Riverside Cafe — Restaurant in Ellsworth

I was visiting from Chicago, My husband saw great reviews and decided to make a quick stop here before heading to Arcadia National park. We came around 11 on a Saturday 9/19/2020. We could tell they were very busy, we weren't greeted right away so that was a big disappointment. It took about 15 to 20 minutes until we were finally acknowledge. We saw servers just passing us by and no hostess which made it worse. On top of that there were more people who came in and we had to make sure they didn't take our spot because they weren't greeted either. No ticket number or anything. We had to figure out who came in first or last. Not very professional. Finally a server greeted us and was seating customers. I saw she was very stress having to deal with serving and seating multiple customers at time. I believe this is very unprofessional on the owners/upper management. I don't blame the servers at all. Not having an assigned hostess especially during busy peaks such as a Saturday morning is unprofessional. Servers shouldn't have to feel obligated to be the hostess and a server at the same time. They should just focus on serving not greeting and seating especially during busy hours. The owner should find an alterative to make sure there is a hostess who is greeting customers as they walk in. This creates less stress on the servers and customers feel welcomed as soon as they arrive. Just my opinion. As we saw many customers walk out because of this we still decide to give it a shot. Our server Kimmy who also seated us was great. She apologize for the wait and told us it would be all worth it. Which she was right! We got a vanilla latte and cappuccino both delicious. My husband enjoyed his Egg benedict and I got eggs bacon toast and French toast. My favorite had to be the toast. They put warm butter on them for you. Which I loved. Food was great. The price wasn't too bad. Overall in the end we were satisfied. I would recommend this place for great breakfast. But try to...

Acadia is one of my favorite vacation spots and I visit every couple of years. I have made a habit of frequenting this breakfast spot on the way out of town each time. However, after my recent couple of experiences I will be looking around for other options.

Here are some notes from our last visit, Tuesday, 8/23:

Street parking was easy and we got a table quickly, likely due to mid-week breakfast. Server took a while to take our order and bring our drinks, even though it wasn't all that busy. She didn't seem to be all that happy to be at work, either... Coffee was average - lukewarm and somewhat watery. We were never offered a refill on coffee by our server and we ran out of cream within that first round. One member of our party got chocolate milk which was basically white milk with chocolate syrup, floaties and all - not all that appealing. Portions were sizeable, no problem there. We all thought we ordered the homemade sourdough bread, but what we got was bland thick-cut white bread. While there was a basket of Smucker's jams, the options were limited mostly being some sort of Cinnamon Apple. Two of us ordered ham and it was very fatty, such that we could only eat two-thirds of it. Over-easy eggs were undercooked in the middle. There was an upcharge for maple syrup for pancakes - really? Who eats pancakes without maple syrup? And we're in Maine. Shouldn't it always be real maple syrup? Just build it into the cost structure of the food. We weren't offered 'to go' packs for our leftovers and had to fend for ourselves. The bathrooms are both singles and the door sticks on the one I used. I couldn't tell if it was locked or not. Thankfully, it was, but only found that out when someone tried opening it on me.

With some minor improvements, this place could be much better. For now, I'll try other spots and circle back if I hear/read good things about...

My wife and her friends went to have brunch today and were surprised by the experience they had. Typically, when dining at Riverside, the experience is pleasant and the staff is nice. Today was quite different as the waitress ignored the table for prolonged periods of time (even considering the restaurant was in a rush) and when food was finally served 39 minutes (directly from the waitress) after they ordered it was cold. Cold enough that it had certainly been sitting waiting to be delivered for upwards of 10 minutes. Keep in mind that the waitress had not come back the table at all in that time frame despite multiple attempts from the party to get her attention. Not to mention that when the party asked about the wait time and an estimate on when food would arrive after finally managing to get the waitress to visit the table. The answer they did get was very rude and disrespectful.

When confronted about the disrespectful behavior, both the waitress and the manager continually repeated the phrase "I am sorry if anyone feels disrespected" in a flimsy attempt to deflect responsibility for the behaviors she and her staff exhibited.

Long and short of this is the wait staff and manager both used language to continually insinuate that the issue was with the party and had nothing to do with the disrespect they were being shown. Additionally, the manager seemingly out of spite added the optional gratuity to the bill after the party indicated they would prefer not to tip because of the disrespect.

After having a conversation with the owner I sincerely hope that Hannah the manager and the waitress who served the party can take this as a learning opportunity to improve the overall guest experience at Riverside.

All in all, this has soured my feelings toward the establishment considerably and I can no longer recommend them to you, the reader, or anyone...