Martha Green's The Eating Room — Restaurant in Redlands

I had my bridal shower here this past weekend, we booked the tea party for 23 people and our cost was $1,184.50. I want to start off with the good: all the finger sandwiches were great! The bread was delicious and the jam with biscuits were my favorite. The tea had good flavor too. The servers were very sweet, food came out at a good time and they reminded the host of the shower to keep an eye on the time which was helpful. The space fit all of us with room which was very nice. Lastly, they were very accommodating to my dairy free and vegetarian guests. Now for the bad: Getting ahold of the head of special events and parties was a nightmare. Katie was very sweet over the phone but she must work odd hours or be busy every time we called. She also wasn’t present the day of the shower, and gave us different information from what we received at the shower. Communication was lacking between everyone, nobody could give us a clear answer on many questions we had. At $40/pp you’d think they’d make the place look like you’re at a tea party. If you choose to host a tea party here you will have to bring the tea party there yourself. They will provide the 3 tier trays with the finger foods and the tea pots but that’s as “tea party-ish” as it gets. They provide the basic silverware, napkins, and plates as well as cups for water. The cups for the tea were just coffee mugs, there were no teacups. Other tea rooms who have asked for the same price per person have the full on tea set up. We had to provide our own linens, vases and florals, anything that made it look like an actual tea party. The servers were so sweet, but after the food was served everyone obviously dug in and by the time we were finished they finally came back out to explain what we were eating. It was just kind of odd because the lady seemed irritated that everyone was talking as she tried to explain the food but she came back at the wrong time. Usually you explain as you serve, not after all the food is gone. Also, we only got to taste one tea per section. Refills were of the same tea, we didn’t get to try anything different. Just as a warning: kids are supposed to be charged as adults. I’m very grateful that they made little pb&j sandwiches for the little ones with fruit cups, but I guess this isn’t normal for them. They said anyone who eats is charged as an adult. Luckily they charged us for 1 adult to feed 3 little ones and made something special for them. That was not communicated to us so I had prepared something separate for the girls. We were told we’d receive a personal quiche per person. When you say personal quiche I expect a small maybe 4-6inch round quiche. We received literally the smallest sliver of a quiche. 2 bites and it was gone. It was a triangular slice of a delicious quiche that unfortunately I could not savor because it was not a personal size it was a shared slice. 2 hours just wasn’t enough time for the price. 3 hours would be more appropriate especially for an event like a bridal shower, where there’s lots of games, talking, and gifts to open. We felt very rushed. Lastly, they were VERY unclear on the method of pay. They took our card numbers to hold the date and told us that we were all set. That made me think they would charge the card on file at the end of the event. They then told me that they needed the physical card literally at the end of the shower. The problem was, it was my finance’s card. The fiancé who wasn’t there. They ended up finding his card numbers written down somewhere which was kind of concerning. But they were able to charge us finally. All the miscommunication made me feel on edge the entire event.

Overall, at $40/pp I would expect more. More organization, decorations, at least some cute tea cups. So many other places offer real authentic High Tea parties. We went with Martha Greens because it’s a familiar spot for us, but ultimately I unfortunately regret how much money we spent here. Over $1,000 for 23 people including gratuity. If you’re looking to host a tea party...

First time eating at the restaurant, and we do not plan to go back due to the lack of service and long wait time to order and food to arrive.

Sunday 10/22/23 — My mom is visiting and we wanted to take her out to a nice breakfast. I have heard good things about Martha Green’s bakery, and we live within walking distance of it, so we decided to try the restaurant over Carolyn’s Cafe, which is where we usually go.

They initially told us 20 minutes for our party of 4–very reasonable—and seated us in 10 mins, which was great. Brought drinks for us…and then nothing, no service, for over half an hour. We didn’t even know who our waiter was until 30 minutes in when a harried looking woman rushing by turned over her shoulder and said, “sorry for the wait! I will be by to take your order soon”.

By then, I had already handed some cash to my kids to run to the bakery (which is separate from the restaurant) to bring us back a molasses cookie (delicious) and 2 breakfast pastries (overly sweet) to munch on while we sat twiddling our thumbs waiting for someone to notice that we needed to order. It would have been nice to be offered a refill of coffee while we waited, or even an offer to bring us pastries—but my kids had to take the initiative and then wait in line at the bakery to order.

