Brewed Awakening — Restaurant in Metuchen

Overpriced for the quality of food & inattentive service. $3.75 (plus tax + credit card fee) for an unremarkable cup of coffee. Over $12 for most breakfast items that are served with disposable syrup, no sides, no meat, and 15 cheap, flimsy paper napkins seemed pricey when I had to go to the counter to request a 2nd cup of coffee and again to pay our bill. $30 for two people to have a quick breakfast is more than I expect to pay for pancakes & a burrito. The people are certainly nice & friendly, but my veggie burrito was inedible due to how sopping wet it was from something liquid-y inside that tasted a lot like vinegar though no vinegar was included. It is not air conditioned so the restaurant was very warm on a hot summer day. Not highly recommended when there are so many other cute places in the area, but it was okay.

UPDATE TO OWNER'S BELOW RESPONSE: So it's respectable that the owner takes the time to read her reviews & respond.  What's NOT respectable is that in her overt defensiveness, she attacks the customers who provide feedback. Charging $3.75+ for coffee and tea is higher than most even in this "higher priced" market.  Cai's, the adorable place across the street, serves specialty coffees for $2.25.

While I did wrap my (awful) burrito in foil to go, it was because I hate wasting, and the homeless man down the street hadn't eaten anything since lunch yesterday.  Even bad food tastes good when you're starving. How rude to criticize her customers.  As if I need a ventilator. To suggest her staff can't be friendly but still inattentive is to not understand the nature of the service industry. Being friendly does not necessarily make for efficiency.  That I had to go up & ask for a refill of coffee and then again for our bill doesn't happen when waitstaff is attentive, regardless of how nice they are.

We sat outside because it was COOLER outside with the slight breeze than inside with no air conditioning. If you read my other reviews, they are nearly always for 5 star locations. It's rare for me to feel disappointed.  So understand what is happening here. Based on her rude response, I should lower the rating to 1 star, but I'm letting the 3...

Every possible thing they could do wrong, they did. We walked in to a slight wait, but that’s fairly common. However, by the time we sat down the place was half full, so it’s not like they were busy. It was pretty gross, too. There are flies everywhere and buckets set up in the kitchen area to catch stuff dripping from the ceiling. We continued and put in our order, which the waitress had a hard time figuring out how to replace one side with another (and decided to give up on the effort). After 15 minutes of not getting drinks, my husband had to remind them we exist. 5 minutes later they came with his drink and told me they were out of green tea. So I asked for a water instead, and she said “ok, but we’re out of ice.” LOL another 15 minutes went by and we got our food. She never did figure out how to switch that side out, so instead of messing up just his order, they decided to mess up both of ours. My husbands order was a fun take on eggs Benedict where they switch the hollandaise with spicy water and cook the eggs hard boiled. When we paid, they tried to charge us for the tea they ran out of. If you are looking for a place to torture some hungover person, this is the place for you. They should change back the name from brewed awakening to rude awakening.

UPDATE: Dear owner, do not blame a customer for your poor management skills and inability to foresee staffing on holidays. Age is no excuse for poor service. I very kindly voiced my concerns when I had them (many times); don't get mad that in 2020 there are multiple ways to voice concerns. I attached a picture of the painters' bucket and brown stained box below. Hope this helps. Instead of taking this comment constructively in a way to improve, you took offense and attacked me instead- calling my story of a bad restaurant experience as "lacking humanity". LOL, please look up what humanity means. Expect a visit from the health...

Pretty disappointing experience.

After a short wait for a table on A Sunday Afternoon (Brunch Rush), my party of two was seated. We had already observed the staff being pretty short with each other and the kitchen pretty busy, but we were quickly greeted by a Server and placed our drink orders.

I must admit, I've got a sweet tooth, but the Chocolate Caramel Latte made me tap out. To me, it tasted like it had 157 Grams of sugar, at least. The Mocha Latte was much more reasonable.

Ordered the Seasoned Chicken Panini and the Eggs Benedict with some other sides and settled in to conversation..

5 minutes... 10 minutes.. 20 Minutes.. 30 Minutes..

My Panini finally arrived! Burnt to a Crisp.. Literally black on one side. Sent it back to the kitchen, requested another.

35 Minutes.. 40 Minutes.. 55 Minutes.. 🤦🏾

Sandwich (Barely Pressed or toasted this time) came back out. Mid at best.

Flagged down a Waiter (The one that took our orders never returned) to find out what's happening with the other items.. He then brought a Manager/Owner (?) over. They apologized and told us they were having some difficulty in the kitchen and staffing. They told us our order would be brought out shortly. I politely declined and told them we'd like to pay for what we had so we could leave. They asked us to stay, told us it would be delivered shortly and we could take it to go. I again refused. They insisted.

Came back 5 Minutes later with 30% of what we ordered, on a plate and a to-go box. They mentioned we didn't have to pay for the second item and that they would pack it up for us. Great, get me outta here! ✌🏾

Proceeds to drop item, almost making it inedible

After a quick review of the bill and adjusting the final charge, we left. Got smoothies elsewhere.

Not sure if they were having a VERY off day, but this joint will not see me again.

Pure chaos. Poor...