Love the food here. However, the decline in service in my last 5 visits or so has been atrocious. My girlfriend and I usually get HopCat once a week. Over the last year the service has been pretty good for the most part. But again, the last few visits were awful. Every single time I go in for a pickup order, I have to wait 5-20 minutes for it to be ready. Every single time. And that’s even when I show up 5 minutes after the pickup time.

Other than that, I’ve been told multiple times that my orders not ready, because the hostess doesn’t actually want to check. On top of it all, the fries are usually stale, and more often than not cold by the time we get home. And I live 7 minutes away.

Tonight did it for me. Placed a pickup order for my birthday, had to wait 25 mins AFTER the pickup time for it to be ready. My girlfriend went in, was waiting along with 4 other people for pickup orders, with no hostess in sight (which also tends to happen a lot). She had to go to the waiter/waitresses stand and ask a waitress what was going on. The waitress walked up to the stand and said “NONE OF THE ORDERS ARE READY, THEY’RE MAKING IT IN THE KITCHEN.” No apology for the wait, no apology for the hostess not being at the stand, no apology for anything. Funny part is, our order WAS ready. When my girlfriend said she could literally see our bag with our name on it, the waitress just went “oh” and handed it to her. Again, no apology.

I also leave a tip, every single time. For PICKUP ORDERS. Something that really doesn’t deserve a tip, but covid changed everything and now everybody thinks they deserve a tip for doing their job, not extra, just their job. And the fact that they always try to automatically add a tip on pickup order is also insane, when you factor in that we have this same level of service every single time.

I have no issue tipping on a pickup order if my foods at least warm, if it’s ready within 5 minutes of the estimated time, etc.

The waitresses and hostesses don’t care, I’ve had maybe one positive experience here in the last 6 months. But the food is good and the new menu is great. It’s the only reason we’ve continued to eat here. But tonight changed things. I understand being busy, though they’re not usually that busy when we order. I understand that sometimes the kitchen can be behind. But I’m done and honestly wouldn’t recommend HopCat like I used to. The great food doesn’t outweigh the terrible service, employees who aren’t interested in doing their jobs, and overall disrespect shown to customers.

I gave 2 stars only because I hope they can turn things around, but it will be a while before I even give that a shot. The food is 5 stars. The service is 0 stars. The “atmosphere” is cool, but the workers in it make it so bad you can’t even enjoy it. I hate leaving a bad review for a place I loved so much, but I couldn’t take it anymore when I’m coming in almost once a week.