Missy's Main Street Cafe — Restaurant in Rockaway

3 1/2 stars

I'm really not understanding the over-the-top buzz for this place; it's the only brunchy establishment in the immediate area, which explains the local appeal but beyond that I'm pretty mystified. I came here yesterday in the late morning with my top-tier chums for a bite. Two of us had been here maybe a decade or so ago and had favorable impressions though so much time had elapsed that I didn't remember any specifics beyond the check coming in a cute little mailbox (which is still the case).

Right off the bat, I didn't have a great vibe. They don't take reservations (which is fine) so the first person to show up in our crew put a name in to wait. They were told that the wait was about 30 minutes. It ended up being closer to 40 minutes from then, which I understand is not an exact science but once we were on the premises it was clear that the staff was not prepared to manage dawdlers. There was at least one party in there that had finished their food well before we all got there, and no attempt was made by the staff to move that along, which I think they should be prioritizing when there's literally customers bunched in the front waiting for a table. That table of people actually stayed throughout most of our meal as well, which means they were there for about two hours, and it could have been longer. Meanwhile, you have parties inside and outside just standing around when the seating is extremely limited.

I understand that that can be an awkward situation for the staff, especially at a more blue-collar dinery establishment like this, but you CAN go over a little more often, ask if they want the check, etc. There are ways to expedite dawdlers without massively confronting them. We watched the guy at the register (who was very nice, by the way) shoot them a few looks, but it was completely ineffective and he flat out should have been more aggressive/proactive. Huge miss in my book. It was also nippy out so we spent most of our wait in the very small front area that can't comfortably accommodate more than one or two people there, so we were constantly being shuttled aside by other customers or staff to gain access to the fridge for milk, etc. Bottom line: if you don't have the space to handle groups of people waiting for a table, you need to be willing and able to turn the tables over more frequently. That's not just on the oblivious diners - that's on you as the proprietor (for what it's worth, my chums thought that was almost exclusively on the diners, but they're more than welcome to roll up their sleeves and write their own account). Anyway.

Our waitress was excellent. Very friendly and definitely took a lot of the bad taste of the wait out of our mouths. She had strong opinions about most of the menu items we referenced, which I liked, and although it took a while for the food to show up, that clearly wasn't on her. I got the Chicken Za Za or something (I just spent five minutes online looking for the actual name, but it seems to be a super recent menu addition - basically chicken and waffles), which came with raspberry drizzle. I liked how the chicken was prepared, pre-cut into manageable slices, which made this dish much more low maintenance. Very nice presentation overall. Surprisingly though, it was pretty bland; the raspberry drizzle was barely detectable so I think they either need an additional ingredient for this (maybe the waffle and chicken by definition are soaking up a lot of the taste?) or a lot more of the drizzle. It wasn't bad but I was a little disappointed in that one. The fries that came with everyone else's dishes were excellent; perfectly crispy. I ate quite a few of those as well. I only had a water, but I did notice that we had someone stop by very frequently to check on both the water and coffee levels of our drinks, so that's a positive as well.

This place wasn't bad, but I would absolutely never wait more than 10 minutes here again. And we know now from experience that the 10 minutes would likely be an...

Frequented here over the years as a local. My friends are posted in many photos on the walls here. I used to regularly come on the weekends with my fiancee over the past 3 years but took a hiatus in the last 6-12 months.

Unfortunately, under new management, as often is the case I am seeing, things are headed downhill for customer.

To be clear the service is very good with the workers and there are numerous pros I will later mention.

The menu has changed, becoming much smaller, many of their unique and exciting offerings I saw were gone and overall, fairly more expensive.

I used to always get, "The lumberjack" which was 2 eggs, toast, a choice of meat(always bacon for me), and a pancake. If I recall correctly for a long time it was around $12.95 but I always raved at how much food for the price, insane cost effectiveness.

To see it off the menu was saddening to say the least, but I still wanted that dish, and decided to just do eggs (+$2 extra), toast(sourdough which also costs extra) and bacon.

$2.32 per egg add-on is kinda nutty compared to most other places $1.99 per egg add-on (I do this everywhere) which I already thought was high.

5.50 for a side of bacon is kind of rough especially and seemed a different Bacon than I remember Missy's having. Certain a lower quality than that previously used. Almost plastic like, similar to what you'd get at a cheap breakfast buffet in a hotel, or school cafeteria.

Small complaints in the Grand scheme, but coming for a lumberjack, and paying over $12 extra than I used to, and I don't even get the pancake, left it a disappointing experience for me. Just sad to see my favorite dish gone and for a similar experience I have to pay more for less, no doubt to widen profit margin on the employer end of this relationship by eliminating some cost effective items for the customer.

Pros -Still pretty unique offerings(especially if you like tater tots) for a breakfast place -Around $3.33 for coffee but it's unlimited refills so that is always welcome and is still good. -Still Good, friendly service -Cozy, warm local ambiance

Unfortunately, my fiancee and I had agreed our time with Missy's has concluded. As it appears a former shell of its...

2022.10.30 first off, it's been the 7th time I've been to Missy's in the past 4 months and dining experience has been a blast with Gina, Alison, Jen, Missy and cook chef...until today. I arrived at 1pm and there were 4 people (2 groups) waiting ahead of me, and there was an open seat at bar and 4 seats (2 tables) empty. I was told by lady of some age at bar that she cannot seat me because of long wait time. I was confused given by people waiting there and availability of empty table and bar seat so I asked again. She said again she cannot seat me because of 45 minutes of wait time. I offered bar seat is fine (because some take table only) with me and she repeated again. This was 1pm sharp and I was beyond disappointed and didn't want to make a scene to public so I left. Listen, if you don't seat customers way before your listing business hour (Sunday at 2pm), you might as well be nice when you said it to them when they drove 30 minutes to eat. Second, you might also want to change you business hour to one hour earlier because you are seeing extraordinary guests coming on the weekends. I'm not an out-towner and do not judge people by their looks please, we're bad in English interpreting does not mean we're brain damaged that couldn't tell last call/seated vs business hours.

2022.11.01 to owner or whom from store replied to the post, 1). Great to know 9 groups were there on wait-list NOW than could've told me direct when back there in store, how convenient. I bet the store camera didn't catch staff saying that or you would've found it otherwise. 2). 5-star service indeed and I thought my 20% gratuity said well enough I don't know that was conditionally attached with an impressive Google review. Every staff else there was well deserved 5-star but not the one greets me at least (better check your footage again) 3). Giving a store a 1-star hurts like hell to me especially the one I always liked, having a mouthful argument with the store in public online/offline is pointless and classless. All in all this is the platform we share our thoughts and leave for everyone to give...