Waterwheel Breakfast and Gift House — Restaurant in Jefferson

The food was fantastic and the portions were huge. The restaurant is clean and well-kept, and the gift store is cute (we bought several items while we waited). That said, I wouldn't recommend this place if you have a party greater than four people. We had five adults and one child (less than 3 years). We were told the wait would be 30 minutes, and it ended up being well over an hour (all parties smaller than ours were seated, ate and left while we continued to wait). They do not appear able to easily accommodate larger parties. Once seated it took 20 minutes for someone to take our order, and it took even longer to get our food (which caused issues with our child getting hungry and thus impatient and irritable). The reason is that the woman that was working as the hostess (who I assume is also one of the owners) disappeared once things slowed down a little at the door and didn't bother to help the staff of only two servers, even if just pouring coffee for folks or delivering food to tables. These two girls had all they could do to keep up.

All told we arrived around 8:25 and weren't able to leave until around 10:45. The quality of the food made up a little for the delays, which I understand was not entirely in the restaurant's control, but the hostess could have helped the servers even a little to make things go more quickly, especially when she knew we had been waiting for a significant period of time. Most other larger parties simply left before being seated, and in hindsight we probably should have found another place that is capable of handling parties over four. I don't want to sound completely negative, as the food is great and worth a little wait (just not a giant wait), but you may want to consider other options if they're busy and you're with more than just a...

Here are some valid reasons why this establishment should be avoided and possibly even boycotted: -We (amongst other families) waited over an hour to be sat at a table while there were multiple tables available. The bus boy could be seen standing around chatting while all these tables sat dirty. -When we were finally sat, we were ignored for 25 minutes. There were only 6 tables full so it’s not like they were busy. -the owner of the restaurant was doing some weird raffle in the middle of the dining area? Instead of checking on tables or making sure her staff was doing their jobs, she was galavanting. -the two waitresses were rude, slow and clearly did not care about promptness. -the food was delicious. So that’s the only good thing. -HERES THE KICKER!!! An old women came into the restaurant asking to place an order to go. She explained that she couldn’t dine in the restaurant because of her sick elderly dog in the car. The waitress and hostess rudely told her no that they do not do to go orders because they are so busy (THEY WERE NOT BUSY). This old woman started to cry begging for food. The waitress told her no. The old woman said “you’ve lost my business” and the waitress then said, “NOT MY PROBLEM!” My husband and I were in fine dining for many years and also worked diners. Never in our lives have we experienced such rudeness from an ENTIRE staff, aloofness from an owner, and complete disrespect of their own guests. Horrible experience. As a local I will NEVER return and I will tell EVERYONE about the disrespectful and disgraceful attitudes from this sad excuse for...

OVER TWO HOUR ORDEAL!!! DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME! Waited an hour just to be seated. After being seated 20 min later our waitress (older lady) FINALLY came over and told us she’d be right over. Lies. Still didn’t give us menus. 10 min later she goes to another table that came in way after us and took their drink order and gave them menus…still nothing for us. I had to ask another waitress if we could get menus please. Another 10 more min and we were given them. Finally got drinks taken and ordered at the same time. My husband and I had to correct the waitress twice while ordering a simple egg NO cheese with bacon on English muffin. We waited about 1/2 hour for our food, my sons egg sandwich came with cheese and no bacon. I asked waitress for a couple slices of bacon and she scolded me telling me that’s why she asked what I wanted on it. obviously she didn’t listen at all as to what we ordered. Then the bacon NEVER CAME so my son didn’t eat and went to Dunkin’ after to get him a breakfast sandwich. THE WORST EXPERIENCE IVE EVER HAD ANYWHERE TO EAT!!! AND THE FOOD WASNT WORTH YHE WAIT...