Breakfast at Valerie's — Restaurant in Vancouver

Decided to check this place out after a recommendation from some friends of ours, and I can safely say this will be the only time I step foot here. There's a line for breakfast which is no big deal, however maybe they should have a sign letting people know that YOU have to sign in so you can assure yourself of getting a table! There is no bus staff to clear the tables, so the wait staff does it when they see fit to getting around to it. Several tables were available to be cleaned during the 50 minute wait to be seated. Instead of servers cleaning tables as people finished eating, they wouldn't be cleaned until 5-10 minutes later, but they made sure to pick up their tips!

Once we were eventually seated we put in our drink order with one of the staff members. She brought over waters, juices and silverware and napkins. I noticed that she hadn't brought my son's drink so I commented that he ordered an apple cider. She responded "I know. I only have two hands to carry all of this stuff." When she brought his cider, she sits it heavily down on the table and walks away. How about handing it to him since he was the one who ordered it?

Our food order didn't take long to come out once we were able to put in our order with our server, which wasn't with the same person we place our drink order with. Once our food was delivered that was the last time we saw our server until we had to get her attention to bring our bill. If a place is that busy during peak times, maybe there should be more staff scheduled to handle the rush! I was really looking forward to eating here, but given the sub par service and funky attitude of the person who seated us, we'll...

My partner and I decided to give this place a visit this past Saturday for two reasons: First, we are very early morning folks and they are open at 6 AM (score). Second, they had a decent rating on Google and Yelp.

When we walked in the visual impression of the environment left a lot to be desired. In the long haul of the space it felt like after throwing a ton of kitchy signs up behind the counter (granted some of them are really funny) they got overwhelmed. While this made me pause, I decided to give them a try anyway since we were there for the food. I should have trusted my first instincts.

The options on the menu were plenty and my partner and I both went for the breakfast combos: cinnamon french toast, scrambled eggs, and bacon. What we got was cold to luke warm french toast with a bunch of cinnamon all over it (it literally made me cough, there was so much); flavorless scrambled eggs (glad there was hot sauce on the table); and hard as a rock bacon (neither of us could get through more than a piece).

The service was, well, chaotic. One person sat us (more live waved us over from across the long room and walked away), another brought us water, another said she would be right back to get our order, and then yet another was the one to finally get our order (and she seemed either new or just really skiddish).

I truly do not understand the appeal of this place. We weren't asking for much and frequent places like Stardust Diner and Sunny's Diner. This is neither of those. We'll be waiting until 7 AM until one of these open...

This used to be my favorite place to get breakfast in all of Vancouver and Portland. I understand that Valerie sold the restaurant. That was her choice. I do not fault her for taking an offer that made her life better by her own definitions. That said, Kitchen Table was already a really bad facsimile of this restaurant. Now they own it. They can leave the name all they want, but it is now Kitchen Table. When I first heard that they bought it, I reserved judgment because I was told while there would be some changes the food and portions would stay the same. That is obviously not the case. The menu is different, they took off things that I've been getting there for 5 years or more, and the portions are smaller. The repainting of the walls is so depressing. I understand they still have more work to do, and maybe it'll look better. I'll come back again in a few months just to see what it looks like and have some closure, but I highly doubt I'll ever come to this place as often as I used to. Today I only recognized three faces. My conversations with the employees, their joy is gone. They're still friendly, they're still professional, but all of their smiles are forced. Sure, it was work, but you could tell they had fun with it. Not anymore. I'll give it another shot after they've had time to finish the floors and decorate the walls a little bit. But I already didn't like Kitchen Table. This is no longer Breakfast at Valerie's. This is Kitchen Table. They have turned it into exactly what I hated about...