Big Mama's Cafe — Restaurant in Columbia Township

I preface all of this knowing it is a Sunday morning and was relatively busy. (Not all tables packed and later in the morning).

Currently sitting here at the restaurant. We’ve been here roughly 45 minutes, still no food. At least two tables who came in after us and ordered after us received their food first. We’ve also been told three times our order “will be right up.” Which is fine if it was the truth.

This will be a scattered review - trying to get in as much information as possible.

A couple of things to note:

1. The decor hadn’t been changed from Surah. It looks like a Chinese restaurant still. Not a deal breaker, but something that should be noted. I understand it takes overhead to change a whole design; however it does need to be changed at some point. Also, lighting is very dim. It’s not the ambiance of a cafe or diner. There is no music playing which means you can hear other conversations and everything going on in the back.

2. Servers don’t have zones. Currently there are three working, and the hostess. All four of them have been past us multiple times and we are in the back corner. To make things easier, I’d suggest setting serving zones. Multiple times the wrong order was delivered to the wrong table by not the original waitress. There’s roughly 25 tables. That’s about 8 tables per server. Instead of each server visiting each of the 25. Just keep the one server to the eight tables.

3. At no point should all three servers and the hostess be gathered together trying to figure out where food goes. Again, having zones would eliminate this. This scenario has happened at minimum of 4 times.

4. Everyone so far had been nice, but that only goes so far.

The hostess, a red headed women, has done more than the servers have in the last 15 minutes. Delivering food, checking people out, getting coffee, etc, etc. I just want to give her credit where credit is due.

I’d highly recommend taking down signage that still has another language on it. There is an emergency exit door that still has a sign with Asian (I am not sure which language it is in) writing on it.

There are two young men running around with no masks on. Again, not a huge deal to me, but could be off-putting to some.

Food Review (finally received after over an hour):

My fiancé ordered Chicken Fried Steak with over-easy eggs, and a biscuit. I ordered 2 pancakes, with sunny-side up eggs, bacon, and a side of hash-browns.

Our orders were correct and overall okay. It was hot when it came out. Nothing to write home about though.

Overall, we most likely won’t come back, which is sad because I was quite happy to have good local restaurant so...

Normally I would rate places like this one better. This cafe would easily be a 5. The food is good, prices are reasonable, and the service is always sweet and sincere. But the last time I was here, it was super awkward. I understand this is a family lead business, but we came in during the end of their rush and the entire staff was bickering and snapping at each other while we were there. Here are some of the things I witnessed. A girl running the cash register got asked a question by another employee, and she snapped at the employee and said, "I told you to NEVER talk to me while I am Counting!"

One girl was announcing something loudly, and another walked up and said, "You know, no one heard a word you said right?"

It wasn't playful, there was no mercy. They were yelling the entire time we were there. I understand there were a lot of people, and it was busy. But when you run short hours like that, you are going to have that mad rush every morning. It is very uncomfortable to listen to, and the yelling made it hard to enjoy a relaxing breakfast with my friends. In the server industry, all I ask is that you don't forget you are catering to the public. Leave your drama at home, because yes we could hear and see the hateful glares and harsh comments.

Lastly, I would love it if the syrup was made in house or served in a bottle rather than a smuckers packet. And the coffee is stale. All the servers had starbucks the day we came, and I feel like the speaks volume over how cheap the coffee and creamers are. They come to a place where they get free coffee, and they all spent 5 bucks on starbucks 😂

I will definitely be coming back despite this, but we almost left because of how stiff the room was. Hopefully this can be worked out amongst your servers... outside...

Let me start out by saying, we eat here regularly and usually love the food and the service, but both have been lacking the last 2 times we gave visited.

We were not greeted by anyone when we walked in, there were 2 ladies upfront. And waited so long they had 6 people waiting to be seated. They didn't even look at us until an older man came out to ask if they were gonna seat us. Upon being sat our waitress ran right up, didn't even say hello went straight to asking us what we wanted to drink in a rushed tone. Overall 0/10 for service

I tried to order a skillet subbed with a traditional chicken fried steak(with hamburger steak) breaded and deep fried like a normal chicken fried steak, and the waitress said yes they could do it and all they did was add a hamburger patty on top. The hashbrowns where over greasy and soggy, the gravy tasted like it was reheated and wasn't good. When ordering the waitress was super rushed and wouldn't let us get a word in. I simply was not satisfied, all I ate was the busicuit. Instead of them taking it off of the check they said "i ordered it wrong" even tho though plate was full of food and the waitress wouldn't listen when ordering.

The 2nd plate of food that was ordered at our table came out cold and the eggs were wrong. They fixed it with no issues and it was fine, but we're very rude in the process and walking away from my mom while she wall talking to the waitress (multiple times) and was very very rude.

5/10 for food since half the order was correct.

0/10 customer service based on how the interaction was handled in the end. Lady upfront was very rude and combative. We will not be returning nor will we be suggesting this to...