Werner’s DIner — Restaurant in Baltimore

Quick and dirty summary: Overall decent food (but a little pricy), overall slow service, overall poor experience. If you're relying on the restaurant to get you in on time and served quickly (even with a reservation), this isn't the place for you. I had an 11:30am reservation on my wedding day to have breakfast with my grooms party. I was running late and didn't get there until noon, and the restaurant still wasn't ready to seat my party - a totally unneeded stress on my wedding day. If you have an unlimited amount of time, maybe give them a try - the food is good enough in that case. Read on for a detailed review of my experience.

In today's world, I really don't like leaving poor reviews, because I really try to give the benefit of the doubt. Let me preface this review by saying I made a very advanced reservation at Saturday Morning Cafe for brunch on the day of my wedding back in April (2022). To hold the reservation, the restaurant owner took a $150 credit card deposit upon booking, which I found a bit strange considering I was expecting no more than 12-15 people. In today's world of people bailing and businesses relying on reservations, I just went with it, because I was definitely committed. The owner also mentioned on the phone that we could bring our own alcoholic beverages and that the serving staff would chill the stuff for us.

I'll start with the good:

1. The restaurant owner was very professional and communicative when I initially reached out. He even gave me his personal contact so I could update him with any details if necessary. Add one star for this.

2. Considering the fact that this was my wedding day and the restaurant was clearly not very fast with service, a friend of mine approached someone about our timeline. Our server immediately took our food orders, and the kitchen definitely put our food through as soon as possible. Add a second star.

3. Food came out hot for sure. Though nothing super special, it was good enough to add a third star.

Now, the bad:

1. As mentioned in the summary, I had an 11:30am reservation on my wedding day. Running late (as most do on such a day), my party arrived at noon. To my complete shock, the restaurant didn't even have a table clean and set for us. We waited at least 5-10 minutes to sit down. The restaurant wasn't even crowded.

2. Service was super slow overall. We weren't served our coffees and waters for about 20-25 minutes, which is what prompted a friend of mine to remind the server that we were on a time crunch for my wedding day.

3. Only a portion of the drinks dropped off in advance were chilled, and I suspect that the friend who dropped them off was the one to put ice in the cooler. The case of white claw was room temp and undrinkable. No special setups or displays - maybe a misunderstanding during the planning call.

4. When the bill came, the $150 deposit hadn't been deducted as promised. It took at least 10-15 minutes for the server to correct the bill and deduct the deposit (I had to go up to the counter to have her get on it). After getting the revised bill, the auto gratuity was changed from 20% to 30%, which was unacceptable to me. I asked it to be changed back to 20% (I'm not a monster, and I know servers rely on tips). This is just another thing that should have been taken care of up front instead of taking so much extra time to address.

5. This isn't required and may even sound petty, but not once did the server, the owner, or anyone working at the restaurant ask which one of us was the groom to personally say thank you and congratulations. Everyone from the restaurant that interacted with us just wished the group as a whole a congratulations. Again, not required, but this is a simple thing that could have boosted the service experience.

All said and done, I just felt like it was one thing after the other that went poorly - overall not a good experience. With all of the other amazing restaurants in the area, it's highly unlikely that I'll be...

We arrived at 11:30 am, the hostess was unwelcoming and cold. We were told that the wait was about 20 minutes. The hostess took our phone number and told us we had to wait outside. She said she would call us when our table was available. After 30 minutes, we asked for an update on our position in line and were told it would be another 20 minutes. After a hour we went back inside and the hostess said that she called us twice a few minutes ago, only to find out that she wrote our phone number incorrectly. However, we were sitting on the bench outside of the door, so she could've looked outside and found us there. They explained that the wait was due to the AC not working on one side of the restaurant.

We were seated, our waitress was an extremely slender young lady. She was probably the worst waitress that I've ever experienced. They sat us at a super wobbly table, I was scared the beverages would fall on to us. There was a table available next to us, so we moved. That table was more suitable for eating. We attempted to order several items, but was told they were out of a few options. The waitress wrote our order down in her book. It took a while for our breakfast food to come considering the restaurant wasn't' seating at full capacity. We both asked for cheddar cheese in our eggs, but when the eggs came there was no cheese. The waitress lied and said that they were out of cheddar, so they replaced the cheese with Swiss cheese (without asking us). However, there was clearly no cheese in either set of eggs by sight or taste. I asked them to remake my eggs, and boom the new eggs had cheddar cheese. We requested grits with cheese that we never received.

We asked the waitress for the manager to discuss our experience. She stated that she was the "manager" on duty. Keep in mind, I've been here numerous times in the past (and have held general conversations with the owner). We told her that we very displeased with the level of service and overall experience. She uncomfortably stared at us for about 30 seconds before responding, I will remove the grits from your check (which we never received). A few minutes later, another woman came over with a cook and stated that she was one of the "managers." The cook stated that he put amercian cheese in both of our eggs. But again, the eggs had no cheese by sight or taste. The second manager was apologetic, and removed the main meal we had issues with from the bill. I prefer to pay in full without discounts for a lovely experience when dining, but this just did not happen.

Apparently, they opened a second location. I called there looking for the owner, because I know he values honest feedback. He was not available. I spoke to the manager of that location, Mr. Johnson. I told him about the experience and he said he would investigate and call me back because that is not the experience that they wish to provide patrons. That was on Sunday, June 30th. I still have not heard from him or anyone else.

I will not return to this establishment. Every time I recommend this restaurant to someone, they are not pleased with the aesthetics, food...

This has been the worst experience ever. I will never come here again. When we first arrived, we asked the hostess if we could sit at the bar area, since there were 5 available sits, to our dismay, a manager by the name of Monica, informed the hostess that she was only taking parties of ones and two's and that we could not sit there. The hostess stated we may have to wait 15 to 20 minutes for downstairs seating. The hostess finally placed us (party of 4) down stairs, within 5 mins. The waitress, Jay, was extremely nice. We placed our order at 10:23am. A half an hour later, we still had not received our food. Other patrons that arrived after us, however, did receive their food. The waitress J and Chris, we're very apologetic. Our waitress, Jay, informed us that there was an issue with the printer and our order never went through, so she hand wrote the order and gave it to the kitchen staff. Another half an hour has passed ( now 11:36am) and still no food. We requested to speak with the manager, the manager did not acknowledge our request or even apologize. At 11:52am, the first plate arrived and the other food arrived individually and in 5-8minute increments. To further add insult to injury, the food was cold and one order was made incorrect. Once again the waitress, Jay and Chris, we're very apologetic. At 12:09PM, waitress Chris, informed us that the kitchen staff is currently redoing the French toast order that was incorrect. At 12:24, the hostess brought the food to us, the French toast arrived , incorrect again. When we informed the hostess that the order was once again wrong, she appeared agitated. This was that last straw, we decided it was time to leave. We took a chance on coming here, only to be disappointed with the kitchen staff and the horrific management staff, that clearly displayed that they could careless, if patrons are, at a minimum satisfied. Would not recommend this...