The Vanilla Bean Cafe — Restaurant in Pomfret

We visited the Vanilla Bean Café expecting a charming, high-quality breakfast experience based on strong reviews and local hype. Unfortunately, what we got was a very underwhelming and overpriced meal that left us disappointed.

🍳 Food Quality: • Eggs Benedict arrived lukewarm at best. The bacon was chewy, and the English muffins were barely toasted, leaving the whole dish limp and unremarkable. • Home fries were one of the few decent items on the plate — well-seasoned and properly cooked. • Raspberry French toast was a letdown. Dry, and clearly needed more time soaking in the batter. We rated it a 4.3 out of 10. • Side of sausage was served ice cold. When I asked for it to be heated properly, what came back was a shriveled, oily, over-microwaved disaster. The young woman at the counter actually told me the cook “probably just threw it in the microwave.” Who thinks that’s acceptable for breakfast sausage? • I was refunded $5.50 for the sausage — thankfully — but it didn’t come close to salvaging the meal.

🛎️ Service:

The one saving grace here was the staff. The young women working the counter were friendly, warm, bubbly, and attentive — easily the best part of the experience.

💸 Price vs. Value:

For a counter-service restaurant, the pricing was outrageous. Our order: • Raspberry French toast • Eggs Benedict with a side of sausage • Two regular coffees Total with tip: $55.

That would be high for table service in a major city — never mind a rural café serving subpar food without even offering proper table service.

🧾 Bottom Line:

We came here based on glowing reviews and a reputation that, frankly, this place no longer lives up to. The food is poorly executed, overpriced, and inconsistent. Service staff are great — but they can’t make up for the kitchen’s failures. This...

Let me start off by saying, I don't like to give bad reviews, but in this case I must write about the service and the way the staff conducts them self in an open kitchen. Again open kitchen! As a servsafe instructor, you must wear your hair under your hat or hair net. You must wear gloves when handling food. When the cook leaves the grill to take an order at the pos system, take your gloves off and replace gloves. If you have a beard you must wear a beard net, so hair from your face and crumbs from the food you're eating standing up in the kitchen don't fall into someone's food. Servsafe was implemented to protect the customer from a food-borne illness. Food-borne illness is very serious, company's like Boards Head just went through a severe servsafe violation. None of the staff was practicing servsafe, from what I noticed in my 1.5 hour sitting in the establishment. One kitchen staff was eating a burger, walking around the kitchen. Other kitchen staff with long hair did not have a hat or hair net on. The place is also very dirty from what I could see, grime/grease on the floors in the dinning area, too many kitchen workers screwing around. Drinking out of a glass bottle in the kitchen, your supposed drink out of a plastic or paper cup with a cover and straw, to protect the food from spillage...

The first time we went to The Vanilla Bean Cafe was a couple of years ago. We stopped here to grab some dinner while we were out for a cruise in the Camaro. There were lots of motorcycles, which was not surprising given the area is nice to drive/ride through. Anyway, the place has a relaxed atmosphere. There are many great food options on the menu. I went with the Steak Dinner and the Mrs. had a Steak Caesars Salad. They use just the right amount of dressing on it. We both hate when places drown the salads in too much dressing. I had a locally made Root Beer soda and the wife had a glass of wine and a cup of Ginger Lemonade. Both of our meals were very good. They were from the Specials board. We split a Blueberry Cheesecake for dessert. I had a coffee, and she enjoyed a hot chocolate with raspberry flavor. We returned here today (10/22/2023) and I tried the Pot Pie special. It was good, but not very pie like. It was more of a pot pie stew, and a block of bread that was essential pie crust. It came with a Caesar Salad. The wife enjoyed a bowl of chili. Once again, everything was good. The staff was great. They seemed young, but very enthusiastic in doing their jobs. I found them to be friendly, engaging, and helpful. This seems to be consistent from what I have seen when...