Trails Kitchen — Restaurant in Gardner

This is a long post……..We are new to Gardner and make a point to support business that are locally owned. Our first visit to Trails Cafe was great! Our server was fantastic and thought we found our weekend breakfast place.

Last Sunday 10/10/21, we went back to Trails and had a different server. We were seated pretty quick. This time around it took atleast 15 min for our server to greet us. Watching other tables that were seated after us get there food and as time went on they finished their meal and left. The gentleman that works there dropped off water. Finally we were greeted by our server and gave our order. At least 30 min pass and by this time we were pretty frustrated! Unsure if all of her tables were dismissed like us or was this personal?

We decided our Sunday breakfast was going to be at a different place. As we were leaving almost one hour later, we saw our food in the window and our waitress was picking up our pancakes with her bare hands, unsure if she wanted to be sure they are still warm or the right kind. But that’s disgusting.

My husband shared his frustration with her (our waitress) and she interrupted his first sentence, turned her back to him and very sarcastically said “have a good day sir”. We asked to speak to the gentleman who worked there to share our concern and frustration. He listened, hurried us along as he was busy, apologized, took our name and number then assured us the manager/owner would call us. It’s been one week and we’ve not received a call yet.

The lack of customer service, respect, and professionalism is very disappointing. I wish I had our servers name who was amazing, she’s tall with dark brown hair. I don’t have the name of the server or gentleman last Sunday so I could share but could point them out. When given the opportunity, we will share our story with others. We will...

This place is small and kind of cramped but I took it being busy as a good sign. We were greeted and our drink orders were filled right away. After that everything went downhill. We didn't get straws after asking a few times I had to get up and get them from another waitress. We needed straws so my toddler could drink out of his cup. We ordered and were talking a while when we realized tables that came in after we ordered were getting their food before us. I got up again to speak with someone, our waitress came over and told us she put the food in but the kitchen didn't get it which I don't believe since everyone else was getting their food quickly. She put our order in and told us she would give us a discount. The food was good, I loved the link sausage and hash browns. The cinnamon roll is what made me go there and that was good but not quite soft enough. My son was scarfing it down because it took us about an hour to get our food. When we got the check it only had a two dollar discount for each meal. So $4 off for being forgotten about really wasn't good but we are just in town visiting anyway. I really wanted to give this place a better review but service is extremely...

I'll start with the positive. The food was very good! At first glance at the prices I thought it seemed a little pricey but you get a good amount of food for the money. I ordered the chorizo scramble which came with tortillas and potatoes. My wife ordered the cinnamon roll platter and it was one of the best cinnamon rolls we've ever had. So, no issues with the food.

Our issue was with the service. We seated ourselves, which is fine. After a couple minutes our server walked by and just plopped menus down in front of us without saying a word. She didn't offer to take drink orders or even tell us she'd be right back to do so. We sat at the tables in the front of the restaurant near the counter. After a few minutes our server was leaning over the counter to take our drink orders instead of coming to our table like a good server should, in my opinion.  Every time she "checked" on us it was done in this manner. We really wanted to like this place. Unfortunately, it missed the mark for us. Your food can be top notch but if you don't make your customers feel welcomed, they won't want...