Famille — Restaurant in Westminster

I’m sad to have to make this review because I had been to Famille once and really enjoyed it. But this last experience was abysmal. I went to brunch at Famille and recommended it to my friends who met me there on Saturday before a movie. From the moment we got there we could tell they were short staffed. I was also shocked to see that there was no host, busser, person filling waters, or food runner and that the wait staff was expected to do it all during peak brunch hours with a full restaurant. There were about 4-5 tables that were available but all had not been cleaned off yet so we waited about 10 mins to be seated even though we had a reservation. Once we sat down, the waitress came up to us and asked us what we wanted to drink immediately upon sitting which we were not ready to answer so we asked that she come back in a couple mins. It took about 15 mins for her to come back and I don’t think it’s her fault because she was running around like crazy trying to clear tables and run food and put in bar orders and take care of all her other tables. This seemed like a management issue. We then put our drink orders in and we’re already out of water for about 10 mins and had to stop someone to ask for more. I got coffee with cream and it took an additional 5 mins to be able to flag someone else down to ask for sugar.

We then decided to put our food orders in immediately when we got our drinks as other tables were complaining about how long it took to get their food and ask for sides like ketchup and mustard. One man at the table next to us even got up and asked the bartender two times for side sauces after asking for them and not getting them for over 10 mins.

When we got our food I was extremely disappointed. I got the pork belly Benedict expecting that the fattier cuts of pork would be cooked to a crispy yummy texture that is expected of fattier pork belly. Only to get the pork belly delivered with a 85% fat to 15% meat ratio and the fat was blubbery and looked like it hadn’t been cooked at all. I cut off all the fat and tried to cut through my egg just to find out it was hard boiled instead of the poached runny egg you would expect. My friend did the same and also had fully hard boiled egg. The English muffin on both of ours were so hard we couldn’t cut through them with our butter knife’s without breaking a sweat. We asked for new poached eggs. We both then took a bite of our breakfast potatoes and gave each other the same look as they had the texture and consistency of reheated French fries and were extremely dry. It honestly seemed as though everything was reheated.

As if this were not bad enough, my friend ordered from the omelette bar and under the toppings it lists a bunch of veggies and says “$2” a bunch of cheeses “$2” and meats “$2” which to any sane person would read get whatever veggies for $2 get whatever meats for another $2. She got all the veggies that came under it, bacon, and one cheese expecting that it would cost an additional $6 on top of the $12 for the base cost of the omelette just to be told that her omelette actually cost $24! She was charged an extra $2 for spinach $2 for mushrooms, etc and no one told her when she was ordering that was the case.

When we finally got the bill, my friend had a mystery “non-alcoholic beverage” charge on her bill and we all were billed correctly so knew it wasn’t ours when all she got was water so they had to fix it. In total, our meal took us about an hour and 45 mins and we ended up being late for our movie because it took so long to get service and correct our food issues. I ended up barely eating any of my food and was really disappointed. I’m not one to leave a bad review and know the wait staff was doing their best. But the long service wait times alongside the bad food and my friend being charged so much extra made me realize I need to call this out so that something can change. I used to really like this place but it was enough to make me not want...

One might imagine that a restaurant with such nice décor, such an interesting menu, and high prices, would offer an experience akin to fine dining. Unfortunately, except for the high prices, that is not at all what we received at Famille.

My wife and I had previously enjoyed a brunch there, so when my father came to town and wanted to stay at the Origin, we talked up Famille as a great place for a celebratory dinner (we hadn’t seen each other in a long while).

When we arrived for check-in at the hotel, we popped over to Famille to get excited about dinner. We might have guessed how things would go from the virtually empty dining room we found, at 7p on a Friday night. It was already dark out, and we noticed the lights were bright white like an operating room in the restaurant. I told the host we hoped to dine there but had expected a little more ambiance. She looked at me like I had three heads and asked if I had a medical condition. She finally placated us by dimming and then readjusting the lights to a level imperceptibly different from the original condition.

We tried to shrug it off and headed towards our table. The people eating next to us had two small children. We enjoy the sounds of children playing so thought nothing of it. As we neared the table, however, we realized that each child was watching a different screen with no headphones and the sound full blast - imagine Elmo and Teen Titans screaming at each other throughout dinner. In retrospect, we should’ve moved, but we’re not accustomed to fussing, so we just did our best to enjoy ourselves. The staff were completely oblivious.

The server introduced herself to our table and assured us that Famille has a great chef. Just to see if we could move the needle on the experience slightly, we asked again to dim the lights. The server walked away and performed the same trick with the dimmer, changing nothing. When she returned, she took our order - no they’re out of the appetizer we wanted, oh yes, and the wine, but not to worry the bottle at the higher price point is always available.

To make an already too long story shorter, the food we were served was subpar for suburban dining (which is to say poor) and served cold to boot (even the fries, even as one of only perhaps three active tables in the entire restaurant, even with many servers standing around with nothing to do.)

Anyway, we don’t often have lousy dining experiences, but this was really bad. I only give it two stars because there is no good reason why such a nice looking restaurant with such a fun looking menu should perform so poorly. I’d qualify the experience as bizarre, like an episode of...

My husband and I went here for a date night. We were looking forward to trying a "fancier" restaurant that was also local. The inside of the restaurant has a decent vibe with some pretty decor. It could probably benefit from having the lights turned down a bit and not being quite so open. It doesn't feel super intimate/private for a date night, but I'm not sure that is the goal of this restaurant.

The service was great. We loved our waitress. She was hilarious. I returned my first drink, and she was a good sport about it. The staff actually worked together to try to figure out what drink would be best for me and the incorporated humor into the process which was appreciated. One of the managers (or at least I assume she was) also came over to ensure I had a drink I liked the second time. I would say that without the excellent service, we may have rated this place a 3/5 overall.

The food was decent. It was great and wasn't horrible. It was just okay. For the price of everything, I would have expected to really enjoy my meal. The portions were decent, but nothing really impressed us. My husband was so excited to try the brie appetizer, so he was bummed when he found out they were out of it. The mac and cheese which the waitress said was one of their best items came out look dried like it had been sitting under a warmer for too long. There was a yummy cheese sauce at the bottom of the plate that I could mix in, but there wasn't enough sauce. The meatballs with burrata were good. The french dip was nothing special. I'm not sure if there was too much bread to meat or the wrong kind of bread...it just was not worth the price. The french onion soup was bland. The fries were also decent, but nothing special like you would expect from a restaurant with these prices.

My first drink was terrible. It's partially my fault for ordering it, but malibu rum is a weird choice for a drink at a nicer restaurant. It tasted like something from a college party gone wrong. The second drink, The Last Word, was enjoyable. I also appreciated that they didn't charge me for the first drink even though it was my fault for ordering it. The second drink was a spritz. I don't really have any complaints about it either, but I probably wouldn't order it again just given the cost to how much I enjoyed it.

Overall, we left unimpressed despite having a good time due to the excellent service. We don't plan to return which is a bummer because it would be nice to not have to drive downtown for a...