The New Cloister Restaurant — Restaurant in Ephrata

When the water and the server, Tressa, are the best part of the dining experience...that's bad. My friend and I both ordered the stuffed pepper w mashed potatoes, and as an upcharge, the french onion soup. The soup came out first and was absolutely horrible. There was little to no cheese melted on top. Ok, not a deal breaker but you kinda look forward to peeling it off the sides of the crock. IYKYK. I dipped my spoon into the crock and was greeted with a hefty amount of grease on my spoon. Uh oh. It got worse from there. It was strangely bitter, tasting like the croutons were doused in bad oil in a pan that still had soap in it. I love FOS, how sad. Unfortunately, my first spoonful was my last. My friend was more brave and ate two spoonfuls of the soup before pushing the crock off to the side. Tressa came back with our entrees and we told her about the soup. She graciously apologized and offered another kind of soup, while removing the charge from the bill. We opted not to try another option. Next was the stuffed pepper. Ok. Not bad. It wasn't like mom used to make but, mom isn't in the kitchen here. Weirdly, the tomato sauce that nicely shrouded the pepper was also over the potatoes, smothering them. Maybe this is a normal thing in this area but I've never seen that done before. It did not appeal to me. I was able to dig beyond the sauce and get some untainted taters which, were pretty good. The mixed medley that I ordered as a side was flavorless. The meal also came with a pudding dessert. My friend ordered the rice, I ordered the chocolate. His rice pudding was more of a rice sauce and he said some of the rice was hard. My chocolate wasn't good. I'm sure it came from a "Tub o' puddin' " and that's where it should have stayed. The best part of the experience was Tressa, our server. She was delightful, funny, welcoming, and absolutely wonderful. A year or so ago we had eaten at the Cloister and it was pretty good. It's a shame this was not a consistently...

I drove almost an hour to visit this place. (We're currently looking for the best place to order pancakes)

1. THE SERVICE The service was absolutely terrible. They weren't super busy. The host that gave us our drinks was very pleasant. We then sat almost 15 minutes waiting to order. Our server only checked in once. At the end of our meal, we waited almost 10 minutes until I finally flagged someone down for a box. Once we boxed everything, an additional 5ish minutes passed until we were finally given our check. Thankfully we weren't in a rush for anything today, but this definitely isn't the place to stop for a "quick meal"

2. THE FOOD QUALITY My eggs weren't cooked right. I ordered over medium & received a very slimy over easy, so I sent them back to be cooked a little longer. They came back extremely rubbery, almost as if they were microwaved, I could barely cut them with my fork. The pancakes couldn't even be picked up with a fork. They immediately crumble to tiny pieces. They were also very bland & flavorless. My husband ordered chocolate milk, the milk to chocolate ratio was awful!! (I don't know if they make their own or not, so this might not be a problem they created) The portions were very large, so if we were actually able to eat our food, it definitely would have filled us.

3. THE ESTABLISHMENT The men's bathroom reaked of urine. The women's restroom sink was extremely sticky. The window sills were dusty & dirty.

This was during breakfast. Maybe their lunch or dinner is better, but this experience was enough for me to not come back again or recommend them to anyone.

My dogs will definitely enjoy breakfast...

I have three main things to touch on about this place! 1. Outstanding staff. 2. Awesome traditional diner style food. Huge menu 3. Went out of their way for us today.

Today was our first time back to the restaurant since they reopened under new management/ownership. We ended up eating lunch and dinner here! My boyfriend and I came for lunch early in the day and the staff was extremely attentive and the food was quick and delicious!! So much so that we ended up bringing my boyfriend's mom later in the day for her birthday meal. This is where the stars really kick in for everything - google still states that the restaurant is open til 9:30, even though it has been requested to change, we didn't know this. We came into the place around 8:15 when they close at 9. They were already tidying up and prepping for the next day as the dining room was empty. They accepted us in anyway with open arms. We would not normally ever put-out a wait staff like that at closing if we knew as we were a group of five which can be a heavy burden on a kitchen with a menu that extensive. Many of us have worked in the dining industry before and know the feeling of a table before close. They didn't care - they knew we needed food and they were happy to serve us. Sean and the entire staff made us feel welcome and cared for, and we got our food in record time and we're packed and out by 9! Absolutely spectacular service. I will definitely be coming back to patronize a local owned restaurant business that has the customer before all else. A sincere thank you for making the night special even though we were the last table. We will...