Salem's Retreat — Restaurant in Salem

I just had a very disappointing and upsetting experience at this restaurant. I sat at the bar, the waitress who took my order and served my coffee was lovely. I ordered the crab cake Benedict 18.95, hot coffee and a single piece of French toast. When I received my food the crab cake was cold. I asked for it to be heated through. Another waitress, took it back to the kitchen. She left the sauce that was on the side on the counter. When the food arrived back the crab cake was nice and warm and the food looked lovely. However, now the hollandaise was cold. I asked if it could be popped in the microwave just to warm it. It was taken to the kitchen another sauce brought to me which was also not warm. The second waitress chose to educate me in a very patronizing manner as to why the sauce cannot be served warmer. It is homemade and it will separate if it is heated up. At this point, I lost my appetite, 100% because of the way this woman chose to speak to me. I have made hollandaise myself as well as ordered egg benedicts many times and have had never had a problem with the sauce being warmed through. I let them know I was done with this dining experience. I left money to cover the coffee. As I walked down the side walk the waitress chose to come after me carrying the sauce. She continued to explain to me why it is not possible to heat up the sauce! I told her I was done with the conversation. I walked around the back of the building and got into my car. All of a sudden, there is the waitress once again standing at my open passenger side window!!! She said “so you’re just going to leave? You’re going to throw down a few dollars for the coffee and that’s it? You’re not going to pay for the French toast? (I had only had a few bites of it, at least 2/3 of the French toast remained on the plate.) You’re not going to pay for the maple syrup?” Never ever in my life have I been followed out to my car. Unbelievable. I simply looked at her and said “No I am not” Incredibly unprofessional and rude.

The tone of this response is precisely why I chose to leave your restaurant. I did not go to breakfast to be spoken down to.

I can tell from the response to my review you are either the actual waitress who behaved so poorly or she learned her lack of professionalism from you. Incredibly immature and disappointing. In what universe is it ok to follow a customer to her car? In what universe do you argue with a customer? In what universe do you respond to a review in this manner passing personal judgement on my mind and emotions. I never once raised my voice. I simply chose to leave the situation. I was disappointed with the food being served cold. I was even more disappointed with the way I was spoken to, it was disrespectful and patronizing, just as your tone is in the response. Do you really feel chasing someone to their car is an appropriate response??? Very...

Edit: the owner replied to say that he wishes I had flagged him down as he made many trips to the table across from us. No one identified themselves to us as an owner so how could we have done so? And as mentioned in my review, my server was MIA. Read the owners other replies to poor reviews to learn everything you need to know about how he handles customers when things go wrong.

I visited this restaurant recently and ordered the Florentine Benedict. Unfortunately, the poached eggs were overcooked, and there was hardly any hollandaise sauce. I was really hungry since it was late (11:30am), and I hadn’t eaten yet, so I ate half of it just to get something in my stomach.

To be fair, the service was quite slow, likely because we were seated outside and the server seemed to be managing multiple tables both inside and out on her own. My friend wanted to order a tea, but it took a long time before she was even able to request it, as the server was rarely around.

When the server finally came back out, I let her know about the Benedict and asked if it could be taken off the bill. She seemed pretty unhappy with this. In hindsight, maybe I should have asked for only half to be taken off since I ate half, but honestly, asking for it to be removed didn’t seem unreasonable, given the dish wasn’t prepared correctly.

The manager, who also seemed to be the chef, came out to talk to me. While he wasn’t rude or yelling, he made me feel uncomfortable. He kept saying they wanted me to have a good experience but implied I should have asked sooner for it to be remade, and questioned why I ate half if it wasn’t right. The truth is, I didn’t know where our server was, and I flagged her down the first time I saw her again. The whole interaction felt like they didn’t believe me, as if I was trying to get a free meal.

I get that some people do try that, especially during tourist season, but that’s not me. In the end, I felt like an a-hole and didn’t want to cause a bigger issue over an eggs Benedict, so I agreed to let them remake it.

The second dish had a little more hollandaise, but the eggs were undercooked this time. I didn’t want to go through another round of confrontation, so I just ate it quietly. They remade only half of the Benedict and gave me a few potato cubes along with it. I’m not complaining about that, but it did make me chuckle—they were so worried about me scamming them for free food that they only made half!

Overall, I walked away feeling like I’d been made to feel in the wrong for pointing out a legitimate issue. It would have been better if they hadn’t treated me like I was trying to get away with something.

For the record, the women’s bathroom door was bolted open, which felt awkward for privacy, even with the stalls. Just something...

We were a large group with 3 small children. The front door does not open all the way so our group walking in was kind of a scene. We were greeted by a red hair older lady who said “close the door the airs on” ok no problem she was focused on the door I get it because she turned out to be very nice after all. There was a heavier woman behind the bar who seemed extremely annoyed by our presence (we were 9 in total) don’t know why. Her facial expression never changed throughout our visit so maybe that’s just her? Bloody Mary’s looked very pretty but not flavorful. Tomato juice and horseradish was all I could taste. Order two steak and eggs both asked for same temperature one was bloody red other well done. We asked for medium that’s ok these things happen. But there was no follow up with why that steak sat untouched we made due and shared the first steak. Our problem because we did not mention to waitress. However, my son’s food had a hair and my friends waffle had a piece of rubber. Our waitress was great and apologetic. She did exactly what would be expected when these things happen because let’s face it they happen. When we said we did not want the waffle another lady came out and insisted we take it even for later. Ok fine even though initially we stated we did not want it. These things happen I get it but when looking at the receipt it was just tacky that the waffle was not removed. Again not the end of the world just these little things added up to our...