Darla Cafe — Restaurant in Saratoga

I was extremely excited about trying out this new brunch place, especially since all the pictures on Yelp looked so enticing.

Regarding parking, when my friend and I arrived around 11 am, we found plenty of available street parking nearby.

For reservations, you can easily book a table through their official website or on Yelp.

As for the food, I ordered the soft shell crab Benedict, which I would rate 4.5 out of 5. The soft shell crab was wonderfully crispy and fresh, although it had a slightly fishy taste. Nevertheless, it was a delightful dish, and I had never tried a soft shell crab Benedict before, so it was a great experience.

The truffle baked potato, on the other hand, would receive a 4 out of 5. They were excellent baked potatoes, but I couldn't detect much truffle flavor.

When it comes to service, my initial impression was rather disappointing, earning just 1 out of 5. Here are a few reasons why:

We waited approximately 10 minutes before receiving a menu, and we had to request one ourselves. While I understand it's a newly opened restaurant, we were the only table that didn't receive menus promptly. Despite stating that we were fine with either indoor or outdoor seating, we were seated outdoors, where a persistent bee proved quite bothersome. It even stung my food, which was distressing for me as I'm scared of bees. I asked to change to an indoor seat, but my friend and I had to make two trips to move our food and drinks indoors, as the waiter didn't assist us. In fact, he nearly discarded our drinks as we returned for the second trip to collect the remaining items on the table. I politely requested if it was possible to have a new soft shell crab prepared for me since a bee had stung my food. The waiter responded with a rather rude look and asked, "Remake you what?" I repeated my request, but he promptly declined, saying, "No, there's no way we can prepare a new soft shell crab. Our kitchen is overwhelmed, and it would take over an hour. The bee situation is beyond our control." I was taken aback by his treatment of a customer and responded, "Well, that's quite an upsetting experience..." The waiter essentially shrugged it off, saying, "Sorry, there's nothing we can do." This interaction left me upset about how little they seemed to care about their customers' feelings and experiences. Fortunately, the manager was incredibly friendly and receptive to our feedback and suggestions. She displayed understanding and even provided us with some treats, which was a pleasant surprise.

I'm looking forward to giving this charming brunch spot another try, perhaps a few months down the line when the restaurant may have a smoother operation. Overall, I got the sense that this restaurant was understaffed, and some of the waitstaff were not...

Went twice in one week, once for brunch and once for dinner. Both times were delicious! We had:

Karaage Benedict - sounded like the odd couple but was a match made in heaven. The eggs were perfectly poached and pornographically runny, the bread was tender and moist, as was the chicken, and the yuzu hollandaise was brilliant. The only thing keeping us from licking the plate was a sense of public decorum.

Rainbow potatoes - we were surprised one of them was a sweet potato, one of us pleasantly so, the other wanted 3 savory potatoes.

Ricotta yuzu pancakes - we were expecting 2-3 pancakes but got a huge stack of 5. They were not overly sweet, and I appreciate an unsweet pancake as a neutral base for all the toppings.

Braised lamb shank - good, moist, fall-off-the-bone, with smooth, creamy, velvety mashed potatoes. I was worried the peanut curry might be too sweet for me but it was only slightly sweet. Even the pomegranate arils were sweeter. The rest of the dish was not sweet at all, and the pickled elements cut the richness nicely, forming a balanced flavor profile.

Hella crab spaghetti - the pasta was perfectly al dente and the best part. The ikura were good too. The lump crab (which tasted like it might have been blue crab?) was a bit fishy imho but I'm spoiled by the fresh Dungeness I get from Ocean2Table. Nice big pieces, though, and cooked well.

The blue rice looked cool but just tasted like regular plain white long grain rice.

The roti were deep fried which isn't my normal preference but the crunch was satisfying, kind of like those wonton chips you get at Americanized Chinese restaurants on the outside, but still chewy on the inside like a Chinese scallion pancake would be.

The honey milk lavender was simple, just hot milk with lavender bits and some spices like nutmeg(?), but it was warm and comforting like a thinner, nonalcoholic, hot eggnog or blander chai.

I am curious about the spaghetti napoletana with Indian spices (how is that napoletana?) and the mystery deep fry but was scared to try them since I don't like surprises.

I have a couple suggestions.

One, place a host stand at the entrance. Even if you don't intend to have a hostess, just have a stand or podium, maybe with the restaurant name on the front, just so people know they've found the right entrance. We were confused when we came in because there was no host stand, unsure if we had come to the right place, and went back outside and around the corner to see if we had missed the intended entrance. While dining we saw many people also look confused upon walking in so we're not the only ones.

Two, offer a dessert menu, at least for dinner. We were expecting to be upsold dessert after our plates were cleared at dinner, but were surprised when we were just...

Automatic gratuity added for a party of 5 on Mother’s Day. I completely understand the busyness that Mother’s Day causes for restaurants, but I don’t appreciate an automatic gratuity when the service was extremely poor. My family and I are very understanding and patient people, and would have been happy to work with the servers had they mentioned being short staffed, behind schedule, or even just very busy. Instead, they came by only to worldlessly take our orders, dropped off one or two dishes at a time leaving our table awkwardly staggered without any explanation, dropped off the wrong plates multiple times without apology, and never once checked in otherwise even to refill our empty water glasses. Then we got our bill and you want an automatic gratuity? Frustrating to say the least!

ON THE OTHER HAND, every menu item we ordered was genuinely delicious. We had Karaage both sandwich and benedict, softshell crab sandwich, pulled pork sandwich, and impossible burger all of which were beautifully plated, along side their truffle rainbow potatoes which were delightful. Our rose berry mimosas, lemonades, and aperol spritz were also refreshing and perfect for a warm May day.

OVERALL, I can’t say I would recommend this place unless the poor service was a fluke due to the holiday, which I sincerely hope...