The French Hen Cafe & Moonflower Pizza — Restaurant in Saint Paul

My sister and I were refused service by your staff members.

My sister and I have been going to the French Hen with our friends and family for years. We absolutely love the atmosphere and menu. We were refused service because staff members felt uncomfortable with us being there. This is strictly personal and happened many years ago. Without giving personal names and details for privacy of the staff I won’t list the incidents but consider it under the category of “high school drama”. No Person was verbally, physically or mentally harassed. We have frequented the French Hen many times and have had normal and pleasant interactions with all staff members on multiple occasions. We truly felt like going to an establishment that we love, being good patrons, and pleasant people would be fine. Isn’t that what kind, mature adults do?

While I commend any establishment that puts the wellness of their employees first. I have to ask where the line is between business and personal issues? Per MN state and Federal Law restaurants reserve the right to refuse service to anyone however, “that right is limited by federal, state, and local laws” as I am sure you are aware. You simply cannot refuse service to me and my sister because a staff member doesn’t like us, we did absolutely nothing wrong. Based on the logic that was applied here today, do you also refuse service to people that have a different political opinion than you, or disagree with your opinions privately..as in not in your place of business? If so, that is illegal. In my heart I feel like the staff wanted us to feel embarrassed and hurt which was definitely accomplished.

My sister and I both have 1 yr olds, we haven’t gone out to eat just the two of us since before our babies were born. My husband is deployed which makes these opportunities even more of a miracle. We were so jazzed to have a sweet breakfast in one of our favorite spots on a nice rainy cozy day and instead we got embarrassment and the door.

To the owners of French Hen, I sent you a email about this which you did not respond to. You told me you would call me, I re-arranged my day so that I could be available and you did not call.

We will not be attending your establishment again unfortunately, I don’t want to feel uncomfortable and even though I am angry and hurt I don’t want to make anyone else feel uncomfortable either. I would never have gone if I thought this was a possibility. After years of being a loyal customer and spending hundreds of dollars, I received no clarity just the door.

What an establishment. Not worth the...

Overall the experience wasn’t the worst. The food was incredible. But the way they have this place set up is a mess and some of their staff needs to be spoken to or let go. We were in a few weeks ago and it was a busy Sunday. The host, was not near the host stand and therefore wasn’t taking customers in order of which they came, there is a cute little storefront with some cute little plants, planters, candles and jewelry. Something to check out while you wait that was actually enjoyable. They take reservations but everyone who came in while we were waiting was a walk in so obviously walk in is primarily how they do business. While trying to figure out how the heck we actually get our name on the list to be seated my parter asked one of the women working behind the “bakery counter” how we go about that. She was rude and told him that if we didn’t already have a reservation she didn’t know if we would be seated, and dismissed him. In the meantime another couple walked in, and low and behold, the hostess finally appeared to put their name on a list, annoyed of course that we had already been there for 10 or more minutes, and the hostess didn’t appear once to take our name in that time, my partner walked up to her told her that he had spoken to someone already but didn’t get our name on the list, when the hostess asked who he spoke with, he pointed her out, this woman denied speaking to my partner outright when asked by the hostess. We ended up getting our name on the list, AFTER the party that came in 10 minutes later than us. Had we not all been seated within minutes of each other I would have been even more mad than I already was. This is a design flaw, if as a host you are not going to be present when and where people walk in, you need to have some sort of check in system where people can write their names down so this doesn’t happen. As for the frumpy woman in the long navy skirt, with the plaid shirt, messy braids, and doc martins, who dismissed my partner and then denied even speaking to him when your hostess called you out, you are terrible, rude, and incredibly unprofessional. Although the food was remarkable, seeing your face, as you actively tried to avoid our table after that, ruined my entire...

Never again.....

The place was crowded. I assumed that they must have very good food and service. I went on a Saturday afternoon to meet a friend. I ordered a fruit bowl which was $6 and a root vegetable plate which was also around $6. I was going to order a free range egg for $3 and I asked how many eggs do you get, she said just one egg. Wow, no thank you.

My friend ordered the blueberry pancakes which were around $14 for three. They came with one tiny cup not was not even full of syrup. When she asked for another container of syrup after she received her food they said it was $3 more just for another tiny container of syrup. Ridiculous.

For what I ordered I was expecting my fruit bowl to be bigger. Very small portions for what you pay. The root vegetables were a decent size. However, some of the bigger pieces were not thoroughly cooked. They almost had a crunchy undercooked taste to them. The waitress seemed like she had something else on her mind or better things to do because service was horrible. I had never been to a restaurant before where they took your order and no one came to check up on you to see how your food was. The only time someone came back to the table was to give you a bill. What a joke.

When I complained about the vegetables that I ordered, it wasn't the waitress. She never came back to the table. It was a different person and she said Oh no they are not undercooked that's how they're supposed to be. They're cooked the night before....

Really? Wow. And then she got very condescending and all in my face asked me what do you want me to do? I said nothing, With a attitude like that, I did not want to have to deal with them ever again. On top of that, when I received my bill there was a junk fee for health and wellness. Like what is that? Who charges for health and wellness? I guess the food on the menu is not expensive enough. Just a junk fee for the restaurant to make more money.

So if you want to be taken advantage of with mediocre expensive food that's cooked the night before and don't mind paying restaurant junk fees, then this place is...