Sunrise Cafe — Restaurant in North Carolina

My wife and I frequented the Sunrise Cafe as it is/was our favorite place for breakfast in Denver. The food is excellent and the waitresses are excellent. The reason for the poor rating is that my wife and I have unfortunately selected to stop going as they have over that last 3-5 months become an anti-mask, anti-social distance haven. Earlier in the year 2020 after March when the pandemic was just beginning, everyone had masks and they only seated at every other table like most of the other area restaurants were doing. Now even though the pandemic is at new heights and cases are at an all time high, they no longer practice social distancing, or mask wearing. While the waitresses will have masks, the cooks will not, and probably over 50% of the patrons will not come in with masks. The place is now allowed to be crowded as if nothing is going on. You will be sitting shoulder to shoulder with strangers not wearing masks. I am sure a response will come about "it is a choice" blah blah blah, and if that's how it is viewed then okay, they are choosing to help spread a deadly disease rather than choosing the very very simple and non-intrusive act of wearing masks and enforcing the mandate that even they have posted on their door. It likely will not improve as probably 9 out 10 of our Saturday and Sunday morning visits we made for breakfast, the owner or manager (I am not sure which) came in without a mask as well, then goes back in the kitchen mask-less, and walks around the restaurant mask-less which is probably what patrons see and encourages people who do not want to wear a mask to not wear a mask. We visit about every restaurant in the Denver area as there are not a ton, and unfortunately the Sunrise Cafe is the absolute most anti-mask/anti-distancing restaurant we have visited in the area. Even though Denver is a conservative area so there are more than your usual amount of anti-maskers, and each restaurant/establishment has some people coming in without masks, the Sunrise takes it to a whole other level. Every other place at minimum only allows seating at every other table for...

Upon walking in we saw the "seat yourself" sign, so we proceeded to sit down at an empty table. A worker comes up to us and asks us if we're "on the list" and we said no. He proceeds to seat us at a two seater table at the same table as a couple that's already ordered.

We get our drinks and five minutes later they ask us to move again into someone else's section. This is fine, but it shows obvious lack of organization on a busy day. The guy who asked us if we were on the list didn't change the "seat yourself" sign for another 20 minutes after we sat down confused as to why people were seating themselves. This was the loss of the first star.

We ordered our food - very basic meals. I got their corned beef hash breakfast and my date just a simple egg breakfast. The meals are okay, a little expensive for just basic breakfast. There isn't anything special about it. It lacked a bit of seasoning. The execution was fine. Portions are pretty big.

The loss of the second star came when I looked inside the kitchen. If you don't want me to be looking into the kitchen, don't have an open expo. There is one chef in the kitchen who had headphones in. This intrigued me. As I continued to watch I saw this cook: pull up his dirty pants with his gloved hands and then continue to cook without changing his gloves reach into his pocket with his gloved hands to grab his dirty phone (and I'm assuming change the music he shouldn't be listening to) and didn't change his gloves wipe his dripping nose and then continue to cook without washing his hands

It was honestly so bothersome to watch him cook food back there. If it were me, it would be immediate termination. Why even wear the gloves if you're going to touch everything on your body without changing them? It's honestly disgusting. 3 stars felt generous after watching this guy cook in the back.

I probably won't...

My experience here was terrible, just truly sad. The staff were a bunch of teens who seemed like they had no clue what they were doing. We had 3 different servers our entire stay. Pancakes were dry so we sent them back. Then they brought me out my 2nd order in parts???? I had ordered the breakfast bowl(eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, and cheese, and gravy that they ran out of so I couldn’t even get that) and they brought me a bowl full of hashbrowns with bacon. She said let me go get your toast and brings out a plate of eggs and says I was trying to bring your food out quick so I brought the eggs separate. What is this build your own bowl day, sorry not for the price! Yes we complained bc it was not what I ordered so why should I pay for this. Took FOREVER for someone to come bring us the check after being asked by another server if she could take our order … seriously it was so bad and our server never came back to us after I said something.. I wasn’t trying to be rude but the whole experience was sad. My boyfriend’s food was perfect and he had no complaints but my food was messed up twice. 10/10 do NOT recommend.

P.S. I never...