The Bread & Board — Restaurant in Jacksonville

Met a friend for a late lunch at about 2 pm yesterday and had such an wildly contrasting experience between the food and the service.

Starting with the pro’s •The Shrimp Banh Mi was absolute 🔥. Perfectly sauced, bread was delightfully soft yet firm and the flavors complimented each other so well. •The facility was clean, well lit but not overly bright and there was plenty of seating. •The food was delivered very quickly. •Having a coffee shop and beers on draft with collaborating businesses is a genius move and I hope other places take note. So convenient to order just a beer or frappe separate from the food. •The person working behind the coffee bar was extremely pleasant and welcoming. (Note that it does seem to be a different business but i’m not too sure) •On our way out the door there seemed to be a shift change and we had a very welcoming and great interaction with one of the staff who now seemed to be working the register.

The things I didn’t care for but aren’t deal breakers for me •The hush puppies were over done. Like either the oil used to make them was old or they forgot they were making hush puppies. •There were drinks listed on their menu that you could not order when ordering the food. Specifically the Peachy Tea was listed on their menu but was not available for the cashier to input. Not a huge deal but inconvenient and should be removed from their menu if it’s not available to order from the counter. •The chairs that were at their wooden bar overlooking the street view were pretty uncomfortable to sit at.

The cons and reasons why I will not be returning. I’ll list them out briefly but summarize the poor interactions below. •Absolutely awful customer service. Made to feel like I was an inconvenience and like I had to earn their respect to dine there. •Food was brought out at different time intervals when on one order. Not the issue but the lack of communication and again feeling like a burden when asking a question was. •There was no apparent roasted jalapeños or chipotle aioli in the Chicken Salad Mexicana. I wouldn’t normally list this as a con but when asking about whether this was the correct meal after it was delivered, the employee was once again very rude.

The cashier and server were both rude and did not seem happy to be there. I understand that food industry jobs can be difficult and stressful. But it is unprofessional to take that out on the customer. Not facing a customer and talking to them over your shoulder when they walk through the door also feels unwelcome. Ignoring a customer that is waiting to order without acknowledging that they are standing there and then walking away from them to talk to another employee that was presumably on break is not ok (did not happen to my party but a customer that was ordering before me).

The only saving grace to this and the reason i’m not giving it one star based off of customer service alone was because as we were leaving a completely different person came out and was extremely warm welcoming and sincerely sweet to us. I wish i had gotten their name but it was a tall black woman with longer hair who let us know that we didn’t have to clean up after ourselves. She was very kind.

All in all this was a negative experience. Only 1/3 food items were above par. Only 1/4 customer service experiences were above subpar. I would not dine here again unless the staff received in-depth training on how to treat people in a way that professional and kind. Good food does not make up for terrible customer service.

TLDR Banh Mi was 🔥🔥. Customer service 👎👎👎. If you’re gonna get food here better to door dash it than deal...

Order: Grilled Shwarma-Style Chicken Sandwich Price: $15 Pros: Bread was fresh and delicious, meat was cooked and seasoned well, overall Flavors of the sandwich work really well together, generous portion size. Cons: The wait time was ridiculous given that it was lunch time. They definitely seemed understaffed.

Thoughts: I have had several people tell me I needed to try this place, so one day when I showed up to work without lunch I decided to grab a buddy and give it a shot.

We did really only have about an hour for lunch, but seeing as this place is only 10 minutes away from work I really didn’t think it would be a problem. I was wrong. When we first walked in there was already a line but it was only about 6 people long so I figured it couldn’t be that bad. It took us almost 20 minutes to get to the register. I don’t know whether it was an issue with their system, or whether they were just grossly understaffed given that it was lunch hour in five points, but I watched at least six people walk out of the restaurant without ordering because the line was long and seemed to be unmoving.

I suppose the good part is that I got to see several huge, delicious looking salads go past me while I was standing in line and I’m really interested in the Mediterranean salad with chicken next time I go.

The menu is a little on the small side but everything looked really delicious and they had some creative, unique sandwich combinations. I decided to go for the grilled shawarma-style chicken sandwich, and my buddy went for the turkey sweet tea sandwich. I threw in a side of potato salad, because who doesn’t want potatoe salad, and sat down to wait again.

Eventually the food showed up, but we had seven minutes to get back to work so we grabbed everything to go and took off. While I did end up eating lunch at my desk because of how long it took to order and get our food, the food itself, which is the most important part of a restaurant, was delicious. The bread was baked wonderfully, I’m going to guess they bake it in house, definitely had firmness to it so it can hold up to a sturdy sandwich but was light and fluffy so I didn’t feel like I was chewing on cardboard. The chicken was really well cooked, not to dry, with a really nice overall spice. I am definitely coming back at least one more time as I want to see if the wait times are consistently that long, and I really want to try their salad because they look awesome.

Overall it’s definitely a good restaurant but if that wait time keeps up it could really hurt them, they are a great spot to grab lunch in the Riverside area but no one has an hour and a half to two hours to take lunch. I’m definitely going to tell people they should go, but I’ll probably also tell them they should get it to go. Which is really sad because they look like they have an awesome outdoor seating area and I love outdoor seating. If I ever get to try it I’ll...

Soooooo close, but yet so far. Let me say, I appreciate the effort, but much like a chain, your restaurant is only good as your weakest link. On the plus side, the menu is interesting and varied. I appreciated them having a Sunday brunch menu as well for a varied more breakfast type experience. The food was beautiful. Bravo! But..... To start off we couldn't find a drink menu, which is unfortunate because of that we only ordered coffee, and that was on a hope that they had it. The person taking our order seemed a bit flummoxed by a simple question, "can you make this sandwich on a different bread". The self-service drink area was crowded, and really not well maintained with a dripping coffee urn. They put a large pan underneath to catch the drippings which made it impossible to get coffee without moving the drip pan filled with coffee elsewhere put your cup underneath, get your coffee, and then put the pan back. But then I was amazed to watch the food runner bringing out partial orders to individual tables at a time. One or two plates here, one or two plates there. Never bring out a tables complete order that I witnessed. Including my own. I ordered the quiche. Of course I did not want to start eating until my date's food arrived as well. It took almost 10 minutes for her sandwich to arrive after my quiche, and by that time of course, my food was cold. I saw this same scenario unfold over and over. That is a basic tenant of food service, and the talent required in the kitchen. Produce a complete order and get them up on time together so that everyone has hot food and can begin eating at the same time. I will say that one of the people working there when she brought the food after checking for us, did take my food and get it reheated. It was then she offered a complimentary item, and my date found out they had mimosas. She would have ordered one and paid for it had there been a menu with drinks on it. But I do appreciate the staff trying to do their best to correct the situation. Thank you. Now as far as the food's flavor goes, it was good, and I know the place is called the breadboard. And I'm sure they pride themselves on their bread and meat. But there needs to be a balance between meat and bread. If you like a sandwich with an overwhelming amount of meat to bread ratio this is the place for you. My quiche just tasted like ham, as did my date's sandwich. Which necessarily isn't a bad thing. But there was no balance, no acid to cut the overwhelming amount of pork and fat. Good flavor but it becomes overwhelming after a while. Beautiful place, comfortable, maintained, and a great idea. Just a few rough edges that need to be rounded off before I think this place could really take off and make...