Brunch Room Bistro — Restaurant in Forney

When I saw the Instagram about a new breakfast location in the Dallas area, I was excited to learn it was only a few miles from my place, located in Forney off US80. Made plans with my girlfriend to go Saturday morning, arriving just before opening at 10am. Many restaurants will unlock the doors early and begin seating. Not so here, which I don't hold against them. You have posted hours, and waiting until you open at 10am is fine. 10am arrived, the door was unlocked, we walked inside. The first patrons were greeted, had a reservation, and directed them to the lobby area to wait for their table. We were next, had no reservation, and didn't realize they took them. After taking my information, we were also directed to the lobby and told it would be 15 minutes. No worries. There were a total of 6 groups, including us, who were quickly sat, in order of arrival. No sense seem to be made regarding reservations or not, despite the restaurant having by my count, at least 40 tables. At 10:14, the first group was met by their server and taken to their table. A minute later, we were directed to our table in the dining room. I noticed off immediately that one the table was lower than expected, with the high bench seating, and the table was sticky and oily. Beyond this, the music playing was so loud, I had to shout to be heard by my girlfriend seated next to me. After a few minutes the server came to take our drink order, and we were perusing the menu. She ordered the Cookie Batter Latte, as listed on the menu. I ordered a hot tea, but they didn't have this, nor was soda available. I decided to wait to try her latte, then I would order something. As we looked over the menu, it was obvious the prices appear to be our of line with the items presented. Most items are in the $24-26 dollar range, with a couple items in the $30+ range. Simple pancakes or French Toast is $14-16 dollars. With the prices, the per person amount is $30-40 each for brunch. With Dinner options being slightly higher. After a 10 minute wait, we watched as many of the tables had received drinks, but no actual food orders had been taken as yet. We had a couple staff walked by, say hi and keep moving. One stopped and asked if we had been helped, and mentioned a latte was ordered, but we were waiting. She left to check on it and a couple moments later it was brought to the table. Sadly, it was lukewarm and the flavor was wrong. At 10:30, the server returned to take our meal order, but having waited for 30 minutes, watching staff, at least 9, in the kitchen milling about, and a dozen other staff in the restaurant just walking around and handling opening tasks. With the prices and wait thus far, we decided to leave and not order. We paid for the latte, and was shocked to learn it was $9, giving a total bill of $9.73. It was quickly drunk, and the syrup used to flavor it was in a glop in the bottom of the cup. It was never mixed into the drink. It appears to me, that reservations are preferred in this establishment, but are not treated any different to walk-ins. Additionally, there was no reason that upon opening, the first folks in, couldn't be seated immediately, instead directing them to the lobby to wait. There appeared to be plenty of staff both in front of house and the kitchen to accommodate the patrons, however, there seemed to direction to get folks what they needed and get orders flowing. I don't enjoy putting out bad reviews and always hope that the owners read my reviews and make adjustments. However, based on our experience, we will not return, even if these items are adjusted. If you read the reviews, the positive reviews appear to be either family or paid reviews. The 1 and 2 star reviews are the actual state of this restaurant. Granted, we didn't eat the food, but based on the latte and the extreme wait for service, in a nearly empty restaurant, we saved ourselves a headache. Personally, I believe this establishment will be permanently closed in the next 2-3 months. Sorry, wish I had a...

