Caleb's American Kitchen — Restaurant in Buckingham Township

Calebs is a favorite place of mine to bring friends to for lunch. The last three times I have been very disappointed and embarassed that I spoke so eloquently about the place ...the hostess has been surly all three times. She does not smile or say hello as to greet you, in fact she ignores you until she is ready to talk ... often a few minutes. Today (October 19th 2023) all she said is "reservations?" When we said no...she said how many? I said two thank you. She she turned and took some menus and walked...we guessed we were meant to follow her. Our wait staff (Linda) was also stressed and surly. Today a friend saw us across the room and came to say hello at our table and the waitress came over and pushed her way in front of them to our table just to fill the water glasses which could have been done in a few minutes after they left. We asked the server if she was ok because she obviously wasn't and she said...long story. The problem "she later said is that they are short staffed ....only in my opinion they should not be sharing that info with us...they should try and give us the best customer service experience that as a returning customer deserves. I have been there at least 9 times since July. We came to have a nice lunch and the atmosphere was dicey because of the staff... It wasn't fun because we were acutely aware of the wait staff's disposition...and the rude way she spoke to customers. It wasn't friendly The table next to us was seated after us but at least 20 minutes before noon and they wanted breakfast...which is served until noon. She said, when they ordered pancakes...no breakfast orders...they said well we wanted breakfast...and with out saying anything walked away ...and then came back and said fine they will do it for you. She could have said...just a minute please let me go see if they can take one more breakfast order...I willbe right back....but she didn't ...she made it their problem...and was rude. She also got my friends order wrong because she was rushing... Anyway my friend was sorely disappointed in the treatment of the customers and I doubt she will come back on her own...but I think you should know this is not a one off...this has now happened to me three times...so I might not come back again...my friend gave a 20 dollar tip to cheer up the waitress...but I am not of that mind set...it was within her power to be a kind waitress....and give us a good experience and she didn't...

I really wish that I could give Caleb’s a better review seeing as I have been here multiple times (pre-COVID) and always had a wonderful experience all around BUT this visit was a really unfortunate flop. First though, I want to say some positive things. My friend and I went for a long overdue birthday dinner. When we arrived the host that greeted us was very kind and thoughtful. My friend and I felt immediately welcome even though I didn’t think to make a reservation seeing as it was a Tuesday night. The place was moderately busy and it looked as I remembered it, clean and quaint. Everyone who we met there was very kind and accommodating of our two infants as well. We weren’t rushed into ordering which we really appreciated since we were determined to have a relaxed night out.

Now for some unfortunate things. My friend ended up ordering a side salad after we put in our original orders and was never asked what dressing she wanted. She wondered about it but just shrugged it off until her salad came without any dressing at all so she pointed it out to the server who rushed off to get her a dressing but didn’t actually ask what kind she wanted. When she came back with balsamic my friend graciously took it and didn’t make a fuss. My beet salad was delicious and I really enjoyed it so that’s another silver lining. My entrée; however, was a completely different matter. The chicken was undercooked and raw in places! I couldn’t believe it. For the price and for the notoriety of the restaurant I definitely expected better. I really should have said something but didn’t and just ate around the edges. I brought it home and under the better lighting in my kitchen I realized that I was not, in fact, crazy and my chicken was raw in places. I can’t even imagine a more off putting thing then to discover uncooked chicken in your meal. This was especially disappointing as I have not been out like this, without my kids for a girls night, in over a year. The conversation was great, the food...

Did not like the service. The food was less than mid. Our server seemed really bugged that she had to serve us.

I went with a couple that owns one of the oldest and most famous restaurant in NYC, and they, too, were really taken by the service.

When we sat down, the experience started all wrong. Our table had three guests. There was a table next to our table that had eight, and that was just fine. Our server came up to us and asked if we were ready, and we were not so she proceeded to just rush us and exclaimed that we really need to make up our minds, because of her party of eight. It's not a good way to start our experience.

As I was looking at the menu, I had a few questions about what I was ordering and she just kept saying that no, we don't have that and no we can't do that, which was fine, but her tone was just really not inviting, which made me lose my appetite. I relented and just ordered a salad.

When I received the salad, I asked if there was a possibility of me getting a savory dressing, but she said no, sorry we don't do that, and so I said okay, and proceeded to eat my salad, which was just not good.

My two guests had the same experience with their meals as well, and they also said that theirs was just not good.

We discussed amongst ourselves that if our server would have let us look at the menu within our own time, we would have had a better understanding of the menu, we would have been able to ask qualifying questions and we would have had a better dining experience.

Our experience was on Wednesday, June 28 2023 between 12:15 PM and 2:00 PM. We really wish our experience was better, but...