The Cape House — Restaurant in Brewster

Kates review

New owners and it shows in the worst possible way.

I’ve been going to Kate’s every summer for nearly 30 years (since ~1998), and to say Kate’s was a staple of my childhood would be an understatement. A trip to the cape was never complete without at least one trip to Kate’s. However, it looks like that tradition is now tragically a thing of the past.

I went twice in the past 2 days to make sure it wasn’t just an off day. And nope. The food has taken a massive nose dive. Their combo meals no longer come with fries, but a small bag of store bought potato chips. (I can only hope their fish and chips actually have fries…) The clam strips had poor breading that would fall off when dipping in the tartar sauce. The meal came with barely enough clam strips to fill a single hotdog bun. The hotdog bun was stale and not even toasted, just faintly warmed by the sliver of clam strips. It wasn’t even a New England style hotdog bun! All this wonderful food for the low, low price of $17… seriously? $17 and you don’t have the profit margins to serve french fries — as was the case for over 30 years? Just a few years back, I would get 3-5x the food for 20% less.

In terms of icecream, they have absolutely gutted their menu. They used to have a huge board with close to 50-70 flavors that would span 8 feet from the order window to the ceiling. No more. They have maybe 15 flavors no longer on display, but on spare pieces of paper on the table in front of the ordering window. Getting their peppermint stick icecream was a trip down memory lane for me. First bite and I was 10 years old again having icecream at Paine’s Creek with my mom. Welp, I guess the new owners don’t care much for the legacy of the staple that they bought. Peppermint stick is no longer on the menu.

The cherry on top of all of this disappointment is a laughable name change. Seriously? Kate’s has been around for 38 years, and yet the owners seem to not have a care in the world for brand recognition or legacy. I guess the new owners know best. “The Cape House”, or whatever they’ve renamed Kate’s to (I didn’t care to stick around after finishing my small $17 meal in less than 10 minutes) has to be the biggest blunder I’ve seen in a long time. But I guess the saving grace of the rename is that maybe it might save others from searching Kate’s in their GPS and having their childhood memories of Kate’s tarnished with “The Cape House.”

With how much of a let down Kate’s is now, I suspect the new owners will sell within a few years and a real estate company will level the land to add more overpriced rentals on the cape. I know for sure I won’t be back. So enjoy my $34 dollars I spent on two lack luster meals. I won’t be back.

RIP...

My friend and I have been to Kate’s dozens of times since last year because we absolutely love the lobster roll and crabmeat roll and the onion rings here are our favorite on the cape. Yesterday when we went for dinner, we started are our order first by saying mozzarella sticks and the cashier asked impatiently and rudely, “Anything else?” It caught me off guard as I had a good 6 other items to order and was not expecting such impolite service. We continued to order and I wanted to make sure that I can sub the fries that come with the rolls for curly fries, which I have done many times in the past. The cashier told us that the rolls don’t come with fries. Mind you we ordered the lobster roll, crabmeat roll, and tuna roll. ALL of which are in the rolls section of the menu that says “All served with fries.” My friend and I were confused and before I could say anything the cashier kept moving her head back inside so she couldn’t hear me. Before we paid, I politely got her attention to ask if this was a new policy because their menu says they come with fries and she very rudely responded saying, “None of the rolls have ever come with fries.” And then she disappeared behind the window again. My friend and I, incredibly confused at the service we just received, paid and walked to the other side trying to process what just happened. I pulled up pictures from the last time I was at kate’s to make sure I wasn’t losing my mind to see if i had fries with my rolls, and guess what…they did come with my rolls. After getting our number called, I opened our containers at the pick up station to see that my rolls did come with fries. I called over the employee working at the pick up station to explain the situation that had happened with the cashier and that I would have subbed out the fries if I wasn’t misinformed instead of ordering curly fries separately. She clarified that certain rolls don’t come with fries but the ones that I ordered do.

I’m not sure what was up with the cashier, but my friend and I did not appreciate the rude and impolite service, the misinformation and the...

Ambiance is a 3/5 because the tables are dirty and old. But the area is nice and the tables are spread out. How to bring the ambiance up? Have the college kids clean the tables instead of being on their phones.

Service is a 2/5 as they get the food and ice cream out quick but their attitude is absolutely horrendous. We came and asked if we could sample the ice cream. The guy working was snarky to us when we asked questions. We asked for a sample of the ice cream because they had extremely limiting flavors. His eyes practically rolled out of his head when he responded « we don’t do that ». But they used to do samples. I can understand a sample limit if you are budgeting but from a health and sanitation perspective sampling isn’t unsanitary. You take a not used plastic spoon and put some ice cream on it. So at this point it’s just a cheap business decision. Again it would be one thing if they never did samples. But they did in the past.

Cuisine: Kate’s used to be our go to for food. But about 4 years ago the food started coming out extremely greasy so we stopped going for the food and would just come for the ice cream. But now the ice cream isn’t even that great! Having less than half of the ice cream flavors available is understandable at night because maybe they just make small batches. But then we went back two nights later…. It was those flavors from before minus 5 flavors. Then the next day mid day we pass by and it’s even less flavors. Just goes to show the ice cream is yes home made but probably made monthly and now they are just penny pinching and not making new ice cream. But rather using up what they have left. All in all it’s not the Kates it used to be and will not be coming back and will not be suggesting...