The Place 2 Be — Restaurant in New Haven

While I have a quiet moment and have processed my experience I will go ahead and finally give my review.

My friend and I have been dying to get up to this spot in Hartford and were ecstatic to learn they were opening in New Haven. When we had some free time on Monday afternoon, we decided to check it out. Less crowds? How could you beat that!

Upon arrival, the ambiance was beautiful. Everything was nice. The music was everything. The host needed to speak up. He didn't greet us, but once I figured it out, I realized he asked if we were with a party which we were not. He led us around a corner to find silverware, but could have told us to stop where we were before we followed because we were going upstairs. That's neither here nor there.

The bathroom was atrocious. If you can hold it, please do so. Still cute upstairs.

I appreciate the order online and flip this card if you need anything. John, our waiter, was probably the only saving grace about this experience. And a few of the other waitstaff that interacted upon passing by our table.

I ordered the steak and eggs quesadilla. Maybe I wasn't paying attention, but I was sad that it was a Sunnyside up egg on top and not eggs mixed inside. For the price, I would have appreciated much more filling. Quesadillas are cheese filled, right? Where's the cheese!? Oh, I need to also add it was super greasy.

My friend got the Southern Benny. Eh. The elements separately were good. But together, it just didn't work. The hollandaise sauce was clumpy. It just didn't work. And it came with two chicken fingers. Maybe she should have ordered the other chicken and waffle dish with the bone in chicken?? Just not worth the price.

We also got bottomless Mimosas. On a Monday afternoon? Heck yes! Don't judge us. We are hard working moms. Don't fret. We just drank our way through bottomless juice anyway. No buzz. I drove home safely with no worries to tend to my kids. It's all good.

John and the waitstaff is the only reason why this review is getting a four and not the two it deserves. I probably wouldn't even have reviewed it. Maybe we will visit Hartford and see if the hype is...

Visited with family for Mother’s Day. The atmosphere was cool not too busy considering the date. It was not so busy for all the delays and issues we had. We were seated. No waters or server for the first 15 minutes. No worries because we’re all supper chill people. We finally had a server come and we asked about menus but we’re told it was strictly QR codes and online ordering. We went with it. We had two people in our party order food for the whole table as directed. We were told this is a a free serving kitchen that just brings out whatever is done as it’s done. We had one item come out, 20-30 minutes later we had another 2 plates come out, 30 minutes after that another plate with half of our table still missing food. Again, the place was not anywhere near packed.

We had enough by hour 2. The manager was decent and removed all the food and we decided to leave without eating.

I am leaving the review for feedback purposes. This system has flaws. Maybe the team will bypass it and figure “if it’s not broken why fix it” but here’s the issue, you have older people that visit that still need a server. The website is extremely glitchy, takes a ton of refreshing. it's frustrating. People dine out for convenience, nobody goes to a restaurant to serve themselves. Servers are put in place to serve. It’s why patrons tip. Your server took half and order and saw us still struggling with your website which was glitching and still chose to have us do things the harder way. It was like she was doing us a favor by taking 3 orders of french fries for our kids. Everyone was pretty dismissive with maybe the exception of two ladies dropping off food. the rest seemed so bothered that they wouldn't even stop to check in.

To be clear, we were so nice, quiet and so wrapped up in our own conversation that we also did not realize we had not eaten.

This has a lot of potential but it needs...

Overall my party had a very poor experience based largely on the restaurant's structural choices rather than poor food or (individual) service issues.

Seating: The waitlist system is inaccurate, dysfunctional, and incredibly stressful. If you call ahead, they will give you an estimated time when your table will be ready, but they will drastically change this time based on availability. They also will not seat you until your entire party has arrived. The end result is that you are either forced to make sure everyone arrives half an hour earlier than was initially planned or you have to stand in the entrance for an hour alongside other parties (including several with young children) that are lost, confused, and frustrated. The staff in charge of managing this system were also very aggressive. A standard reservation system might not allow them to turn tables as frequently as they seem to want to, but it would be much better for every customer.

Food Delivery: The Place 2 Be is clear that they bring food to your table as soon as it is prepared. For my party, however, the first meal arrived over an hour earlier than the last meal (despite being ordered at the same time). This made it difficult for us to enjoy our brunch together.

Food and Drinks: We enjoyed our food and drinks once we received them, although some of the drinks, while looking nice in pictures, are very difficult to drink because they have syrup and chocolate sauce on the outside of the cup.

Bathroom: No soap or toilet paper.

Other Issues:

The front door was locked when we first arrived, which was not a particularly welcoming start to our time at The Place 2 Be.

Additionally, while we went to brunch at The Place 2 Be for a birthday, which we noted when getting on the waitlist, the restaurant did not follow up with us on...