Ovenbird Cafe — Restaurant in Belmont

I really wanted to like this place a lot. I really did however my experience there yesterday was quite underwhelming.

The wife and I made our way there for a last-minute meal and arrived around 1:30PM for what we were hoping could be a late brunch/lunch type of meal. We parked across the street in the public lot and walked in, to a bustling place. Every single table, a dozen or so, was busy with people and their counter service had a few patrons there as well. We were told that we'd have to wait about ten minutes and we were eventually seated.

The place is quirky and uniquely decorated and has all kinds of little knick-knacks for sale on the shelves, near the entrance, as well. I can't quite describe the decor but it somehow kind of works I guess? It's bright, it's open and most definitely unique.

We were seated by the window and after glancing at the menu were able to place our orders with our waitress. I decided to try and order some quiche Loraine but they were apparently out, leaving with an option to try their roasted tomato quiche ($8.50) - so I ordered that and it came with a side of greens. The wife got some crab cakes benedict ($14) and about ten minutes later, our food arrived.

My first thoughts were that I got screwed on the portion size here. My piece of quiche was miniature. Tiny. Liliputian. Microscopic. It was a nano-slice of quiche. Seriously folks, I'll upload a picture, you'll see your yourselves. The Frenchman in me shrugged it off, as it tasted decent but three bites later, my stomach wasn't exactly satisfied. The greens were fresh, tasty and well dressed.

The wife enjoyed our crab cakes benedict but none of our food was stellar or amazing in any way. I dropped about $28 for those two plates and found the value to be pretty horrendous considering that I left there hungry and unimpressed.

Service was confused but attentive at times, and it was painful to try to read the special's board from across the room. Not sure what the deal is here, it could be a great place, but the lack of good value completely turned me off. If you're going to charge those prices, I'd better damn well be the best brunch menu items we've had, or pretty damn close....

A coffee break at this place was the worst experience in my life! I went there around noon with my 2 year old son, my friend and his 3 year old daughter. Once we sitted and waiter came to our table, she said that we have to have lunch here or leave and come later! I've never heard anything like that!!! Why don't they remove all the pastry around noon if they don't want customers to have it??? We had to explain for few minutes that we are not hungry yet, that we just came to have coffee and some pastry. Every part of waiter's body tried to show us that she didn't like it (probably not our order, but just potential tips), but took our order. But that's not the end of the story. The most interesting thing actually happened later when our kids started playing with each other. Essentially, they just walked around our table - they didn't run around cafe and were rather quiet. But our waiter didn't like it (though, she might just wanted to have other customers at our table who will have lunch). She came to our table every minute and told us put our kids in babystrollers. Then, even manager of Vicky Lee started to count potential profit:-) She also came to our table and explicitly asked to never come to this place again just to have coffee and pastry! Ridiculous! Can you imagine that??? We had to finish our coffee quickly and leave that...

This place under the previous owner used to be my go to spot for a higher quality breakfast or lunch as opposed to the Starbucks across the street, today's experience left much to be desired and changed that perception.

First off, I ordered an iced latte and was charged an extra 25 cents for needing a cup as opposed to if I brought my own. This is seriously absurd, you're a coffee shop, you can't just decide to start charging for the container in which you will provide my drink that is already $4.75.

Second, the menu. It used to be that I would look at the menu and want to order one of everything, now I almost didnt want to order because there was nothing unique from what I could quickly put together at home especially not for the prices being charged. Don't get me wrong, I'm more than happy to pay more for quality food but $15 for a chicken salad sandwich? To top it off, I chose the Texas Toast option for bread but instead what given was sad plain white bread lacking any of the "toast" aspect.

Overall, used to be good and after many months of not going here, I don't think I'll be back unless the nickeling and diming and uninspired...