Cora Breakfast and Lunch — Restaurant in Clareview

Cora's! Let me spin you a tale about Cora's.

It is always good at best and adequate at worst. My favorite is a skillet (I think) which has sausage and halloumi and potato wedges in it. If you get it with an over-easy egg then the golden yolk mixes beautifully with the rest of the contents of the dish and coats everything like a sauce. I think this is heavenly. The only downside to my meal experience at Cora's is that since I have dietary restrictions I often have to ask that certain ingredients are removed - like green peppers and onions. On my past few visits to Cora's, this dish has arrived at my table with green peppers and onions in it even when I've asked that they be removed. It does extend my mealtime and lessen my enjoyment to spend ten-ish minutes picking out little bits of offending food out of my meal and setting them aside. Having worked as a line cook and in the services/hospitality industry, I understand that some meals come with pre-prepared mixes that the cook or chef then cooks or sautées just for the sake of time. If that's the case then perhaps the server can specify that this mix be left out, or say that my request can't be accommodated so I can pick something else. Otherwise, since I have gastro-intestinal problems, when I accidentally eat certain ingredients I'm often enduring a few days of intense stomachache and bowel upset. Obviously I'd prefer not to. Aside from this, I have always found the service at Cora's to be wonderful. The servers are well-informed and well-worth every tip they get. One server who works at a particular location always calls me and my friends 'sweetheart' and 'honey' which gives the experience a classic local diner charm. Like yes, I am a sweetheart! Thank you for noticing! I also like that they cut the fruit in fun shapes sometimes. It makes me feel like an empress.

-Much appreciation to Cora's and their hardworking staff. Please stop feeding me...

Went to the Clareview location for breakfast. We were quickly seated and that is about the only good thing about this place. After waiting quite a while a waitress finally showed up to take our drink order. We ordered a cappuccino and an iced coffee and two ice waters. Drinks were delivered and the cappuccino was cold and the iced coffee hot. The iced coffee was simply hot coffee poured over three ice cubes and topped with whipped cream. No water arrived. A different waitress came to take our food order. We ordered Eggs Benny and Cora's Special and again ice water. After a very long wait our breakfast arrived. Again we asked for ice water! We had to flag down another waitress to get syrup for the pancake and again asked for ice water. FINALLY the ice water arrived with the syrup. The toast arrived in a basket with no jam, jelly or peanut butter and there was none to be had on the table. The fruit although presented very nicely was mostly inedible as it was not ripe. We just started eating when the fire alarm went off. No one seemed to care and none of the staff were inclined to let anyone know what was going on. Three fire trucks arrived with the alarm still going off and no indication of whether we should stay or go. The alarm continued to blare. We chose to leave and tried to flag down a waitress for our bill. We finally gave up and just went to the front. Finally someone came and rang up our bill. All the while the alarm is still going off. I wasn't provided a copy of the bill and simply asked how I was paying. Service was non-existent, food was nothing better than fast food, no syrup, no butter, no condiments, fruit that was mostly inedible and having to ask three times for water is ridiculous. I understand the alarm is out of their control however letting customers know what is going on would have been appropriate especially when the fire...

Reading the menu, ordered my dish with an additional thing of fruit. The menu pretty clearly says item comes with potatoes or salad, add fruit for an additional cost. Apparently this is not how things work, and the immediate condescending response I got was that she'd been there 11 years and things simply don't work like that. Fine, but English is older than 11 years, whatever. Charge me for the sides. I didn't want to argue.

5 minutes later, she comes over having discussed "my concerns" with the owner, and the additional charges would be waived. I thanked her.

Food comes via different servers. Now my food has the potatoes it comes with plus an extra side of potatoes. I asked about the apparently legendary fruit, and the server launched into a whole chastising explanation about how I misunderstood the menu. I waved it off, said thank you, but the rest of the table tried to ask for jams, drinks, etc, and she Ignored them.

Soon later, working my way through my potato meal, I was thirsty but no servers were to be found. I finally got up to get a drink out of my car, and returned to find a server had come to advise us our server had gone to the hospital, and brought the bill. No offers to refill drinks, get anything, etc. Also, we were billed for the fruit I never received, that was supposedly waived.

I very nearly went nextdoor to order drinks from oodle noodle. We got the bill fixed, but this place is a travesty for service.

The food was okish. I enjoyed the sandwich part, but everyone else found issues. It was cold, not well prepared, runny eggs, etc. We hadn't gone due to terrible experiences in the past, and it now seems to...