ROUTE 80 CAFE — Restaurant in East Haven

East Haven needed a diner, but this is not the one it needed. Let me explain briefly what I noticed in my experience there:

Upon entering, I was not given any direction if I'd be seated or if I would be expected to seat myself, but it appeared that I could just sit down anywhere. As I walked in, I was stopped by a friendly person, who I'm unsure if he even worked there. He was wearing a generic shirt for Crooks an Castles. Not sure how or if I was supposed to know that he worked there, but when I told him I was looking to seat 6, he seemed genuinely puzzled. I offered to split up the table for 3 and 3, because my group did not want to make it difficult for anybody. After saying nothing, he left and got another chair and tried to add it to a 4 person booth. We squeezed in, trying not to be difficult and were ready to just accept that this was a new place. Luckily the neighboring table gave us a their table, which was slightly bigger and we were able to sit comfortably.

After 20 minutes, we were finally acknowledged by a waitress who apologized and very kindly got us water before realizing that we weren't even given menus. After getting us menus, we waited another 15 minutes before even being asked for our orders

The menu actually had several spelling errors which seems like it was never reviewed. It wasn't actually affecting the order, but it is not professional to publish all those menus with several problems. Because I selected a special, I was told that I could not have chocolate pancakes with my meal, even as an up-charge, which I was happy to pay, if offered.

Once the food actually got to us, my wife noticed that she did not get her food as the menu described it. When asking the waitress, she told us that the item in question was made as expected and that there was nothing more for it. We got a hold of another menu and was able to tell her that the menu differed from what was given to us. The waitress then grabbed the dish, walked away, then walked back to our table all without asking us if we didn't want it. She then asked if we wanted to replace it with something else. Shocked that the food was even touched by her, my wife did not want it back. The waitress returned later to tell us that the kitchen said they made it correctly and that we were wrong. To make matters worse, the pancakes were burned and flipped over to appear as though they weren't.

We finished up and left as soon as we could.

I truly don't want this place to fail. They are in a great location with what appears to a pretty strong menu selection, but this trip was very poor and really does not encourage me...

UPDATE - WOW. What a response from the business. Literally still trying to spin it back as the customers fault. I shouldn't HAVE to request for a manager because your staff should be trained in 1, knowing the menu and 2, customer service, which clearly they are not considering the source doesn't even know how to properly address a customer concern. Good luck in the restaurant business 😂😂 One of the worst experiences I've had at a restaurant. The format of the booths are terrible and you have to squeeze in between tables to get to your seat. We sat for 10 minutes before being moved to another table. Add another 10 minutes before being brought a menu or asked for drinks. I ordered the Cinnamon Roll pancakes, which the menu clearly states "cinnamon, brown sugar and drizzled with icing" and this is what I received, after another 27 minutes of waiting. I tried a bite to see where any unseen icing or cinnamon was and couldn't taste any flavor at all. I asked the waitress if this was indeed my order and she said this was it, even though I mentioned the menu specifically stating all of those missing items. She left to get the rest of our food and saw me trying to eat these flavorless pancakes, and LITERALLY TOOK MY PLATE AS I WAS EATING and asked if I wanted something else. I said no and she asked if I wanted my pancakes, which were now in her hand. Frustrated, I said no thanks. She brought the pancakes back to the kitchen and returned empty handed to say the chef said they made them correctly, just to prove the point. As far as the rest of our food, everything was mediocre at best. And to top things off, when she brought over our check she said she "cut me a break" and "took a couple dollars off the check" to remedy the lack of icing and that I'll get extra icing next time. There will be NO next time - I'll stick with the other...

PLEASE DO NOT go here if you are a POC!!! I asked the owner for a Route 80 omelette with turkey bacon (after already asking one of the servers if it was possible and her saying yes) and he proceeded to look me in my face and say he can’t do that. I was confused and asked why not and he said “how am i supposed to do that”. So I asked if the omelettes were premade already or are they fresh (the only logical reason why he couldn’t add turkey bacon to it would be that they’re premade). He’s looking at me like I have ten heads and says “yeah they’re made fresh. Do you want to pay extra for turkey bacon” which I have no problem with because I always get turkey bacon and have to pay (so I’m aware) and then he proceeds to look at me like he didn’t want to service me. So I just said it’s okay sir never mind. So he snatches the menu out of my hand and says “Goodbye!”. I was extremely uncomfortable being in there and it felt like we weren’t welcome. If I could give 0...