Swell Cafe — Restaurant in Ocean City

Walking in to this cute cafe on a busy summer day, I was not surprised by the crowd, but pleasantly surprised by the interior design, very cute. I ordered an ice coffee and a fruit smoothie for my 6 year old. Staff was very nice. It was apparent they were busy and short staffed, understandable in this economic culture and summer season. What became an issue was the extremely long wait times. I waited 25 minutes for my ice coffee, which was NOTHING compared to the over 45 minutes for a fruit smoothie. The coffee was delicious, but my daughter was losing her patience waiting for the smoothie. I ultimately asked 3x for a refund for the smoothie, before I had to follow the gentleman to the back, to insist I receive my money because we had to leave. There were 2 other customers asking for the same. I'm sorry to leave a lousy review, but ultimately, the cafe was run poorly. Very poor management and insight into timelines, and no regard for their loss of control in a manageable situation (I've worked in food service for years). They should pare down the menu when it gets that busy. You'll loose not only money, but customers, when you expect us to wait 45 minutes (or more) for smoothies...

As a student of OCHS and a local, I love to give businesses on the island a fair shot and I don’t like to write bad reviews. But I do have some comments about Swell Cafe

For starters, the food here is absolutely amazing and I really love how they make their own syrups and homemade milks. I feel like I’m getting healthy food every time I go here and it’s clear the coffee they use is quality.

The problem I have is that their way of doing things does not seem to be working very well and they are always understaffed which to me is a little bit of a red flag. This takes me to my second point which is I have come in here plenty of times with my friends and heard the manager be pretty rude to its workers and sometimes to customers themselves. It’s not always nice to sit inside and listen to. I believe this cafe had potential but the staff always seem stressed out. For this reason I don’t know if I will...

If you like little spots, and if you love the highest quality food and the highest quality warm service (and you don't mind paying for it), then this is your place. Far and away the best avocado toast with an egg on top I've ever had. It was perfect, something to remember. And the man who brought out my platter greeted me with the warmest quiet 'good morning' ever with a warm subtle smile. And as he set it down gently on the table, with his gentle voice he said, "just leave everything right here on the table when you're finished. Enjoy." Felt like I was being served breakfast by my long lost and beloved grandparents. The place is nice to sit in. It's small, bright, and clean, with a nice vibe. Great hang out. Probably not the best place to post up and get some work done on the Wi-Fi, but I'll try that...