Mimi's Cafe — Restaurant in San Bernardino

The only complaint I had was there were obviously not enough servers on staff, to accommodate the number of guests (which contributed to SEVERAL issues relating to our dining experience). We had a 15 minute wait, in what appeared to be a pretty vacant restaurant, and when we were finally seated, it was nearly a two hour experience, from the time we sat down, to the time we were able to leave (which would have been fine, on a Saturday evening, or for a leisurely evening with friends, but definitely NOT on a school night with my little 7, and 9 year old daughters, who have a Limited span of time seated ANYwhere)!

The servers that were there, were so rushed to keep up with the number of tables and guests, everything was talking WAY too long! We were served food, but hadn't received our utensils, I was there with my two little daughters, and I had to take them potty, but when we returned, our table had been CLEARED, and the sweater I'd left, (to hint I'd be returning), was gone as well! When I asked if our orders had been cancelled (we had the 3 orders in for ourselves, plus 2 additional orders for my older son's who were home), we were assured our orders had not been cancelled, but I could tell that wasn't the case, as it was a good 30 minutes before we saw any of our orders!

About 20 minutes before my order was delivered, the server asked if we wanted the kids meals first, (I'm aware some parents will ask that the kids food is delivered as soon as possible, to keep them occupied, but I'm not one of those parents, as I expect if I'm taking my little ladies to a sit down restaurant, they should behave appropriately, and if they receive their meals 20 minutes before mine, they will be done, and ready to leave as I'm just receiving my food), so I informed the server of this, but wondered about the food timing, since I hadn't previously asked for their food early, yet also didn't want their food to be cold by the time I received my meal 20 minutes later!

Unfortunately, any time we needed, or asked for anything, it took a very long time for it to come out, and during the meal, I felt as though our server intentionally avoided the tables after they received their meals, as to avoid extra errands relating to items needed in accompaniment.

Probably the most annoying aspect was the pile up of plates and serving dishes that weren't removed from our table THE ENTIRE duration of our meal and dessert. We still had everything from our appetizer plates, empty bread baskets, all of our dinner plates and condiments, to wade through, during our dessert, which I ended up having to stack up and clear away to the edge of our table, so we could even get to our desserts.

Again, I do NOT blame the server for these errors, as it was VERY CLEAR, even from the waiting area BEFORE we entered the dining room, there was a serious shortage of servers, and having waited tables for over 10 years to put myself through college, I can tell the difference between poor service, and an understaffed restaurant, who either had several servers call in sick, or are grossly understaffing a restaurant to cut corners and save a buck at the expense of the customers, (which I REALLY felt was the case here, since unless the manager was waiting tables themselves, I never once saw them, only the hostess, and even servers in the entire restaurant)!

The food was good (was disappointed to see they discontinued the salmon spinach salad, and didn't see the salad and quiche combo that was a past time favorite, and the carrot raisin bread was made into these small, biscuit looking bites, without the delicious honey butter in accompaniment), but I'd still return, as long as it's on a busier night when they are guaranteed to employ...

