Village Inn — Restaurant in Cedar Falls

Service is half the battle and flip a coin when you come here. Anymore it seems like all restaurants are shorthanded either cooks or table service or all the above. Our waiter during my previous review 10 months ago just wasn’t attentive and today our waitress was worse than that. I Don’t have high or snobby expectations. We have always respected servers and tip accordingly. After we are seated we should see a server within a few minutes at least with some water. If we are sitting there for 10 minutes unattended the poor service cycle has begun we know how the rest of the meal is probably going to go and it did. First what is the host doing when we are still sitting there with menus in plain sight and obviously unattended? If they are there just to seat people they are overpaid. I finally approached them after they sat two tables after us and that hostess offered coffee and water. This is our second visit where the service didn’t live up to the food, which was very good. Before our waitress came, the restaurant manager came over and apologized, then proceeded to use a scolding tone with us saying that our server was a "very busy young lady who will be over soon". Frankly I don't care and lose the snotty. My biggest pet peeve is people that get seated after you and get a server before you. A few minutes later the waitress toodled over and we could tell it wasn't going to go well. She took our order and we got our food in good time but she did not check back and we had to practically get out the airport signals to get her to stop back to drop off the check and a box . Terrible and same as our previous experience. I got a skillet and my wife got crepes. Both were very good as were the pancakes. Good food, flip a coin on what service you will get. We don't frequent this restaurant for this reason...

I've never experienced service this bad before. We were seated and waited about 10 minutes for our server to even acknowledge us. We ordered our food (table of 3) and waited around half an hour. The server brought us our food, and then never came back. LITERALLY, HE NEVER CAME BACK!! He went around serving other tables and stuff, but never checked on us. After being done eating for well over 20 minutes just sitting there with empty plates in front of us we, we decided to just go to the register. "we were at that table over there and have been done and waiting for a check for nearly 30 minutes and would like to pay and leave" THE WAITER put our check in the system under the wrong table, they couldn't find our check. So we stood there at the register for nearly 10 minutes while try tried to find our ticket or the waiter so we could pay! And after all of that (being done and ready to leave for nearing an hour) they didn't even offer any kind of courtesy discount or something.

As to the food... I got a skillet and the pan was more than half empty. My gfs pancakes were cold. Only I got coffee yet I didn't have enough creamer OR sugar for our visit and as the waiter never once checked on us we couldn't ask for anything...

Lastly this was a weekday.... it wasn't crazy busy.

I couldn't believe the experience we had, if I could leave ½ star I would... because at least the food...

Update: As you can see below, I was a rather large fan of this place until recently. I was seated in a place with a full view of the kitchen, and I saw something I wish I didn't. Keeping in mind that we're in the middle of a full blown pandemic.... I watched the wait staff routinely butter your bread with their bare hands. These are the same staff that touch 500 plates and menus a day, maybe help clear tables, etc. I never saw a single wait staff wash their hands or hand sanitize. However, every single one of them used their bare hands to pull bread out of a bag, butter it, and put it on the plate. The kitchen staff was in clear view, and they all had gloves on. The wait staff did not. Not only is that unsanitary, but it's dangerous considering the current environment. I went from eating here frequently to consciously finding alternative place to eat. Always clean. Great service. They clearly invest in the restaurant because most of the tables, chairs, and booths look brand new. It's not uncommon to see their incredibly friendly manager helping out. Wait staff is always friendly and helpful. Cooking staff always cooks...