Corner Bakery Cafe — Restaurant in Bowling Green

My family and I have been eating at this establishment in Bowling Green, KY since the day it opened. It's always been one of our favorite go-to's!

We visited this past Saturday (May 22nd) for the first time in months (unfortunately, we hadn't eaten there lately because of the "pandemic"). As we pulled in, we questioned whether or not they were even open because we were the only car in the parking lot. It was 5:00pm on a Saturday evening, so that was the first indicator that something was probably off.

As soon as we walked inside, we noticed an overwhelming odor. We couldn't put our finger on it, but it wasn't the smell of food cooking or cookies baking...nor was it cleaning products. It was stale and unappetizing. Adding to that, I literally almost walked completely out of my sandals the second I stepped off the floor mat because the floors were so sticky.

Why we stayed at this point, I'm not really sure.

I think we were just hopeful that it wouldn't get any worse. We love corner bakery and we were so excited to have a meal there again!

We were never really greeted by anyone when we came inside, but when we stepped up to the register to order, the employee that took our order was friendly...enough. She wasn't about to go out of her way to up-sell us or offer us any additional desserts, but she was...pleasant. My daughter and I took our water cups (which were sticky when she handed them to us) and went to fill our drinks and pick a table while my husband paid. We had pick of the entire restaurant yet we couldn't find ONE clean table. There were crumbs and dirty, wadded up napkins everywhere and every single table top was sticky. My husband finally knocked some crumbs off a table for us and we committed to the least gross one we could find. My husband promised that if our food wasn't good he'd demand a refund and we'd leave.

Surprisingly, our food wasn't horrible.

Our chicken pomodori's and the Italian panini weren't very warm, but the flavors were ok.

Not amazing, but edible.

And despite the less than desirable environment, we'd spent the money and we were starving, so we ate.

While we were eating, an older couple came in and ordered food. The elderly lady repeated exactly what we did while looking for a table; she walked the entire restaurant and made the same dissatisfied expression when she discovered that everything was dirty. I felt so horrible for them...

When we finished eating, we had to cram our trash in the cans because they were overflowing.

One employee came out onto the floor the entire time we were there and appeared to be preparing to sweep the floors. (Probably because she saw me taking pictures of the trash and disgust all around us.) She never actually swept. She just stood there next to an empty (and dirty) table, texting.

I can't even tell you how disappointed we are. This was such a hip and enjoyable restaurant when it first opened. What the heck has gone so wrong!?

I wouldn't give you two cents for anything in that restaurant now. I'm amazed the doors are even open at all! If the health department were doing anything other than worrying over the stupid mask mandates, they'd surely have written this place up and closed it down. There's no way in hell the restuarant we ate at Saturday evening would pass an inspection. No way.

I don't want a gift card for my (horrible) experience (I don't plan to go back at all, so that would be useless), but I'm a small business owner here in Bowling Green, also, and if I owned that particular establishment, I'd want to know why I was losing my investment.

The employees are obviously lazy and the standards are gone. You can't convince me otherwise.

I hope this review enlightens someone, somewhere...and to whomever owns this, once pleasant and delicious, restaurant, I hope you're able to recover this disaster and I wish you MUCH better success in the...

Sadly the drive-through menu was out. Went in because I had never been there before and needed to look at the menu. The fountain machine was down and the coffee bar didn't even have all the options it displayed. The food was way overpriced for what you're getting since it all seems store-bought and thrown on the shelves. Four dollars for a side of bacon? When the bacon looks like it was bought from Sam's Club precooked bacon hahaha. The food on the menus looked great though. Employees were great, but it seems like whoever owns the place has no care in the world for their employees. Sad the employees have to deal with working in a place that overpromises and underdelivers. And the floors were sticky, which was weird. Love the employees, very nice people. Sadly the syrup they put in the cups melted the cups so it drenched the entire bag in syrup. Maybe don't skimp out on the syrup cups since you're already charging ridiculous prices on the sad-looking, tasting food. Melted plastic is never a good combo with food. Hopefully whoever is in charge or owns the place wakes up and cares about the conditions the employees have to work in. They did an excellent job for what they're having to work with. Wouldn't recommend until they got everything fixed up and took better care of their business and their employees. Save your money unless you enjoy sub-par food and you've got it to throw away. It was a waste of a trip going out to eat, that's for sure. Only leaving this review in hopes that someone cares enough to help the employees out and make it a better environment for them to work in. They...

They used to be open until 8. Now they close at 3! What's with the big reduction in hours? Was eager for a harvest salad, but not with these hours. At least keep it open till 5 if you're gonna do this. They even still advertise "dinner" on their building. Last time I checked, most people don't have dinner before 3.

Update: I managed to come here a couple of times since then. Food is still great. Soda fountain has what I want. But one time, I went there in the afternoon and there was a long line, with only cashier operating things. The next time, no line. But the "Bakery" aspect of Corner Bakery was lacking. No Monster Cookies to be seen. Came in a couple of hours before closing, so i guess they don't wanna make a fresh batch. I'll raise the score up a little.

Update 2: Hooray, they're open till 6. A good compromise and now the "dinner" on the sign actually applies.

The only thing stopping this from being a five-star experience is that THEY STILL HAVE ONE PERSON OPERATING A CASH REGISTER WHEN THEY HAVE THREE OF THEM. The poor girl is having to answer phone calls in the middle of it too. Expect to hear "give me one second" when it's your turn. Doesn't help that the people in front of you are either grandmas paying with pennies or Karen having to ask to 20 questions about the food.

Update 3: Sad to say I had a terrible experience this visit. Soda was flatter than Kansas, no ice in the soda machine, the harvest salad had no blue cheese, and they put tomatoes on my wife's sandwich when she said...