Baker's Kitchen Restaurant & Bakery — Restaurant in New Bern

I want to start off this review by stating that the food was delicious and our waitress was fantastic! Came here today to celebrate my coworkers birthday. I came in around 9:30 and tried to check in. My coworker had checked in online so we could be seated, but the hostess said she could not find the check in under her name. Since I was the first one to arrive I said cool, lemme just check us in. I was a little early anyways. I checked in and the hostess said it would be about a 40 minute wait. I don't think she was happy with how many that were going to be in the group because it was written all over her face and you could hear it in her voice. (I knew 15 confirmed would be there but we rounded up to 20 to be safe). Cool, no problem. I'll just wait.

My coworkers start coming in and we're chatting away. Birthday girl showed up and asked if we checked in with the hostess. I told her I already talked to her and that there was a 40 min wait, but that was 15 mins ago. Birthday girl said she checked in online. She went to talk to the hostess and low and behold, there's the check in under her name that the hostess said didnt exist, and wouldnt you have it, it's now an hour and 15 min wait. What the heck.

We see party after party come in, eat and leave before we get sat. Birthday girl checked in at 9:00 through their online check in system. I checked in physically at the restaurant at 9:40. What upsets me the most is the day previous, my husband and his work friends had come the day prior with a party of 13 and they had no issues getting sat. They don't seat us until a few minutes before 11. They take us up stairs where they had pushed 2 tiny tables together. The hostess then pack 12 of us like sardines next to each other. There's literally no room between any of us and we're Elbow to elbow touching each other. We ask her if there's anyway we can push one of the three empty tables to the end of ours so we can have some more room. She says she'll go ask the manager.

She comes back and tells us are can move down to the table next to us. She said it sits 12 people. The 12 of us get up and sit down at the table and it was even more crammed then our previous situation. We ask the host again if we can just push one of the tables over. She said no, that the table sits 12. I told her maybe 12 skinny people, but we're not kids and we are not small enough to fit at that table. She then again leaves to talk to the manager. She comes back and pushes one of the small tables so we can finally all sit down to eat.

The waitress takes our orders and she's very kind. The food came out quickly and it was delicious. We were very pleased with the food and service from our waitress but the rude attitude of the hostess and her unwillingness to accommodate our group overshadowed what could have been a...

"Customer service" is an absolute embarrassment, ESPECIALLY Becca!

I had called to make a reservation, since the online reservation portal was down. The gentleman I spoke with said he was only able to take the reservation in person and had also mentioned that the online portal was down. So after arriving I had to wait additional time to be seated because apparently it is rocket science to take my name and number via telephone.

Once we were seated, the floor was covered in food and crayons, and not once did I see anyone attempt clean it up. The mess was simply left there, and other guests were seated around it.

Then comes Becca, the server I had the absolute displeasure of encountering. I had ordered the hungry farmer, and requested that my bacon be served on a separate dish. I am a vegetarian, and did not want bacon grease contaminating my food. Since the bacon is included in the meal price, I was simply going to give it to my husband.

When the food arrived, the bacon was laid directly on top of my eggs, and covering a significant portion of the plate. Anyone who has experienced bacon or simply breathed next to a ServSafe course knows that bacon is very greasy, and when it come into contact with other food, it's grease is transferred. When I kindly and awkwardly brought the issue to Becca's attention, she rudely replied, "That's because someone else brought it out. What do you want me to do about it?" Uhm...your job? Fix it? I was clearly upset and uncomfortable about this situation; anyone who has interacted with humans before would be able to identify the unease I was feeling. When I requested a new plate, she rudely stated, "I can't take your whole plate back." She brought out replacement eggs shortly after, placing them down angrily and dismissively. Trying to properly cut and eat French toast on the small, uncontaminated area of my plate was an awkward disaster. She didn't even have the decency to replace the greasy plate the food had been served on, and didn't even apologize once. When we were finished, that is when she finally came to our table to offer us refills on beverages, turning her back to me and directly addressing my husband, in a much kinder tone than she had ever addressed me.

This will unfortunately be my last time returning to your establishment, which is a shame, because your food is delicious. However, I will not pay money to be treated as an inferior inconvenience.

And please, for the love of God, please clean your women's restroom. Every time I have been to your restaurant, the bathroom always smells like the same...

Room for improvement. Went at 10am, seated by 10:30am - a pleasant surprise as that was 15 minutes ahead of quoted wait. Ordered French Toast, Ultimate Biscuits & Gravy, and at 11am ordered a Chicken Salad croissant to go. Server was excellent if stretched a little thin. Can't say I caught her name. Receipt said Cory? Atmosphere was fine, if a little bland.

About the food... French toast was good though not amazing. Scrambled eggs that came with the french toast leaned toward institutional. Ultimate biscuits and gravy was a miss. Biscuits had hard bottoms, indicating they had been sitting around a while. Gravy lacked depth of flavor. I've had instant gravy that had more character. I would say both Bojangles and The Country Biscuit (had breakfast there Saturday morning) have better biscuits. The chicken salad croissant was flakey but nothing memorable. Mac and cheese that came with the croissant for an extra dollar was also a miss... very much a velveta sauce, no extra flavor, no character and very saucy. Reminded me of an instant pot mac and cheese I make. Fine for fast casual; I just expected more given the server said it was very good.

We were seated quickly (party of 2), which brought this up from what I would otherwise consider a 3 star meal. This location has the same problem as an "Olive Garden". It's popular with groups. All those 6-10 people groups slow down seating and turnover - leaving parties of 2-4 to wait a little longer and putting a strain the wait staff. This isn't Baker's fault but something to keep it in mind. When we checked in, there are 8 groups of 6+ ahead of us.

Overall, I didn't leave hungry. I just wasn't impressed. The Country Biscuit delivered a more flavorful meal the previous morning, without the wait, and for a few bucks late. Would I go back? Probably. Have I had better meals...