Black Coffee and Waffle Bar — Restaurant in Fargo

I love this place’s concept. My family loves waffles in general. We love breakfast. We went to Black Coffee and Waffle Bar by means of recommendation from my cousin, who claimed they have the “BEST” waffles he’s ever eaten . That’s a bold claim so we were super excited to try it today. You order at the cashier when you walk in, they give you a number, you find your own seat. No problem. Until we realized the tables were dirty. I nicely asked the cashier if she could please get someone to clean our table. We sat at the dirty table for about 15 while we waited for one other family member to join us. Table wasn’t cleaned. We all went up to the cashier to order and I again asked the cashier (a different lady this time), could someone please clean our table. She went over to the table and I thought she cleaned it. She came back and took our order. Pleasant staff, no issues with ordering. If you order an ice water to drink, you’re pointed to a fill it yourself water station. However there was no ice and the water didn’t taste good, and it wasn’t cold. I really don’t enjoy drinking warm water with my meal. Bummer. Went to our table to find it still dirty and sticky. Now the dirty table issue is beyond annoying. My daughter walked up to the bar, grabbed their spray bottle and rag and we cleaned it ourselves. The food took at least 30 minutes to arrive, and it didn’t all come out together - seriously painfully slow service. Finally the food arrived and the waffles tasted great! Everyone enjoyed their order. When it was time to leave, we realized they had a couple tubs at a station and you’re expected to clear your own table. Super annoying. Especially because we’re taking dirty waffle plates with syrup to the tub and then felt like we needed to wash our hands afterwards. Didn’t like that at all. This restaurant has potential - the waffles are good. But they need to be much more attentive to the customer service aspect because it is really lacking. Bring your customers ice water! Clean your tables! Speed up the kitchen! Waffles don’t take long to cook, I don’t know what the problem was there. And please stop asking customers to take their syrupy plates to a tub when they are done. Not...

I’m not a person who complains about service unless it’s really bad as I’m a young person who works in service jobs and I know it’s tough. But I took my grandparents out for Mother’s Day and we paid $65 for four waffles and two self serve drip coffees, a lemonade, and a can of coke. Now I would be fine with that because it’s a nice place downtown, atmosphere is good. But I cannot figure out why waffles took over an hour! And it wasn’t just us, I sat for an hour watching all the other tables sitting without food for an hour. I was just wracking my brain as to how waffles could take so long…. And then when they finally bring out our waffles they tell my grandpa that they are out of apples for his apple strudel waffle…like you just noticed now? Which makes me think they make the waffles right away and something else is holding it up, I’m still really confused. The tables are always super sticky and my grandma ended up pouring water on the table and trying to clean it but that didn’t do much of course. Realized later why they are so dirty as I watched a staff member weakly brush the edge of a towel over the tables in one wipe…didn’t even wipe the whole table. And then after all that they want you to put your sticky dishes in bins and clear the table yourself. So after all that waiting and having to grab your own silverware, drink, and clear your own table $65 is way to much. The do it yourself stuff is fine but not for that price with that service. The waffles are good but that ends up being an afterthought when everything else is so lacking. Need a reboot of customer service. And the way the restaurant is set up. I wonder if they just have one waffle maker or they make the batter separately for each waffle! Can’t think of any other reason that it should take so long for such a...

It takes a lot for a gen z to go out of their way to write a bad review on Google, but this experience was bad. I’ve had similar experiences before here with the customer service being rude but decided to give it another chance.

This time food was alright, but I waited the entire time while eating for my coffee, not the first time this has happened. When I finished eating, I went up to the bar to ask for it but was completely ignored by the barista who was busy wiping off table numbers.

The barista was only making half of the drinks for the cafe, juices only and ignoring the coffee orders. The manager eventually came out (ignored me standing at the bar too) and told them that they needed to make coffee orders as well.

At this point I was over it and just wanted out of there as I could probably get better coffee and service somewhere else. The only person working that noticed me and helped me was a back of house worker who was super helpful and sided with me, and tried to get me help.

However, when I was wanting to explain that I didn’t want my coffee anymore just a refund, the manager simply ignored me until the coffee was made, and then told me to just take the coffee because it was already there. I had to honestly argue for a bit, but the back of house worker was on my side thankfully, I hated the whole situation because I felt like a Karen but I didn’t know what else to do.

I felt so bad about the whole thing especially since I was a barista and shift supervisor myself for 5 years and I get it, but honestly I would have never handled the situation this way if it had been me.

If you have read all this, please. Just stay away from here. It’s not worth it. Like I said, it takes a lot for a gen z to take the time to write...