Piedmont Cafe & Bakery — Restaurant in Oakland

My last experience there was terrible and I won't be coming back. I used to come here regularly, like once a week at least. Service is sometimes spotty, but the food is good and I like supporting small businesses. I had tolerated mistakes here and there (example- one time they forgot to add eggs to the breakfast wrap and served me nothing but fried potatoes and veggies inside a flour tortilla... When I pointed out the mistake they offered to remake it, but I was in a hurry and declined to wait, and offered to eat it as-is... They still charged me full price!) but honestly won't ever come back.

The last time I was there, they removed and threw away my unfinished food while I was in the bathroom!

Not only were they completely unapologetic about throwing out my unfinished food (a waste of my money!) and coffee... But when I asked them for a coffee to-go instead, they tried to charge me extra for a to-go cup... Seriously?! I understand that they usually charge for coffee to-go, but they already threw away 1/4 of my food (about $2-3 value). No apologies, no discount for the wasted food, but a surcharge for the mistake?

When I told the person at the counter I didn't expect to be charged for a coffee to-go, she dumped the coffee down the drain and threw the cup in the trash.

They literally would rather waste a 5¢ paper cup and lose a customer forever than provide...

I work early Am and was very hungry I happened to be in the area and decided I wanted some breakfast..I call in my order mind you it was 630 at this time the place opened at 7am so I'm sure I was the first order call in for the day..

I ordered a number three combination ,waffle,, bacon, eggs and homestyle potatoes I went picked up my food and didn't look inside because I thought everything would be fresh since I was the first customer of the day..I get home and the food was all reheated from the previous day the eggs were the only thing fresh possibly the waffle even though it tasted like a rubber eraser.. The potatoes and meat was definitely cooked days before the meat was dry yet greasy like it had been sitting in a overnight grease bin the potatoes were dark and crusty like potatoes tend to get if left out all day.. I called the Cafe and the lady answered I told her my food was not fresh and she basically gaslighted me and told me that I was making this up??? ???She said everything was fresh which I attest was not long story short never eat here unless you want crusty...

The service was so great, they were so sweet to my toddler🥹 But the thing that got me to write this review was the eggs benedict, I used to love eggs benedict as a kid, but I tried it a few places as an adult and the hollandaise was always flat. I thought maybe my taste buds had changed and I just didn't like it anymore, but I tried the eggs benedict at Piedmont cafe today and the hollandaise sauce was so tangy and delicious, I tipped extra just for the sauce, they got the sauce, it's saucy. I'm definitely coming back just for the sauce 💀🤣 Also my toddler loved the pancakes without syrup, the pancakes were so good they didn't even need syrup 🥳 The food here is prime, the service is so friendly, we will for sure be back. Also I took this picture after taking a bite because I knew I was going to leave this review after my first bite, it was...