The Mindful Cafe — Restaurant in Ramsey

Firstly, the whole place had a strong smell of fragrance, and though it may have been essential oils, it did not smell natural to me. If you have chemical sensitivities or are sensitive to fragrance or essential oils, I would not go here. I couldn’t even sit in the outdoor chairs because they were highly fragranced and also somehow smelled like dog. I definitely wouldn’t have eaten inside because my food/drink would have just tasted like perfume.

The service was subpar. I asked for a hot matcha latte and got a cold one. And I would have just taken the cold one had it actually been mixed right and not visibly clumpy. Also had to ask for the donut I ordered a second time. The cortado my partner ordered was basically just a latte and didn’t taste great.

The gluten free options were minimal and very small.

Edited to add: Your whole restaurant reeked of fragrance, and it wasn’t just from the back. You use fragranced cleaner to clean all of your tables including the ones outside. This was not just someone’s perfume rubbing off on a chair. The whole place inside and out reeked of the same fragrance, probably too much essential oils in your cleaners.

I did ask for my matcha to be corrected and it was. But it’s inconvenient that it was made wrong in the first place. And good matcha doesn’t clump. I make iced matcha for myself every day at home and it doesn’t clump like yours did. You need to use a shaker bottle to mix it. Stiring it will not fix very clumpy matcha.

I didn’t see the option for gluten free bread anywhere, so you should make that more obvious. And over half of your baked goods did not say gluten free.

I know what a cortado is. I was bringing up 2 separate issues. 1. The barista made a latte instead of a cortado; the milk was filled up to the top of the cup. And 2. Your espresso doesn’t taste good. I understand that a latte and cortado taste the same. You’re being insulting and obviously can’t handle...

On my drive around my old stomping ground I ran into this cozy little spot. Funny enough it was in the same location where I used to buy cleats over 10 years ago (j). The setup is absolutely beautiful and the owner is absolutely amazing. It was not busy when I went around 2:30pm. What I loved the most was the setup. Very cozy seating arrangements and then after a quick hop up two stairs you have a very nice lounge a where they seem to be selling Aroma therapy products (not sure). For a location that was open for three years they were spotless. No sign of dust or dirt at all.

Now on to the best part the food, of which I ate too fast to take pictures (sorry but I will be back). I had the teriyaki chicken bowl with a poached egg and it was delicious. I am not one for runny eggs but with this I didn’t mind. The mixture of flavor and color was brilliant and temperature of everything was fantastic.

My wife who is allergic to all nuts and shellfish had the mozzarella tomato basil panini. The owner was kind enough to remove the pesto (which she said had no nuts but removed anyway) and substituted arugula at no charge. My wife liked the sandwich a lot. For dessert I had their banana bread, which was good but I wish they had heated it up like their brownie which was so freaking food. Overall I spent 33 dollars on all those items. No drinks. I also spent an additional 15 dollars on some plant based snack bars which were pretty good.

The experience was fantastic overall. Just a little notice parking on the street is tough but they have a couple of parking spots in the back. You may want to park on a...

So I want to be clear I only gave this place a two star review in hopes that the owner gets this message and resolves a very simple issue that in my opinion is detrimental to their overall rating. This place has great food great atmosphere, great selection of healthy food, great coffee and caring service, but it’s lacking one thing that could completely change A big problem they’re having. The staff seems to really hustle and care, but they always seem to be frazzled when they are busy. That is a internal organizational issue that should be corrected but the simple issue for the patrons that could be corrected and free up at least one or two staff members is a pick up only counter with self-serve condiments, included extras. Let’s face it, their location is in Ramsey, NJ. A honor system for people to come and grab their order off the counter is almost no risk to the owner. It’s not like they ask for ID or a order number when you pick up now, so what’s really the difference. The last four times I have been there, picking up a order to go or eat in. I waited in line for an average of 20 minutes, looking at my order sitting next to the cashier. I’m not the type of person to be rude and jump in front of other people to simply grab my order and go, so I wait, as my food gets cold and soggy. So now I’m thinking I came to this awesome place that has everything I want, including caring service, great food, quality, convenience, friendly, staff, has all gone from a five star to a two star because I couldn’t grab my order and go while it was hot...