Cafe Strudel West Columbia — Restaurant in West Columbia

Took my girlfriend here for Sunday brunch on 6-4-17. I had only been here one other time with my brother but we didn't have any complaints.

Walked in, and the place is packed. Hostess asks us if we were comfortable sitting outside; it being 90 degrees, I politely declined and asked for an inside table.

We were seated about 10-15 minutes later, which wasn't too bad. My girlfriend was curious about some of the different coffees on the menu and asked our server some basic questions.

The server gave a simple recommendation about one of the drinks but made a strange comment about how, "oh this one's good but I wouldn't share that.." It just seemed out of place, like she was making some veiled reference to me.

Anyway, I ignored it and we both ordered. About 15-20 minutes later our food arrives. My girlfriend ordered the Tex Med Omelette and I ordered the two-egg breakfast with hash browns, bacon, and toast.

Had no complaints about the eggs or my girlfriend's omelette, but my hash browns were not even cooked. There was literally a pile of lukewarm slimy shredded potatoes on my plate. The toast was also extremely dark; basically charred.

I HATE sending food back at restaurants because it's just an awkward experience regardless of where you are, but I really did want the hash browns to be fully cooked.

I politely asked for them to be taken back and cooked more thoroughly. The server tried to backtalk me about how there wasn't enough "oil" in the pan and "that's just how they cook them sometimes."

Needless to say this was very alarming...

The server took my plate back and returned a few minutes later with, new hash browns? I'm not completely sure if they were new but they had definitely been on the grill longer the second time around because they had now been overcooked.

It was obvious the hash browns were being cooked at much too high of a temperature; with one side being burnt and the top/middle still raw.

Another issue was that I was only given two pieces of bacon and the menu said the standard order was for three. I very politely explained to the server that I was not trying to be pedantic, and I "was not trying to be 'that' person."

The server responded with, "oh there's a good $10 word for you.."

I also ignored this rather blatant comment and simply requested another piece of bacon so I would have the 3.

A few minutes later they come back with some extra bacon. It was more than the one piece like I was expecting which was nice and all seemed well.

My girlfriend and I finish eating about 20-30 minutes later. I also ended up eating the hash browns as I hoped they were cooked "enough."

The server never came back to our table to check on us even one time. There was a period of about 15 minutes where they seemed to disappear from the dining room entirely.

About 30 minutes after we had finished eating, I was finally able to get the check. $37.12 for brunch for only two people.

Later that afternoon I was visiting my girlfriend's house and started having some severe intestinal distress.

I was in the bathroom for almost an hour with extreme diarrhea. I was very uncomfortable for the rest of the day and it has continued into Monday while I'm at work.

I am very displeased with my experience. The service being poor and the fact I got food poisoning from the suspect hash browns.

We will not...

TLDR: Total subpar $70 breakfast. $7 experience. Take note of consistency in the “negative”/beware reviews!

Walked in excited after reviewing online a seemingly refined menu (with prices suggesting you pay for what you get $$$). Totally excited and having a good day, we walked in expecting the best.

That died rather quickly.

We were welcomed by a board expressing this establishments (ongoing, per reviews) predicament of being short staffed. Board also asked for patrons to be kind, which is usually made easier by restaurants having a clue what they’re doing.

Re: being short staffed…this was less easy to observe than experience through the use of the excuse as a crutch; for a small space, there were at least 7 employees in front of house, every last one of which appeared lost, inefficient, and/or possibly high. No problemo, love that, until it means a party of two sitting there twirling thumbs for FIFTEEN MINUTES before a waitress is bothered to make an appearance, only after we stared her down. There were two folks at bar and 3 tables occupied, mind you. On a Wednesday at 9:45AM. I implore you to consider the consistency of this same woe in other reviews. It is true and no fluke. They’d have better luck hiring kindergartners. Or maybe they did.

All that might fly IF the food & drinks were phenomenal.. but.. guess where this is going!!!

