Honey-Jam Cafe Arlington Heights — Restaurant in Palatine Township

It hurts my heart to have to leave this comment because I have been a regular at this restaurant for many years , but this is the first time I seen something so disgusting. What I saw from an employee who I expected so much more professionalism and integrity from , I'm now starting to reconsider even having my business brunches at this place any longer. If this type of behavior is acceptable from a manager and even more so acceptable from the owner then this says a lot about this company. Last week when I was having a business meeting with a few of my colleagues at the restaurant, I couldn't help but to witness and over hear a truly unprofessional and distasteful argument between one of the customers and the manager Alicia . Normally whenever I come to this restaurant Alicia is nothing but overly nice . Sometimes it seems to be a disingenuous type of kindness but, I still appreciate her being nice to my colleagues and I. I noticed an African American woman going back and forth with Alicia and the exchange seemed pretty intense so I began to get closer to here the exchange as best as I could. From my vantage point it sounded like the woman came in for a pickup order and was upset because Alicia was challenging her in regards to a kids pick up order. I overheard the customer asking Alicia if she questions all of her customers like this and then Alicia said yes she does. Right then and there that struck me a little odd because I know me personally and even some of my colleagues have ordered from the kids menu for some of our children on many of occasions and picked up the order with no problem whatsoever. I happen to be Hispanic ,but the rest of my colleagues are Caucasian for the record. The exchange so far didn't sit well with me because I already recognized that Alicia was lying to this woman who must have felt as if Alicia was profiling her and giving her a hard time for placing a pickup order from the kids menu.

From what I heard it seems as if the customer and several of her family members order from here often and normally with no issue. I could understand if when I overheard Alicia tell her that she treats all her customers this way if that was the truth and if my experience and my colleagues experience were the same anytime we picked up orders from the kids menu I would have totally understood.

But what raised an immediate red flag for me was the fact that me personally and several of my colleagues have ordered on numerous occasions where Alicia was actually handling our pickup transactions and nine times out of 10 we would order from the kids menu because we have children.

Sometimes we would order from the regular menu in addition to the kids menu but, sometimes we would only order from the kids menu because we were only getting food for our children. Not once has Alicia ever challenged any of us in the manner that I witnessed her challenging this young lady.

I could totally feel the customers frustration because it seemed as if she was being profiled and targeted and even belittled when all she was trying to do was pick up food for her grandson which I later found out because when she stormed out I followed behind her shortly after to get a little bit more information and to see if she was okay. I noticed the customer asking Alicia for the owner's name and number so she can file a complaint and Alicia told her flat out " I'm not giving you anything you can search on Google" . The tone of voice was just so unwelcoming from someone who's supposed to be a manager and helpful to the customers It was very disheartening to watch. Then I see the woman go by the bar area to try to get the contact information for the owner from another employee then Alicia quickly went over there and told the employee not to give her anything So as the customer walked back towards the entrance area Alicia stepped in front of her path blocking her from going any further. I was looking at the rest of my colleagues faces to see if they were reacting the same way that I was which they were and...

My bf and I came here on Labor Day. I didn’t expect it not to be busy and I really appreciated the hostess for breaking down how long it would take us to get seated, get a waiter, and an estimate of how long the food would take. The whole process was fairly quicker than expected. I guess that might have been the first sign to leave.

We figured since we were told the food was taking some extra time today, we’d order right away, so that’s what we did. The waitress right off the bat started giving us a little bit of attitude. Whatever, we didn’t think much of it. We were given one set of silverware and when we asked for more she gave us more attitude. Didn’t think we were being rude asking for extra silverware but okay.

I asked her what the difference between 2 waffles were or which one was more popular and she just seemed annoyed.

The toast came out first… cold. Honestly, the best thing on the table, though. Next, we had ordered the chilaquiles with vegan sausage, Belgian waffles, avocado toast, and a juice. All vegetarian. The chilaquiles were bland as if they were missing something like salsa, the waffles didn’t have the whipped cream, avocado toast was bland and I found a piece of ham in it… I’m vegetarian, and the juice never even came out.

After awhile, she stopped coming around and the guy bringing out food was basically helping us with our needs. She would ask if we need anything and would leave after he would bring us whatever else we needed.

As soon as we finished eating, she came up to our table with the check. It felt as if we were being kicked out. We didn’t ask for the check. I was still not done eating.

First and last time here. Was really excited to try this place because of the amazing reviews but unfortunately...

Food was okay, however our service was rough. Started out by ordering a cappuccino and the waitress asked me what type of frappucino I wanted. I clarified and said cappuccino again and she said “oh okay French vanilla cappuccino”, began to walk away and said “well do you want it frozen or iced because we don’t have the machine for cappuccino, just frappucino”. Why is the cappuccino on the menu? Or at least open with “we don’t currently have the machine yet for cappuccino but we have these other beverages”. We placed our order and got our food relatively fast however the waitress only brought 2/3 of our order and informed us she had forgotten to put in our 3rd order. When she brought the food she said “I forgot you didn’t want toast. I’ll come take it from you when I come back”. What? At this point just leave it. She brought pancakes and said she would come back with syrup and never did. We were a group of three and were meeting someone there and told her multiple times we were going to order first and the fourth person would order when they got there. Multiple times she tried to take the forth person’s menu and put it away. Service was sub par at best. My specific dish was delicious however someone I was with got a mushroom and spinach omelette that was very watery. I also think it is ridiculous they charge $10 for 2 eggs and one choice of meat when you go to any other breakfast place and pay maybe $6.50 for the same dish. Overpriced, generic food and...