The Caf’e By — Restaurant in Shilin District

Awful service. This is supposedly a Western restaurant in "American Village" but I don't think the staff here would cut it at a McDonald's in Barstow (for locals: the armpit of California).

First, a male server came out of the men's bathroom and didn't wash his hands. He just walked right back into the restaurant. You would think a restaurant employee who doesn't like to wash his hands might have the good sense to at least throw his hands under the sink for a couple of seconds when he comes out and sees that a customer is there, but that wasn't the case here.

Second, the restaurant was not very busy and there were many open tables. A couple came in and awkwardly requested to sit at the table next to mine. This table was no more than a meter away from mine, so it was like I was sharing a single table with this couple. If the staff here had common sense, they would have offered this couple one of the other open tables that wasn't so close to people already eating. It was pretty clear from the couple's behavior that they really wanted my table, which was confirmed when I requested to be moved and shortly thereafter they moved to my table.

When I complained about this at checkout, the female employee said that the restaurant had not yet implemented the government guidelines for social distancing between tables yet. While that obviously shows how poorly run this restaurant is, it wasn't the reason I was upset. I was upset because it's just common sense that the average person doesn't want to be forced to sit so close to another table that you can smell the breath of the people sitting there and every word they say when it's totally unnecessary.

For the owner of this restaurant: a lovely space and decent food means nothing when your employees act like they don't think...

The cafe staff and the interior are very welcoming, during lunch in weekends could get super busy and just two of us got lucky to have a table. Ig worth pictures!!! 😍 They still need a lot of improvement though with food and utensils. We used a steak fork for a dessert 😂 The kind server said they didn’t have.. after our twice visit in a day (coz they have limit 2 hrs dine in), I reckon ordering their salad and breakfast menu. My risotto was a bit bland and the crepe was thick- not a proper crepe at all. All prices for me is just right. My fave was the salad and the...

We came on a weekday so might be different if you come on a weekend. The food was very good overall. Our table ordered the salmon pink pasta, whole crab salted egg pasta, and lobster and scallops risotto. The pastas were cooked perfectly - however I did find the salted egg one to be a bit too salty but it is salted egg so I should've expected it. The service was prompt and food came out in decent time. Would...