Park Cafe — Restaurant in Saskatoon

Updated Sept 12 / 2016 (I was banned for this review) After reviewing The Park Cafe 2 months ago, my friends and I decided to return and see if things had changed since my last review. (You can read my original review if you scroll down... )

Well, we were greeted at the door by the owner who asked us to step outside where he proceed to tell me i was banned from the restaurant ... "because my review was hurting his business and how he had spent 2 hours trying to have it removed". I did mention he knew how to contact me if he had issues with my review and i was willing to revise it if he thought something in it was unfair. He had no reply to that offer.

All i can say about this is - the gospel of small business dictates (A) Listen to what your customers have to say and (B) you're the boss, if your staff is dropping the ball, deal with it. Customers keep the bills paid, not your staff.

= Original Review July 5 / 2016 = A visit to the Park Café is what I would call “revisiting a small town, fallen on hard times café”… that for some reason makes you feel comfortable. From the moment you enter the restaurant it’s easy to see not much money is spent on maintaining the decor, made obvious by the poorly repaired ceiling tiles. But that just adds to the lonely forgotten small town feel. However, it has one thing a small town café doesn’t have … super clean washrooms with ample hot water to scrub your hands. If there was an award for consistently clean washrooms, this place deserves it. My friends and I have been regular customers at the Park for about 5 years, once or twice a week, and have never been bitten by a dirty washroom.

If you’re looking for good consistent food, this is the place. Although it’s definitely not 5 star dining and has somewhat higher pricing than similar restaurants that have much more “eye appeal”, you won’t be disappointed with what they server. Week to week it always stands up on its own … comfortable, consistent and never pretentious. Just what you would expect if you were back visiting your small hometown café.

As for the service, here I have a small issue. As a regular customer for 5 years, lately there has been a noticeable change in the quality of service. What once was stellar service has been compromised as of late. Back in April one waitress said something offensive to my friend’s wife and then made a rude gesture. My friend and his wife have not returned since, for obvious reasons.

A few weeks ago I was there with 4 friends and the service was horrid - 20 minutes standing outside, another 20 to have the order taken (in a small half full restaurant). The 5 meals didn’t come at the same time - 12 minutes apart and 3 were cold. Add to that - one coffee refill after over an hour of being there. I mentioned it to one waitress who said “we had a busy week and everyone was tired”.

Sorry girls, $90.00 for breakfast??? … Customers expect good service.

To be fair, I returned a couple of days later to mention this to the owner, who wasn’t in.

I did talk to the female “manager”, but she was rather despondent and showed little to no interest.

The good news is I later talked to the owner, the bad news is… he didn’t really comment on my 2 previously mentioned friends who will never return, nor the day we had super bad service.

Tip: If you do need a waitress, just walk back to the coffee machine where they spend a lot of time joking and laughing.

My observation is this... the food will be good and consistent, the washrooms will always be a welcome stop, but service will depend on whether the staff likes you on the day of your visit.

You be the judge. Take the park for a test drive and draw your own conclusions.

I like to support local small business owners and I do like the owner and his staff ... but...

Update July 6/2016: Female Manager suggests we go to Sami's Sunrise grill if we have issues with the Park...

TLDR - I didn't have issues with how long the order was or even when the steak was overcooked, but the lady serving us can lower her voice, we could've been treated and talked to us better. Lady didn't even bother apologizing one bit.

Full story - Ordered a steak and had to wait more than 30 minutes while other customers that came in later had their orders in immediately. When order came in, it was overcooked and hard as hell to eat. Now I didn't have issues with this as the guy was very nice, apologetic and didn't let us pay for this meal.

My issue is with the lady that was serving us. I only asked one time for a follow up on our order and she immediately raised her voice and embarrassed us in front of other customers that morning. We weren't persistent at all and just wanted a follow up and asked nicely(literally just said "excuse me"). I was even smiling at her when she was serving other customers thst came after us. But we were met with a raised voice with how our order would take longer and it's not just eggs. Me and my wife were severely embarrassed as other customers was looking us over because of her when all we wanted was a quiet breakfast after a stressful weeks of work. Even when she brought our orders in we weren't talking at all even and let her set them down on our table, she was still pushing that our order takes longer than 15 minutes to be cooked(when we definitely know it's more than that but of course we wouldn't want to argue at all as we paid for parking and it took us the whole 90 minutes) and saying lots of stuff when we werent talking at all. She wasn't at all apologetic at all throughout this...

We recently went to the Park Cafe for breakfast. Oh, how I wish I could give more than 5 stars to this eatery. This place is one of the few places where time stands still. The wait time was less than 15 minutes, even on the weekend . We got seated, and the tables were clean. A glass of Iced water came right out with black coffee, some cream, and sugar. Loved the aromatic roasted coffee, and it seemed popular amongst the crowd. Next on the order was eggs benny with in-house made hollandaise sauce on english muffin, tomatoes and wilted spinach. It came with a side of diced potatoes. They were absolutely crispy and delicious. We also ordered the in-house made fries, and it was sp crispy , fresh, and worth it. Our order of pancakes was the star of the meal. Simple ingredients but just as delicious with some butter, maple 🍁 syrup, and slice of an orange 🍊. Just melt in mouth and fluffy as a pillow. Never had better pancakes 🥞 than this before. Service was so great. The table was cleaned right away, and plates were cleared the moment we were done. Everyone served with a pleasant smile on the faces. Loved the ambiance. Quick service, excellent meal, and extraordinary decor. Would...