Ellenton Cafe — Restaurant in Florida

I needed a place to hang out between chair yoga classes where I could write for my NaNoWriMo project and get some lunch, too. Tada! Ellenton Cafe was right next to the Rocky Bluff library, where the second class was held.

I walked in and a very tall gentleman told me I could sit wherever I wanted. I asked if there was a place with a plug, and he directed me to a booth in the back. Perfect for what I wanted. I was given a menu almost immediately and my drink order was taken and delivered just as quickly. Since I needed a minute with the menu, ordering took a little longer than I'd hoped, but I wasn't the only one there. I understand my waitress had other tables to wait on. I asked the very tall gentleman if they had Wi-Fi and he very kindly gave me the password.

After my order was taken, I set up my laptop and started writing. My order came very quickly and it was just what I wanted. I ordered an egg salad sandwich on a croissant (the croissant was extra). It came with chips and 3 pickle slices. I also ordered mozzarella sticks, which is what I really wanted in the first place, and was why I was looking for a place like the Ellenton Cafe instead of something else that wouldn't have cheese sticks.

The cheese sticks were PERFECT! The outer breading was crispy and tasty, while the cheese was really stringy and hot. They were perfectly cooked and I was in heaven. I didn't mow them all down in seconds, though (I could have!), so we found out that as they cooled off, they remained crispy and tasty, while the cheese cooled and became less stringy. They were still good all the way to the end. I ate all six of them. They came with marinara sauce, which had a good flavor.

The egg salad sandwich was good, not great. The egg salad was just a little dry, not horribly, just a tad. I would have liked to put a little mayo on it. The croissant was buttery and soft, but it crumbled apart easily when I bit into it, giving me big chunks in some bites, while no croissant in other bites. It had a good flavor, though. I probably wouldn't pay the extra $0.99 for it the next time, though. I'll just stick to white bread. I did eat all of it, though.

The chips were super tasty, nice and fresh. They had an excellent flavor and were salted perfectly. I ate most of them. The pickles were a little soggy, but they had a good flavor. I ate all...

I’ve been coming here for 10 years. Worst experience today. I asked if I could order an egg sandwich to go because they were very busy and I’m alone. The woman said yes and took my order. I came back to pick up my sandwich and a different woman was at the register so I told her I was picking up a sandwich. She came back with a bag and a Styrofoam container. She told me that she gave me hashbrowns because they come with it for the same price. I told her I don’t want hashbrowns I’m eating on the go could you please wrap up the sandwich. She said I don’t have anything to wrap it up with so I said “wax paper, anything”. I opened the container and the hashbrowns and sandwich were sitting on foil in a pool of grease. I told her that she could wrap it in foil. She goes to the back and fumbles around removing the hashbrowns. I expected her to wrap the sandwich which she didn’t. She came back with the bag and the container with the sandwich sitting on top of the greasy foil. I tell her again I’m on the go so I just want to take the sandwich in the foil. I take the sandwich and wrap it as best I can at the counter. She hands me a bunch of extra napkins and chargers me over seven dollars which is ridiculous because they don’t even use a computer system and she could’ve charged me a reasonable price. Prior to this when I was waiting to order the other woman made some inappropriate comments because she was annoyed with this same woman who couldn’t wrap my sandwich. The sandwich had about eight pieces of bacon and was very greasy so I ended up throwing a bunch of bacon away too. So there was food wasted, container wasted, time wasted and two rude waitresses.

Update: I received Brad’s reply and appreciate his response. I’m not looking for anything and appreciate the gesture. I’ve worked in restaurants for many years and feel it’s important for the manager/owner to be aware of issues. You can’t fix what you aren’t aware of. Thank you Brad and I will be coming by again. You have a sweet place and I have enjoyed the food...

Edit to respond to owner Food was hardly edible as we left most of it on our plate. I was there 2/5/22...waitress was good but wouldn't recommend anyone to eat the food. Funny that you feel the need to "report" harassing reviews when you can look at my reviews I have left for other places and have been fully honest. I wasn't going to leave a review but google asked me "how was ellenton cafe" since I used my maps to get there. I just went and read the reviews and find it funny that in the last 8 hours most of the 5 🌟 reviews are from your family. I was not there during the encounter that you apparently had with another guest at your establishment but appears that other guests were and witnessed the treatment and decided to leave negative reviews...I would've called her out on her behavior and blasted your restaurant; however I was simply trying to be nice and just leave the star. I always try to support small businesses but the food I was served shouldn't have been served to anyone. I paid my bill and left the restaurant indire need of decent coffee. I would not recommend anyone to eat here and I personally...