Red Apple Café — Restaurant in Capitola

TLDR; Ask for Hope as your server. God forbid, you sit on the patio.

After searching Google for the highest-rated, dog-friendly breakfast place, I found this cafe. When I arrived for breakfast with my dogs (45 minutes after opening), there was a couple already seated with drinks at the patio with their dog. I stood by the glass front door for a few minutes, and when no one approached I assumed it was seat yourself, as it was the patio. After then sitting at the patio table for a few minutes, I called the restaurant inside to let them know I was here and to ask what the check-in procedure was in case I had assumed incorrectly. The girl who answered the phone curtly told me, “Yeah, I see you out there. She wasn’t supposed to seat anyone, I don’t know why she did that. The patio isn’t open yet.” After a moment of silence, she finally said they would be out to greet me momentarily and hung up.

My server, Hope, was a 5-star employee. She was hustling for me and the other patrons, checking in constantly. Let that be known. She was an absolute STAR.

However, the young lady (assuming the same one who had answered the phone) with the long brown hair made sure to let the whole world know she was unhappy about setting up the patio. She slammed down every set of chairs when unpacking them, the umbrellas, the condiments, all with a beautiful scowl the entire time. When setting up the tables and passing out the condiments, she made sure to deliberately skip my table and set every one around me, despite me having a clear table with no food yet. Her #1 goal was to let me know I had pissed her off.

If not for Hope’s kindness and patience, I would have happily left and driven another 20 miles to a dog-friendly establishment just to not deal with 45 minutes of nasty attitude. I still don’t understand why everything had to be begrudgingly set up for me when the other couple was being served regardless, which I would have been totally good with. Instead, I was made to feel like an annoying burden that had just ruined someone’s...

Finally rating this place for its terrible overall services.. been going here for 25+ years.. Stopped goin in the begining of the pandemic around 2020... This place's service went down hill severely!!

I've compromised with myself literally about 6 times and ended up going here since I stopped goin exclusively, before 2020. 5 out-of-6X's I've gone with friends/ Family and the service was trash...food was decent usually...

Today I went here for the 1st time in about 1.5 yrs. and all the food was overpriced and the quality was terrible! They're trying to HUSTLE people as well.Our waiter tried up charging us for stuff like: 3 day old biscuits.. which tasted like hard carboard covered up with a bunch of watered down tasteless gravy. They also tried up charging my mother on her fruit that was supposed to not be extra...

If we hadn't looked at the bill we might've not known! I assume they pull this scam on people regularly and you've gotta look and also have the courage to speak up about it as well. I bet they make alot of extra money doing this! I will never go back her ever again! Been over 18 months since I was last here and its just gotten worse!!!! If you want over priced food and weak service then...

Avoid, avoid, avoid! First time I’ve ever sent food back (or wrote a review) and left feeling icky for spending any money at Red Apple at all.

While the restaurant was not busy, it was over-staffed with inattentive servers scrolling on their phones (including the apathetic manager). We had asked her for waters after we didn’t receive them, and she slammed them on our table. It was a bit odd to say the least. . . Our food was sitting under the heat lamp (with a bunch of workers doing side work or standing around) and we had asked the manager about it with zero acknowledgment.

They took my partners food back because “the eggs look weird.” My burrito came out sopping wet. The eggs were in a block with a thin layer of mushed or canned chorizo underneath. All of it was off. I told the server who immediately asked if “something tasted off.” It was almost like this was an expected or common complaint. Hoping we don’t get food poisoning. Server seemed to be trying her best though.

From this experience, I would say an overhaul of management is needed. There seemed to be zero pride or care in the delivery of even a mediocre experience. Customer service is a hard field and I get it - but be warned before...