Café by Country Kitchen — Restaurant in Ottumwa

While it makes me sad to do it, there were so many things wrong with my last visit here that i felt like i had to update my review. I arrived at the restaurant right at 1:50p. m. They close at 3. I'm greeted and seated promptly, received my beverages and placed my order. So I'm waiting. And waiting. And waiting some more. I've waited long enough now that my first cup of coffee is gone. It was when the vacuum came circling around my booth that it became obvious to me that the staff was more concerned with closing and shutting down than they were with selling food and serving customers. Granted this is a pet peeve of mine, but i hate hearing a vacuum when I'm eating out. It's hard to talk over a vacuum, and I honestly think it's rude, inconsiderate, and even the cordless ones are loud enough to be obnoxious. I understand that staff would like to get out promptly when the restaurant closes, but that shouldn't come at the expense of your customers dining experience. The vacuum finally goes away and i don't hear it again. Presumably because i was the last area to be done. I digress though... So it's been an uncomfortable long wait by now, and I'm seated close enough to the kitchen to hear a waitress ask about an order of French toast. So I'm thinking how i ordered French toast, and I'm guessing that my order has been sitting up there on the counter all of this time getting cold ,waiting on the stupid French toast. And sure enough my order finally comes, but sans the French toast which apparently had to be flown in from France, but would arrive shortly. Sure enough, the scrambled eggs were cold. Not warm mind you, but cold. The hash browns were so over cooked that they crumbled when you tried to cut them into bite sized pieces. Sausage links, cold as well. I will say though, that when the French toast finally arrived it was gorgeous and toasty warm. I buttered the slices of French toast and let it sit as i finished eating my cold breakfast. And that's when i realized they didn't bring any syrup. And since cleanup of the restaurant was pretty much completed by now, there wasn't a waitress in sight. So I'm staring into my empty cup of coffee, wondering how jelly would taste on French toast when someone finally comes out of the kitchen. Not my waitress of course (because i never really had one! ) but she she was able to get me syrup and apologized for the inconvenience... I couldn't help but wonder which one. What i learned from the experience was this: It took exactly one hour to destroy the love i HAD for a restaurant for the last 10 plus years. Well done peeps! I hope you enjoyed getting out a little early on that Saturday afternoon!

Original review: I friggin' love this place. I reckon it's the best darn breakfast eating place 'round these here...

This restaurant advertised a Valentine special: $30 per couple for a candle lit steak and shrimp dinner, complete with appetizer and dessert. There was to be live music (piano) to accompany it. We had researched several places where we would celebrate Valentine's Day, and this seemed very nice.

When we arrived, we told the waitress that we wanted the Valentine special, and pointed to the very large sign above the salad bar that advertised the special. She asked if we wanted a table or booth, so we said booth. She took us to a brightly lit booth and gave us menus. When she came back to take our order, we said that we wanted the advertised special, the one with candlelight and music. She took the order and disappeared.

A few minutes later the appetizer came out. It was 6 mozzarella sticks in a plastic basket with some sauce in a plastic cup. Uh.... that made us feel upscale and special.

Then the dinner came out. It was steak, 3 smallish shrimp, a baked potato and some green beans. No salad. No dinner roll. The food was OK, can't argue about the taste. But I was rather upset that all this promised Valentine ambience and nice complete dinner was not there. Then came the promised dessert. It was two strawberries. So much for the decadent dessert.

We asked the waitress again about the advertised candlelight dinner and music. "Oh," she said, "That's in the back room." When we checked out, we could see the back room, all decorated, candle lit. For whatever reason, we were not to be a part of that, but the restaurant certainly felt no remorse in taking our $30.

I really wished that we had gone somewhere else, where we could have had the same dinner, maybe even with a dinner roll and salad, for much less. We paid for a nice dinner, with candlelight and live music, and...

Café by Country Kitchen has a lot of breakfast offerings including a buffet. I was here for the Eggs Benedict. I went here so I could try their version of "Bennys" . My review is only of the Benedicts, nothing else. The staff was polite and helpful. Amber was my waitress, took good care of me and was a delight. With that in mind, I will let you know that have a "top ten" list for Eggs Benedicts. After my visit I rated these "Bennys" as #5 out of 10. #1 being the best and #10 not as good. My rating is based on 3 weights : 70% = taste 20% = presentation 10% = price

#1 - taste: they use an English muffin that is toasted. They do use a thick piece of ham and they put parsley on top. Most of the Bennys I have tried use a small amount of paprika. The eggs were not poached but "over easy" and perfect. The Hollandaise sauce used was Knorr mix and flavorful. It comes with hash browns, which were very tasty. All of this made the review to 5 stars. #2 -presentation : It looked appetizing. #3-price: $9.89 is a good price for Eggs Benedict. Coffee for under $2.00 a cup. Now with all that said, it is hard to place Cafe in the top 5 because of how little a difference there is between all of them. They earned...