The Corner Cafe - Home of Gourmet2Go — Restaurant in Sanford

I ordered a half salad and soup; steak and blue cheese salad with cream of mushroom soup. Both were delicious.

The experience from beginning to end seemed off.

The food was good. I was with my mom and two-year old. I didn't see, nor was I offered, a booster or high chair for my toddler. Fortunately, she was well behaved sitting in the booth. I'm not sure that there would have been room in the aisle for a high chair, so it's possible they don't have them. There was a changing table in the bathroom, which was appreciated.

When we entered, we were greeted by a pleasant man who explained the menu and service style to us. We ordered at the counter, then the remainder of the dining experience was supposed to be "table service." Then payment is taken after you finish eating.

There were three people working the restaurant. It was a Thursday afternoon and not particularly busy, but still several tables were occupied both inside and out.

A younger guy came out from the kitchen with our food and stopped by one more time to refill my mom's drink. He didn't introduce himself as the waiter, and it seemed that he was working the kitchen and just helping out front. No one else checked on us.

10-15 minutes after we finished eating, we still hadn't received the bill. I tried flagging down one of the employees, and was told the woman had the gizmo to bring to our table to pay.

Another patron walked in from the patio and asked a second time for her bill. They were running late and waiting for a to-go order and their bill.

I tried to flag down the woman two additional times before she came to take our payment. She asked us to wait while she took another several minutes to explain the menu and counter-to-table-service to new customers.

Finally, she brought the portable payment tablet and we paid and left.

The entire experience seemed disorganized and mismanaged.

Here are my thoughts on what could be improved.

I didn't feel like tasks were delegated properly. The three people were stepping over each other's roles and they didn't seem to be assigned or have a delegated task. If everyone is responsible, then no one is responsible.

I would have preferred the option to pay for the meal when we ordered, since there was a complete lack of table service. Choose one way or the other. Is it counter service or table service? This halfway between just felt like they were hoping for better tips.

If you have to take several minutes every single time new customers come in to explain how things work, and you don't have a designated greeter, it's getting over complicated. Simplify the introduction or have a designated greeter.

There's a portable payment processor that is separate from the main computer. This would be fine if the tasks were delegated and managed properly. But it took entirely too long for the woman to greet and introduce their way of things to new customers. I had to ask her several times to pay (among others) when we were ready to leave.

This wouldn't have been a huge deal, but it annoyed me on top of the other issues. When we ordered, they said, "We'll bring you a dessert once you're finished with lunch!" They brought cute little desserts to two other tables near us and didn't even look twice at us. And, we were seated directly in front of the counter where you order.

The experience is what killed it for me. The food was good but the way the employees barked orders at each other without clear leadership and proper task delegation, made for an...

So my review is about a disregard for mutual respect that exists with leadership in some businesses and was unfortunately shown here to a customer. This review isn't about me, but rather another customer and I was so disgusted by it, that I felt the need to share that here. I will start by saying that the food was absolutely wonderful and the reviews on the food are the reason I went to this restaurant! I walked in at the same time as another customer and it was both of our first times there. The owner who greeted us behind the counter, handed us menus and elaborated well on how the food is made. It was from this moment that anytime I or the other customer took a step back from the counter to have space, he told us not to move around and to form a line. The customer who was continuing to move around, asked the owner who was verbally and visually fixated on this, if he could use the bathroom. The owner proceeded to share that there is no bathroom but didn't explain why or apologize for any inconvenience that could cause during his time there. After another moment of watching this moving around happening, the owner asked the customer if he was going to order. The customer said hesitantly, "I was going to, but now I'm not sure...I think we're done here." The owner responded with "Well I think we are too!" I spoke to one of the staff members (all seemed timid, nervous, and hesitant to do anything wrong) later about this and naturally, he tried to justify the owner's behavior by saying that the customer probably provoked this by being rude to him. But I witnessed this customer being calm and soft spoken the entire time he was there. The staff member then said that they are asked around 20 times a day for a bathroom from customers who have no intentions of buying food and that it can be irritating. The Corner Cafe has been around for 20 years and knows how to do things right. It can afford to weed out customers that are like this. While this frustration is 100% understandable, it is not understandable to treat a brand new customer with the animosity you have for the 20 that came in before him. On top of that, this customer had a tablet in his hands which shows that he probably wanted to stay for awhile, not use the bathroom and dip out. And lastly, whether it is business or your personal life, the second we stop learning, is the second we stop growing. A business CAN stop succeeding if it does not keep learning how to grow. Every review is a good review even if it doesn't make sense to you. A successful restaurant I worked for in the past would always print reviews and go over how to improve them with the staff. All I can say is that I hope that the owner will reevaluate how he's behaving with customers. This could have been my friend or my boyfriend that he treated like this. It...

Very agreesive and in our face. Wouldnt let us take a moment and stand to the side to let other customers come in and order so we could look at the menu before ordering. Guy behind the counter yelled at us and said we couldnt stand to the side and that he has been there 12 years and we have been here 1 day so he knows how to run his business. So we left and refuse to spend our money at establishments like this. I hope this review helps others, I saw other reviews similar to mine from this weekend. Very rude owner. I highly recommend not even walking in the door. Spend your money at local places that appreciate customers and dont treat them like garbage.

UPDATE TO OWNERS RESPONSE: It was a festival weekend but there was plenty of parking and it was not packed at all. The restuarante was not full by any means, there was no one in front of the counter that you were helping (Because if there was lets be honest you wouldn't have been harrassing us to place an order and you would have been helping them) and there was plenty of space for us to stand to the side for 2 minutes to review the menu when we saw another couple walk in, who as a business owner you should have been focusing on so we could get our group of 7's order figured out. I'm very happy you have a family and you try to take care of them but why dont you give the same respect you want for your family to your customers. I gave my review based on how you treated me and my family and friends when we came in. If you want to fluff it off like my feelings or opinion dont matter then thats on you and your business. I stick by my review 10,000% I have read so many reviews where you continue to trash the bad reviews instead of learn from them. According to these reviews, how you treat your customers has been going on for years. I assume you arent learning the lesson here. I have read every single one good and bad. I cant review on the food because we never got to try it and I refuse to spend my money at pretentious, snobby establishments that think they are better than their customers. Even if you have a customer who is upset dont you think an apology for your behavior would make your company look better and possibly get them back in the door and make all the other people looking at these reviews think at least your trying to make things right? Or do you think your high and mighty I know everything and the bad reviews come from the haters and small people that...