Hobee's — Restaurant in Sunnyvale

Let me start by saying that this was not my first visit, but ny second in a week.

On the first visit my food was awful. It had no flavor and the house potatoes were badly burned. My server was however very polite and when I shared my concerns with him, after I mentioned them to him he told the cook, and afterward we talked about some things that he really liked. Sometimes you strike out, so I decided to give it another shot.

Today I went back and noticed the place made egg free pasta. I thought that was pretty awesome, considering allergies and sensitivities to food tend to make eating out difficult. I ordered the pasta with with salmon in it.

Towards the end of the meal, the waitress came by and I told her I noticed the egg free pasta on the menu and was cuirious which brand it was. She said she wasnt sure so she went to go and ask the cook. When she came back she said that it was only some of the pastas that were egg free. Im the first to admit when Ive made a mistake so I asked to see the menu:

"All Pasta Dishes Are Made With Egg-free Pasta."

There it was, plain as day. No harm I thought, maybe she was new. She came back to the table with a bag of pasta, not sure why the menu said it was egg free and explained that it wasnt egg free pasta. "Sorry about that" she said. I politely asked for a managers business card. She said she didnt have one, and there wasnt a manager available. She did give me the number for the corporate office. Something told me to call another store to see if a manager was there. The person at the Mountain View store I spoke with told me there should be a manager there. I mentioned the waitress told me there was no one there and she back pedaled....really? There was no effort on the part of the staff to empathize with what had happened, I dont think she even understood the gravity of the situation.

This isn't really about the fact that they sold regular pasta. It's about the fact that there are falsely advertising an item that they dont in fact produce which isnt just deceptive, its CRIMINAL, and begs the question of what else is on the menu that isnt actually what it says it is. I ended up with a stomach ache and a lesson learned about trying new places. What if I was rushed to the hospital? Its just negligent, and gives a bad name to small businesses. The owners should be ashamed...

When I got home from work this evening, my wife announced that she wanted our customary Friday night "date" to be at Hobee's. We've been to the Sunnyvale location several times, as it is very close to our house.

Upon being seated, the first thing the waiter tried to do was close the blinds. We objected. (Mistake #1: My wife LOVES sitting in the sunshine.) If the blinds were going to be a problem, we should have been reseated. It was therefore obviously a known thing to the waitstaff that my wife liked sitting in the sunshine.

We made our order and the food was quite good, as it always has been on our visits.

Then, a family with children came in, and was seated in the booth next to ours. They made the "mistake" (#2) of asking for their blinds to be opened.

Another couple across the aisle immediately protested. The family with children should have been reseated so they could enjoy the sunshine.

However, not only did "Jan" close their blinds, she closed ours as well, over our protests. (Mistake #3) We won't be treated like second-class citizens.

Our waiter, "Elena," would not come back to our table to serve us when she saw this happen and apparently noted our obvious unhappiness. (Mistake #4)

"Jan" not only cost "Elena" her tip, she cost Hobee's our dessert order, maybe another couple of glasses of wine, and two customers who eat out a lot. She also purchased a lot of negative publicity.

Ignorance of how to treat your customers is not bliss, when there are so many restaurants to choose from in our area. It's a shame we can't choose this...

2.0Star Hobee's

We came in for brunch, hoping for a satisfying meal, but unfortunately, the experience was far from it.

The Mountain View Special Omelet had nice, fluffy eggs, but the sausage and vegetables inside were bland and unappetizing.

The “World-Famous” Blueberry Coffeecake was a major disappointment. It was dry, very dry, lacking any lemon zest or freshness. It tasted as if it had been sitting out for days.

The Lemon Blueberry Ricotta Pancake although came with plenty blueberries, lacked both aroma and flavor. It tasted flat and uninspired, though the syrup was surprisingly good with a balanced sweetness.

The bowl of chili soup was flavorless and bland, even worse than a canned version.

To make matters worse, we found a string of HAIR in our omelet. Our waitress, who was kind and professional, immediately brought it to the attention of the General Manager, Melissa. Instead of handling the situation with care, she sighed in relief and dismissively said, “Oh, it’s not a hair, it’s just a hair-net.” That response was shocking and unacceptable!!!

We paid and left, deciding never to return.

While the waitstaff was excellent and friendly, the food was overall disappointing—flavorless, lacking freshness, and in desperate need of improvement. But what truly ruined the experience was the manager’s dismissive attitude. A restaurant’s reputation is built not just on food but also on how it treats...