The peach/mango mimosa appeared and tasted more like Fanta than Prosecco.. there decidedly was no “puree” in it as advertised, signed a skilled bartender (and actually trained hospitality employee, may I add for the sake of my expressive review).

Anyway, food subpar, shrimp and grits bland but made palatable with Sriracha; not the worst I’ve had, but a star of the show.. grits.. could use some— a lot of— flavor. My mom’s brisket omelet was alright, two dollar upcharge for hashbrowns, which is the sole accompaniment of the omelet. 20 dollar omelet, mortifying.

Rose U, our sever, was… a dormant rose. I’m not sure what kind of torture she perceives customer service to be, but if you guys see her, let her know there are other jobs in the book out there! Who knew. Don’t trip, I still left 30% because….karma. As for this review? Not worried about karma as I’m praying I spare people from such a horrifying operation.

I’m a patient patron who is oh so quick to have grace with struggling restaurants.. but this was meta-ridiculous and I’m left riddled with second hand embarrassment for this joint. I’m most perturbed by their requesting “be kind” on a board on entry, which is endlessly entitled considering they’re doing zilch to EARN the satisfaction, much less grace, of fellow diners.

I’d suspect they would’ve roped off and closed to the public a section of the restaurant if it’s too inconvenient/traumatic/generally too much for the clearly floundering servers to handle.

If I seem like a Karen… imagine that I deal with “those” all day and STILL found this worth publishing.

Wish this business the best, truly, but I’ll be vehemently suggesting alternatives when prompted in...

This is not the first time I’ve had bad customer service here. We placed our names on the waitlist at 12:10 and at 12:39 we were sat down. We were a party of 4. Not a long wait time even though they were busy and it was a Saturday. The restaurant was packed with only 1 or 2 tables available which I knew would be quickly filled. Our waitress never introduced herself and was very dismissive and not attentive at all. It took 20 minutes for my friend to receive her apple juice and 30 minutes for my other friend to get her water. We placed our food orders and waited. I began noticing other tables leaving, while we were still waiting. And tables that arrived long after us, receiving their food before us. Our waitress avoided checking on us to let us know where our food was or how much longer the wait would be. After it hit 45 minutes with no communication from any of the staff as to what was going on, we flagged down a server to have our food checked on. It was then that we were told there was a party of 15 ahead of us, the kitchen was behind and their system went down. Now I’m not complaining about the fact that all those events happened and I’m not terribly upset that I had to wait. What I’m upset about is that this was communicated to us after 45 minutes of waiting. And there were only 4 other visible tables and 11 empty ones. When our food finally came out after almost an hour, it was cold and some of our orders weren’t correct. My friends food came out 5 minutes or so after the rest of the tables and they forgot the egg and salsa on another. As we were wrapping up, we asked for the manager to come over. We waited 5 minutes for the manager to come speak with us. We explained why we were upset and how we wouldn’t have been as angry if we were told what was going on. All we received from the manager were excuses, complaints of their own and she honestly dismissive of our whole experience. She apologized once, said she would discount the order and rushed back to the back. I understand you are busy, I understand your kitchen being behind, but when a table is already upset and you treat them like that it’s not helping we wanted to be heard not dismissed. Our meals were discounted 50%, when it should’ve been free. The waitress came back with the check, didn’t ask us if it needed to be split and barely spoke to us. We told her that we would like the check split 4 ways. She came back and didn’t look any of us in the eye. I’ve heard such good things about Cafe Strudel and I came wanting to support local businesses, but after this it will be a long time before I come back. While we were waiting for our checks to be run, the roof started to leak on us. It was the icing on the cake for the whole experience. We waited a total of 2 hours to be ignored, get our food cold, and to be dismissed by management. We only know the waitresses name because of our receipt, it was Layla. Again my biggest issue, was sitting not knowing what was happening while being hungry. If I could give zero...