Pantry — Restaurant in New Haven

summary: extremely inattentive service, good vibes, just ok diner food with several really delicious items

i am a local and i've been coming here for three years now. i know that this is an institution and that many in east rock swear by this place. but my verdict on the pantry is overall negative, mainly due to the consistently low quality of service but also a few pet peeves.

let's started with what the pantry does well. the cinnamon roll pancakes are absolutely delicious--they are my favorite item on the menu. the home fries are perfectly crisped and garnished. the benedicts and omelettes are generally pretty high quality. it's also an objectively very cute place, well-decorated with jazz posters. whoever runs this place has excellent taste in jazz that is tastefully played in the background.

but the service here is nowhere short of neglectful. since i live nearby i know not to come here when it's busy and likely to be understaffed, but it seems to just not matter. (most) of the wait staff here are polite and friendly enough, but they almost always fail to check up on you after they bring your food. when they do remember to ask how you're doing and you request water or coffee refills, they /might/ come back with them ten minutes later, if at all. lack of water refills is bad enough at any restaurant, but coffee refills are especially important since a big part of what makes a diner a real diner is bottomless coffee. last time (this morning) our server passed by our table multiple times, coffee pitcher in hand, without taking note of our never-refilled mugs. only after we received our check did we ask for more coffee, which we finally got along with a whiff of attitude. a couple refills during your meal should be completely normal, but good luck just getting one here--and again, this is true regardless of whether the place is packed or mostly empty!

worse, the place is cash only, and the prices have increased substantially over the past few months, which i wouldn't mind so much if the service were better. i still come here for the occasional order of cinnamon roll pancakes, but i have to make a conscious effort each time to budget time and patience for what i know will be a subpar dining experience for me.

other random pet peeves:

the sausage + egg + cheese sandwich uses link sausages cut in half lengthwise rather than sausage patties. who does that??? the "fancy" french toast is not very good. these are made with tiny baguette slices. sounds much better in theory, but they don't get very soft, don't stack well, and don't absorb much egg. the cinnamon roll pancakes slap but all other pancakes i find to be mediocre for some reason the menu is pretty small for a diner too. no corned beef hash, no breakfast burritos, no biscuits and gravy. not a sticking point for me by any means, but it would be nice if they had some...

I want to really like this place, but I struggle to find anything to embrace about it. I've been here a couple of times over the years and my experiences with the place have gotten a bit worse over time. I've only been here on weekends, so I admit that your experience may vary greatly from mine.

The biggest strike against the place may be the blandness of the food. My palate is not the most refined in the world, but the food I've had here gets a solid "Meh". Second, the place gets crowded-- like Friday night at the bar kind of crowded. Some people don't mind having to press through people to get to a chair and having every word overheard by the people at the next table, but I'm not a fan of the experience.

Partly, perhaps, a result of that is that waitstaff seeming to be too busy to do anything but give you your food and take your money. The ones I dealt with also seemed to have less personality than your average doorknob. Again, the place has high volume patronage, so it's not incomprehensible that the staff couldn't care less about doing the absolute minimum when dealing with customers.

There appears to have been an effort at some point in time to give the place some some sort of character, but the place seems to have fragments of several souls and no identity. It has kind of a diner feel to it but it looks more like a restaurant. There are some jazz-related articles on the walls but it is also brightly painted and soulless.

Prices for this experience are okay, but not amazing by any stretch of the imagination. It is New Haven, I guess, and the demographic I've seen in the place doesn't seem to be the type to care about cheap eats. The place is cash only which catches some people unawares but simplifies things, I think. It also helps emphasize the transactional nature of the joint.

Altogether, I'm not sure I'll be going back unless I'm really hungry and unwilling to seek out alternatives...

I'll give it 4 Stars only for the Waitress - She was awesome went around Noon 6-5 - 18 It was my first time trying this spot . I was happy with my food - I got the normal eggs with meat special they even had side of spinach for me to order It's cozy and a enjoyable nice view of street. Coffee was perfect as well I was happy they had hazelnut as a choice . What I didn't like - Way Way Way Way Way To much stuff on walls - The cash 💰 only sign blends in and it's low and I wasn't at a museum to be looking at walls so I went to give my card as most of us don't carry cash - and I got told it was cash only /with all that stuff on walls it should be more cash only signs The cash only sign is. In wrong spot you can easily miss it - maybe They should put over the special of day sign - And also if your talking or your date. Holds the door there is a tiny no credit card sign but I had debit it's not a credit card so that can be misleading- And in my opinion The cash only needs to be in window where menu is and on the doors - If it wasn't a ATM across the Street - I would of had to inconvenience myself and I didn't like the fact the waitress made me feel I should of saw those little signs on the busy wall - Yet she was great besides that - The ATM fee was her tip sad to say. - she really deserved I would love to come back yet I don't won't to have to worry about not having enough cash tip tax and food. - So Remember Bring Xtra Cash so you won't have to go to a ATM - I understand cash only for tax reporting purposes / Yet they could get more business not operating...