Mountain View Cafe and Catering — Restaurant in Four Corners States

I'm just shocked. I'm a Black Forest Local. We don't eat out a ton and when we do we usually do pickup here in the weekends. My in-laws are in town so we have been taking them to all our favorite spots and decided to dine-in, telling them about how much we love our local cafe and how good the food is.

The cafe was pretty busy but we're told that it would be only 10 mins wait which was totally fine and even sounded fast. There are tables right next to the front door so like others I gave my phone number and me and my party of 4 walked just outside to wait.

While waiting outside, I received a text pretty quickly that said I was first in line on the wait-list and to reply "1" confirm that I was on my way to the restaurant, which I did. Cool we're next and right outside, I thought. After about 10 minutes, I left my party and walked inside to be ready for when my table called. I stood inside for maybe 45 secs, not long but long enough to be standing next to the hostess when she presses a button on tablet and walks off. At the same time my phone goes off telling me I had been taken off the wait-list. Weird. As soon as the hostess comes back I grab her attention. I'm going to try to copy the following conversation as best as possible.

Me: Hey I saw I got taken off the wait-list?

Hostess: What was the name?

Me: (name)

Hostess: I texted you several times and you didn't come so you were removed.

Me: holds up phone that still has texts open No, I haven't received anything, I've been outside the whole time.

Hostess: Ok I don't need the attitude, you didn't come when I sent you texts.. starts to say something else

Me: Sorry, I'm not giving attitude, I'm just trying to show you I didn't get those messages and that I've been here.

I can't remember what she said next but she basically just shrugged it off and said follow me and started walking off, where I had to stop her tell her mI clearly didn't have my party with me inside (there was no one around me).

Fast forward we have been lead to our table and our drink order has been taken. The hostess comes back over to the table showing me her table.

Hostess: You can see I sent you several messages. You even confirmed.

Me: Sorry but the only message I received said I was first in line, not that my table was ready. I sent the text to confirm I was "coming" when I was actually here.

Hostess: (I can't remember exactly but something to affect that the text I had received was to tell me that the table was ready"

Me: I would recommend in the future maybe updating it to say table is ready, instead of next in line.

Hostess: Nobody else seemed to have a problem with it grabs tablet and walks off

We were stunned. My father-in-law immediately just goes "Wow."

It was bad enough that she claimed I had attitude when I was just trying to explain myself but then she came over to double and make sure I knew I was wrong. It's not the first time I've gotten texts for a restaurant and they have always said table is ready when the it's time. First-in-line usually means just that.

I attached a screen shot of the texts so people can see what I mean.

The rest of the meal was great and uneventful, the food was wonderful and the server Nikki was great. Though I was very anxious that hostess would come back again and super embarrassed that the place I had talked up so much would be obviously rude right in front of my in-laws.

But here's the real kicker, after the meal was over and we were leaving, I asked the server if the hostesses was manager of something (hoping that wasn't case).

The hostess...

This is a tough one. There is much to like about this place, but our overal experience was not amazing. It's a cute building, and the staff were great, but it's not ONLY about great food.

We checked in at 9:50 and were told 30 - 40 minutes. We were sat at 10:53. Sure it was Saturday, and we had a group of 7, but if we'd know it was over an hour for a table, we'd have probably moved on. (Especially with two babies.) Then it was another solid 30 minutes for the food to arrive.

2nd the place is super loud. They have packed a lot of a tables in several small dining rooms and there's no place to have a quiet convo.

I ordered the Chicken Cordon Blu skillet on hash browns. The chicken came as a fillet laid over the hash browns with the eggs and hollandaise over the top. I expected the chicken to be chopped or diced which would have helped as it was a little overdone. If it had been chopped, the runny egg and sauce would have helped with the dryness. The hashbrowns were perfect - nice and crispy. I got eggshell in my egg - gross. It was just a little, but I took 1/2 of it home and found a lot more in my leftovers.

I got an Italian Cream Soda which I did not understand meant it came with a huge dollop of whipped cream on top. I thought it would like cream soda - fizzy and very sweet. That's more my ignorance, although they could clarify on the menu.

My wife had the regular breakfast with pancakes, some VERY crispy bacon (just as ordered) and scrambled eggs. Pretty standard stuff, and she gave it a "fine". IE: the pancakes were not up to IHOPS standards. I'm not sure what IHOP put in their pancakes, but they're incredibly good.

The staff was great, but the overall experience was about a C+/B-. Value was about average for a breakfast place. Will we be back? Probably, but we'll make sure to avoid the busier times and pick something...

We highly recommend! We've visited MV Cafe a number of times since moving to Colorado Springs, and it's become our "go to" breakfast/brunch location when out of town guests come to visit and we are looking for a locally owned, non-chain restaurant with unique character.

On our most-recent visit, earlier today, our waitress was Kati, and the food and service was outstanding! Kati was warm and friendly, anticipated our needs, and was caring and helpful to our kids. She offered to place the kids' food order first to ensure their food came out quickly (wonderful idea!), filled their water cups only 2/3 full (what a great idea to minimize waste and prevent accidental spilling), and was responsive to the kids' comments to her throughout the meal (most intelligible, but some unintelligible). Our food came out quickly and was delicious (everything we've ordered on multiple visits has been great), the coffee was tasty and good temperature, and we received lots of warm smiles from other wait staff and patrons.

As a slight improvement, the welcome by the hostess at the front door when MV Cafe is busy can be underwhelming, at least in my own experience; however, my wife reports she's had a warmer and more friendly reception than me. (For advanced notice, there is little space to wait inside after checking in, but MV Cafe does take your phone number and text you when your table is ready, so this allows you to wait outside or in your vehicle.) After getting to a table, we've always had great service from the wait staff and...