress. She eventually came out, but made no real effort to acknowledge us. Another couple entered after us and the waitress continues to wait on the large party, but tells us she will be with us shortly. More time passes and she eventually comes to a table near us where food was already on the table to see if they needed anything else. She finally addresses us only to tell us today that we need to have a seat on the couches. When I gave her an incredulous look she said (with a bit of attitude), “I have a party of seven that I am waiting on”. We sit down on the couches and two more parties come in after us. The problem is that there were PLENTY of tables available. We could not understand why she didn’t just seat everyone and let us peruse the menu and/or get our drink orders instead of having about 10 people standing around the hostess stand. Eventually, the bartender comes out to seat us and another party (not sure why he didn’t do this sooner). Another waiting party decided to leave when the bartender told them it would be another 30-45 minutes before they are seated. The bartender took our order and the food came out pretty quickly. It was plated well and the portions were large. It tasted fine overall. Unfortunately, the unnecessary waiting to be seated while the restaurant was mostly empty and the waitresses poor service really made it an unpleasant experience. Unfortunately, we won’t be going back for a while if at all.