Elmer's Restaurant (Salem, OR) — Restaurant in Salem

I do not write many negative reviews. I'm a restaurant employee veteran. I've held every position a restaurant has to offer, save ownership, from Fine Dining to Sub Sandwiches. Sunday mornings, early afternoon in a place such as Elmer's is a busy time! Staff is working hard to make that cash and give service to all their valuable clients. Stress can be high. Elmer's was busy, with a normal wait to get a table. I found the bar, with some seating at the bar and a table available. There were 5 people in the bar area of which 4 were gambling and awaiting food. So I brought my wife and friend into the bar to have a little breakfast and a beer. What started out as a excellent idea (going into the bar) became...interesting. The bartender was quick to take our orders, nothing unusual in our orders; coffee, a beer, pancakes, a waffle with fruit, eggs, German pancake, bacon etc. The food came to us quickly! However, the wife ordered the waffle with fruit, the whipped cream as seen on the menu cover. A plain waffle was placed before her. She raised this 'issue' with the Bartender who placed the order. My wife was told, in a couple different ways that this was what she ordered. She did not order a plain waffle, despite the Bartenders insistence that she did. Note to servers and bartenders out there: If a customer orders anything and it is not what they wanted or there is a mistake, DO NOT insist that the customer made the mistake. Do not try to gaslight them into believing it was their fault! Just get what the customer wants and move on. A whole back and forth took place, with the Bartender basically saying it was the customers fault for the displeasure (but we were not upset). Now the Bartender is pissed! Despite our 'Thank You' at every moment after the 'lecture', this employee was now engaged in emotional combat, where "WE" were crap and just a unreasonable group. Another couple sitting near us, seemed a little upset about something, and when they paid their bill, the bartender insisted on giving back change stating "NO, let me get your change, I DON'T need it!" As I stated, despite the Bartender's attitude, we thanked her at every turn, and when we paid our bill, she went out of her way to bring us our change, which was clearly intended as a tip of $6, which was about 10%, not a great tip mind you, but given attitude and knowing I WILL NEVER COME TO ELMERS AGAIN, I thought was actually generous. I have seen this attitude in waitstaff and bartenders in my years of restaurant work. Some customers believe that the 'tip' gives them the right to treat people like crap. When met with that customer attitude and complete disregard for human decency, I understand not wanting to condone the behavior by accepting that 3 cent, or 10%, or 100% tip. HOWEVER, we did not act that way. Unhappy with lot in life / Passive aggressive bullshit attitudes happen often in the restaurant business, but I am not...

So, I was there having breakfast at around 9 am and the waitress, which she is about mid 50's I'm assuming, looked at my 4 year old, made a smug face, and had an attitude, went towards the hostess and was talking smack . Cuz the young hostess kept on looking at me and then it was like they were just both having it out for our table. Oh, and rolled her freaken eyes as she walked away. I can tell by body language that she was not happy. I am a server as well, and this is not my first time dining there. I had no problems in the past except attitude from the hostess before. But today tops the cake. After I had seen that, I gave my phone to my son to occupy him and he was all good. When she came back I had said, and I quote, "dont't worry he's got my phone, he won't be a bother." She said, "oh, it's okay that's why we're here," she had stated. Ya right. I felt uncomfortable, and wanted to leave, but my friend assured me it will change. Well it didn't and I was done. My son was being quiet cuz he was busy on my phone and if he wasn't, I would have gone myself. I asked for boxes, then I asked nicely for a bag. The waitress didn't come to the table, instead as we were walking slowly coming close to the front cuz she wasn't around, just threw it at the front counter and walked away. The hostess rudely tossed it my way. My friend and I looked at each other and I said, "oh hell no! Nobody gets treated like this!" I asked him how much he tipped, he said 20 percent. I asked what the hell for?!?!?? He did it because I'm a server. Well, news flash. You earn your tip for your attitude and you being friendly!!!!!! If it were up to me, I would have just talked to the manager, said I am not paying for this lousy service that Meade me feel uncomfortable and threw the food which I barely touched, not my son and left!!!! I'm never never coming back to eat at this establishment again!!!! All though if I'm in the mood for a round of a bitchfest, I will come in during this time and see how it goes and do not expect me to be nice. I had no choice but to rate it a 1 but I like the food and that's ok. Overall bad experience!!!!! Not coming back!!!! And will tell my clientele, my business oriented...

A surprisingly wonderful place to eat or to meet a friend for coffee. There's a country classic atmosphere with an elegance added to it by a phenomenal collection of Thomas Kinkade paintings everywhere you look. The food, too is far greater than I had expected. I thought might be Denny's or Shari's level of food quality; but boy was I glad to have been wrong about that! So much greater that I have no plans of going elsewhere! The menu has everything from breakfast and lunch classics to Prime Rib, Seafood (w/ Ivar's Chowder!) and wonderful salads. I have been suprised by the great value you get in even the simplest of things, such as old fashioned milkshakes for only $3.99; served together with the steel mixing cup (so, basically two shakes for the price of one!). And the service there has been top notch on every visit! With servers who are knowledgeable about the wide array of menu options. And there has always been enough help on duty to meet our needs. They are located right off of the Market Street offramp from I-5, almost sitting in the Fred Meyer parking lot. With excellent handicapped access (important to me) and a genuine down home feel it truly is a great place for families, working meals, or just a quiet place to get together with friends for coffee and snacks. In every way I can think of they are far superior to either Denny's or Shari's. So much so that I expected them to cost more for the meals I received. But I was pleasantly stunned to find out that comparable meals typically cost less (about 1/3 less for the items I've matched up) than their “competition”. With its its charm, phenomenal service and delicious food I still have a hard time believing that I have found a place like this that is affordable and so convenient to visit. It's as if I travel back in time on each visit, to a restaurant that time forgot. I hope that you will take the journey too. If you do, I am confident that you won't be...