Once our waiter took our orders, it was back to waiting again. For simple waffles& fruit, French toast, an egg skillet and a cup of soup and cup of broccoli salad, it took over 20 minutes to get to the table. I suppose that wouldn’t be terrible if we already hadn’t been waiting so long—but it was a let down to not receive the service we were expecting (waiting for!).

The food itself was 4/5 stars. Smaller portions but good quality.

And then, they forgot my mom’s biscuits. She went to the register to ask for them, but after 10 mins we were done eating and didn’t want to wait longer.

They were also supposed to exchange the broccoli cup with a fruit cup (I didn’t think to ask if the salad had bacon in it), but again, we were done with our meal and didn’t care to wait longer.

At the cash register, I politely told the person there that our experience /wait was not good, and that we wanted to pay and leave. I said I was not paying for the biscuits or the cup of fruit since we didn’t receive them. She said our waiter was the only one able to price adjust. “She seems very busy…” I said. And then waited 5 mins for her to appear, fruit salad in hand (still no biscuit).

Our waiter apologized and comped us the hot chocolate and the cup of soup and cup of fruit. I guess that was equivalent to the items we didn’t get. But I felt like we had wasted our time and money ($42 for the rest, not including $9 for coffees when we arrived). I told our waiter it wasn’t entirely her fault—I saw how busy it was—but Martha Green’s should hire more staff if they want to seat guests in all their tables.

I prefer knowing up-front how long the wait is, and then being able to make the choice to stay and eat or not. I’ve waited 45 mins to eat at Carolyn’s cafe on a Sunday, but once I was seated, received excellent service.

I give 2 stars because the cookie we got up to buy from the bakery while we were waiting for half an hour for them to take our order,...

We had high hopes when we decided to try Martha Green's for the first time, but we were gravely disappointed! We arrived for lunch on a Sunday fully expecting there to be a wait for our party of 8. We were pleasantly surprised when we found the restaurant not overly crowded, and we were seated rather quickly. Unfortunately, things went downhill after being seated. We were able to order our drinks within 10 minutes of being seated. The person who took our drink order appeared to be assisting the servers, and there appeared to be quite a few employees moving about. After receiving our drinks, the server came and took our orders...she was nice enough, but that was pretty much the last time she came to our table on her own \ for the remainder of our meal. It took a full HOUR for the first plate to arrive. During this time, our drinks had run out, and we had to wave over someone to ask for refills. The first meal to come out was one of our kid's meals. We then waited another 10 minutes for the next 5 meals to arrive, and then another 10 minutes for the last 2 meals to arrive. Over all, it took almost 30 minutes for everyone's meal to come out. Not once during the entire time we where there did our server return to our table. She never came over to check our drinks, and she never came over to see if we needed anything. Once we were finally eating, we again had to wave someone over to ask for more refills. The waitress took our empty cups, and then 10 minutes later when she hadn't returned with the drinks, we had to wave her over again. She said "oh, I forgot them", and then went again to get them. This was literally the WORST customer service we've ever experienced dining out. No one came over apologize for the extreme delay in getting our food (and they weren't even that busy as there were empty tables around us). Our waitress never came over to check on us, and we had to seek her out for drink refills, to-go containers, and the check. Then when my husband got up to pay the bill, he went to the bakery and was told by a very rude employee that he had to pay the bill over there (as she pointed toward the awkwardly placed cashier's counter in the middle of the restaurant). To add insult to injury, we were charged a 20% automatic gratuity due to the size of our party when we literally received no service whatsoever. We had to seek out our server for everything, our meals came so spaced out after waiting an hour, and there were no apologies ever offered for the obvious lack of service. As far as the food goes, it was just okay. The bakery items looked delicious, but with the rude bakery employee combined with the fact that we didn't want to give this place one more dollar of our business, we left without purchasing anything from the bakery. So bottom line, we will not be returning to Martha Green's, nor would we recommend this restaurant to others. We are definitely not a high maintenance family when we eat out, but we do expect basic customer service, especially when the menu prices are rather high and we are being charged an...