Abigail Kimball
This review is about the location in Southside.
There's a tl;dr at the end.
I did take-away so it was a limited atmosphere experience. Seemed like a normal kind of diner, just more brown and wooden?
I was VERY excited when I learned they make gluten free waffles (I have Celiac disease). It's only for the "design your own" section, at least when ordering online. Not for the specials. You also can't specify decaf for any of the coffee drinks (I ordered the signature drink that was supposed to have hazelnut, vanilla, and maple flavor with foam on top). But I figured I could deal with full caf for a day, and if I happened to get there before they made it, I could always ask them to do decaf instead.
The order was supposed to be ready to be picked up at 16 past the hour. I got there shortly after that and it wasn't ready. The place was basically empty. As far as I could hear and see there were two tables there, two servers, and two kitchen staff. They were all sort of meandering around slowly, and when one server finally came to greet me, they weren't pleasant at all. I've been a server multiple times in different places, so I know how hard it can be and always try to give the benefit of the doubt, so I was friendly to them and told them my name and what I was there for. They had me sign a receipt (we'd already tipped 15-20% online, our usual for take-away), then set it down and just walked away.
Another server came out and started prepping a to-go hot drink and I asked if that was mine and if so, could they make it decaf please, since there wasn't a way to request that online? The server just said "it's not yours," and finished what they were doing. Apparently didn't tell the other server. I waited another 10 minutes before the other server brought out the bag and said "here you go!" (the friendliest anybody had been). I said I still had a drink. The signature. Then I remembered we'd ordered it separately, trying to do it decaf, so I apologized and explained it was a separate check. They sighed and started prepping it and I quickly asked about the decaf, explaining the order issue. They didn't respond, but I could tell they were unhappy about it. I felt badly, but I had been very friendly, and when I was a server I was happy just to have someone be friendly and kind to me. Nobody ever tipped me on take-away orders. I only had 45min to have lunch with my spouse IF the food had been ready on time, which it wasn't, and now because of the very long wait I was going to have about 10min with him. I just wanted to get out of there, so I wasn't paying much attention while the server made my drink. I thanked her when I got it, and rushed out.
It wasn't until I tasted it a few minutes later when I was at my spouse's office that I realized it was plain coffee/espresso. I don't even know if it was decaf. But it tasted terrible and had none of the things from the signature drink in it I'd paid for. I wasn't going to go back, obviously, because we had no time at that point, and it looked like it was just those employees on the floor. So my spouse drank it instead because he can drink motor oil if it smells like coffee.
Tl;Dr It was super depressing atmosphere inside, servers were rude, food wasn't ready in time, so it ruined rare lunch date with spouse, and I was given plain coffee instead of signature drink I paid for. Lame. 2/5 stars. Only gets even the 2 stars because of the gf waffles, which I haven't been able to have since developing Celiac disease after a major surgery. Those were tasty.
Celiac friendly
