Todd and Shelly's Farm Fresh Restaurant — Restaurant in Ocala

I had a very horrible experience today 03/02/25. First this place is not children friendly at all. My fiancé, my twins & I came in for brunch around 1pm. We waited about 10mins for a hostess to clean a table. Then she finally sat us and we waited probably another 10mins just for that same hostess to come and ask us for our drink because she seen we still hadn’t gotten drinks.. Well our twins were definitely anxious for some lunch so I went ahead and placed their orders with our drinks. After 15min our waitress finally comes and greets us. She talking about how she’s burned herself and she just seems very anxious. She said she’s had a lot going on (which is fine I understand) . We place our order for my fiancé & Is food. Then the wait goes on and on and on. As she helping the tables around us. She’s just moving past us, we asked for a bowl of fruit at one point just to keep our kids at bay and she never brought it over…

We waited and waited . At this point we had been there for 50mins. Never received the order we placed for our twins or our food. Not even the bowl of fruit… Our twins are two years old. It’s lunch time and going on nap. I didn’t expect to wait 50mins just alone for their food. That doesn’t even include the time waited for the table or for the hostess to come back to us… So we got up to leave and here comes the waitress. As I’m holding my child who’s throwing a huge fit because he’s hungry. I tell her don’t worry about we’ve waited far long that we’re just going to leave. My child is throwing a huge fit I’m embarrassed and I’m hungry. She scoffs and gets upset with me? And I’m so confused all I could do is get my children to the car. Then I walk back inside and the waitress is talking with the owner Shelly. I asked Shelly if I could speak with her & im explaining to her how long we’ve waited etc. then the waitress is joining on the conversation basically calling me a liar and causing a scene. She then goes on to throw out how my children have been screaming. They had just started screaming 5mins before we decided to leave. Which made me feel even more like crap because we literally just came for lunch… Yes they were upset crying but I mean we had been waiting for so long… But now your having something to say about my children crying ? She was being so unprofessional & Shelly (the owner) is allowing her employee to be like this… Shelly herself even seen that the food we placed for my twins was put in a whole 45mins ago… so she, herself could see that we have been waiting for so long… but she didn’t have anything to say.. she just said “wow I didn’t know this was going on, I didn’t know you all waited for so long” but how not ? I mean you run this establishment, you were waiting the table right behind us, how did you not ? She passed me many times, I even tried getting attention twice to let her know what was going on.. Our waitress never not once came to let us know how much longer the food would be.. And it wasn’t even busy in there. I was so confused. And for the waitress to act like she was some victim was absolutely insane.

Where I’m getting at is, next time I won’t come here. I’ve eaten here before when I was pregnant with my twins I had such an amazing experience and this was our first time coming back since having our twins. It was the worst experiences I’ve ever had at a restaurant. It’s hard being parents another let alone to twins… I didn’t expect going to brunch would have me leaving a restaurant in tears… Made me feel like my children and I...

I normally love this place the food is usually delicious. Service is horrendous they had two waitresses working which for the size of the restaurant is enough. We placed a pickup order about 10 til noon was told it would take 30 minutes. No big deal. I honestly wouldn’t have minded if it took an hour if I would have known ahead of time. (Definitely not work lunch friendly) we get to the restaurant at 12:30 nearly so we can say 40 minutes since we ordered. We waited as the customers in front paid their bill and then we were up. We said we had a pickup order. She said “no pickup orders are out right now” (Bags with takeout containers are out on the counter) so we backup and wait. She did not ask what our order was or any info just told us it wasn’t ready… a woman was already there waiting for a pickup order we see to the left. We wait and for a while still see the takeout containers on the counter. About 12:45 the waitress tells us our pickup order is ready with the bags that had been on the counter prior to us arriving. I looked at the bags I’m confused as we had an order with 2 separate pancakes and 3 lunch meals so it was not enough. I tried to ask are you sure that’s ours as she cut us off saying “do you need silverware” “I need you to make a decision” so I repeat I do not believe this is ours. Turns out is was the woman’s who had been in the building prior to us. Mind you this food has been sitting out since we came in the building at 12:30 so it’s had been sitting there for over 15 minutes bagged and the woman had been there the whole time. Frustrated we settle back a moment later I see 5 containers come out from kitchen staff and then left on the counter. I’m pretty sure this is ours at this point at 12:58 the waitress finally comes over to bag the bags and check us out. Confirm order and we leave. Get to my office, less than 5 minutes away. Go to open my pancake (a strawberry cheesecake pancake) it’s completely plain besides just strawberry on the bottom, no syrup included with said bland pancake. We got a banana pudding one also absolutely plain! AN 8 DOLLAR PANCAKE!!! My fries were ice cold like they were hard fried and not finished in the middle. My turkey peppercorn sandwich was delicious a little burnt but very good and that is the only savior...

EDITED TO ADD: I just received a phone call from Shelley, more than a day later, (the owner) who argued with me, talked over me, interrupted me, made excuses and said things that were not true or correct. When you're in denial, you can't see things clearly and therefore can't improve on complaints. Terrible attitude.

Called and placed a take out order for a large cranberry pecan salad, and was told by Kristin to give them 10 minutes. I got there 10 minutes later and ended up waiting another 15 minutes. 2 girls working behind the counter, maybe 4 small tables taken. I reminded Kristen to put captains wafers in the bag. I get home and there's a big mound of chicken on the top of the salad even though I ordered a large vegetarian salad to go with our grilled meats for dinner. I explained that when I placed order, and she never said it comes with chicken. So I get home and pop a piece of chicken in my mouth and it's sour, spoiled, no good. There's one pecan on top chopped into 4 pieces. Nice fresh veggies and the dressing was good but you can't eat a salad tainted by spoiled food. 🤨 plus nobody seasoned the chicken anyways, no salt pepper, nothing. Weird!

I called and asked for a manager or owner and was told they'd call me tomorrow. I asked Kristen why she gave me saltine crackers and she said she'd thought captains wafer was a metaphor and she didn't know it was a real cracker. She had never heard of captains wafers. AT A RESTAURANT. Unreal. And nobody has called. After looking ar at these reviews I'm guessing nobody will and understand why business was so slow. Nasty food. HUGE WASTE OF...