Café Muse — Restaurant in Royal Oak

Could not be more disappointed. I used to love Cafe Muse. Any time I wanted to do something special for Brunch I would suggest there. For Mother’s Day I took my mother and grandmother there for a special breakfast, they drove over an hour to come - worst dining experience I have had in a VERY long time. First, when I made the reservation two weeks in advance no one mentioned that it was a breakfast buffet. So that was disappointing right off the bat when I arrived, but ok. I was sure it’d be phenomenal since the hostess said they always do a Mother’s Day brunch. Speaking of hostess, when I arrived the restaurant was maybe half full (emphasized that it was NOT busy, nor was there a line of any sort) and I still waited at least 10 minutes for someone to seat me, about five minutes in someone did acknowledge me and ask me to wait while she went and laughed with the bar staff for five more minutes - I could clearly see her??? We were seated with no instruction for the buffet. I grabbed a coffee from the coffee bar they had set up (coffee was horrible but what do you expect when it’s mass produced for an event, I understood), there was honey all over it. The “waitress” (I put in quotes because she had regular clothes unlike the rest of the staff) came to finally tell us about the coffee bar and we asked what other people were drinking in the large mugs. She goes “oh those are cappuccinos, they’re not included” and we say “ok, do you have a drink list?” then looks visibly annoyed and rattles off like three drink items. We all agree we all want cappuccinos, which she verbalizes a third time that they cost extra - we get it. Finally get to the food - it was really not that great. And not a single item was labeled so I couldn’t even tell you what was and was not good unless the item was painfully obvious like mac & cheese. Then at the end we get a $200 bill (already includes a generous tip) for only three people who had a terrible experience all around. My grandma mentioned to me “I think we bring it up to the register, I saw someone else do that” and I told her I didn’t think so, then the “waitress” who was picking up a dish nearby goes “i’ve been waiting for you to put a card down” - which she wasn’t even the one who dropped the bill so how would we know that’s what she was waiting for? she didn’t ask how our meal was or check on us or anything. For all we know her sole purpose was to grab drinks and that’s it.

I hope the kitchen staff received that tip because the one lady we spoke to was the only pleasant person there and she was working her butt off!! I’ve worked in customer service for years and I get that people can have a hard day, things can get busy, etc. But almost every single person we encountered was a true displeasure and the food was sub-par. I won’t be going back even for a regular meal or ever recommending this establishment again. I was embarrassed my guests drove so far for...

My friend and I decided to meet in Royal Oak for lunch today at Cafe Muse. Unfortunately, I feel that the restaurant did not provide very good value or service. To start, we ordered coffees. For about $5.50, we expected nice lattes/cappuccinos, only to find out that we were served something that was made in a machine-- not unpalatable, but definitely not worth what we paid. Also, we were told that there was actually no difference between the latte/cappuccino option (although there appeared to be on the menu). We also agreed that the wait staff was not very friendly, which wouldn't have been a problem except for the mandatory 20 percent gratuity. We both ordered different kinds of pancakes (which were tasty), but we also decided to split a side of sausage, which the waitress told us was sizeable. For $6.25, we were served an unimpressive, hot-dog sized sausage split in half. When we went to pay our bill, the POS system prompted us to tack on an additional 20 percent tip on top of the already applied gratuity, which I found outrageous. If you weren't paying attention (or didn't know that you could side-step the prompt), you could easily wind up paying over 40 percent gratuity on your original bill. I typically don't mind paying a bit more for a brunch like this, but for the value of what I was offered, I was unimpressed and a little insulted. The atmosphere was fine, but I definitely would not choose to come here again.

Also -- for the service that I received, I found the signs in the bathrooms about the employees being so excellent that they need not be reminded to wash their hands...

It pains me to write this as this place was a favorite brunch spot for us but this last visit really is making us think twice before coming back. We found out while waiting for the food that the ownership is new which is fine, the food was tasty as always. Our first gripe, the steak and eggs- they had the audacity to serve this dish with 3 small cuts of steak nested on top of the eggs and a handful of cubed potatoes. Don’t list as a steak if you’re not serving a full steak. Second gripe: We got no check back with the waitress to see if our food was good nor did we get refills of our water or coffee. Third gripe: the umbrellas on the patio tipped over in the wind so our shelter from the sun was gone, it was either get hit by the umbrella again or sit in the late morning sun. Fourth gripe: we asked 3 separate people for our bill, the food runner, our waitress, the new owner and still did not get it. We both went inside to hunt someone down to finally get it and when we did we just got the total, no itemized bill so we couldn’t see what was actually on it but didn’t want to wait around any more. Since we have been regulars here for more than 5 years we know that 20% is added for gratuity, which is fine since it’s what we usually pay, but this visit did not warrant said tip. I sincerely hope that the new owners see this and improve. There is absolutely no excuse for not refilling our water/coffee or the inexistent service from the waitress. Get more help and find a solution to the umbrella problem since your seating is now limited to one inside room and the...