I had high hopes for this place and they really dropped the ball. This review is from what I witnessed & experienced. From steps of service, mgt, food & service it was all a bad experience. We came 45 min before our reservation and asked to sit at the very open bar and was told it was reservation only. The entire time (2 hrs) I was there, the bar was EMPTY. From what I experienced waiting at the bar, the steps of service is not well executed. The fact you have a bartender who can’t bartend slows down the whole experience and lacks well executed service at the bar top. I have never witnessed or have been part of a restaurant to where all the work has to be done by the well bartender for both the bar top & restaurant patrons. A bar that large needs more than 1 well, one for severs & one for bar top guest. Honestly, watching how hard that bartender had to work was not easy to witness since you have the space to make the job easier and more efficient for your staff. You will burn out your staff this way by not delegating task in an already high stress area. Shame on you mgt! Due to these issues the entire bar top was slow service it took forever to order/receive a drink, pay out or receive service. Red flag #2 the gentleman mgr not the owner but the mgr at the host stand LACKS urgency. Everyone from the staff to the owner was walking circles around this man. Also there were no table touches happening from mgr checking to see how everything was going. Red flag #3 service was terrible. It took 8 min to be greeted at our table & it was no, “hi welcome” it was, “you ready to order.” Is this place a nice sit down restaurant or are we meant to have the same skills as a Good Burger? Actually, “welcome to good burger, home of the good burger,” would have been a better greeting then what she offered. Our sever never came back after placing our order & never mentioned two servers were taking care of the area. Comms is key since this felt like she left us high & dry and stopped serving us, she seemed sweet until she disappeared. Who am I tipping at this point? I get it you want to get your side work done so you can check out, however you can’t stop serving your tables. Oh btw, that is what I was told to why she couldn’t serve us, she was doing side work. Multitasking is a must for at least bare min service which we did not receive. Red flag #4 the food. We ordered crab cakes, the quality is not there, flavor was okay but due to canned crab meat it lacked quality & tasted cheap. Also the presentation on cabbage & mayonnaise was a huge miss. I also asked the server if it was lump crab meat, he never heard of lump crab so that told me it was the cheap canned crab meat. Your staff having an accurate or basic menu knowledge is crucial to executing great service & unfortunately that was a fail when asking questions about it. Main courses, we ordered the ox tail and grits & chicken breast and waffles. The ox tail tasted great but the grits lacked flavor & spice, they were terrible. The chkn was so salty, the flavor is there but way too much salt it was hard to eat and I unfortunately did not enjoy my meal at all & paid to stay hungry. I would have been happy to give feedback at the restaurant, however the mgr never talked to tables or my server never came back to the table. So unfortunately I was stuck paying for something that I thoroughly did not enjoy. I hate mentioning every terrible detail about this experience & it sounds like I’m nitpicking. From walking in, to the min we left we did not enjoy our visit & I felt these details were necessary to why. Unfortunately, you have fallen into the generic category vibe or quality, instead of being able execute both. Restaurant falls into the XOXO, paradiso & Mexican sugar stereotypes. For sure a vibe but executing good food & service are a miss. I see that you don’t take feedback or ownership since my issues are the same issues other patrons have experienced...

I am responding in response from RL’s post. As the host of the meetup I can address what occurred on July 6, 2024. Two weeks prior to this date I sent a friend to take pictures of location and follow up on reservation. She spoke to the staff and the reservation was updated to 20 although I didn’t have that many people planning to attend. When I arrived and stated my name and was quickly told wait just a second. I thought I was being escorted to my table only to be cornered in an area of the restaurant where there were items everywhere and not set up for dining. I was drilled about who I was. I shared that I host empowerment events to bring women together for sisterhood experiences as well as I mentor teen girls. I was then asked about a registration fee. I shared yes this is something that I charge for intimate events as it is used to help support the mentorship program or used towards any fees that may be assessed by restaurants for cancellations due to experiences at restaurants. I was then asked if I had any information about my work and had to bring up my website. I felt that this was not necessary as I was just trying to dine at the restaurant. However I brought up the website and the 2 individuals looked at everything before deciding to let me dine at the establishment. Finally I asked if they were the owners and they said yes and I said let’s start this over and introduced who I was. I had several guests waiting for me to get a table so that we could sit down. I was trying to settle down and greet guest and then asked about a credit card to put on file before I ordered anything. I stated is this policy because I promise that I am not trying to dine at your restaurant and not pay. He stated well we have young people that come in and don’t do the right thing. What did that have to do with me?The were a couple of guests that called the restaurant and asked about the meetup with me. And due to the response of them saying that they didn’t know anything about me I had 2 guests arrive at the restaurant frustrated and demanding to talk to me and pull me away from the guest. What if they wanted to attack me I was set up by the restaurant. This could have been prevented if the restaurant handled this more professionally. Who discusses other people’s reservations over the phone? The food was ordered 4 guests at a time so it took a while to get our food. Next my receipt had a gratuity of 20% when the menu stated that it was 18% for parties over 6. Then I asked for the manager and Madison stated because we sat you in the party room. I didn’t know it was a party room as it was an area obviously not set up for seating when I arrived and I was never told that. All in all I was definitely discriminated against because if I looked different I would have never been asked who I was and had to pull information from my website just to eat at a restaurant. Instead of handling the situation better the female owner left and the other owner Madison was full of excuses. I dine at restaurants all over DFW and other cities to empower and inspire others and I have never experienced this. I will never dine at this restaurant again or promote it. It was literally the worst experience ever just to eat at a restaurant. I told Madison before I left that customer service will make or break a restaurant and that I was haggled since I walked in the door. I can't give 0 stars because it is not an option but this is definitely the rating that it should receive. This is an example of judging someone not considering that you are in a position to treat everyone...