Cottonwood Cafe — Restaurant in Sisters

I want to love this place under the new owners as much as I loved it when Jen owned it, but it went downhill this past year. Downhill is tough when you're talking about a favorite restaurant. When the owners of Chow in Bend acquired the restaurant they made changes...as you'd expect. They removed my favorite dish...Hash it Out (downhill). They confessed to me that they did some cost cutting and got rid of the high quality teas (iced and hot) (downhill). They got rid of the wiki sticks for the kiddos and replaced with crayons for scribbling on the kids menu (no coloring page) (downhill). The artwork by local artist Dennis McGregor removed and replaced by the Big Lebowski artwork of Chow (not exactly downhill, but less local.). Most importantly, the food in general isn't as good as it used to be and isn't even as good as Chow in Bend.

After going there almost every week under Jen's ownership, I'm having trouble getting myself to go back at all. This morning (1-13-2018) we finally went again, hoping they had figured things out and brought it up to the level of Chow in Bend. Not yet. After a bizarre and confusing interaction with the host followed by a 30 minute wait, we were seated. My hash this morning missed the mark. The house potatoes were so over-cooked that I needed a knife to cut them (out of fear of a slip that would launch my potato across the room). The corned beef had the consistency of jerky. Two poached eggs, one overcooked with hard yolk, the other under cooked with runny whites. The cooked onions, usually mixed in, were served on the side. Go figure.

With all this being said, it isn't a bad place. It just isn't as good as it used to be, nor is it as good as it's sister restaurant in Bend. Some of the menu items are the same, but the same dish tastes better at Chow (I ate the same Hash at Chow last weekend). I don't won't them to go away, I just want them to up their game and get good. They could be really good...we know because they once were.

Given that good breakfast choices in Sisters are limited, I'm going to keep hoping these new owners will get it together. Maybe I'll try again in a...

So the place was crowded and there was only one waitress, which is understandable and quite common these days, but we were in no hurry. She recommended the corn beef hash and it was excellent, but cold, warm would have been fine but I did have them reheat it and it was still just lukewarm when I got it after waiting ten minutes. My wife asked for crispy bacon and it was anything but that, sent that back, but it came back with maybe half the bacon crispy. The worst part was a table with 4 women cackling and carrying on as if no one else was in the room. Our ears were actually hurting. It was so loud in that small room I finally yelled out " Keep it down", but they didn't even hear me, the people at 2 other tables were thanking me, but it did no good. There was an open table in the back room and the young girl who waited on us was very considerate and moved us to a different table. She was fantastic and was tipped well. Our friends that live in sisters recommended this cafe and i'm sure this incident was not typical. In my mind, the owner or pic should have stifled the women at that table early on as it was quite unpleasant for literally everyone else eating in the cafe. Guessing there was alcohol involved. Hey, I'm up for a good time as much as anybody but it was extremely rude behavior and should have been stopped. Afraid we won't...

We chose this restaurant because of the great reviews and photos. We were planning on taking out our food so we called 40 minutes ahead, where we were put on hold for 5+ minutes while we heard everyone talking….thinking they forgot, we hung up and called back. After several more tries, we finally reached another person who told us to call back in 10 minutes. By that time, we arrived at the restaurant. My husband put in our order and we were told it would be ready in 10-15 minutes, although we were doubtful as there was a line of people out the door. Fast forward 1 hour, we finally get our food, which was cold, incorrect, and disappointing. I ordered the local, and instead received 3 small boxes…1 had ham, 1 had burnt bacon, and 1 had scrambled eggs. No potatoes, toast, or fruit (we ordered that as a side). My husband got corned beef hash, and it was mostly potatoes with some cold beef on top. He said it tasted like it was cooked in plastic. I really had high hopes for this restaurant, and don’t think taking-out our order should have resulted in this experience. $40 for what we received and we ended up stopping at the store on the way home to...