Westlake Coffee and Cafe — Restaurant in Rocky Mount

Update 7/26/23 - CJ's was purchased by a new owner. Service has NOT improved. Employees STILL don't smile. It makes sense that they weren't friendly and didn't smile when there was the old owner since that owner wasn't friendly and didn't smile so I am not sure what the issue is now. I am now giving this 1 star instead of 3 since they are still not improving.

I’ve struggled with what to say in this review.

We have lived at SML for the past couple years.

The food at CJ’s is delicious and the drinks are equally as amazing. We live about 12 minutes up Scruggs Road from CJ’s and it’s nice to not always have to drive to the bridge for decent drinks and sandwiches.

Where I have the biggest issues are the following:

When calling CJ’s to place a to-go order, it’s RARE you will get someone to answer the phone. On Saturday, August 6th I called 14 times with NO ANSWER while I was driving to the establishment - over a 12 minute period. 14 times! As a business, if you have enough to-go orders coming in that you are unable to answer the phone for 12 minutes then you need to: a. Get additional phone lines and b. Hire additional staff to answer the phone. It’s unfathomable to me that in 2022 there are still places that have this kind of issue with all of the the technology accessible to businesses and business owners at an affordable rate.

100% of the time - when you DO get someone to answer the phone they answer with a loud tone “CJS!!!!” If you’ve ever been to a Dick’s Last Resort restaurant (the place where the staff are paid to be mean and make fun of you and make your experience awful) this is how I would imagine the hostess at Dick’s Last Resort to answer their phones.

There is no, “Thank you for calling CJ’s! How can I help you?” or “Thanks for calling CJ’s!” It’s literally the opposite of good customer service. This alone is one of the easiest and FREE ways for a business to improve and make such a good first impression. And best of all - it’s FREE!

When interacting with staff at either the drive through window or the walk-up counter they all seem genuinely unhappy to be up and working. They rarely smile or have a cheerful attitude. It’s like someone has given them an ultimatum that they must go to work or else!

Lastly - CJ’s use to be known for their famous Chocolate Chip cookies. Huge and the perfect mix between gooey and firm.

Several months ago we went in to order some of them. We were told by the lady at the counter, “we no longer make these here.” We asked “why” and this was her response:

“Our owner, Chris, has opened a new CJ’s location at Roanoke Memorial Hospital. He is working at that location and he is the one that always made the cookies at this location.”

My response was, “Ok. So, why can’t he just give you all the recipe so YOU can make them?”

Her response was shocking! She said,

“He doesn’t trust us or anyone else to have the recipe…”. This response blew my mind! The owner doesn’t even trust his employees with a cookie recipe! Which now - thinking about it makes me better understand why the staff isn’t the happiest - I guess if I worked somewhere where my boss didn’t trust me with a recipe I probably wouldn’t be the happiest either!

Again - I’ll reiterate what I said earlier - both the food and the drinks are delicious and outstanding. But between the unhappy staff and the unprofessional way they answer the phone - it’s a much more pleasant experience to drive the additional 10 minutes to Smith Mountain Lake Coffee to be guaranteed to interact with people who obviously love their job and their customers (and whose food and drink is equally as good!)

If it wasn’t for the good food and drink at CJ’s I would have given them a 1 star instead of a 3 star. If they can shore up and fix the areas of the unprofessionalism on how they answer their phones the rare times they actually DO answer their phone and how unhappy their staff are then I’d be happy to improve my...

While the outside looks very cute and plenty of parking the inside is very cramped. We got coffee and cold brew to drink and they were very watered down. The cold brew tasted no different than regular drip coffee and I asked for room for cream and when we received our drinks they were full to the brim. So I had to go outside to pour some out so I had room to doctor it up. Our food was very basic. A breakfast sandwich and burrito. No flavor, regular sandwich bread. Just bland. The service was quick. However, there was a long line when we left as well as in the drive thru. There was only two people working but it’s so tiny inside they would not have space to have more staff working. They have a pretty large menu and baked good selection but I think that’s the problem. They’re offering so much they can’t do any of it exceptionally well. It wasn’t very pricey though but I guess you get what you pay for. I will 100% go a couple minutes further to the SML...

The sandwiches are usually pretty good here and its a much better option than the nearby fast food. And they did give me a nice pup cup for the doggy. But I'm sorry, the wait just isn't worth it anymore. It took 25 min to get 1 sandwich made - the drive-thru is really really slow. Customers pulled up, walked inside and appeared to be getting served and leaving as several of us drive thru suckers waited out front. Staffing may be the issue - but it's a bummer either way.

UPDATE: Owner reply, of course, took no responsibility. That's cool. People did walk out with food, and the drive thru food was out of order. But none of its your fault! That's the world...