Baked on the River — Restaurant in Guerneville

TLDR: waited 2 hours to not get food & got harassed by owner when we tried to leave.

We were really excited to eat here. We had planned weeks in advance to stop here. When we arrived at the parking lot was full and we had to go next door as did much of the overflow (where it says you'll be towed - we weren't thankfully). When we first went inside and were not greeted by one server, strike one. They were slammed and sat us just outside of main entrance until we got a table in garden. We agreed and said no problem. Shortly, a table opened up and we were seated in the back garden.

We ordered drinks, which took about 15 minutes to arrive...They didn't have 1 item of drinks we ordered and the lavender mimosa was disgusting.

We ordered food, although server didn't seem to know what they were out of which for a a small restaurant was kind of odd. We waited. And we waited. We were brought 3 cookies "complimentary" after waiting for so long. And then we waited some more. A couple that was seated behind us left due to the wait. Please note by this time the morning rush was over and there were less people there. We continued to wait. After an hour and a half of waiting we decided to pay for what we drank and leave.

My friend went to the payment area and was trying to find out how much longer it would be for the food or just pay at counter and leave. My friend overheard the chef/cooks say the food would still not be ready for awhile. Yet the owner "offered to give us free drinks" which my friend wanted to pay for anyway and said the food would be out in 5 minutes.

My friend came back to the table and we got up to leave. At this point the owner comes out to the garden at our table places her hands on  the table and tried to convince us to stay by loudly telling us:

"I have you free drinks and I thought that was nice" "Now we have to throw food away" A bunch of other things that were just highly unprofessional and not proper of a restaurant owner.

Never in my life have I felt so harassed by a restaurant owner (please note I've worked in many restaurants/cafes/bars), instead of just letting us pay and leave after waiting for 2 hours, she was trying to hold us hostage and keep us there to eat after she yelled at us.

Absolutely rude. This should have been obvious from all the comments the owner has...

It's 10 in the morning and they run out of the only vegetarian bake dish? Why are you even open? Learn to manage your freaking inventory the night before! I had to settle with split pea soup in the morning. It's supposed to come with bread, but I had to remind the waitress of it, after which I got some cold semi-stale slice from the night before with no butter. Would have gone to another place if my friends weren't in a hurry.

Edit: not able to reply directly to your response so editing here. It happened the weekend before. The waitress at the window was clueless when I asked her if there were any veg dishes other than the veggie Bella pizza that you had run out of. She didn't offer any options, and then got someone else to the window. It was probably you, but I can't be sure. This second person made no suggestions either but only restated that you'd run out of the veggie Bella pizza, so I went ahead with whatever was obviously vegetarian because I assumed that the waitress had communicated with the second person before bringing her to help me. If you still want to blame me for keeping quiet then I can't help it. As for the bread, I had already once reminded the waitress to bring it, as it was supposed to be a part of the soup dish. I didn't want to ask her to run back to the kitchen for another type of bread which, in addition to being perceived as rude, would lead to the wastage of the first slice. I guess I should be be more demanding the next time I come to visit this restaurant. Maybe I'll also ask the waitress to run to the Safeway nearby to fetch the Bella mushrooms you're likely to...

After a day on the River, my husband, sister and I needed sustenance and were dying to try the hotdogs we’d heard about at Baked on the River. We were running up against the clock during the hour in which the restaurant closes between lunch and dinner service, but when we called ahead Helena, the owner, graciously invited us to come regardless and said there would be a place for us. As someone of partial Swedish descent, I was so excited to try these Scandinavian-style hotdogs and was impressed not only by the other traditional Swedish dishes on the menu, but so much more! The hotdogs were everything we dreamed of and needed in that moment and Helena and her staff were so incredibly kind, warm, and generous the entire time we were there. Being that it was a Saturday afternoon at the end of the summer season, we were also privy to a bacchanalian lesbian party happening in front of us across from the restaurant in the pool area of the R3 Hotel. Watching ladies twerk with only some strategically placed electrical tape used as clothing above the waist while we dined in virtual silence (those windows are impressively sound proof!) eating our hot dogs while the long lost Swedish aunt we never knew we had tended to us was surreal and uniquely Guerneville. We loved every moment of it! And we can’t wait to come back again and again to try all Baked on the River...