The Grove Cafe and Bakery — Restaurant in Scotts Valley

I've been to The Grove for breakfast/brunch many times and have had some great experiences with great food.

Sadly, the last few times I've been I've had pretty meh experiences. Monday (thank you for being open on a Monday!) I went there with a friend and my husband and arrived at 11:15 am. We waited in line for quite some time (which is totally fine!) and when we got up to the register to order our breakfast sandwiches, we were told that breakfast was no longer served after 11:30 - it was 11:38 (even though the people in front of us were able to order breakfast past the cut off time). Super disappointed and frustrated, my husband and I both got the Curry Chicken Sandwich. The sandwich was beautiful in aesthetics but incredibly dry and flavorless - dry bread with nothing on it and dry chicken with some sliced almonds, no salt, no seasoning, no moisture. I also ordered an espresso drink, which sometimes is wonderful, other times like Monday, it was steamed to just over room temperature. Very hit or miss if it will be good or not. :-/

I'm finding it hard to encourage others to try The Grove or go back myself when my meal is $75 with tip for two coffee drinks, two dry and lackluster sandwiches, and a dry pastry. Also, it's often very cold inside so eating there isn't super comfortable. The staff is sometimes very nice, sometimes dismissive. :-/

I tried to email this instead of doing a public review but the email...

Food prices were on the higher side. Moreover, the customer service was very poor, perhaps due to understaffing? Not sure, but overall we waited for 45 minutes for our food without any acknowledgement or explanation for the wait. Our table wasn’t cleaned until we brought it to someone’s attention, same with the water cups.

We had a lengthy wait time for our lunch, which included three sandwiches, a soup, and a cake loaf. After waiting for about 30 minutes and finally inquiring about our order, we finally received the food after 45 minutes. The loaf was missing, and when we asked about it, it had apparently run out. I do appreciate the server's kindness in offering replacement sweets.

However, given the extended wait and the prices, we were a disappointed with the overall taste of the food. Our sandwiches looked very nice but not particularly flavorful. The soup portion was less than half a bowl for $14, and doused in chili oil. When we asked about it, the staff shared that this was to be expected. It would have been nice if the servers had been more accommodating or acknowledged their delays. The value was missing for the price, and overall the service made it not a positive...

Insanely overpriced.

The polenta bowl was one (overcooked) poached egg sitting next to over-dressed lettuce and a scoop of polenta. Nothing had any relation to anything else on the plate! It felt like one of those "meals" you put together with whatever you have in the fridge that ends up some random things placed next to each other on a plate. For $16 I'm just confused where my money went?

The biscuit sandwich was teeny-tiny. A dry biscuit with (admittedly yummy) sausage and a fried egg and no sides. Again, edible, but incredibly small for the price ($14) and majorly lacking in value.

The baked goods at the front were solid, so maybe just popping in for a snack is the right idea...but again they were on the expensive side.

Finally, the service is superrrrr slow. We were one of only 3 parties there, the others already eating. It took over 30 minutes for our food to come out! The only cooking that needed to be done on the measly plates was two eggs. I have no idea what they were doing with the remaining 25+ minutes?

Overall, an incredibly underwhelming bordering on frustrating experience. I was hoping for the best and excited for a new option in town, but this...