The Kitchen at Jolly Pumpkin — Restaurant in Dexter

This place is not for me.

I met some friends here after work. I was a little late and pretty hungry when I arrived. They were sitting outside, and had already ordered. We sat for a while and talked. When the (not) server brought their food out, she started to walk away without acknowledging me. I called after her and asked if I could order, and she said I could order off the QR code on the table or go inside and order at the bar. Oh, it's that kind of place. Okay, fine. When I asked her for something to drink she said she "[wasn't] a server; [she] just brings out the food."

I had some questions about the menu, so I went inside to order. I was hungry when I walked in, so I admit, not getting any service, or even a drink offered, set me off a bit. The menu didn't much appeal, but that's on me. I didn't feel like pistachios on my pizza or radish on my chicken, I just wanted something simple and filling, and I wanted it soon, and I was thirsty and didn't want to wait any longer than I already had. So I asked the woman at the bar if I could have the burger, skip the pimento cheese, which I don't like, and just some regular cheddar or American, whatever? Sure, they had cheddar. I asked if I could get tomato on the burger - nope, no tomatoes in the kitchen (!) Pickles? Nope, no pickles. Okay, the menu is the menu, they can do cheddar, and I'm hungry, so let's go with that, thanks.

At this point, I was suspicious, since everything seemed to be done... differently, so I asked if I could just get some water with my meal, and she said sure, and I asked if ketchup came with the fries, and she said yup, so I assumed that water and ketchup would arrive with the meal.

When the burger came, there was no water, and no ketchup. I asked this second food delivery person if I could have water and ketchup, and she also told me that she is not a server, she just delivers the food. I'd have to go back into the restaurant and get the water and the ketchup myself. I guess I was supposed to let my food sit there and cool while I trekked off for my condiments and drink, since there wasn't even a waitress station nearby with water, napkins etc., as far as I could see.

At this point, I was really, really annoyed. I just wanted some simple food and something to drink after a long day, not a bunch of togaroshi aioli on my burger and furikake on my fries (I don't know what that is, I don't care at this point, and there was no one around to ask, anyway. And whatever furikake is, the fries just tasted like fries. Without ketchup.)

So I ate my lukewarm burger without anything to drink, because I damn sure wasn't going to bother the not-servers anymore. At one point my friend went in to use the bathroom and came back with waters for all of us from the bar. The water came in these disposable little half-cups with lids, and she carried them out stacked on top of each other, because there were no trays. If you're going to serve your beer and cocktails in actual glasses, why stint on the water? And I say, hey -- if you're going to make your customers trek across the patio and inside to get their own water and condiments, don't pretend -- just give the customers their own trays, like they do at McDonald's.

Perhaps, on another day, I might have found the self-service aspect awkwardly charming. I might have found the menu more appealing and the absence of actual waitstaff tolerable. Then, again, maybe not. I had cashed out at the bar when I made my order, because it seemed easier to avoid whatever other weirdness might be going on with the check. At that point I was still expecting to tip at the table, but after being generally ignored and then told defensively that the people running around the patio weren't servers, but just food deliverers, I gave up and skipped the tip. And I'm a former waitress. I left thirsty and aggravated.

I'll leave the Jolly Pumpkin to other diners who feel jollier about serving themselves than I do. This is not the...

Guys, you need to figure out if you are family friendly or not. We love love to come here with our kids to get a beer and pizza. The outside area is chill for this. They seemed family friendly. Well they aren't. They have a fountain (which after tonight now finally has a sign on it to not touch it after I told them to put one up!!!) with handles that totally invites little kids to come look at it and touch the taps. We were a large group and yelled at by an older lady and a younger server who is usually nice to our family to not touch it it's a water feature. They could have easily said it in a nice way but they were so completely foul about it.

The older lady with the bob who works here yells or snaps at my kids every time they come and they are playing on any rocks outside. Seriously people put up some signs. We are happy to help our kids follow expectations if they are clearly stated I don't want my kids running wild but they weren't and still got yelled at. They constantly clear your table outside when you come with kids to try and get you to leave faster. They rolled their eyes on any kids playing in the giant walk through barrels they have outside. So don't let the laid back nature of this place fool you. They hate kids and will go out of their way to make it known they hate kids being there with sighs and eye rolling.

Used to love coming here, now I'll think twice we didn't feel welcome at all and it seems portly run with no...

We went to Jolly pumpkin for the first time last week and were very disappointed. My husband and I and our two young daughters met another family with their three kids and we sat outside. We ended up sitting next to their beer keg water feature, which has working taps, and as kids will be kids, ours were attracted to the water feature. Two of the five kids in our group have Down syndrome, which commonly accompanies poor impulse control, and staying away from the water was a difficult impulse for them to manage. There is no signage warning people not to touch the water feature, but we did do our best to keep our kids from touching it too much. However, another kid from a table on the other end of the courtyard came and played with the taps - not our kid to control. While this was happening a server walked by and very rudely admonished our kids and us for playing with the water feature. We reminded them that a sign would be helpful to avoid this outcome and that rudeness was not the way to get the point across. Every person who worked there that came out from that point on was rude and angry with us. Unfortunately, I had already tipped 20% for this very poor service since the ordering and paying is done through QR. The pizza was ok, but I would not recommend this...