Farm Market Cafe, LLC — Restaurant in Onamia

THE WORST dining experience either me or my companion have ever experienced. From the spartan menu to the wait time to receive our food to the inferior food items to the ASTRONOMICAL prices it was aweful. We wondered why there were no cars in the parking lot & no customers in the cafe when we arrived shortly after 8 on a Sunday morning. We now know why.

We sat down. The waitress came promptly. We asked for water with lemon. She said they did not have lemons. We were told that they were out of regular sausage. We thought it strange no pancakes, waffles or french toast were on the menu.

I ordered the $5.99 breakfast special - 2 duck eggs, 1 sausage patty spicy, 1 pc toast. My companion ordered 2 eggs, 2 bacon, 1 toast $8.99. Side order hash browns at $4.00 & 50 cents up charge each for cheese + onions. My companion ordered OJ. I asked about french toast. She said it could be "special ordered" if the cook would make it - were told she would. I was asked if as part of my special I wanted to sub the french toast - and did I want 2 pieces - I said sure; my companion said sure, he would like his to be french toast too. At NO time was there any mention of any up charge for the french toast nor the price of ONE extra piece of bread. No mention.

After about 25 minutes we got our food - even tho' we were the only people in the cafe.

Hash browns - tiny portion, so overcooked they looked like a flat brown shingle - hard and tasting like a burned potato chip. We sent them back. Re-cook great. Eggs cooked perfectly - wonderful. Bacon was fine. The spicy sausage portion was rather small but tasted ok. French toast was ok too. Not great - not bad. Tasted fine. We had to ask for butter and syrup.

My companion paid for the meal. Only when we were well on the road to Brainerd did he mention his shock. Breakfast cost FORTY-ONE dollars - Yes, that's right, $41.00. 4 eggs, 3 pieces of bread, 1 small sausage patty, 2 bacon and small ration of hashbrowns + small juice. I was totally in shock. That simply could not be - obviously there was a mistake - we must have received someone else's tab - a party of 5 who had come in after us. The $5.99 special, the $8.99 breakfast, $5 for hashbrowns with add ons & whatever juice cost - let's say $3 - equals $23 plus tax equals less than $25. Couldn't be. No way. I said we'll stop on the way back in a couple hours & get the refund.

Then came the real SHOCKER. The waitress said the $41 breakfast for two WAS right. Cost of french toast was SIX DOLLARS each - yes $6.00 apiece - for each single piece. The math was take $1.00 off each order for the toast not ordered, then add SIX dollars for ONE piece of bread made into french toast. Insane. Just insane.

The cafe can charge what they want for a piece of bread. It IS NOT fine when a customer is not told. NO ONE, would pay $18.00 for a 3 pc order of french toast - the idea is just ridiculous. I was stonewalled. Told that was the price. The worst insult was she told me she had stated the up charge. Who in their right mind would agree to something so insane? $5.99 the special but $10.99 if you sub a piece of bread for french toast & $16.99 for 2 pieces of bread? 2 eggs, 1 sausage ,2 pieces of french toast for $16.99???

Waitress said nothing can be done & dismissed me - left saying she had other customers to wait on. I asked to speak to the owner/manager - the cook was it!! Said she could get to me in 15 min. having waited over 10 min. already. I said no. The irate owner came over, demanded what I wanted done. I said a refund - fair & reasonable but I would accept $10.00. She pulled $10 out of the till, gave to me - walked away. No apology for waitress mistake. No thank you. Shameful treatment.

Clearly we will not be back. It would be a surprise if we would be able to come back at all, based on this experience if this is typical. On a positive note, I also bought a piece of the raspberry pie with crumb topping. While pricey too ($4.60 plus tax) and a rather small piece, it...

One of the strangest encounters. Farm Market Cafe is a wonderful little joint with a lot of comfortable decor and local nick nacks for sale (as you can see in the photos). The food was pretty good.

The negative was this- judging from the rave reviews, we must have stumbled in on an off day. There was an extremely strong vibe happening between the waitstaff woman and the cooks. The strife going on was spilling out into the dinning area with zero attempt to professionally hide it. It appeared the lady with the black and purple hair was subbing, was brand new, or was having some serious issues that day (7/10/21).

There was much confusion about how She very clearly had no idea what was on the menu as she took our orders. As we waited for our food, people were being turned away by her- saying they were closed. The cooks were arguing with her and pointing at us.

One of the cooks finally came to our table and asked for our order saying she never got it from the waiter.

When we went up to pay, the cook and the waiter were arguing about how to tally our bill right there in front of us. Very clear there were high emotions going on between the staff.

It was all very weird. But the food was good. My son said it was the very best burrito he ever had in his life!

I'd like to go back again and have...

I want to give the Farm Market Cafe a good review, because, honestly, we enjoyed our food, and it's fantastic to have a roadside stop cafe that actually serves scratch-made, locally sourced, fresh food. If you're driving up on 169 towards Mille Lacs or Brainerd, and you want something other than frozen family restaurant junk or mediocre truck stop meatloaf, this place deserves your business. If the Farm Market Cafe owners ever read this review, though, I want them to know that they really need to take a look at their restaurant operations and work a little harder on the customer experience. It feels so hectic and unrefined in there, and (as nicely as I can put this), their servers seem untrained and not very knowledgable or helpful. That sounds mean, but the fact is, if they want to succeed as a roadside cafe, while charging a premium for locally sourced natural and organic ingredients, they need to be able to make their customers feel like they're getting their money's worth. If someone stops in randomly, and isn't already sold on the idea of getting fresh and local food, they might very well turn around and walk out after getting hit with the sloppiness of this place. But my point remains that the food was wonderful! Fresh, flavorful, well made, well worth the stop,...