New Day Cafe — Restaurant in Belville

I saw the awesome reviews and appealing menu online while down in the Wilmington area in recent weeks as I brought others to town from Charlotte so I could share a bit of my hometown area with them. We stopped at the cafe to have breakfast, but unfortunately didn’t dine here at all. I definitely didn’t expect a terrible experience of course, but most certainly had one. When we walked in the cafe it was understandably full as breakfast is always a busy time anywhere. One gentleman walked by to take something to a nearby table, and didn’t utter a word as I said “Good Morning! How are you?” I saw an eye roll as he kept walking. I guess he was having a bad day or something, but it would have been great to at least be acknowledged as he passed by. The very least he could have said was “Good morning! We’ll be with you in a moment!” It upset me a bit, but I tried to brush it off and continued to wait.

Another individual approached shortly after, and looked around totally unsure where to possibly seat us and said there would be a little wait and it would also depend on whether or not there was a wait list. I proceeded to ask if we could sit possibly sit outside, but another couple waiting behind us loudly said “We’d like to sit outside!!”

She literally skipped over us, and quickly sat them outside. I don’t understand what in the world happened here or if there was any specific reason that she skipped over us like that, but it is really unacceptable. She should have offered outdoor seating if it were an available option from the start before we even asked and before anyone jumped over us the way they did in such a rude manner.

I truly try to be patient and understanding during these troublesome times with staffing issues everywhere as I encounter it in my own workplace daily. (It seems to be a revolving door) However, I do make it an absolute point to strive to help support small business whenever and wherever I can for this reason, but these encounters made me walk out. It takes a lot for me to do this…

I will not spend money in a place that treats people like this as this was two awful experiences in a matter of a few minutes time. I hope no one else encounters this as I truly wanted to dine here and support this business. This definitely does not represent what local hospitality once was not so long ago in this area. We landed at Farmhouse Kitchen instead which greeted us warmly and provided great customer service in spite of being extremely busy as well. I do hope customer service improves at the cafe for future...

My friend suggested a new restaurant in Leland for our monthly lunch. I'm always up for something new so we went to New Day Cafe in Waterford, Leland, North Carolina. I had a challenging time getting into the parking lot as GPS said where to turn but obviously I was going against. The flow of traffic, made me a few minutes late and a little embarrassed to be going down the wrong lane in the parking lot, it is not a big parking lot. Lot. I was able to get good parking on the side and for a noon lunch. That was a good thing. I do hear that you can often have a line if you come for breakfast or brunch, just FYI. Quite an extensive menu, and list of specials, they serve breakfast and lunch so it was a momentous task to pick what to have. I finally decided on French toast, but which one? The special that was called the s'more French toast or the regular that sounded delicious. So when the waitress came after I had time to study the menu, I asked you which one would be better and she steered me towards the everyday french toast, as the other one is a little hard to eat. She said It tastes excellent but it has marshmallow in it which makes it a challenge to consume. I didn't have a beverage. I stuck with water, the place was definitely full, but it wasn't loud. It was a nice environment. My friend ordered like a spicy egg fajita type bowl and she loved it, she doesn't even look at the menu anymore because it's her favorite thing to get there. Both of our meals were delicious and I have posted pictures of both of them. They were nice-sized portions. If you're hungry, you easily didn't need to take home a doggy bag, but if you're trying to watch it, I took half mine home. The price wasn't terrible. You know right now there's a lot of sticker shot on the prices that restaurants are charging, well, not cheap, it was not expensive. It felt like they were right on the money. You don't have to get dressed up to go here, and I think you will be pleasantly surprised by how good...

This was our first and last time dining here. We waited longer than we should have for our server to come take our order. What made it worse was she was the first and only person I spoke to when we walked in. I asked if I could see a menu since we had never been there before. I should have walked away then when I saw the condition of the menu. There is no pride when you hand out a menu in that poor condition. I rarely write reviews unless I think about the situation over night. I truly hope that New Day Cafe will read this as constructive criticism and change their ways. I have consulted and managed several successful establishments and the way they are going about things is just not smart. I ordered Nutella French toast for our daughter as a celebration of her making an outstanding score on her placement tests. The Nutella French toast was a special for $12.50 which was pretty overpriced for what we received. The plate comes to the table and the server felt the need to tell me that, “the chef doesn’t normally deconstruct specials”. It’s French toast for a child!!! I asked her if he was aware that it was for a child? He seemed to be aware. This isn’t a 5 star 5 diamond establishment so I’m confused why they want to be snooty. I also made her aware that I would never ask a chef to do something that would really take away from the meal he/she made and that I understood as my husband himself is a chef. I did not make her aware of my own professional history. Along with the French toast that was not worth $12.50 I had a Bloody Mary for $8.50 that was horrible. Our server seemed extremely forgetful and didn’t seem to want to be there. I still tipped 20% but it wasn’t deserved. This is so unfortunate because we wanted to like this place and we were there to celebrate. We chose you but, you...