Lake Wally Cafe — Restaurant in Hawley

My wife and I had lunch there today. While the servers were lovely, the overall experience was tarnished by the lack of professionalism and outright lack of respect from ownership. We have two very small children, one of which is a nonverbal toddler who had a bit of a meltdown. The owner of the business rudely told my wife to leave (even though we had yet to pay our bill) because of the tantrum. In response to my wife's Google review, the owner typed up a barely coherent response that, in expected fashion, was condescending and offered her thoughts on how patrons should parent. I run a bar and restaurant. She wants to lecture people about how to parent? How about we take a lesson on dealing with your bedside manner when it comes to approaching customers with small children. Instead of coming out from behind the line to order my wife and 2 year old to leave, a different approach would be appropriate, especially from a mother. "I'm sorry you're having a tough time, but would you be able to take her outside to calm down?" The abrupt and rude tone taken is not likely to have people want to come back to your establishment. Just a lil tip for ya!

When my wife expressed to one of the servers that she was upset, the server showed more professionalism than the owner. She was extremely helpful and apologetic. Even helped us pack up our food to go. Sad there are good people that work at this place. Apparently human empathy doesn't exist in this curmudgeon of a business owner. You're in the wrong business if you can't stand dealing with people.

• I have a tendency to believe my wife over you especially in this circumstance. When I returned, and she took our 2 year old outside, I heard you myself! You had just gotten back behind the counter and you were loud enough enough for me to hear you at the front door. Meaning, everyone could hear you in the entire place. You were talking s** to your staff members and anyone that could hear you which was everyone. Keep telling yourself that you handled the situation professionally. You're rude and clearly shouldn't be in the...

I wish I didn't have to make this review but Dawn(the manager) did not justify the poor experience we received on 7/10/24 when I tried addressing it then. So let this be a review for Dawn, a hot restaurant and an extended wait. We showed up on a Wednesday at 12:15pm. Ordered by 12:25pm. We ordered 2 stacks of pancakes for the kids, a sandwhich and a salad. We didnt received our food until 1:30pm (over an hour) And that was AFTER I suggested the server at 1:15pm if we could have the pancakes for the kids since they were really hungry and already waiting an hour in the heat (pancakes take 2 minutes to cook). We also noticed people who came in AFTER US get their food and LEAVE before us. The servers were very apologetic and were sweet. After billing out at 1:30pm I politely asked the server if a discount was appropriate for the wait we experienced. She asked Dawn and Dawn said "absolutely not, we were busy". The server apologized to me as she knows we should have received one but it's "not her call". I can see Dawn mumbling under her breath in the kitchen and when she made eye contact with me she SARCASTICALLY SMILED and waved. It's uncomfortable for me enough to ask for a discount so I did not entertain her actions. But being I run a business for a living I understand any business should accommodate customers for an extended wait and lack of service. I even mentioned I was a first time customer and would not be coming back and Dawn did not care at all.

In addition I had to ask 3 times for coloring books for the kids, and nobody checked in with us while we waited for an hour or even after we received our food to make sure we didn't need refills, napkins and such. It was extremely hot in there which made it more uncomfortable for us to have our kids there in the first place never mind for over an hour wait. And they did not have Ice for our drinks so we drank room temperature drinks in n...

Family of 5 went here for brunch after tee ball. Service was not great, very rarely checked in on us as we were waiting for food. Took about 40-45 minutes to receive 4 orders of eggs and 1 order of blueberry pancakes. Once our food arrived (not at the same time, they served the plates as they were ready, very odd to me?) They gave the wrong plates to two of our party and ketchup was put on top of the eggs and they had to remake the eggs for the right person. The omelette came back quick but was missing half the ingredients ordered inside. They served sides of sausage and bacon without serving the meals with it, just kept coming to the table randomly with more things. Forgot the toast for one member. All of this was annoying but not worth one star right? The last and most upsetting part of our experience and the reason we will never go back was that they served my 4 year old raw pancakes, not once but TWICE! We sent them back because they were raw in the middle, so they remade them and they were worse the second time. To the point that I gave him my breakfast and went without eating because at this point we had been there over an hour and just wanted to leave. The only time the wait staff was attentive was at the end of the meal cleaning up our plates. They must have come over 5 times in 10 minutes while we were eating asking if they can take our plates for us. It was an absolutely horrific experience and we definitely will not...