Vault Cafe & Cabaret — Restaurant in City of Rochester

i’m not gonna lie, i’m not even a picky person with restaurants. i’m a very easy consumer to deal with and i don’t complain a lot or even write reviews but this place was awful. the host was rude and not personable at all and seemed like she had an attitude. we ended up sitting at the bar, waiting 10 minutes for just water. i asked for no ice and got ice but that isn’t even a big deal. we waited almost two hours for food when it was just my boyfriend and i. terrible communication, not even the courtesy to apologize and say you’re backed up in the kitchen or low on staff or whatever the issue was. we are just sitting there and after an hour, the bartender tells us the food should be out shortly and she’s gonna go check on it. she never went to check on it. so me and my boyfriend decide to pull up reviews to see if it’s just today or if this is a common experience and it is. & on top of the reviews, i read of others getting missing items and lack of service so him and i just decided to leave bc ill be doggone if i pay for horrible food with a terrible experience. so we grab our coats to just leave and NOW the bartender comes up to ask if we want to cancel our order. girl what do you think? all the servers and host are just up there mingling, not attentive at all. y’all ain’t even got hairnets on, handling food. some girl who’s not in a uniform just back in the bartender area scooping ice in her stanley cup. like who’s the boss here? where’s the owner? y’all letting inexperienced staff run the business. I always try to support black owned businesses but nah i don’t care. get yall stuff together, i even complain like this. i’m legit not...

I feel like I need to go back at least once to get a better impression, but there were several good and bad things about my first visit here.

We had a party of seven yesterday (a Sunday) and ended up having to be a walk-in because no one answered the phone when I tried to make a reservation several days before. The restaurant was absolutely packed, with several other larger groups besides us, and the service staff and kitchen seemed to be really struggling to keep up. It was about an hour wait between ordering and getting our food.

Our server was great, clearly doing her best trying to juggle way too many tables. The food was good, with my friends saying the fried food was really great. I honestly can't think of any other place off of the top of my head that does shrimp and grits and things like fried catfish. We also got a discount from the long wait which was a nice surprise.

I appreciated the existence of a vegan menu, but it is a little.....boring I guess? The waffle was good but plain, and there were no options listed like for the rest of the menu to add fruit or cinnamon etc. I didn't want to ask too many questions about it since it was so busy, so I'll probably do that next time.

Making it easier to make reservations and staffing properly would have made a big difference to improve our experience, and it looks like others have had long wait times as well. I definitely plan on going back during a slower time, since Sunday brunch hours are always hectic to begin with, but I had mixed first...

Todays visit was horrible, I reserved the back room for my Mothers 75th Birthday to Celebrate with Family, This experience was horrible we reserved for 10:30 am upon arrival the tables weren't ready no menus available, no silverware , water or condiments we available . I paid and reserved for 22 people so with that being pre planned I thought things would be prepared . We waited for hours and 3 of the families never received food which was huge disappointment . My mothers Moment was ruined as we couldn’t even sing Happy Birthday being they had to leave to get food. The service was terrible we ordered per table and the food distribution wasn’t together they served food all over the place instead of by tables as we ordered . We entered at 10:30 am orders by 11:25 and by 1:30 before we left only two tables never received there food a total of 13 people . What was sad was that the staff didn’t care and when we asked we was told they thought everyone had there food, really are you serious . It’s the small things that makes a customer satisfied and it start with common curiosity. As a business when you take reservations for large groups please prepare, make sure you have staff in hand and small things available . The only thing I can say positive about my experience today was that my Mother enjoyed her grits .. Although my review might not mean much to the establishment but I hope what happen today can Be a lesson learned to improve some small things . This my second encounter and...