Valley Café Restaurant - Akron — Restaurant in Akron

This is normally such a great little breakfast place!! Cute atmosphere, friendly staff, and good food.

I only got the cute atmosphere today, unfortunately. The lunch service needs some work, it seems.

I ordered a crispy chicken salad with ranch dressing. My kids ordered cheeseburgers made medium-well, served with chips.

My salad came pre-tossed and all the vegetables were soggy. The croutons were so greasy that they had no crisp crunch. The ranch dressing I ordered was either swapped for a different dressing or was past its date because it was sour. I mentioned this to my waitress Brianna, who asked me what I wanted instead. I opted for a burger.

My kids’ burgers came and were definitely not medium-well. They had a thick pink center that looked close to medium or medium rare, with little to no char on the outside. My daughter couldn’t eat her burger, saying it was bland and undercooked. The chips were again, soggy and undercooked in parts that the chips were flimsy in some areas while being almost burnt in others.

My burger came a few minutes later, and didn’t arrive with chips as they were making a ‘fresh’ batch. Once they came, they were the same as my kids’ chips. My burger was also bland, it didn’t even taste like they used salt anywhere during the cooking process.

Brianna was very disengaged the rest of our dining experience, not even looking at our table when dropping the check or drink refills. It felt like we inconvenienced her to ask for more, so I didn’t speak up about my kids’ burgers or chips, as I wasn’t sure how they’d react. This is so saddening because everyone is usually so friendly and happy to see you when you walk in and throughout the dining experience!

Overall a very disappointing lunch experience. I’ll come back for breakfast, but yikes the lunch experience was...

The decor, table settings, and homestyle design and food selection made me feel like I was in my grandmother's kitchen, that warm, comfortable, and down home feeling. Music from the 40's, 50's and 60's played on the speakers and matched the decor. Oh, and if you are a techie fan, the force is subtle, but present. My friends and I arrived at Valley Cafe on a Saturday morning just before eight o'clock and were the only guests there. By 8:30am the cafe started to fill up and by 9:30, just before we left, there were guests waiting to be seated. Seating seems to be limited to parties of 1 to 5 people. I think we sat at the only table that could seat 5--it was a little crowded at our table, which seemed made to seat four people, but the limited space only supported our community vibe and bonding :). The wait staff attended to our table regularly and I don't think my cup of coffee was ever dry, which I loved. As far as the food, I wish I hadn't eaten so much the night before so I could have ordered what was on the plate of my friends. I enjoyed my Valley Breakfast sandwich with bacon--I don't think you can mess that up. My friends breakfast food made my mouth water. The order of pancakes were stacked three high and went to the edge of the large plate! They looked good!

The crowded seating is a negative. I don't know about you, but I prefer to be at least an arms length away from the other guest. One gentleman sitting at his table could have touched another guest with his elbow, maybe.

Prince range is around $5 to $13 for breakfast.

I would suggest getting their early on a Saturday morning if you don't want to be...

Turns out the server who was totally rude to us is also the manager, so I’m forced to do a public review. Having several years of experience in the industry and other customer service related fields, I know it’s NEVER acceptable to tell a customer to “be patient”. Mind you, I was never ever rude while waiting for syrup and ketchup for my kids who were starving after church and a 45 minute wait for a table (previous restaurants I worked for would never allow these condiments to be empty/missing from the table anyway). I simply popped back up to check the status, she saw me, and said “be patient”. You’ve got to be kidding me. Clearly no one ever taught this “manager” that the customer is always right. Welp, she picked the wrong one, because I’m nice until I’m disrespected, and I’ve got plenty of time today to let everyone know to steer clear of this place. I’ll never understand why it’s an Akron staple in the first place (I hadn’t been in years after a previous bad experience, but went with my Dad after church today because it’s one of his favorites). The food is mediocre, the place is gross and there were bugs flying around everywhere. You’re better off waiting 4 hours for Blue Door or Wally Waffle. Do...