Pump and Grind — Restaurant in Mansfield

We visited at 11 AM on a Saturday morning. We noticed when we arrived that their morning crowd was starting to thin out, and it took about 5 minutes for us to get a table. Once we were seated, no one approached our table again for 15 minutes. They finally got our drink order, which wasn't completed correctly. One person in our party of three ordered a pour over coffee and got drip coffee instead. It wasn't worth complaining about since we finally got something to drink, and the drip coffee wasn't bad at all. The server took our food order. There was one burger and 2 breakfast plates. As I previously said, the crowd was thinning by this point, there were several open tables. I would not consider the restaurant to have been busy. Additionally, I did a rough count of employees I saw walking around the establishment. I know there were at least 10, but possibly 12 or more.

It took over 40 minutes to get our food, and the meals were not served at the same time. I noticed they did the same to the table next to us, serving individual plates over approximately 10 minutes, so that some folks were nearly done with meals before others had even started.

The person in our party who had the burger said it was "perfectly acceptable." The person who got eggs, pancakes, and sausage links enjoyed the eggs, liked the pancakes, and tried the sausage, but did not finish it. I ordered breakfast pizza. I would say it was bland, except the sausage gravy was very black pepper-forward. I aded some salt to kind of balance the flavor. It was exactly okay, not bad, but not great. I shared some with one of my companions, and they agreed. We also agreed Walmart's take-n-bake breakfast pizza is way better.

Before leaving, I visited the restroom and was surprised to see there are no latches or locks on the stall doors and nowhere to hang a bag or a jacket. I also don't get the weird white splotches of paint all over throughout the establishment. It seems like they thought about painting, but decided not too.

Overall, it wasn't the best or worst dining experience I've ever had, but I probably won't go back.

In response to the owner:

I knew the coffee was drip and not pour over because once we placed the drink order, the drinks were promptly delivered to the table. Anyone who knows anything about coffee knows that a proper pour over takes several minutes to prepare. It cannot be delivered to a table as quickly as the cup of coffee I received.

I don't know about your staffing policies or which positions each of your employees holds, but I wrote my review the same day I visited you establishment, while the details were fresh in my mind. I am certain I saw the number of people I saw there that day. Whether they were "on the clock" or just hanging out, appearances mean a lot when you are running a business. It appeared to me, a customer, that you had a surplus of employees running around while people were receiving sub-par service.

And yes, we did speak to a manager. I believe he was the owner or one of the owners. He apologized for our wait to get a table and then apologized that our food order was taking so long. See how you sound when you assume.

My visit was 4 months ago and you are just now responding. I cannot say what upgrades you may have made to the restrooms since that time. I only made an observation of what I saw on that day.

Lastly, I reviewed your establishment as 3/5 stars -- an average rating. It was not a low rating, nor was it exceptional. My review was fair. Some things were done well. Some things were lacking. However, what I have noticed is frequently, when you receive a less-than-stellar review, you become quite defensive, you make excuses, and you attack the reviewer, instead of taking the criticism like a mature person. The service was bad that day. Some of the food was mediocre, some was good. Perhaps you should stop acting like a petulant child and learn and grow and improve from the feedback...

Interesting experience today. I ordered takeout for lunch, as I often do. And I've been telling myself I'd try this place out every time I find myself at the window of the nearby Golden Burrito. (At least once a week.)

I finally got around to trying the Pump and Grind out, and I feel it was a mostly positive experience. I ordered a brunch burger with fries.

It was still piping hot when I got home. Turned on the Reds game from the prior day and sat down to absolutely smash this burger.

First off, the good. The fries are fresh cut style and are actually salted. Thank you for salting the fries. I can't figure out why most restaurants in Mansfield have sworn off this practice. I was pleased to find out that is not the case here.

The bun was fairly plain, but was perfect for this type of burger. It also held up well, but that might be less to do with the bun itself as opposed to the burger.

More on that in a moment.

The hash browns on the burger were perfect. Added a texture to it and the flavor went well with all the other toppings. Lastly, the bacon was really good for a burger. I like thick cut fancy bacons when eating bacon by itself. But when on a burger, I just want plain basic bacon. I want it to complement the burger, not steal the show.

The bacon was perfect for a burger.

I ordered the egg to be cooked over easy. It was, and it was delish.

The bad though. Man this burger is dry. It's as dry as my sense of humor, and that's not a good thing. It was actually a struggle to swallow without the aid of a beverage. Really bad.

The burger was definitely well done. I wasn't asked how I wanted it prepared, which I did find odd. But I just assumed it would be done medium to medium well. Nope, this was well done with no juice present in the patty at all. A half pound burger is great, until it's as dry as a hockey puck.

The simple fix to this is to ask how a customer wants it prepared. I always request rare, (yea yea yea....I'm gross, I know.) but I like a juicy burger, and ordering it rare typically means it shows up medium rare.

If that isn't an option then put a sauce on it. Not so much for flavor, but rather for lubrication.

I will be back. I think there is potential, especially with the cowboy burger. And I want to try a frozen drink as well.

All in all, an ok first experience. Albeit a bit of a disappointment, especially when you see how beautiful that burger looked in the box.

Edit: Came back for lunch again today. I ordered a cowboy burger with fries for takeout. A much better experience this time.

The burger was well done, just like the brunch burger. But it wasn't nearly as well done, if that makes sense. Also, the BBQ sauce and tomato helped add some life and juice to the burger.

The burger itself has great flavor. And the toppings were plentiful. They give you nice large chunks of lettuce, tomato, and onions when you request them.

And the fries, man the fries are just so good. Seasoned fresh cut fries, absolutely delish.

Much better experience this time around. Although, I wish I could order my burger a little less well done.

I'll be back to try something other than a...

I was pretty excited to be getting a coffee shop 2 mins up the road. I quite love a good espresso, so much so that I spent over $2500 on a prosumer home espresso machine and grinder. Making espresso is a science. Involving ratios of coffee extracted to grams of coffee. It takes many years to learn and perfect. With that being said I’ve been to this coffee shop twice.

It was quite chaotic both times. The first time I went It was obvious no one knew what they were doing. I ordered my wife a latte and the milk was terribly overfrothed. A latte should have tiny micro foam and be rich, sweet and creamy. This latte was nothing but foam from having too much air injected too fast into the milk.

My cold brew was pretty good!

I went back again this weekend and got another cold brew but with cold foam this time. Cold brew was again good, but the cold foam came from a mason jar? (Strange) not freshly whipped in a blender.

I don’t believe they roast their own beans which is a shame but they do buy beans from Goldberry in Ashland which has fantastic coffee. Unfortunately all the bags of beans they had for sale were already too old to purchase. So I will continue to drive to Ashland for freshly roasted.

For wonderful properly brewed espresso relax… it’s just coffee is still the only place in town. They roast their own beans and have a well trained staff that knows how to use an espresso machine.

All in all disappointing. I will be back for the cold brew but nothing else. I’m glad it’s there and hope they do well for the locals.

One star for existing. One star for...