Sun Dawg Cafe — Restaurant in Greensburg

I post this review as a learning moment for this café.

We ate at Sun Dawgs on Friday evening for my husband and my 7th Wedding Anniversary after a day of exploring Latrobe/Greensburg area. We are new to Pittsburgh and we took the train/bus out to explore a new to us area. We chose Sun Dawgs because it seemed like a quality healthy restaurant based on the online dinner menu. As vegetarians it's too often that touring food is heavy in bread and cheese (yummy but, can zap the energy). We noticed online the prices were kind of high for veggie bowls but the reviews were so good, we thought, well, let's splurge and treat ourselves. If it's good value (quality ingredients, good flavors/taste, nice place to be etc), I'm alright with that.

Well, I can say in general, service staff was good and our food came swiftly but after that it goes downhill.

Here's what didn't work out or was very disappointing and frankly terrible customer service/resolution for a problem with the food we ordered.

-Big menu on a chalk board when you walk in.... if you are eating dinner ignore it. They have a dinner menu on paper with limited options, no vegetarian tacos, and upped prices. We had already picked out what we wanted before they had a chance to catch us and say, nope. you can't have. So immediately we felt bummed about our dinner choices and wished we'd gotten there earlier for lunch.

-I found a chunk of pork in my vegetarian bowl 3-4 bites in. That's pretty bad... like really bad. I was kind about it but my meal should have been comped after that. In fact the owner came out saying how sorry she was that this happened and that was what we thought was happening when she said, I'll take care of you...let me get you another one. I changed to a different bowl because I did not want the same if it still had more meat in it. She said she'd "take care of it" which we thought meant, get me another replacement meal free on the house, which seems like the right response to the situation. Later with our waitress when we were brought the full bill, we explained what the owner said, or we thought implied and she nodded and said oh, ok... only to come back and have a higher bill with the 1.50 extra added on for my replacement bowl. At this point we were tired, had no time to get it resolved since we had to go meet our train back to Pittsburgh. Until then, we thought, well, this place isn't great for us for dinner, but maybe lunch. Now Never again. Nope nope nope.

-But the kicker is the food isn't fabulous. The quinoa bowl is 50% white rice bowl. Which is weird. Brown rice would be better. And there's not much in it unless you pay more for proteins. The peanut noodle bowl is super heavy on green onions, lacks complex flavors and would be nice with raw shredded carrots or some bean sprouts or something fresh and crunchy. I did order mine without jalapeños, so maybe that made a difference. I sensed the costs were low on the foods in the bowl, for example the quinoa bowl had some shredded cheese which I hadn't noticed when ordering, but it seemed like the cheap kind you buy at the supermarket, out a bag. I could be wrong, but the value didn't seem to add up.

-As an Anniversary meal it will go down as the worse in the books. I had to eat my over oniony noodles quickly while my husband just sat and watched because he'd finished his already because my original meal had accidental meat in it. The outdoor seating is in the direct sun in the evening (living up to it's Sun Dawg name! lol) and not nice at all (not 100% fault of the café, and we were originally glad they offered it), but we wouldn't have eaten there if there wasn't an outside option because with Covid in the community we are staying out of indoor eating spaces. Now I wish they hadn't had any outdoor seating because we would have never gone in the...

Came here during my lunch to quickly grab a smoothie and snack, but instead it took 45 minutes.

I stepped in a line 8 people long and waited to be helped unsure who was waiting for coffee or waiting for a table. Several employees were behind the birista station making drinks for customers in the restaurant portion and not a single one said anything to anyone in line. Finally a women who I assume is the manager came out and started seating people.

After I realized everyone else in line was waiting for a table I stepped up in front of the birista station to place my order. Employees continued to walk around behind the counter, not saying a word to me. Finally, one of them realized I was standing there and asked if I had a pick-up order. I said no and that I was waiting to place my order; she nodded and then WALKED AWAY FROM ME.

Finally, the manager came back and asked if I had been helped. I told her no, she took my order, I paid, she printed my order ticket, put it on the birista counter, AND WALKED AWAY. Multiple employees walked past the order ticket, looked at, and ignored it. I finally spoke up and asked another employee if making my smoothie and grabbing my pastry was going to take any longer because I had already been there for 40 minutes. She said "hold on", walked away from me AGAIN, and the manager came back out to make my order.

After finally getting my order, I tried to sit down to quickly eat it. I say tried because I sat at a one person table in the front cafe portion, NOT in the back restaurant portion and immediately got told I couldn't sit inside because I wasn't ordering food from the kitchen. So, I had to sit outside on a bench in 90-degree weather instead because their outside patio tables were dirty and sticky.

My advice to the manager? If you're going to have a Cafe/Restaurant combo, hire a hostess and hire a birista so there's no confusion at the front. Also, your current employees need some more customer service training. They couldn't communicate effectively to save their lives and thought it was okay to ignore customers or walk away from them. Also, $15 for a 16oz smoothie and little debbie cake sized pastry is highway robbery; the high-end prices DEFINITELY don't match the...

Sun Dawg has been highly recommended and was highly disappointing this past weekend. We were pleasantly surprised to be able to be seated on a busy Saturday but the experience went downhill from there.

The service- Our server came and took our drink order and left to place it with the bar. She came back and delivered my drink but informed my partner they could not make his drink. He ordered another drink and she left. We watched the bar make the drink and set it out for her to grab. After 15 minutes went by with no sign of our server I went and asked someone clearing a table if they could send her over. She came over a few minutes later and was more full of excuses than apologies. We both have worked in the service industry and have patience and respect for the hard work servers do. She still did not get his drink. I asked her to get it and to place a food order.

The food- my partner ordered the Alaskan Plate- salmon, eggs, potatoes, tomatoes and avocado. The avocado was clearly blended (not in fresh chunks) and came straight off a truck. Same with the potatoes. I ordered a iron man frittata. It was unappetizing, at best. It looked more like a scramble than a true frittata. The eggs inside were runny, the whole reason I ordered something with cooked eggs.

Overall- while we wouldn't hold the service against them and might try it again, we won't based on the quality of the food.

We were offered a discount for our troubles- $5 off which was less than 20%...