On Sunday, Mother's Day my family and I (party of 5, all adults no children) went to lunch here. I called and was told they were accepting walkins and the wait would be approximately 30 minutes. (thanks to text messages we have exact times) Put our name in at 12:21pm and was told the wait would be about 30 minutes. We continued to wait until we were seated at 1:36pm. First and foremost, we understood it was Mother's Day and very busy, we also understood there were people with reservations who got to be seated first however, for example a party of 7 with reservations at 1:30 (pays to sit close to the host) were seated at 1:07pm. After we were seated we waited 9 minutes, and many many staff walked by our corner booth in the bistro by the kitchen, before we stopped a server and asked politely who our server would be. She responded she was and would be back shortly. She was. When she returned we were ready to order drinks and food at the same time due to the concern of the long wait and an appointment time getting close. Our server advised us that the kitchen was behind and that it could be a long wait before it was ready. We asked her advice if she thought we would have enough time to eat if we needed to leave by 3pm as by the time she returned it was 1:57pm. She said she thought we would be okay. Please keep in mind the limited menu due to mothers day. We ordered (no special circumstances or replacements requested). Shortly after this, apparently a manager of some sort, approached our table and, for lack of a better word, confronted us. She started the conversation accusatory, condescending, and became ruder as she spoke. We never had a chance to speak or were asked what happened during the 3 minutes of reprimand we received. She told us that we needed to be patient and that the staff was doing the best they could and that we should have known better than to rush. She never asked us what was our concern, the situation, or anything. She came to our table, scolded us and walked away before we were able to respond. I would like to say that we were 100% aware of everything she scolded us for and asked several staff members politely their opinions when it came to time and service. We never got frustrated or short with any staff member, all having service backgrounds we understood the situation and in fact made an effort to be polite to our servers. We never received our appetizer, our soups came with our food which came out quickly at approximately 2:31pm. I made a point to apologize to our waitress if she felt that we were being demanding or rushing her; it was not our intention. She said she didn't feel that way but obviously she spoke with her manager to have her reprimand us during our Mother's day lunch. We finished our meal and walked about by 2:52pm. Plenty of time to get to our appointment with no reason for the manager to scold us at our table. On my way out, I stopped to speak with another manager, to advise him about how we were spoken to, he apologized for the situation but clearly had written me off within 10 seconds of speaking which just made it very clear what management allows as acceptable behavior. I would like to point out several things... if we had been given a better estimated wait time, over an hour, we would not have put our name in to stay which could have avoided the whole situation all together. Just because everyone is busy and it's hectic doesn't give anyone the right to assume all customers are rude and impatient and treat us that way. Disappointment is an...

I had visited Mimi's on Hospitality Lane in San Bernardino, CA for the first time this morning. I visited for breakfast. It was not very busy and I was seated very quickly.

I regret to say that I had forgotten my waitress's name but she was very pleasant, professional, polite and attentive. I had ordered the Florentine eggs benedict with avocado and an iced tea with a white peach flavor add in and an iced water with a lemon wedge.

The only 2 things that kept me from giving this place five stars is the fact that it was slightly pricey (more than $18.50 for my meal and it was one of the lesser to average priced items on the menu) and the restroom (although clean) smelled horrible, (which I believe was not quite the restaurants' fault because I have noticed this issue with several other dining establishments restrooms in the area). I believe that this has to do with the sewage system in the area. None-the-less, the smell was bad enough that I almost lost my appetite and I did feel that there perhaps was something more that the restaurant could do to try to eliminate or at least lessen or cover up the putrid sewage smell coming up from the drainage pipes.

I was glad that I had ordered the lemon water because when I came out of the restroom I took a few sniffs of the lemon and sips of the lemon water and that helped to calm down the feeling of nauseousness before I was brought my food.

My food arrived fairly quickly and was hot and delicious and made exactly as I ordered it. The english muffins were crisp on the outside and moist, steamy, delectable scrumptiousness on the inside. The bacon was extra crispy as ordered. The hollandaise sauce was delicate with just enough flavor to add to the meal without overpowering any other flavor. The spinach, avocado and tomato were fresh and the tea was cool, refreshing and clean tasting. The potatoes were so perfectly seasoned that I did not need any hot sauce, ketchup, salt, pepper or any other condiment to accompany them.

I was very pleased with my service. The atmosphere was wonderful. I loved the decorations and the seating arrangements and the feel of the restaurant. They had some nice variety of Christmas and winter time holiday music playing. Overall, this was one of the top two best restaurant experiences that I have had in the area this past week.

I was very pleased with my service so I left a generous tip for my waitress. She bade me farewell and gave me a very exuberant thank you. And that was just icing on the cake because it felt good to make somebody else happy by showing them that their services and efforts were noticed and...