Orono Country Cafe — Restaurant in Clarington

We tried this place on a whim a few weeks ago and the server (blonde woman maybe in her 40s-50s) was very nice and attentive. The food was average but the price made up for it.

Now… we tried again and the service was bad to say the least. As others have said, we felt unwelcome… the whole vibe was really negative which was unfortunate. The server surely seemed like she did not want to be there. Why be a server if you clearly hate your job and people? I don’t get it…

Our food came fast and immediately I noticed a black curly hair baked into the top pancake. When I politely mentioned it to the server, instead of apologizing she said “a Hair????” As if it was so ridiculous of me to even point it out to her. She took it away and that was all she said. Not I’ll be right back, my apologies… nothing. I’ve been a server for years and I couldn’t ever imagine a) having an attitude like this woman and b) not apologizing for having hair cooked into food. Even if you think the customer is wrong, you should at least communicate and say “I’m sorry I’ll take it back and make a new one” instead of looking at me like I had 6 eyeballs.

Then, I assume the owner with the dark hair (maybe it was his hair in the pancake 😊?) chimes in rudely when we just asked for the bill and told us no, she’s remaking the food. At this point I feel uncomfortable and the service was already bad so we just wanted to leave. He then begins to say it wasn’t a hair it was a grill mark. Lol…. We LITERALLY pulled the curly black hair out of the pancake, both of us were looking/touching it, and what would I get out of lying about this? I didn’t want a free meal or to cause a stink, I wasn’t rude, impolite or angry. I just felt straight up uncomfortable and didn’t want to be there anymore at this point. This man was hostile and kept saying “it’s not a hair I don’t want to argue with you”. Who is arguing? And also, who talks to a customer like that?

I don’t think we have high expectations. We didn’t come here for fabulous food, we liked our server last time and the food is cheap. It’s a hole in the wall but we like supporting local. This place just isn’t it and they obviously do not care about customer service in the slightest. There are so many breakfast places in Durham and clarington, I really see no reason to come back here. Try the Newcastle griddle, or stacked in bowmanville. At least you won’t be treated like you are an annoyance for trying to support a small business. Either way I’m sure the owner won’t care about this review because he obviously doesn’t care what customers think based off of that...

We came for breakfast Sunday morning around 9:30. Reviews were great so we came from Bowmanville for a nice country breakfast. The service was fine, although we were never offered a refill of coffee nor were we asked if everything was fine until she came to clear the dishes. The food was beyond greasy. I usually like a nice greasy spoon type breakfast but this was just too much. Over boiled home fries (with no crisp to them) just covered in grease. The plate was so saturated in grease that the egg yolk settled under a layer of grease on my plate. The ham was so jelly like, it seemed like canned meat (although obviously it wasn't) it was the type that looked slightly marbled with actual meat but was mostly just a meat like jelly. Price wise, three eggs, 2 sausages (greasy and without flavour), 2 pieces of bacon, 2 pieces of ham (luckily I only got one, which I didn't eat, but they gave me four pieces of bacon which was really good so I was fine with that), 3 eggs, homefries and toast was $9. My husband's equally subpar club sandwich with fries was 10.99 (he only ate half, the chicken was dry and cold the whole sandwich was just unflavourful). Coffee was 1.90, and not very good, so much so that we didn't really even care that the waitress never came around to refill). Overall, $30 for a disappointing meal with subpar service. The reviews are great so maybe we went on an off day but I'd guess the reviews are so good because it's the only place in Orono to go...

It's always all about fresh not frozen breakfast is pretty good. If your looking for a great stake this is a cafe not a stake Restaurant. It's great for a little town personally I'd like to see a little more originality I'd love there to be a chef that puts his name on everything that came out of the kitchen it doesn't come out unless it was fresh and amazing It's hard to find a chef like that. Everything made fresh with passion and love not so much here. I got the meat loaf that was a special and it was definitely especially dry not very good. My daughter however got a chicken sandwich thing that was amazing. The special I would think should be the best tasting thing on the menu not when I went. Service amazing atmosphere old out of date but it's okay what do you expect. Sometimes the truth is hard to hear and sometimes people hear the truth and run with it and make their place the best they can because they hate when anybody says something negative they don't respond with words they respond...