The Hen Ann Arbor — Restaurant in Ann Arbor

Stray Hen is a weird hybrid—one step up from McDonald’s, yet trying to pass as a more refined dining experience. You walk in, grab a menu, and order from a cafeteria-style cul-de-sac. The menu itself is decent, with a good range of food options, but the setup is confusing and lacks flow.

Once you order, you're expected to seat yourself. However, if you happen to sit at a table deemed too large for your party—even mid-meal—you’ll be asked to move. Seating is tight, and the restaurant is busy, so expect to be bumped and jostled frequently—mostly by staff moving quickly through the space.

Your food is then walked around by staff searching for your table marker, and during rush times this can take a while. There’s no cover on the plates, so your food is exposed as it circulates. After ordering, you're hit with the dreaded screen-turn for tipping, then handed silverware to set your own table and directed to fill your own water.

If it’s busy, good luck finding a table. Wheelchair access is difficult and navigating the space is not easy. If you sit for longer than 30 minutes, staff will begin pestering you to leave—usually by offering you a to-go bag. If you wish to order anything else, you’ll have to rejoin the line, which can be quite long.

Good luck asking questions about the menu—the register staff seemed too rushed or disinterested to help. I stepped out of line just to try and get some clarification, but it was clear assistance wasn’t a priority.

To be fair, the food is good and the prices are competitive. But the overall experience—from the disorganized layout to the dismissive service—was simply not enjoyable. I won’t...

I want to start by saying that I have never written a review before, but I really wanted to today.

My partner and I first tried this place a few weeks ago looking for a place to get breakfast before I had a big exam for my grad program. We were so pleasantly surprised by the presentation and quality of both the food and coffee! Also the decorations and atmosphere are so cute (I like the flowers and portraits with the colorful pencils). Such nice big windows and lighting too! The second time we came back we had the pleasure of meeting the owner who treated us with incredible kindness and generosity!! Awesome dude. Equally good experience. :)

This weekend my parents are visiting (very excited, but I definitely want it to go well, you know what I mean?). We brought them for a late breakfast/brunch at Stray Hen. The line to order was a little long, but they took extra good care of us: checking in with us and making sure that we got our coffee exactly as we wanted while we waited. (Shout out Robert! We appreciated his attention and consideration!). They had a couch where my parents could sit while we waited in line. The barista, Bennet, was so kind to fit our drinks in when the coffee bar was peak busy, and the drinks were again so good. Wait for food was so crazy short and everything was delicious. :))

My parents said that the wait was totally worth it because of the food, service, and great drinks. Additionally, my boyfriend (who works professionally in food service) and myself (who worked as a barista for many years) both recognized the whole morning as exceptionally good service.

Great vibes! You guys rock!...

Very trendy spacious breakfast / brunch place downtown. The concept of lining up and ordering is generally not a bad one because it does move people to order more quickly instead of waiting at the table, especially if its busy (when we went it was not). However, they only send food to the table. Coffee needs to be picked up at the counter. For some reason they have the barista yelling out individual order descriptions instead of using the screen or even a number, or just sending it to the table. It got pretty irritating.

Foodwise, the only standout is the scramble sandwich with spicy feta (not pictured). The salmon toast was average, and initially came with an overpoached egg (fortunately quickly replaced when requested). The apple fritter was quite small, not very apple-y and too sweet (also expensive for what you got). Flight combo was pretty on the plate, but some of the toppings were quite plain- peanut butter smeared and then some tiny bits of raw green apple. The potato / homefries was tasty. Hashbrown fine, like what you get at McDonald’s. Goes well with the tasty hot sauce. Coffees were the most disappointing aspect of the meal. When you go to a nice brunch place coffees should at least be decent. The latte was not in the right glass, no latte art, and it actually barely tasted of coffee. More like a warm coffee-flavored milk. The espresso had no crema, was lukewarm when picked up, also in an inappropriate glass. The manager seems to be around to check up on things, but otherwise the staff generally seem a...