Charlie's cafe — Restaurant in Norfolk

My wife and I went back there for breakfast this morning. Every seemed like old times walking up to the front door. There were two men seated at a table outside with a dog, smiling and saying hello. Once inside however, we noticed plenty of disappointing changes. My initial thought was there must be new ownership since our last visit.

To our surprise, we found that there is no longer seating inside. All but one of the 4-top booths along the wall have been removed. The one remaining had boxes and bags haphazardly tossed in to it. The counter, which could accommodate up to 8-patrons, is now blocked by various shelves and tables and being used as an open storage pantry. Very messy. Very strange. Very sad.

Once we got past that, we were told to go into the back glassed patio area for seating. I’m guessing they are very proud of this area being they decided to turn the old charming dining area into a messy college dorm room. Not a bad space, but rather warm being it was 80 deg. & sunny at 10AM. They did have a large fan running in the corner, but we were not getting much breeze from it. Back tracking a bit….. It was nice inside with the air conditioning, but alas…no seating in there.

In summary. The service was spotty. Food was just ok but similar to what I remembered. I had the Charlie’s omelette with home fries. My wife had eggs scrambled with grits. She had coffee and said it was not good at all and she rarely complains about her coffee. The prices were high, but within range of the times we are in, I guess. Our overall experience was just very unimpressive. The charm has been stripped away leaving us little reason to return. Best of luck to them, but I hope they reconsider bringing the inside dining area...

We decided to have a departing breakfast this morning at Charlie's with my son who is stationed in Norfolk. The reviews were good, and the place is a little artsy and divey, so we figured we'd give it a try My son arrived first and asked for a table for four and was laughed at by the waitress who told him he'd have to go to the bar. After a few minutes, he was seated at a four top and we arrived minutes later. The same waitress waited on us and promptly brought out menus and took our drink orders. The drinks arrived quickly and we all ordered breakfast from the menu-no special requests were made. After waiting a short time, another waitress brought out our food and was followed by our waitress who asked if everything was okay. My mother said to her, "I ordered sausage patties with mine", and the waitress said, "No, you did not", and walked away. We all looked at each other as we were all thinking THAT didn't just happen?? The waitress returned again to refill our coffee mugs and again asked if everything was okay and I said, "the home fries aren't done". The waitress said, "what do you mean not done, are they mushy?" I told her they were not cooked thoroughly and were half-cooked. She said okay. And walked away. She didn't offer to replace our sides with anything else or even apologize that the home fries weren't cooked. Our waitress was extremely rude and made our experience such that we won't be going back. I listened to the other waitresses during our meal and none of them had the unprofessional attitude ours showed. The omelettes were very good and perfectly cooked, but poor service from a cocky, disrespectful waitress will prevent our going back....

Upon walking through the door, we weren't even greeted by ANYONE. Finally a waiter came by and said, "there might be some seats outside in the back." Then just walked away. We stood there for a few minutes, wondering if we were supposed to seat ourselves, or if the waiter was going back to check for seats. I took it upon myself to walk back and find a table for our group. Once we were at a table, I looked for a 2nd high chair for our daughter. (Our nephew was using the one we found.) I couldn't find one, so I asked for assistance from one of the waitresses. Her response to me: "Ma'am you're just gonna have to wait a minute. I'm busy, and I'm going to have to look for it." I replied to her, "is there only 1 high chair?" She said, "Yep, just one." Then I told her I knew exactly where it was, and walked back to our table. Well, then we waited there for 15 minutes, and we couldn't even get a waitress/waiter to come by for a drink order. Then, to top it all off, another group walked in and sat at the table right next to us and received immediate service! We decided to get up and just walk out before we could exchange words with anyone that worked there. TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE place to go. Don't waste your time! Go straight to The Pancake House down Granby Street. Great food, and...