Cora Breakfast and lunch — Restaurant in Ottawa

Well that was super disappointing. My boyfriend and I just went to get brunch and it was busy. Understandable that the service might be slow. However, we waited for about five minutes where nobody greeted us or paid any attention to us whatsoever. After waiting for a while, I got the attention of the hostess and told her we were waiting for a table for two. She said she would be with us soon. That's fine.

We waited behind a group of four while the hostess prepared their table. I could see a table for two that was open and seemed clean.

She returned and seated the group of four and we moved to the front of the line. I could now see there were at least two tables that were vacant. Both seemed to be cleared of dirty plates but perhaps not yet wiped. Fine.

The hostess then went on to take payment for group after group after group, still not saying anything to my boyfriend and I who were growing increasingly antsy after waiting for 20 minutes and seeing the two free tables. Still the people kept coming to pay, still the hostess ignored us although she did fill two balloons for some kids. Ok.

The line behind us continued to grow and I heard another woman ask the hostess when people were going to be seated. The woman said she had been waiting fifteen minutes which probably put our wait at about the half hour mark. Not so good.

Ok so here's where I probably was a little fed up and I asked a passing waitress if we could just grab some menus and seat ourselves. Another passing server informed me in an apologetic but somewhat snarky manner that they were very busy and only had one hostess and weren't prepared for the amount of people that were there.

We left after this. Ok, fine, you're busy. I get it. But seeing so many people come up to the cash and get immediate service and balloons put a huge damper on our patience. Especially because the hostess didn't even give us a courteous "I'm just going to take these people and be right with you."

I understand that it was busy. I understand that I was a little rude and that doesn't always garner the best results. What I do not understand is the lack of attention right from the get-go, the poor time management of the hostess, and the less-than-desirable apology of the other server.

So, sorry I was rude and sorry I left a bad review but you guys need to get your stuff together. At another restaurant I think that the appropriate thing to do would have been to greet, prepare both tables for both sets of people that were waiting, and seated us both at the same time or at least one after another. Or at the very least, seat the group of four with a clean table and then seat us with a dirty table and have the server give it a quick wipe when they went by.

Or at the very, very least maybe try and be at least a little sincere when you're apologizing for your slow service.

Would that really have been too much to ask? I...

Hello, I usually don’t post reviews. I’ve had a wonderful time at Cora’s over the years but during this visit with my girlfriend, who’s from the US, I was slightly embarrassed & a little shocked. This was at the hunt club location. A waitress who stated she was new, she had dark hair, tattoos, was friendly but also unfortunately very unprofessional. We started with coffee but then asked for a maple latte cup and a latte bowl. She told us she doesn’t know if they turned off the machine since it’s near closing time. She overheard me jokingly complaining to my girlfriend that they should turn it off at closing time, I also jokingly mentioned they should turn it back on to my girlfriend. We arrived close to two, closing is at three. To be fair that should happen at closing, you shouldn’t diminish the customer’s experience until then. What if I arrived at 14:50, don’t you have to serve me by law? With that said, the food was delicious. She served our food, we had no utensils which wasn’t a big deal, we waited a while and she apologized. I ordered the mountain of bananas for Adam and wanted a full waffle instead of the half. The new waitress gave me an earful about how it’s already discounted so she can’t give me a full waffle? Why can’t you just charge me for the difference? So I had to buy a whole separate one. Again, was delicious and my girlfriend thought so too! However, when the bill came she felt it was necessary to go on a rant about how nobody ever listens to her about how it’s too much food and that if we wanted our drinks next time, to come before we close. I was willing to let it all slide but the audacity to tell a paying customer that it’s our fault we didn’t come earlier is just beyond me. Didn’t think coming a little before two was a big deal. Cringe service compared to...

First time experience. Wasn't expecting to see so many staff crowded right around the entrance, it was nice to see how staffed they were, it made me hopeful...

Our server, Alex, was in training so we tried to take that into consideration. The menu was a little awkward to navigate, but we got our food really quick and all at once.

The food portions were huge, which made me feel a little bit better considering the prices but we were a little disappointed. The potatoes look promising but were quite soft, my pancakes were still a little raw in the middle and my over easy eggs were basically white... There wasn't much to say about the flavour of the food itself, not terrible, just bland, fortunately, they provide salt and pepper on the table and plenty of other condiments, as photographed.

I know we should have brought these issues up but our server was hardly to be seen and frankly, we just wanted to leave by that point. Not terrible, just not the best start to our day considering a breakfast for two was over $60...

Not pictured but my wife got a strawberry milkshake, that was practically finished within two sips, and my tea was just a packaged teabag in a tiny cup... Definitely don't go for drinks.

I understand being new and needing a bit more patience, but because we were tucked so far back when there was plenty of seating closer, we ended up having to wait almost 10 minutes after we were done to get the bill. Our server seemed to be flying solo despite the "in training" tag so perhaps next time one of the many staff chatting by the door could have shadowed...