Old Mill Cafe — Restaurant in Washington

CHANGING MENU TIMES AND BUSINESS HOURS, OVERPRICED FOR THE AREA, AND IN NEED OF SIGNATURE FRY SAUCE:

No all-day breakfasts or all-day menus; the menu changes at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. So don't go to the 'cafe' expecting to get breakfast in the afternoon; it is not that kind of cafe. In fact, whenever the suggestion of Old Mill Cafe is made, I instantly question if they'll be open since it's happened more than once where we pull into the parking lot and they aren't opened; they're just like Washington State government -- closed on Mondays.

Here is how the menu times are shown on their website (copied & pasted):

Breakfast 8am to 11am Tues. thru Sat. 8am to 1:30pm Sunday

Lunch 11am to 5pm Tues. thru Sat.

Dinner 5pm to 7:30pm Tue. thru Thurs. 5pm to 8:00pm Fri. & Sat.

Closed Mondays It's probably just me, but I find the arrangement overly confusing. If it were categorized by day instead of meal times it would make more sense, especially if all the days of the week were shown; not only does it help with reading and processing information to see all the days of the week listed, but it adds data/text/content for searching.

So it is a small disservice the way the hours are displayed on their website and it goes in my 'con' list when it comes to a business's presentation, because it does deter me from going when I have to decipher their hours. Considering it's a place for regulars though, I doubt anyone cares because everyone who goes there already knows the hours; I don't think anyone would take issue about such a thing but me.

As it stands right now, the hours on Google don't reflect the actual business hours; something I will work at editing. It's also something businesses should be more aware of and the importance of having current information on Google.

It truly makes my head hurt reading the hours though, so this is my clarified version to offer a solution, should it help anyone else as much as it helps me:

MONDAY: Closed

TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY: 8am - 7:30pm 8am - 11am Breakfast 11am - 5pm Lunch 5pm - 7:30pm Dinner

FRIDAY, SATURDAY: 8am - 8pm 8am - 11am Breakfast 11am - 5pm Lunch 5pm - 8pm Dinner

SUNDAY: 8am - 1:30pm Brunch

At least I think that's right. That's why it's always good to call first.

As far as food goes, it is hit and miss because it really depends on what you like; I know people who love it while it's not my favorite. It's sophisticated gourmet style food that looks healthy when it's mostly overpriced, or so I think. $16 burgers is not the place for minimum wage earners and this isn't ritzville, minus the people who move here with their money and pensions; it's also too much food for too much money. Businesses only do me a disservice when they expect me to spend more for more when what I want is less for less.

The french fries are good gourmet-style fries, but they have no house-made sauce for them. They need a sauce! The ketchup was the most rank ketchup I have ever tasted, and I do not make it a habit to have ketchup with fries because I hate ketchup, but those fries needed something so I settled for what there was. Dunking those quality fries in their table ketchup ruined them. For so much gourmet food, they should consider upping the quality of their condiments.

If they have a house-made fry sauce they didn't offer it; and if they don't have one, they should. It would be a nice signature addition to their menu that nowhere else would have.

They should also remind their cooks to clean the grill before making a grilled cheese sandwich so the sandwich doesn't taste like whatever was cooked on the grill before it. It was not the best meal I've had there and they usually aren't due to my own particular tastes, but other people really like it so I go and do my best to give it another try, which I'm sure I will do again.

I've never had their breakfasts though, so maybe that's where the jackpot is, rather than burgers and...

We arrived here towards the end of the lunch rush--it appeared that most of the people were seated had their food already. The atmosphere was somewhat interesting-a bit of a tribute to a nearby defunct saw mill. The person greeting people and taking names for the waiting list seemed flustered and unfriendly. We had a party of 4 (2 adults and 2 kids). She indicated that it would be about a half an hour. We decided to wait--big mistake! One of the parties in front of us decided to take their name off the list, so we actually got seated a little quicker than expected. Our waitress was friendly. We ordered the Old Mill Burger with a side salad, The Clark Farm burger with fries, a grilled cheese sandwich with cheddar cheese and fries, and chicken strips with fries. Pretty easy order, so we thought. We waited, and waited and waited. People at several other tables came and went while we were waiting for our food. During this time out waitress was nowhere to be found. Finally, after 45 minutes, the waitress brought a tiny side salad, two tiny plates of fries and a cup of clam chowder to tide us over. She said our meal should be up soon. It's almost 1:30pm at this point and the restaurant only has a few tables that are still occupied. A party of at least 7 that came in long after us, had received their food and were already enjoying their meals. Finally, 15-20 minutes later our meal was served. The burgers were small and unseasoned. The Clark Farm burger is advertised as 1/3 lb but was about the same size as the old Mill Burger, (which was about 1/4lb) and was not seasoned at all. The Old Mill Burger was bright pink and barely warm in the whole middle section and also was not seasoned--I only took a few bites out of this since it was not fully cooked and I really hope I don't become ill. The grilled cheese was served with white thin slices that tasted like cheap Swiss -(like Kraft Singles quality) definitely not cheddar, and the chicken strips tasted like cheap grocery store frozen chicken strips. The only food that we enjoyed were the fries. Much of the other food was left on our plates since it wasn't palatable. My husband said the chowder was decent. They did comp the one burger that was not cooked all the way, and the one cup of chowder that they brought out (that we didn't order). However, that doesn't even come close to making up for the poor service and dreadful food. I hope the owners see this and make some changes, otherwise I'm sure their business will...

Okay. I am going to be as honest as I can to describe our first time experience here. (All ethnic backgrounds be wary of this place!) After a fun and exciting trip to the Olympic Game Farm, we (fiancé, toddler and myself) decided to stop somewhere local and grab a bite. Looked on maps and found this cute place with great reviews and positive ratings. Everything was great in the beginning, we were greeted nicely and our waitress took our orders.

We were waiting for a total of about 25-30 minutes and during that time, a table of two sat next to us. We looked around and we were practically the only ones with a very hungry toddler and of a different ethnic background (black and Asian) than everyone else (white). Once our server dropped off our beverages, we never were approached again. Our drinks were disappearing and as it creeped closer to 30 minutes, my fiancé mentioned that if the food doesn’t come out by then, we would just leave. A minute later, a server comes out with what I thought were our food, but it ended up being for the table of two who arrived about 8 minutes after us.

Two more minutes pass by, and finally two different employees approach our table, which were NOT our original server. One of the ladies held a fruit platter and cinnamon roll (which we did NOT order) and offered in a sense, as a peace offering due to “the server not putting in your orders”. So, not only were we not checked on once after our beverages, but we would have to be forced to wait even longer for our food.

My fiancé and I kindly appreciated and thanked them for their gesture, but with a hungry toddler on our hands, we rejected and decided to leave for a quicker option.

Now we completely understand that mistakes happen and are very forgiving, but the least you can do is check in on your table and personally inform them of what happened. We were not rude nor showed any sort of frustration, we would of just preferred to be considered and informed. My fiancé believed that it had to do with being from a different ethnic background and expressed that to me, which we had confirmed with other genuine and nice locals. This was the first time that we have ever experienced something like this especially with...