The Runcible Spoon — Restaurant in Bloomington

Not the best service here, unfortunately. I went to IU Bloomington for grad school 2015-2018, never went to this place. Discovered it with my wife in 2021 I believe, and was left amazed by the delicious burger and house made “fries”, which are actually deliciously seasoned potatoes. Made a point to come back again a couple times more. But sadly, the last few times we’ve been, service and quality of food seems to have significantly decreased. Last two times I was there, my burger was over cooked. Patty was charred and meat was dry and well done, even after requesting a medium rare burger. Tonight, we went and I decided to get the veggie burger instead. It was mildly spicy, but very tasty. So I’ll give them that. My wife usually gets the salmon salad, which she has mentioned she enjoys quite a bit, so that’s also a plus for them.

Regarding service, they serve their burgers dry, aka leave the ketchup/mustard/mayo up to you. If you want mayo, you always have to ask, which is fair being that it needs to be refrigerated. But the last few times we’ve been, every time I ask, it takes the waitress 20+ mins to bring it out. Oftentimes only after you’ve reminded them to get it after you’ve already asked them once….20 mins ago…. I wouldn’t really even be bothered by it if there were lots of people all over the inside and outside seating areas, but when you’re there at 5ish pm for an early dinner, and you’re one of two groups outside and there’s only a small handful inside, how overwhelmed are the staff, really? Is it really as tough as it seems for them to grab a bottle of mayo out of the fridge for a client and bring it right out upon request? Maybe there’s just something I don’t see but it doesn’t make any sense. Tonight, I asked for mayo and the same thing happened, and I joked with my wife that I might just ask for a box for my sandwich to take home, and I’ll just eat the fries there and forget about the mayo.

The food is, at least, from my experience, ok. Definitely nothing to write home about. Don’t know what i experienced the first time but it seems like either the owner or kitchen management system has changed. For what you get, it’s a perfectly reasonable price. It’s just unfortunately not as tasty as you might expect from another place. Service needs some serious work. When clients ask for something, it needs to be brought out in a reasonable time. I’m not saying record time, but not after 20 minutes have passed either. It’s a little crazy. Fries were a little dry tonight, but I love their seasoning so much I want to make them at home - they, at least, are that good! Atmosphere is cozy and comfortable, and the patio seating outside is extremely relaxing on a coolish-warmish sunny evening. It’s very quiet.

Interestingly enough, looking at all the other reviews here, it seems the owner only 🙏’s negative reviews and does not comment, but ❤️’s positive reviews, and always comments with thankfulness. They do not seem to acknowledge those folks who have constructive criticism or concerns with food/service. I find that fascinating, and not necessarily in a good way. I really want to keep trying to give this place a shot but after multiple negative experiences, I’m not sure how willing we will be...

Very confused about the stellar ratings for this place. Visiting for the weekend from out of town and chose to stop here based on ratings and different articles we read.

We almost turned around when we walked up due to how dirty and disheveled the outside seating area was. Went inside anyway and started rethinking our decision again when seated because of the seemingly 20 years of dirt and grime everywhere. Decided to stay as we hungry and weary from walking all day. Maybe it is one of those dives that has outrageously good food? How bad could it possibly be?

There was an extensive breakfast menu and we figured it was hard to mess up breakfast. And while on the pricey side, good food usually is, right? Right?? So breakfast it is. Friend orders a coke and is given a can and cold glass. He pours it in not seeing the orange juice pulp that is stuck to the top of the glass until his first sip and wonders what is sticking to his lips. While we wait what seems like ages for the waitress to come back ( in an almost empty restaurant), we are starting to worry and also notice things like the cakes on pepper at the top of the pepper shaker and the dried ketchup on the cap of the ketchup bottle. The waitress' response was to take his glass to the back, dump the coke into a new glass and bring it back to the table. It still had some pulp floaties in it, but he gulped it down anyway. It was hot outside and isn't the complaining type.

Breakfast came and it was how we expected considering how the visit started. Your only choice is wheat toast (fine for me, but not my friend's first choice) and you get one slice. Both of our toast had a burnt edge and a crushed middle. My over medium eggs were fine, but my friend's omelet was a greasy fold over with giant chunks of chewy ham. Not diced ham...giant portions of ham, which probably didn't help the grease factor. He barely ate it. My sausage was fine too, but the plate sized pancake was not. It was huge, but covered in powdered sugar and had the consistency of plywood. It was truly the most bizarre pancake ever. If you like alot of syrup, you could probably choke it down.

It was almost $25 without tip for both half eaten meals. We paid and left in a hurry, hoping we wouldn't be sick from what we did eat.

I'm not sure if these reviews are from college kids who have no taste buds and just enjoy the alternative, artsy atmosphere, or folks with low expectations and standards. I'm...

The place is cute which is why I chose it, pictures of food looked good, but I had a horrible experience. Terrible service, some of the food was AWFUL while others were good.

As far as the service goes, when we first got there, we asked the host if we could sit outside with our dog, she said sure no problem. We then proceeded to wait for 20 minutes before going back in to see if a server would be coming out to bring waters or get drink orders soon, and were told by our server that we “weren’t supposed to sit there”. Then when the host brought out our drinks, she, unprompted, blamed the server, telling us “he’s supposed to tell me we aren’t sitting people here”. I don’t want to be told by my server why we were bad for sitting where we were told we could, and I don’t want to be in the middle of a he said she said. Then there is the matter of the food. I ordered the salmon Benedict, I LOVE Benedicts and particularly salmon ones. This was so bad I will be put off of all Benedicts for the foreseeable future. The salmon was laid on way too thick, a small smushed croissant was used in place of an English muffin which did almost nothing to counter the strong salmon taste and texture, there was melted Swiss American cheese on it??? And the whole thing was DROWNING in extremely salty hollandaise that did not taste at all tangy or like hollandaise sauce. I tried to eat about half of it hoping I would start to like it, I hate wasting food, but that never happened and I started to feel a little queasy so I eventually gave up. It was super gross honestly. Sorry to write this review but I want others to avoid this same experience/maybe let the owners or managers know what is going on so they have a...