Golden Nest Pancakes & Cafe — Restaurant in Sun Prairie

They have really good food, usually a good atmosphere but unfortunately this last trip it seems they may have some racist/biased staff. I was deprioritized three times on my last visit. First when being seated, second when being waited on by the waitress, third when requesting a manager. The waitress that served me on a number of occasions deliberately passed my table and took care of others which caused me to wait longer. Full transparency it was just me, party of 1. I had to ask for things a couple of times and that stuff normally happens when things get busy. It was different when I noticed I asked for a box when I finished my meal, she walked away and walked to the other table first and they made a request, she walked to the back and walked back out and fulfilled their request first without bringing me a box at all. I then ask someone else for a box once she saw me asked someone else she quickly brought the box. I also assume that she believed I would not tip her due to her bias. Finally, it was time to pay the bill. And I asked another waitress for the manager to speak to. She went to get him. I didn't know who he was so I waited. A gentleman walked up but I didn't know it was him, he then walked away. The waitress that waited on me came and I paid the bill and added a tip almost the same amount as the bill. The manager came back (I realized it was him but he hadn't acknowledged me the first time he walked up - the 3rd incident, he said he wasn't made aware I was waiting for him however I believe that wasn't completely truthful. He had a smirk on his face and looked around at the waitress that told him I was waiting). I explained to him what happened about me being deprioritized and apparently he saw i was a party of 1 and some of what happened. I mentioned to him about the unfair treatment and bias and that in addition to her bias she believed i wouldn't give a tip and I did, however that doesn't excuse that toxic behavior. I let him know I tiped her double anyway despite her service, and he was floored himself. Almost as if he had the same bias. I said yes, you should never assume and treat people differently based on what you believe you think they will do. He said he would discuss with her, however if he was also demonstrating this same behavior as a member of management I'm not sure how much hope for the restaurant overall there is for folks who fit the profile that would experience this bias.

I typically don't spend time writing reviews, but I felt the need to caution people who could experience this type of bias who fit a certain profile. I had hope for this restaurant because of the good food and environment. Unfortunately, without good people with a mindset to treat people equally and to learn how to manage their unconscious and conscious bias, I may no longer go to this restaurant or recommend to my friends, audience...

Stopped in for breakfast this morning, was told there was a 10-15 minute wait and we were seated in 10. That was nice. From there, things went downhill. I ordered the strawberry cheesecake pancakes, a side of corned beef hash, and a coffee. My wife ordered the wild mushroom omelette with hash browns, I tried a bit of both her items. Our waitress did not seem to want to be there, and once our food was delivered we didn't see her other than when she dropped the check off as we were taking our first bites and when she came to collect payment. The other staff popped in to fill coffee once or twice. The food was all very disappointing, unfortunately. The pancakes looked nice but lacked flavor. They had a sticky red sauce drizzled all over them that had no flavor whatsoever. The cheesecake filling was fine but there was not enough of it to taste with a bite of pancakes. The coffee tasted watered down. The corned beef hash was weird. The corned beef on its own weirdly had little to no flavor but with the rest of the hash, there was flavor. I suspect all of the flavor came from the grilled onions in it. The bites of my wife's food that I tried weren't better. She did get a lot of hash browns but they weren't seasoned at all and left my lips oily. Some salt improved things, but not as much as I'd like. The wild mushroom omelette had a thick layer of cheese in it. The mushrooms tasted overcooked and brought a smokey flavor to the omelette. Finally, the eggs of the omelette were dry as if they were overcooked. Since our waitress mostly ignored us once we had our food, there wasn't a chance to provide feedback. It cost $25 per person for disappointing food.

EDIT FOLLOWING OWNER RESPONSE: As I mentioned, I did not have a chance to speak to the manager because our waitress ignored our table after our food was delivered. Furthermore, a customer should not have to speak to a manager to get a decent meal, it should be default in a restaurant. Finally, calling my experience "perceived challenges" sounds a lot like victim blaming. I suggest the owner take a long and hard look at how they respond to...

My family and I are visiting friends in the area from California and our friends took us here for breakfast this morning. The service was good up until the end where our waiter failed to inform me that the 18% tip was already added to our check before I paid. When we asked for the check, its was handed over to my friend so I never got to see exactly how much everything amounted to and that the tip was already on the check ( there were 4 of us + a 15 month old toddler who didn’t order anything on the menu because my husband and I shared our food with her since she’s a picky eater). When we were ready to pay, I asked to pay with Apple Pay. When the waiter ran the card on the system, he proceeded to hand me the machine which asked me to give a tip ( when he knew very well an 18%/$21 was already charged as a tip). I took the machine not realizing the tip was already there and I proceeded to calculate an 18% tip of the total of the charge on the machine. The waiter was standing right next to me clearly seeing I’m trying to calculate an 18% tip but he doesn’t say anything. I even commented to him that I have to us my calculator to calculate the tip because my math isn’t good, and he joked back and said “me neither” but still doesn’t tell me the tip is already add. After calculating the tip I proceeded to hit custom tip and put in $25 tip which was 18% of the total receipt. He still doesn’t say anything. I still had no idea I had double tipped until he brought me the final receipt after the payment went through. In all he ended up with a $46 tip that wasn’t given with my full acknowledgment. I feel ripped off and misled. In our area they at least verbally alert the table that a tip is already add to avoid customers unknowingly tipping again. I hope this establishments would do things differently and better next time because this is not ok. How is a table of 4 count as large party just cause we asked for a high chair for a toddler who didn’t even contribute to the orders made? This is...