VGET Cafe — Restaurant in Columbus

Usually, I’m not one to have many thoughts about the food I eat - no matter if it’s good or bad. I’m also not one to write reviews about the restaurants and cafes I’ve been to, as I simply don’t see a reason to get involved, for the most part. However, I’ve decided that I have a lot to say about this restaurant.

First, I want to talk about the things I liked about my experience this morning.

The cafe itself is really well designed - if a bit too minimalist for my liking. The decorations are cute, and the overall atmosphere I felt was truly comforting - that feeling of having a hot cup of coffee indoors, during a cold winter’s day. While, again, not perfect in my opinion (I feel as if there could be a bit more in terms of furnishing), the overall atmosphere is quite nice.

Now, the main two reasons why I decided to write this review.

To me, there isn’t a whole lot to say about service, as ordering mostly amounts to walking up to a kiosk, placing an order, and waiting for said order. While this is a quick process, it completely cuts off person-to-person interaction, meaning cash transactions aren’t available (if it was, I don’t think it was obvious. There is no front register, just a main dining area and a kitchen. Outside of the kitchen, there is zero staff present. If I am wrong about the lack of cash transactions, I will delete this portion of my review and add another star to “service”). The good thing is, I did get my order without having to wait for too long, so I will give some praise there.

And then there’s the food.

My order of an egg & ham sandwich with a (somewhat small) vanilla latte came out to around $15 (not including taxes), the sandwich costing $10 and the coffee costing $5. To me, this was on the pricier side of breakfast sandwiches I have had, but I digress.

The first thing I noticed about my sandwich was how appetizing it looked. I’m not kidding, my food looked great; very reminiscent of the many egg sandwiches I’ve had in Korea. In fact, upon trying the first few bites, I was pleasantly surprised. The egg, ham, and bread tasted fairly fresh, and the sauce added an extra boost of flavor. Not to mention, the vanilla latte I ordered was smooth; not too hot, not too cold, and the perfect amount of vanilla. So far, so good.

However, after I ate past the sauce on top, I realized that I was left with a fairly average ham and egg sandwich. Which, in itself, isn’t too big of a problem. I only wished that there was more sauce throughout the rest of the sandwich, but I still thought it tasted fine; thus, I kept eating.

What I found at the bottom of my sandwich, however, was a problem.

As it turns out, after I ate about 3/4th of my sandwich, I had eaten all of the egg and ham. All that was left at the bottom was a few pieces of lettuce and unmelted cheese. In other words, 1/4th of my sandwich was borderline inedible. This was very much a disappointment, especially knowing I had paid a little over $10 for my sandwich. I left the restaurant, thinking I was somewhat ripped-off.

Don’t get me wrong. The flavor of the sandwich was there. As I said, the first half of my sandwich was excellent. It was the other half that was a disappointment. In other words: the flavor was there, most definitely; but the execution wasn’t.

To me, what defines a restaurant or cafe visit is how good my order is. As a result, unfortunately, I cannot give this place more than 2 stars, solely based off my sandwich and my (admittedly great) latte. This place has a lot of potential; but it simply didn’t quite reach the mark today.

Too long; didn’t read: Atmosphere, was great, a bit too minimalist for me. Service was fine (could only order by kiosk only; food came out fairly quickly). Egg sandwich started off excellent, then was inedible at the bottom (only lettuce and unmelted...

I’ve ordered online from here many times. I went there one Friday morning before going to work. As I walked in, the lady in the kitchen was talking on the speaker phone very loudly but I ordered from the kiosk so I didn’t really care at that time. After I ordered, she continued talking over the phone and I was just sitting and waiting. I was the only one there in store. So I thought it shouldn’t take that long. As I sat by the window, there were a bunch of flies on the windows and many dead ones on the floor. Gross. 10 mins went by, and I’m not kidding, the lady was still talking on the speaker phone at her same spot and I started to think maybe there was someone else in the kitchen who already started making my order. I answered a call from work and I made sure I talk loudly so she’s aware that I was waiting. I hung up my call and gave her another few mins before I started walking to the counter and asked politely about my orders. She asked “Number 5? It’s not ready yet”, I said “no, number 6”. (Great, the number in front of mine is not even done yet). I asked her how long, her reply “10 mins”. I looked around in the kitchen and there was just her. One person, meaning no one had started my order and this lady, all this time have been on her phone (who cares about my time, right? Well, I do). I was very irritated at that point. I stood and waited by the counter, watching her moving slowly, still talking to someone on the speaker phone while getting my orders STARTED, finally. Been 20 mins at that point. While I was waiting, I saw trash juice stain leaking out from the trash bin…gross. Is this even ok for the inspection? No wonder there were flies there. I started to doubt the food she’s making for me She hung up her phone at one point and finally finished my order. Holy Moly, it was painful to watch and wait knowing how lazy this person is and didn’t care about their customer’s time. It took nearly 35 mins total to get a tuna sandwich and small rice roll as the size of a credit card. I had never had that size of rice roll from there before and probably will never again now. I really hope she’s not the owner because if she is, this place is going down hill. She would be fired if she was my employee. She’s big Asian and probably owns an electric bike that was parked right outside...

Oh, guys. I really wanted to like this place.

It's a new-ish Asian Cafe in the always excellent Kenny Centre (Home of Xia Xia, ChiliSpot, Tensuke and many other great Asian joints).

They specialize in egg sandwiches, and I decided to give them a shot this morning.

The good?

The cafe decor is super cute: I could see it in Tokyo or Seoul — if I squinted or was a little drunk. Also, I don't know of anyone else in town selling this kind of food.

The not-as-good?

It was sweltering in there this morning. Like 90F. I had to go outside to eat it. And the tables had obviously not been cleaned from the previous shift. Real grotty.

But the real problem I had was with the food.

I ordered the "egg and avocado." The eggs were pretty good — soft, fluffy, obviously made fresh (one would hope so with the 15 minute wait). But the avocado was literally two dime sized* (thickness and diameter) pieces of avocado which were so diminutive that they added literally nothing to the expensive ($16 with tax and tip) sandwich.

And the sauce was tooth-bendingly sweet. If I had to guess, it's a mix of thousand island dressing and sweetened condensed milk. An hour — and two cups of coffee — later, it feels like I just ate a scrambled egg on a glazed donut. Which, may be your thing. It's just not what I was expecting and probably won't go again.

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*lest you think I'm being hyperbolic, try to find the avocado in the...