Dinerbar on Clifton — Restaurant in Lakewood

TL;DR – negative rating if I could, worst management and customer service I've ever experienced, absolutely received RACIST/PROFILED vibes too blatant to ignore. Got the incorrect meal and instead of getting an apology and a replacement meal, I was accused of eating the incorrect meal, not a single apology, and charged for it as well.

Went for brunch with some coworkers Weds. around noon. I ordered a corned beef omelet and a mimosa. When we got our food, I received the wrong omelet. Server admitted she was new and she's sorry. Very sweet, completely fine, mistakes happen. She said she'll get the replacement going, and I said ok. She comes back 10 minutes later (mind you, everyone is finished eating) and says that the remake order never got put in and offers me something else. Since everyone is finished, I say ok, I'll take a BLT to go.

Fast forward, we receive our checks, and I see I'm being charged for the omelet. I ask the waitress if the check was correct and she says yes, that’s what the manager was able to compromise, so I ask to speak with the manager. When she comes out, she visually addresses everyone (3) at the table, except for me, while saying “hi um so what’s going on here”. I speak up and she finally looks at me, and I explain that I don’t think I should be charged for the omelet because 1.) I didn’t order it; it was the wrong order and 2.) I didn’t eat it. She immediately jumps to an accusatory stance and says, “well you ate the omelet and you got a BLT to-go, why would we give you 2 free meals?”. No apology, no sincerity, nothing. Everybody at the table speaks up for me and says that “he did not eat the omelet”. Again, instead of apologizing for ANOTHER misunderstanding, she says “ok so still you’re getting a free BLT, you have to pay for something”. At this point I begin to get upset where before I was completely calm and ok with the mistake. I push the BLT bag away and say forget it, I don’t want it at this point, just take all the food off and I’ll pay for my drink. She scoffs and says “well I don’t want to waste food”, she’s staring at the receipt, not making eye contact, then finally walks off and goes inside. From the outside patio where we were seated, I can see her talking about us, throwing her arms around, visibly upset. She brings me my check with just the drink and says “just so you know, next time there won’t be 2 free meals” and walks off. Not a single time did she apologize. We all look at each other in shock.

Finally, as we’re leaving, I see her at the bar, so I go up to her to calmy let her know I won’t be returning and that this was unprofessional. I mentioned that I have worked at restaurants before and when a customer doesn’t get to eat with their company/gets the wrong food, they don’t pay for the meal. She is smiling and smirking in my face, and says ok I’ll take that into consideration, very sarcastically. For the 4th time, the words "I'm sorry" did not escape her mouth. It took everything in me to walk out quietly after that, and I did not take the to-go BLT. The whole time we’re having a normal-volume conversation, kitchen staff and other servers are watching me. This tells me that she/they were absolutely talking about me when we were outside. I left a $20 for the server on a $13 tab. I was the only non-white person at the table, and I truly believe, as well as my white coworkers, that my race played a big part in this manager’s attitude. You couldn’t pay me to eat here, and I will tell every person I know, which extends to various Lakewood business owners, to avoid this place like the plague....

Let me preface by saying that the food was good. Our server (Danny) was sweet, attentive, and did a great job. However, I'm giving this restaurant a two- star rating due to my interaction with the management.

I visited Dinerbar with four of my female coworkers. We are college- educated women in our 20s and 30s (which I believe factored into how we were treated this evening). I have several years of service industry experience, so I understand the pressure that staff is under, but I also know what good customer service is.

Tonight, one of my girlfriends and I both ordered the margarita. Margaritas are my go-to cocktail and I order and make them often. The Dinerbar cocktails tasted like bitters, tequila, and a splash of lime, which isn't right. The sweetness was missing, and I assumed that the bartender forgot the simple syrup (or whatever sweetener this particular restaurant uses). Human error, no big deal. My friend and I passed our margaritas around the table to make sure we weren't imagining things, and when everyone agreed that they weren't made right, we sent the $9 cocktails back and asked for ciders instead.

That should have been the end of the story. Danny was great about it and took the cocktails back, no questions asked. That's good customer service. But then he told us that the bartender wanted to talk to us. The bartender came out and asked who sent the margaritas back. I pointed to my friend and I, and he proceeded to quiz us on the ingredients in a margarita. Here's the thing: just like there's a thousand ways to make an old fashioned, there's a thousand ways to make a margarita. Not yet sensing the passive aggressiveness of this conversation (silly of me, i know), I began listing off what I use in my my margaritas. As soon as I listed "simple syrup, " the bartender responded, "wrong!" and proceeded to educate me on cointreau and what it is (yes I know, thank you). It's been a long time since I felt so patronized, and my friends and I were dumbfounded that this was actually happening. We were being told that we were wrong for unanimously deciding that the drinks did not taste good. It didn't feel like real life.

When Danny came back over (bless him), I asked to see the manager. Dinerbar is a new restaurant and the margin of error is so small at this point that I knew it would be beneficial for the manager to know that their bartender was belittling customers for sending back poor-tasting drinks. Lo and behold, the bartender walked over and told us that he was, in fact, the manager. He comped my meal, as well as my friend's meal who also ordered the margaritas, but this only felt even more patronizing. I was happy to pay for the food (it was quite good). It was the lack of respect that was the problem.

Unfortunately, none of us will be returning to this establishment again. It's a shame, but the behavior of management tonight is inexcusable. The worst part is knowing that, based on his condescending demeanor, the interaction would have gone differently if we weren't a group of women. Please understand that when five women agree that something tastes bad, it means it tastes bad. Swallow your pride, and do not belittle...

I’ve been bringing my family here most weekends as day off from cooking and genuinely love the food. The kitchen staff consistently puts out awesome versions of breakfast classics and I’ve never had an issue.

The wait staff can be very hit or miss.

On one recent occasion we had a waitress who seemed incredibly rushed and was making mistakes at seemingly every point of service. I’d usually write this off as a bad morning but my husband reminded me that this was the same woman who had spilled our drinks all over our table multiple times in one service because she was just going too fast.

She brought us the wrong food and it ended up being someone else’s for example. She gave us our check with an exploding pen and the amount was incorrect, when we brought this to her attention she verbally swore at our table (not at us but in frustration) in front of our three year old son which we just found distasteful and at this point we’re just ready to go.

On my most recent visit I came in with my mom visiting from out of town and was excited to share our favorite spot with her and my son. Upon arrival we were greeted by a seemingly annoyed hostess who seated us at the sunniest table in the restaurant. Like seriously would have had to wear sunglasses and there were easily 7 tables and a booth empty so we asked to be moved somewhere else. She seemed even more annoyed and within ear shot apologized to the waiter whose table was lost due to us moving. I thanked her 3x and she refused to acknowledge me.

Additionally, I had never seen a single person working FOH in there before which was odd.

I’ve easily spent a $1000 over the past year at this place as it’s truly one of my favorite spots in Lakewood. I’m hoping that management will take this to heart to ensure it can stay this way. I truly don’t mind a bumpy service especially on busy Sunday morning but the energy of the employees has been tense lately!

The food is seriously great if you’re looking for amazing breakfast at a fair price. I’m not giving up on this gem in...