Dolina Bakery & Cafe — Restaurant in Santa Fe

Don't go here!! Bad experience. Came in excited to try this restaurant because of all the positive reviews but honestly this is a tourist trap that does not care about customer service at all and it's so much work for the server to do her job. Constant attitude from the server with the (star tattoos?) on her arm. We had a party of 5 and there was plenty of tables, and they tried to seat the 5 of us at a small table meant for only 4 people. No big deal, but we intended to buy a lot of dishes for the table and even if we only ordered one dish per person we would not sit comfortably at this table. There was a small open table near us, which I asked the server if we can combine the table to which she ignored my request completely, and threw a chair at the end of the table. When I requested again to combine the table due to lack of space, she finally rudely combined the tables without a word said and threw down the menu in front of me. Totally not how you treat customers by the way, and after reading other negative reviews it seems like the rudeness was not uncommon. Not sure if all the negative reviews had the same server, but everyone else here that I encountered was absolutely lovely. They should just fire this girl and they would probably never see another negative review. The parking lot is really tiny, so be prepared to not find any parking. When we came in it wasn't too busy, we got seated pretty quickly. I was hoping that with this experience, the food would at least be the most amazing food for them to have the reviews they have with the way customers are treated here. Food wasn't bad, but definitely not worth all the hype. On top of that, asking for things we needed for our meal was met with more attitude, didn't realize we were pulling teeth! (No tip for bad servers!) We ordered the pancakes, waffles, langos, paprikash, french toast, the simple breakfast, and the hash brown with hatch green chili. The breaded stuff like the French toast, pancakes, and waffles were not bad pretty typical as far as those dishes go. The langos was also alright, it wasn't all too flavorful I'm not sure if it was just an off day for this dish since it seemed so promising but it was very ok as well. The hash brown was also alright, the flavors were good but the texture of the hash brown itself tasted like frozen hash browns that became soggy after it was cooked. My simple breakfast included hash browns, and same texture. The sunny side up eggs were fine, and came with English muffins. The English muffins were probably my favorite part of all the items today, which is strange because I don't particularly love English muffins. The paprikash on the other hand was unique, and I enjoyed these. If you do end up dining here for whatever reason, I suggest trying this dish for sure. The paprikash is a Hungarian stew that has egg noodles similar to spaetzle, and includes sour cream. This dish was pretty flavorful, and I did enjoy this. Needless to say, I was overall disappointed in my experience this morning and I hope that everyone has a different experience if they go. I highly suggest going to Clafoutis instead, as everytime I'm in town I go there and never have bad food or a...

I want to start by saying that Dolina has some of the best, most flavorful and unique food I've ever eaten. It is so incredibly delicious that I'm usually tempted to lick my plate clean, but manage to restrain myself. Everything I've tried on their menu is incredible, and their baked goods are absolutely off the charts - easily some of the best in town. Their service is excellent BUT a little on the slow side. They provide their staff with meals from the menu every day, so they're all incredibly knowledgeable and able to answer questions or provide opinions about everything on the menu.

However, I do have some minor complaints. One of which is out of their control and the other I hope they read and implement a fix for.

First: The parking is a mess. It's downtown Santa Fe so this is to be expected to a degree, but this lot is particularly bad. You're unlikely to get parking out front, and while there is a lot behind the building I wouldn't recommend attempting to park back there if you drive anything larger than a small SUV like a Ford Escape or a Honda CRV. It is small, incredibly tight, and fraught with hazards. You may be better off parking nearby and walking to the restaurant. It might be helpful if they would specifically label at least one spot back there as "no parking/turn around only" because it's a tricky lot to back out of if all the spots are full. How there aren't several accidents a day back there is a mystery to me.

Second: Their system for getting on a wait list and seating is a mess. They don't take reservations and they're usually PACKED. (Deservedly so - the food is GOOD.) What this means is that there's usually a line near and out the door. Because there is no waiting area and they also just sell pastries from their front counter - it's unclear if people are waiting in line to get on the list, get pastries, or just standing around waiting to be seated. I've stood in the line for twenty minutes only to realize I needed to go inside to put myself on the list. The next time I went straight inside to put myself on the list only for a hostess to walk past me, go outside, and put five parties on the list ahead of me. It is incredibly frustrating to say the least.

I desperately wish they would do some combination of: taking reservations, putting out signs with instructions, or even better, putting out signs which tell you to go inside for pastries but with QR codes that allow you to digitally waitlist yourself. That last system would be cheap, would reduce the crowding around the door inside and outside, and would decrease the frustration for staff and patrons. Just a thought, but one I hope they consider.

Plan accordingly if you come during the brunch rush, especially on the weekend. Between waiting for a table and the time it takes to get your food - you're looking at an hour and a half to two hours.

However, despite these things, I'll state again that they have some of the most delicious and unique dishes I've ever eaten. While there can be frustrating aspects of the experience, I will continue to come back - its worth...

I've been to this place 4 times and always did take-out, but finally decided to have a sit-down brunch after purchasing about $45 worth of pastries there. I don't write a lot of reviews, but this is a necessity for everyone who are seeing this to be fully aware of their discriminatory services.

I was with my 70 yo mother out for a brunch together. Waited for 30mins outside patio and all full inside/outside as usual. We were okay with that, because I really wanted to try out their dining menu vs regular pastry take-outs. Finally got called in, sat us down. They were certainly under staff, which we acknowledged. We "patiently" waited for about 15-20 mins, until I finally nudged the waiter, who passed us several times - ignoring us; to take our order and more coffee, which he poured and made a mess all over the plate, didn't even said sorry, and walked away. Didn't even take our order either.

We kept waiting patiently, until another table of a family of four with 2 kids sat next to us. We were the only colored people in retrospect. The family next to us were white. Honestly, we didn't even pay attention to who was what than someone to get our order after waiting for 30 minutes at this point.

Same waiter (tall, slender, mixed with partly Afro hair style) walked by, ignored us again, and instead took the order from the white family, turning his back against our table, even after looking over at us before he even took their order! My mother who's never officially felt discriminated more than ever until this experience. I reassured her it wasn't discrimination at the time, but after our drive home, we discussed it and were very discontent with the dining experience there. Despite this, I still gave him a good tip. I regret it not confronting their discriminatory service w/the owner directly at the time of service however, and not give him tip during confrontation. The waiter should've been reprimanded for his behavior.

I sincerely hope, no other customers would have to deal w/this type of discriminating custom service whatsoever during your dining there.

I don't recommend going there at all because: finding parking is a pain. They have only 3-5 parking spots in front of the cafe. 4 times of being there, always at least 15-20 mins wait even for a cup of latte! Don't even bother dining there, service is terrible, very slow to serve you, food was subpar. I used to live in San Francisco. I've had my fair share of legit dining experiences. And I'd expect this place in Santa Fe to be about equally service-oriented without discrimination and legit as it's a reknown tourist city! The waiting staff needs to be retrained to serve all people, including...