Scratch Kitchen & Bistro — Restaurant in Maryland

Terrible service. When we walk in a nice women behind the counter kindly greets us lets us know we can sit anywhere. The waitress however was not as kind. Before she’s even done handing us the menus she ask us “so do you know what you want”. It was our first time here so we needed a minute, she gave us an ugly look then walked away. The waitress then disappeared for who knows how long. While we are waiting to order, she finally reappears… however instead of checking on us she decides it’s lunch break and is just eating in the dining room. A few moments later the nice women from behind the counter realized and came to take our order. I ordered the crab cake sandwich which I was then Informed they were out of crab meat (which is fine it just would of been nice to know before waiting forever) instead I got another breakfast meal and ordered a bacon side. Our food came out about 15-20 minutes later and everything tasted great, however we realized they never brought out the bacon. We thought it was coming because they brought all our food one dish at a time. Nobody came to check on us how the food was. As we are eating we see the Waitress reappear and approach another table, she’s trying to get them to pay and we over hear her insisting the people to “tip in cash instead of card so I can keep it, but don’t tell the owner I said that” she then sees us just over halfway through our food and says “so you want to pay now?” In a grumpy tone. We say sure and I inform her about the bacon that never came because we didn’t know if we were going to be changed for it. She then said in a nasty tone “You Never Told Me You Wanted That”. SHE DIDNT EVEN TAKE OUR ORDER. Then she said it’s fine the other lady didn’t ring it up so it’s all good, no offer to bring it out or anything. I agree to pay, as I’m paying with my card she pulls the machine away before I can tip and says “oh are you tipping cash?… or did you prefer here” she was basically scoffing at us while I selected the 20% option with her staring at the machine. Both me and my fiancé are in the industry and we’re genuinely shocked at...

Cute but very small indoor and outdoor seating. Food was amazing (the jerk chicken empanadas do not taste like jerk chicken at all but still good). Staff is friendly but just not efficient or great servers. We were given our appetizer with no plates or silver ware but then they sat a table next to us and they got silverware as soon as they sat down so there’s some inconsistency in the training department. We decided to just take our entrees to go because at that point we had been there for over 40 minutes and was only given our water (didn’t order any other drinks) and our appetizer, no one asked us for our entrees, we had to wave them down to put in the order and both times we attempted to put in an order the server never had her notebook on her and would go to get it and not return. Once we did get our food it was wrong but we were already home (asked for steak fried rice and got chicken). Food takes a little bit to come out but to be expected with a scratch kitchen. Also, we weren’t asked which side we wanted with one of our entrees and just given the side salad (thankfully we like our greens), upon paying one of the servers approached my fiancé and said “you don’t need to tip” which to us is just immature and unprofessional (my fiance is a resturaunt manager and always tips 20% or more no matter the service and had planned to do so even with taking our food to go but for the first time ever he decided not to tip after that interaction). The owner was super nice and welcoming on the phone and made us excited to visit, at first he gives a cold/harder vibe but once we interacted (he came to take our to go order after multiple attempts with the waitress) he was friendly and easy to talk to. We will definitely order from here again but will just be taking it to go...

I wanted to love this place, but I didn't, and won't be back.

We went on a Sunday around noon. The place is tiny, but we were able to get a table without waiting, which we thought was wonderful.

But through the whole visit, there were people and delivery drivers standing around and between the tables waiting to pick up carry-out orders, and the place is waaaaaaay too small to accommodate that.

The staff was welcoming and friendly, but once we placed our order, we didn't see our server again until I had to go up to the counter to ask for a check; she seemed far more interested in talking with the other workers behind the counter than taking care of us.

As to the food, we ordered a ham and cheddar omelet with toast and home fries, and the Big Scratch platter with over-medium eggs, and bacon.

The omelet was overdone (brown), and the toast was under toasted (more like stale bread, if you know what I mean). On the positive side, there was an abundance of ham and cheese.

When we asked for more butter for the toast and the pancake that came with the platter, we could hear the exchange between the server we'd flagged down (not our server), and whoever she was talking with in the kitchen. She said, "Can I have some butter?" And he said, "What for?" C'mon now.

The eggs were overcooked. The bacon wasn't slices, it was pieces, in a greasy clump on the plate, and I swear it was deep-fried. It was just icky.

The home fries are just dull.

We both agreed that the only thing good about our experience was the buttermilk pancake that came with the platter. I don't know what's in that thing, but it's simply delicious.

I won't be going back, but if I were to find myself there again, I'd head straight for the pancakes and only...