Hay Jay Cafe & Coffee — Restaurant in Bennington

Normally we don't comment on places of a business as they have so many challenges and having family members operating major Resorts Nationwide along with us owning several Residences at well known Five star hotels we have become very tolerant of hiccups in operating a business especially cafe type setups. However, on Oct. 5th around 11:00 A.M. we decided to stop at the Bennington location for a Breakfast. In having service at this location on average 4-5 times a WEEK from food to mochas , we've been very happy with the service and food especially most of the servers. Upon walking in we notice the front portion of the restaurant had two tables available for food/drinks. In the back portion they had some open tables as well. BUT, we prefer to sit in the front portion as they also served us there with full menu and were serving others as well FULL menu. The lady ( dark hair/longer length) approached us and we asked if we could sit in the front portion as they had people sitting there with full service. She said we can ONLY sit at the front table closes to the door ...strange as we saw other tables "available" in both portions. We asked for some different table and she said, " NO, you HAVE TO sit there ONLY!!!!! We were shocked at such attitude and I remind you, we've owned and operated many service related setups so this truly was a direct insult. WE WERE SO SHOCKED AND WALKED OUT. WE WILL NEVER COME BACK WITH SUCH AN INSULT. THERE ARE CERTAIN THINGS THAT CROSS THE LINE. IN THE CHALLENGES FACING BUSINESSES IN THE CURRENT ENVIRONMENT...NEVER PUSH AWAY A REGULAR CUSTOMER whom always shown respect . YES, THIS WAS A FIRST FOR US AND THE LAST. THERE ARE SO SO MANY CAFE TYPE SETUPS DOWN THE ROAD SO IT IS EASY TO LOSE A CUSTOMER.... A REPEAT CUSTOMER. I am sure you can ID the Server and again, I outlined the details so it would be nearly impossible to be excused with such rudeness. Hopefully you can speak to this Server and remind them it's about basic customer service. I will not come back to the place as once you experience such attitude..it's not worth it to be reminded of such behavior. This applies to our friends whom also live in the general area where we meet there for gatherings. They can make up their own minds but not...

Mixed bag review here. Let’s start with the good. My husband LOVED his energy drink he got. He already is planning when to go back for more. My coffee drink was pretty good, I got the pumpkin sticky bun latte and all I could taste was the pumpkin flavor I was hoping the other flavors would shine through as well.

The not so good. We did a mobile order for curbside, my husband went to pick it up. The parking lot was packed and there was no designated curbside spot at least that he could see. So he went inside. When he got home he realized he didn’t get his side of fries. He said the burrito he ordered was just okay but he really liked the salsa it came with.

My pancakes had some sort of meat grease on them and were stained orange. It smelled and tasted like chorizo was cooked right next to it. Not the end of the world for me but id rather not taste meat on the pancakes especially since I don’t like chorizo. My 4 year old wouldn’t eat them because of the slight meat taste to them. If I were still vegan this would have been a big no no.

I wasn’t a fan of the biscuits and gravy personally. The gravy had a very big piece of sausage that wasn’t broken down and the flavor was just not my favorite but nothing wrong with them in general, I’m sure many people would like them.

Overall not horrible, not my favorite. I would just be cautious if you have a certain diet/ lifestyle like vegan etc. and double check your order before you leave if you do mobile ordering. Drinks seem...

We arrived at 8:50 and got our food at 10:00. Our order wasn't complex - pancakes, eggs, french toast, biscuits, bacon.

At 9:55 ish I had to get up and tell the waitress we were going to leave soon. 5 minutes later we magically had our food, but the orders were wrong. One meal had bacon instead of sausage, another meal had hash browns instead of eggs.

The French toast was dry and a little chewy. The biscuit and gravy combo didn't taste good at all. Usually this type of plate has breakfast sausage but what we received was regular sliced up sausage and it didn't end up well.

If you have kids that need a booster seat, I would avoid this cafe right now. The booster seat we received DID NOT FIT on the chairs. Their chairs are skinnier / countoured in the back and the boosters have 4 legs. The two back legs didn't sit on the chair so it was leaning back. We had to discard it.

I saw another review complain about waiting an hour as well. Hay Jay responded asking to have the review removed, that's it. Not a great first impression for...