Pennyroyal Cafe & Provisions — Restaurant in Saugatuck Township

I will start by letting you know that the food is amazing. The outdoor dining area is beautiful. I have previously always received great service at the dinner hour. The hostess has been there all summer on the weekends and does her job, but is not particularly warm which has honestly never been a problem for me but it is a little off putting.

Today, I ate there and the server was incredibly rude. I have never experienced this before to such a degree there (though smaller service issues have occurred). This time I had friends with me. The server didn’t make eye contact, she never smiled, and was short and curt with her responses. Oddly, she seemed to be incredibly friendly to the other table she was serving. She also needed me to explain what a pastry item was that is an occasional menu item is (granted it wasn’t an option today) and genuinely put out by being asked to check the selection of pastries- even though the menu says to ask your server. She was ridiculous. I left a 19% tip, which I hate to do but the service was terrible and it ruined what would have been a lovely meal. But intentionally being dismissive of your customers really isn’t the way to go.

It’s a shame because this is a restaurant I always go to on weekends I spend in Saugatuck. I live in a nearby town and have loved that this is a place you can go to that’s great, beautiful, and not fighting against all the tourist traffic. But, this experience, coupled with the hostess, and a few other strange occurrences have left me thinking that it’s not worth it if the service doesn’t measure up. I wasn’t going to post this because there is a great waiter there we’ve had at the dinner service many times that I completely adore as well as young folks at the takeout window that are pleasant and helpful. But I decided to because at the hostess stand there was a very long note about their nice food, nice staff, and they ask customers to also be NICE. Totally on board with that (because servers should not be abused and they should be tipped appropriately)— except the staff isn’t all nice. And as great as the food is, hospitality is a big part of the business. The chefs need to take that more seriously when training their staff.

My experience today did not represent you well. I will not be bringing guests back. I am almost certain that our rude treatment was a result of not being regulars. Frankly, the cafe does great business but it will not always if the service does not improve. I know this has been an incredibly rough year on the service industry, and so slow service and running out of items— those are things that are going to happen, and that’s understandable. The level of rudeness here...

Our most recent visit was much less good than past visits. We took a couple friends and wound up feeling a little embarrassed about it.

It was chilly outside so we dined in... Where it turned out to be even colder! Under 65 degrees for sure, maybe even 60.

Music was too loud to hold a conversation at all. After we asked for it to be turned down it was still so loud that conversation was difficult. Installing more speakers (and not placing them right above tables) might allow music to be heard nicely without blasting any guests.

Most of the food was very good. I've never had "breakfast potatoes" that weren't lame anywhere else and at Pennyroyal they're crispy, evenly salted, and not overly greasy. To our disappointment, on this visit they were so salty that 3 out of 4 of us couldn't eat them (and the 4th - me - who loves salty food like bacon!) thought they were barely edible.

"Johnny Cakes" are tasty but tiny. They're corn pancakes, four inches across, that taste like pan fried cornbread.

Butter was served in plastic portion cups which is fine, but they were cold and so the butter was impossible to spread on toast (I just gave up). If the butter can't be kept at 70 or so, then whipped butter would be a big improvement. Or just butter the toast. Unbuttered toast sucks.

Prices are excessive. Small breakfasts (two eggs, potatoes, and one slice of toast) are twelve bucks, and merely adding bacon to your meal costs an extra five dollars (!)

Additional eggs are two bucks and a single thin piece of toast is four bucks.

Regular drip coffee is $3.50 per cup (not per person). A second cup is another $3.50. It was a premium roast but on this visit it was brewed so strong as to be undrinkable without heaps of sugar and a copious dumping of half & half.

The caramel latte, on the other hand, was absolutely outstanding.

Expect to spend $25 per guest, plus tip - and more than that for big eaters or folks who want to taste a wide assortment of foods.

One significant downside is that there aren't any huge breakfast combos and not even any medium-large ones. Even if it was twenty bucks, I would have liked to order a breakfast feast. (I typically splurge on the 'lumberjack slam" at Denny's.)

I can't finish this review without mentioning the parking lot. I've literally never driven on a parking lot, or even a backwoods driveway, that was in worse shape... The pits in this dirt lot were so pronounced and so many that it was nearly impassible at any speed, and it was stressful...

Come here every year on our annual Michigan camping trip. It’s usually really good, big fan of the blueberry pancakes but this past weekend was a terrible experience. Writing a review due to the poor service and rude employees in the take out window. I realize this place is really busy and popular, I’m also willing to wait or pay the expensive prices because I really liked it and the atmosphere but this visit was enough to make me possibly not come back. Apparently they don’t do take outs in the summer? That was a huge disappointment but since we drove all the way there we had no choice to wait over 1 hour. We got a coffee from the window, and the vibes from in the window I should’ve left right there and spent my money elsewhere. I get they’re busy and costumers are non stop but she was extremely unpleasant and showed how annoyed she was, which I really don’t appreciate. Then my coffee order was wrong and I brought it inside to ask for a new one and was met with another rude encounter with the lady at the window taking orders. It was so uncomfortable, and it was clear how annoyed she was but that is unfortunately isn’t appropriate behavior. I’ve been in service and hospitality for 10 years and I’d never act this way to a customer. I was also annoyed but I was still respectful. We waited in the back where there are seating, the dust from the parking lot is ridiculous and parking is also awful. The neighbor who owns the art shop next door is always yelling at customers for parking on his side. It’s frustrating forsure. We finally after 1 hour and 15 min got a table and nobody came for 10-15 min. At that point we were there like almost 2 hours and just wanted to get out. Finally got my pancakes I waited a year for, and it was salty and disappointing. Maybe I’ll be back one day, but the way the service was, it was...