Scratch — Restaurant in Mountain View

TL;DR: Horrendous service, over priced, bland food.

If you looked at this menu, you would probably thing "wow the food here sounds amazing!" It literally is modern spins on old classic dishes.

We only got so far as the appetizers (which I will go over more in detail). We got the cornbread, deviled eggs and pot stickers. Surprisingly, the deviled eggs which contained crab, you could hardly taste the crab. Also you only got four eggs. The pot stickers with duck--a meat known for being notoriously fatty and flavor--were absolutely bland. Also only four pieces. I don't like cornbread so I cannot comment, but the general consensus I got from the table was "underwhelming."

The bus boy upon delivering the appetizers knocked over the bottle of wine. That's fine, stuff like this happens. But then he just picked it up, said nothing to us, placed it on the table and left. We were absolutely dumbfounded. I watched him and he went to another server chatted and left and never saw him again.

Then we told our server what just happened. She said she would tell the manager. We finished our appetizers and waited....

She came back and asked if we were ready to order entrees. I am dead serious. Why would she think we would want to order more food when our current issue isn't resolved? Again, she said she would get the manager.

While we were waiting yet again, I saw a differently dressed man talking to our server, then eavesdropping on our table by playing on the computer at the server station next to our table, then talking for several minutes on the phone outside. This person then finally came up (it has been 15 minutes already) and presented themselves as the manager and basically said, "sorry for the wait, I was making sure I got all the pieces of information from the staff before approaching you with an offer."

Apparently 1) our opinions didn't matter in the explanation of the events and 2) there was an unbiased camera pointed directly at our table that he didn't bother to consult either.

His offer was to either give us more alcohol for free or discount the bottle that was ruined. Both options were very insulting and we should have just been given the bottle for free at the absolute minimum for all the waiting, hassling and getting some of clothes ruined.

There is clearly a systemic issue in the work culture here, and the food doesn't live up to the prices in terms of quantity or quality. I can easily recommend avoiding this place.

Also the fact they can't even be bothered to get a free SSL certificate for the website speaks volumes to their...

Not a good experience, wish I had my hard earned money back. Entered the restaurant at opening on Saturday morning. Almost every single one on the employees were standing around or leaning against a wall looking unhappy. We had a reservation outside, and we're warned about the homeless junkies that hang around the area. Ladies were advised to stash there purses behind me to protect them from theft. Our server took the two ladies drink orders and went to leave without asking me if I wanted a drink or appetizers... I did. I ordered a mimosa and crab meat deviled eggs. After a few minutes the dish was delivered to the only other table in the restaurant with about 8 patrons. There's only 4 half eggs in the order but they were delivered there. Soon they were scooped up and brought to our table, but with no plates for us to enjoy them. We sat there politely while our server hung out behind the bar, leaning against the coolers, drinking a beverage he brought from home. I got up and went in the restaurant and grabbed plates for us. The manager and server saw me do this while they were chilling behind the bar and it didn't change their attitude. The server brought our drink orders out, but without the coffees we ordered. I noticed his slacks were stained and unappealing. We waited for 20 minutes for coffee. I got up again, and entered the restaurant to inquire about the coffee. I was assured the coffee was still brewing. What kind of a brunch spot doesn't have coffee avaliable for customers when it opens? The food was okay, two of our dishes had poached eggs and one dish were overcooked. The fried chicken with the waffles had a variance in temperature and the coating did not stick to the chicken, it was messy. The menu stated the waffles would be accompanied by honey butter. No butter was brought out with the dish. When asked about it, I was brought stone cold regular butter. Never going back, it wasn't worth it. That Grapevine restaurant down the street was full and looked great, I'll be going...

ok so look i really don't like leaving poor reviews but: tl;dr if this place were half the price the best i could call it would be supremely mediocre. there's a buncha better places you can go nearby to get similar dishes prepared way better.

I've been here twice, once for brunch and then again for dinner, separated by a few months.

the first time, for brunch, the meal was undersalted and undersweatened.

the second time (a bit more recently, so a bit more detail): started with the duck potstickers. what we got were 4 potstickers which had not been sealed, one of which was ripped in half. the insides were supremely undersalted and otherwise somewhat lacking in flavor (there was a dipping sauce which helped a bit but did not fix the issues). had the lamb ragu for dinner. the ground lamb was absurdly dry, and more surprisingly, somewhat inconsistently salted -- largely under, but sometimes over (unclear what happened but 🤷‍♀️), and the noodles, while texturally sufficient, felt like they needed a bit more time with the sauce, and the whole dish was missing something (probably needed a little bit of parm or romano cheese, if I had to guess). to the dish's credit, the fresh marjoram was a lovely touch though.

and here's the thing: this is a place on castro street, so it's hard to judge in isolation either -- for probably half the price, you can get way better dumplings of multiple varieties within a half-mile radius, and could get a better ragu at any of the italian places (or just better lamb in general).

scratch seems like it wants to be upscale-general-american-style with upscale prices but not the...