Dave's Cafe — Restaurant in Cloudcroft

Dave’s cafe seems to fluctuate in quality. The food is good as long as Chuck, is cooking for sure! He always does a good job. It’s really hard to find good help and it shows at his restaurant. I have had great waitress experience in the past, but since Covid, we have had waitresses who messed up orders repeatedly and didn’t seem very bright to just flat out rude. Today they were shortstaffed. I had called a little bit after 11 so it wouldn’t be as busy. Because they were shortstaffed they were busy. The waitress picked up the phone and just left me hanging for over 10 minutes without one word. As a local business owner I consider that very rude. I would have expected to be asked to be put on hold. If they didn’t want to talk to anyone, they should’ve already had the phone off the hook. I think that would have been more professional in my opinion. I went to place my order in person since my phone obviously was being ignored. After standing there for several minutes, I tried to get the managers attention that the waitress just picked up the phone and sat it on the counter. Of course, the kitchen staff could not understand anything I said, so I raised my voice, so maybe they could hear. Then I got yelled at by one of the young cooks that I need to give the waitress a break because they are short staffed. Maybe he yelled because he couldn’t hear or maybe he was being rude which seem to be the case, but who knows. Then the waitress yelled at me that I was not welcome and I needed to leave. Wow! We have been trying to support them for over 19 years now. I used to tell all of the tourists in our store that that was my favorite place to go, but over the years it has slowly been declining. In my opinion, it’s important to take care of your locals as well not just tourist. It would have been nice to be shown some respect as a human, a customer, as a local. I know with my customers when we are busy I just let them know that we are very busy and I will get with them as soon as I can and then I apologize. Just flat ignoring people and then because I called her out, got treated rudely. Just some common courtesy and “Will you please hold” works wonders. Having some hustle in your step helps too. Walking slowly, taking sips of your tea multiple times, etc. the younger generation I guess. I get it, customer service is hard and takes a lot of effort. In the long run, I find it to be easier if you have good customer service skills, it will save you a lot of grief later; plus you get...

Avoid This Place – Average Food, Disorganized and Poor Service

We decided to give Dave’s Place a try after finding the wait too long at the brewery and pizza spot down the street. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a regrettable choice. While the food was neither good nor bad—just average—the service was on another level of bad.

Our party of four adults and one child ordered soft drinks and hamburgers. Contrary to most restaurants, at this place you don’t receive a check at your table; instead, you go to the front to pay at the end of your meal. When the manager totaled our bill at $155, I immediately sensed something was off. We hadn’t ordered any appetizers or alcohol, as they weren’t serving alcohol at the time because their liquor license had expired.

When I asked to see the breakdown of our bill, the manager became visibly agitated. She explained their policy of automatically adding a 25% gratuity for parties of four or more. Upon further review of the bill, I discovered two extra hamburgers that we neither ordered nor received.

I tried to explain the mistake to both the manager and the waitress who took our order, but they were dismissive and unhelpful. The manager even insulted me, insinuating that I was trying to avoid paying for the food I ordered. It felt like she was trying to gaslight me into paying the inflated total and leaving quietly.

Eventually, a man with better customer service skills emerged from the back. I was finally able to explain the issue to him, and he removed the extra charges from the bill. I paid the corrected amount and left, but the entire experience was deeply frustrating.

I’ve dined at countless places across different cities and countries, but this was the first time I’ve encountered such disorganization and hostility. It was a disappointing way to end an otherwise enjoyable trip to Cloudcroft.

Moral of the story: The food is okay, but the service is chaotic. Double-check your bill to avoid being...

curtis childress I was there on Tuesday September 23rd. One waiter and one cook. Ordered asking for a soda and sandwich with raw onions instead of grilled. My wife's meal was good. They didn't bring my soda, got water instead. My sandwich came with grilled onions. I didn't complain. Told the waiter a few minutes later the cook didn't have to remake the sandwich, just scrape off the grilled onions and put on raw would be fine. Was told the cook was making me a new one. Ok... While I waited another 30 minutes watching the cook eat (probably my first wrong sandwich) I finally get my new sandwich. (Id been there an hour and a half at this point and my wife had already eaten. The cook didn't grill the bread and simply slapped 2 slices of bread top and bottom. I was very polite through this whole prices until this 3rd time of missing the mark. I'll wait and see if management / ownership even reads these reviews. BTW, we did pay for my wife's meal and left the waiter a tip. Outside of the soda snafu, it wasn't his fault. The cook on the other hand, you could hire a high school student and get better results. Doubt me? All you have to do is look at the reviews. What are they doing to resolve this? Consider eating somewhere else. I don't expect to hear from them. If I do, I'm not expecting anything positive. There was another couple who got up and left while we were there because they didn't get any service. Again, try any other place to eat. I'm sure you'll enjoy it more. Food: 1/5 | Service: 2/5 | ...