SUNNY SIDE UP — Restaurant in Town of Cochrane

We went in a little before noon on a Sunday for a late breakfast, this was my second visit and my wife’s first — very likely the last time we’ll make the short drive in from Calgary. The restaurant was fairly busy but there was an open table. We started with cappuccinos which were fine, but took a while, which was understandable given the busy service. We were asked for another drink order whilst we waited for our cappuccinos...

When we ordered our entrees my wife ordered a traditional breakfast and I ordered an “Angus bowl”, the server seemed to be already leaving the table as I made my order. Her back was half turned and ready to walk away as I said “angus bowl”, and she didn’t pause to ask me how I’d like my eggs before she sped back to the kitchen; I had a bad feeling that I would not be getting what I ordered. After a bit of a long wait —again understandable— my wife’s order came, an I ended up receiving an order of pancakes. I was not surprised that the server had misheard given how much of a rush she seemed to be in.

My wife asked if they had mixed up our orders with another table as she had heard what I wanted; they had not. They offered to remake my order but given the amount of time it took to get our meals I didn’t want to make my wife wait until her breakfast was cold for me to get mine, or else have her eat her’s in front of me and then I’d have eat mine whilst she nursed a drink or something.

The pancakes themselves were mediocre, not the fluffy golden disks with delectably crispy edges one would expect. Instead I received 3 fairly flat almost crepe-like pancakes dusted with confectioner’s sugar for some reason, and served with just some maple syrup. Apparently this dish was $10, for that I’d expect more than 3 mediocre pancakes, maybe some fruit or something — at least the pancakes should be good. Whilst we ate the server came back and offered a fairly weak apology, expressing some befuddlement as to how she couldn’t understand how she misheard “pancakes” from “angus”, suggesting at least in our opinion that she blamed us for her mistake. When the cheque came they didn’t discount or comp anything. We left the minimal tip option and left.

I think that it is possible that this treatment was intentional. The server seemed to take a lot of time with what seemed like regulars, and wasn’t particularly interested in our table. Maybe this is a good place if you’re a Cochrane local, but I don’t suggest coming in from Calgary. Unless it’s during off hours...

Located in cute Cochrane, Alberta...this is one of your choices for a tasty meal!

Parking: street parking or a lot out back

Wheelchair accessible: yes. It is possible, the restaurant is a bit cosy (tight), but it is do-able

Staff: friendly. They have too many staff attending to one table, which makes ordering and communicating a little bit complicated at times.

Ambiance: nice. Cute little restaurant/cafe. Some of the seating is near the door, so this isn't great when it is cooler outside. Family friendly.

Unfortunately, I'm scoring this restaurant a 3/5 because I ordered a vegetarian meal, which to my disappointment had meat in it. I get it, mistakes can be made and at the end of the day, they did take my meal off the bill. They were not apologetic, but said they'd tell the kitchen staff.

I also did not like having to deal with several waitresses...it was complicating for me and to have to explain the problem twice, while having other patrons stare at me was embarrassing. I had shared the problem with a waitress who disappeared and a few minutes later, another waitress offered to pack my food, since she noticed I hadn't eaten much. This is what prompted me to have to explain my situation, for the second time.

I understand this is not a "chain" restaurant (which is a bonus), but restaurants need to adopt some sort of standards and practices. I don't know what the benefit of having several people wait on a table, but to me, it seemed counter productive.

I've been to other food places in Cochrane, and would definitely return to the other places instead...such a...

First impressions when entering is that the restaurant is very cramped, with tables very close together. With the small location it makes sense however once we were seated at a two person table with half a wall blocking it from the rest of the restaurant, with not even room for us to sit across from one another, but with the chair crammed into the side ( with a jacket on the back of his chair the people at the next table couldn't get up from theirs). So to say we felt packed in like sardines is an understatement.

We couldn't figure out who our server was, as two different women came by and asked us what we wanted to order / needed at different times. We both ordered an Eggs Benny (they have many options for these which I loved!) We were told the eggs only come poached medium (I am used to restaurants letting you choose how poached you want your eggs) since I like mine medium though I figured it'd be great. Unfortunately, my "medium" poached eggs were very soft, with the inner whites of the eggs being gooey and inedible. If you are going to specialize in only medium poached eggs, I would hope they would be nearly perfect everytime, so although the coffee was hot and servers were nice enough (when they remembered we were there) I was left very disappointed overall with the food quality, especially...