Maria's Cafe — Restaurant in Stuart

Update:: as you can see by the response she is again calling me a liar which 100% proves my point, and that my original review is 100% true and accurate. I've included a photo from my banking app in the images showing when and the amount I paid... this restaurant is disgusting in how they treat their PAYING customers. Also included a screenshot of her reply in case she edits or deletes it.

HORRIBLE-HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE TWICE! The first time I ordered biscuits, gravy, sausage and scrambled eggs to go and it literally tasted like a box of grease. The eggs, the sausage... it all tasted of the same grease. I called the restaurant next day and spoke with a guy named Chris who offered to refund the $18+ I'd paid. I thanked him but said since I'm a local I wanted to give them another try so he said for me to write his name on the back of my receipt and next time I came in to show that receipt to the server when paying which is exactly what I did... at that point a very aggressive woman named Andrea came out and immediately started interrogating me loudly and looking all around to ensure other diners were listening and watching and asked me what I had the first meal. I told her two biscuits, gravy, sausage and two scrambled eggs she said "but this receipt is for $18 what you've said you've ordered (as if I was lying) wouldn't be that much so tell me again, what you actually ordered??" again said in a very aggressive tone.... I told her if the total I paid wasn't correct then obviously I was overcharged and that I didn't appreciate her tone or how intentionally loud she was being nor her accusations. She said "I can check back through my records and can find this receipt!!" (again as if I was lying) she then stormed off to inside. I could hear her talking about me to other customers inside and when she came out she handed me a receipt and said "it's taken care of" and tried to walk away... I said Andrea I'd like to show you on my phones banking app the charge that clearly has the name Maria's, the date and the amount on the receipt but she refused to look but when I looked at the new receipt she'd only taken half of the previous amount off the new meal and she'd ran my credit card without me singing for it. I called her back to my table and said this is only for half of what I'd originally paid... she snatched the receipt out of my hand, stomped away then came back with another receipt and said she'd refunded the entire cost of the new meal to which I said but I owed more than what was to be refunded and by you doing this didn't allow me to leave a tip for the server.... Andrea then loudly replied "she doesn't need your tip and we don't need your business" and stomped off. What a loser, I've never experienced such a low class situation at a restaurant ever and just so you know, the new meal on this disaster of an experience was a patty melt and fries. The fries were pale but the patty melt looked good but was no better than the first meal as it too sadly tasted of the same grease, no other flavor, just old grease. Maria's is a decent enough location to sit outside when taking a break from shopping downtown Stuart but the food is subpar and obviously that Andrea...

Every Sunday my wife and I take our 20 year old cat (now with terminal cancer) to eat breakfast in downtown Stuart. Our favorite restaurant did not have any available seating so we decided to try Maria's café- big mistake!

While I was parking the car, the owner sat my wife and our cat Buddy who he clearly saw, as she was in her stroller. The waitress made a mention the cats aren't typically allowed in public in Stuart, even if restrained, but she took our order anyway. The food was good and a few of the young men at the restaurant came to our table and talked about Buddy and were very nice.

Buddy accidentally fell out of the stroller, due to her weak limbs from the cancer, and I immediately picked her up and took her to my chair and held her in my arms for a few seconds while my wife arranged the stroller.

A woman rushed up from behind me, failed to introduce herself as the manager or employee of the restaurant, and emphatically stated that the county ordinance prohibits cats and that they did us a favor by letting us sit in the first place. I told her that she was not correct and the law does not discriminate against cats or any other species. The law per Martin County, Chapter 9, Article 4, Sec 9.90.A, "It shall be presumed to be unlawful for the owner of any animal to permit his/or her animal to be off the owner's property unless the animal is under restraint or control of a competent person by means of a chain, leash, or other similar device, or is in a secure cage or other secure enclosure..."

Per the county ordinance, all animals (including cats) are allowed in public places, if restrained. Buddy had a collar and leash and was in the stroller except for 20 seconds or so. The owner then called the Staurt police because I initially said we would not pay the bill for being discriminated against!

We did pay the bill and the police left as my wife, Buddy and I did not break any laws; what a waste of law enforcement's time. Obviously, the owners of this restaurant are not as "pet friendly" as they purport. The situation would have been better handled by not sitting us in the first place or discussing their concerns in advance.

As owners, they don't have to serve us (they can discriminate, if they choose to do so, although not morally right), but you can't expect someone to follow the rules of their restaurant if they don't tell you what they are; but in this case what the owners told us was completely wrong! In Martin County, pets can be in public places (including cats and any species of animals, if RESTRAINED, our cat was restrained.

Thank you Maria's for ruining our Sunday outing, for upsetting Buddy and wasting the time of law enforcement. Please stop discriminating against cats or any other animals...

I was disappointed, by the food and service. I hate to write reviews like this, but this place needs help. I could have chalked up slow service, or unavailable menu items to personnel shortages, or product delays, but the problems here were not that. We had a few different types of drinks, between our group, and I will say that the server did a good job at refilling our coffee, albeit, we were right next to the coffee machines. Our other beverages went unattended, which typically servers would observe and ask if we would have liked any more, but they didn't, even when our table requested, the refilled beverages never arrived. To make matters worse, all of our plates had food items that came out, from the kitchen, with either cold or room temperature. When mentioned to the server, she took the cold grits to the kitchen, and immediately returned with hot ones. My colleague was impressed by the speed, mentioned he guessed they were microwaved, not replaced with fresh. The even worse frustration was with the cold soggy fries that accompanied my patty melt. When reported to the server, she apologized, and said more would come right out. Nearly half an hour later, when my whole party had finished our meals, still no replacement fries. While receiving the check, I inquired about what happened. The response was the worst part. The server had told us that since the kitchen was serving breakfast, it confused them on making the French fries. This was concerning either because she had forgotten to request new fries and was lying to cover her mistake, instead of just being honest, people make mistakes, or, truly, the kitchen personnel, whom had just used the fryer to make fries, were having issues doing what they had done a hour earlier. Either way, bad service, and disappointing food. I...