South Restaurant + Coffeehouse — Restaurant in Alaska

I have been going to South since it opened almost 10 years ago. I always bring out-of-state guests and have even hosted birthday parties and had my baby shower there. They used to have a very high standard of service. That does not appear to be a value to them anymore. I brought my niece and 2 sons in for brunch today. It was a Wednesday and they were clearly understaffed. We were told it was a 20 to 25 minute wait. That was fine. We went and got smoothies in the coffee house. 25 minutes later, they buzz us and sat us in one of the bar booths. We looked at the menu, decided what we would like and waited for our server. She was nowhere to be seen so I collected the orders and my niece took the kids to the bathroom. The bartender Martha finally comes by and was visibly irritated. I gave her all four orders. When she asked if my nieces order needed eggs, I said I did not know and asked if she wouldn’t mind swinging back by when they got back. Eyes still glued to her order taking tablet, she sighs and says that she’ll just put everything on hold. Before I could order our lemonades and cocktails, she turns on her heel and walks away.

I’ve served and bartended in low and high-end establishments for ten years. I’ve trained servers and bartenders so I’m no stranger to people getting “short” when they’re overwhelmed. I gave her the benefit of the doubt and brushed it off. When my niece and the kids got back, we waited for another five minutes, but the bartender would not come back. Thinking that she’s overwhelmed, I mentioned that it might be helpful to just walk over and tell her that we did not need Eggs with that last order. My niece walked over to the bar and then shortly came back to the table with her tail between her legs. She said that the bartender barked at her that she was busy and would be with her when she was ready.

She eventually came back to our table and demanded to know how the eggs were supposed to be cooked. My niece said no eggs and offered an apology. Martha snaps back that she was talking to two guys. My niece apologized AGAIN. Martha replies (still with an attitude) that “oh, it’s fine, you were just interrupting” and again turns on her heel and leaves before we can order our drinks. At this point, there’s no way that we could follow her to the bar and ask for drinks. I asked my niece if we should get a different table. A supervisor of some sort, Tiffanie walks by and we tell her what is going on. She seems very apologetic and said we have been lovely since we came in and says that she will take care of some things on the bill.

The food eventually comes out, barely warm. Martha does not come back to our table or acknowledge us until we are finished eating. We asked for boxes and our bill. 10 minutes later she brings them. Tiffanie had not yet addressed the bill. So I stood by our table to keep an eye out for her. Five minutes ago by and I don’t see her so I go to the host stand and ask if they are able to find her. They go and look and then come back and say they can’t find her, but tell me to keep an eye out for her. I waited another five minutes and eventually found her. She gives me a new bill that is $14 lower than the original. I let her know that the server never apologized or checked on us or anything, and asked her if she thought this was acceptable? Tiffanie said “I already told you that I’m going to have a sit down with her later and address this.”

I’m appalled at the lack of effort to make it right. I have never witnessed a coworker treat someone like this, or been treated like this.

At the very least, after us taking the time to let Tiffanie know about the Martha’s hostility, the least she could have done was get us a different server or table. In hindsight, we should have just left after the initial interaction with the hateful bartender.

If you go, MAKE SURE to ask for SHARA or NATASHA. They have always given 5...

First time actually eating here. we have tried several times to come, but the wait was always way too long. Today we got seated almost right away.

Couple things first. The restaurant is beautiful, very stylish and looks great. Everything was clean, and atmosphere was good. Lots of chatter and pleasant.

First impressions. The person that met us at the host stand seemed like they were not in a good mood. A general look of displeasure on their face and just not pleased to either see us or be there. I'll be honest, this definitely sets a tone when you are first coming into a restaurant. I saw them moving through the areas a couple times, and they really just seemed to not want to either see us or be there. No social pleasantries at all.

Once seated we were greeted quickly by our server and asked about drinks, so coffee was requested, which was quickly provided with cream and sweeteners. Our server was pretty good and attentive in general. Coffee never was empty and offered to answer any questions several times while we figured out what to order. The coffee was great very flavorful and with the cream a perfect combo for any time of day.

The menu for breakfast seemed to lack of lot of options or variations I would expect in a breakfast place. I realize that having an overly complicated menu drives a lot of challenges both for consumers and staff, but providing some clarity in the menu would be useful. Example is the polar bear breakfast. This is served from the "sweets" area in the menu, but as a pancake, Eggs and proteins, it's not really a sweet. The dusting of this with powdered sugar is also an odd approach (less so for french toast), as well as the massive butter drop all on one plate. A little refinement with this would go a long way. The powered sugar wasn't in the description of the menu item either, something to consider if it's not something desired. The 2 eggs option only coming with 1 slice of toast which seems short. Bump the price if this is an issue, but 2 slices for 2 eggs seems pretty normal. The polar bear in how it's severed was very confusing. My assumption is this normally is served as a single plate with French toast, but as a large single pancake, getting everything piled on it, kind of forces how you choose to eat it.

As to food in general; not very memorable. Everything seems good enough, but didn't really give us a reason to come back either. The sourdough pancake with the polar bear was thin, did have some sourdough flavor, but not very strong. The AK reindeer sausage was ok, but lacked any markings. If you are going to serve it as a split sausage, get it on a flat top and let it seer. This brings out so much more flavor. Eggs were cooked as ordered, hash browns (home fries) were cooked well. Toast was very lightly toasted; toast should have color. The chorizo burrito was good, sauces were well seasoned and flavorful. A comment made several times was that Snow City was better.

We had really looked forward to coming here for a while and while I wasn't completely disappointed, I'm not sure we have reason to come...

I keep wanting to give this place a chance but I think we’re done. We went a few weeks ago and the wait was long but nothing out of the ordinary. Once seated we placed our order. I ordered the sourdough gin and tonic. I asked to substitute club soda for the tonic. The soda was flat and where I assumed the rhubarb would be somewhat muddled, it was just a few frozen hunks tossed into the glass; not what I would expect for a $14.5 cocktail. Our meals consisted of the butter burger and huevos divorciados, both delicious, but we didn’t receive them until 35 minutes after ordering which was frustrating. At least I had time to try to muddle my frozen rhubarb. Before we got the bill my partner asked if he could try one of the biscuits. He was given a cold biscuit in a box. No butter, no jelly. It was dry. We tried again this weekend per my request since their gluten free menu is probably the best for brunch in town. It was another long wait so we went to the coffee shop next door. I ordered a cappuccino and it took them 35 minutes to make. I am not exaggerating. I then realized they have one machine for the coffee shop as well as the entire establishment so there were waitresses coming in for the brunch orders which put those of us in the coffee shop behind. We were seated after an hour. When given the specials I asked the waitress if the potato leek soup was gluten free and her response was “probably not, it tastes too good to be gluten free” we ordered the omelette and the shakahuska, and I specified gluten free once more. When the meals came, there were baguettes on my plate and my meal was cold. I asked if I could please have gluten free for a third time and she acted surprised. I placed the baguettes on the table and was brought two small pieces of gf toast to mop up my cold breakfast. Staff are very friendly and the options look delicious, but I think we just get really unlucky every...