Our Place Cafe — Restaurant in Wetumpka

Went out tonight with my wife to celebrate Mother’s Day early. We chose Our Place because last time we went it was very very good and we had an excellent server. For as good as it was then it was 10x worse tonight. The service, food and staff (server and manager) were a 0 out of 100. We will never be back.

What I hate from a restaurant is when you’re ignored, left waiting for over an hour for your food and then told that your food is good, even when you’ve told them multiple times that it’s terrible. That’s what we experienced tonight. The server was trying to manage 14 people upstairs while downstairs we saw customers get their meals and leave within 30 to 35 minutes.

We were brought greasy, food stained and dirty silverware, and then told that it was just water spots. The manager came by twice to offer us a free meal and then never deliver on our meal. We just couldn’t wait long them out. I was not impressed.

When you start with a 20 minute wait just to have them take your order, you know you’re in trouble. I’ve lived in 26 countries and eaten all over the world and OUR PLACE in Wetumpka is in the top 10 of the worst places we’ve ever been. If you are going for a special event do not go here.

No need to respond, even if free it isn’t worth the gas it takes to drive there. Your manager made it clear we were not wanted, that we didn’t know the difference between blue cheese (allergic) or horseradish.

Pictured are the dirty silverware and $18 burger. I’m highly allergic to Blue Cheese so I opted for the regular smash burger without it. Yet after a small bite my throat started to itch. I informed the server who went to get a plain one. After 10 min he returned to tell me I was told me I was wrong and the manager Jamie came up to tell me I was liar and don’t know the difference. I consider myself quite the chef. (Others too) We walked out after 1 hr and 10 min with no food. Jamie never even tried to make it right. Other diners asked us what happened and we shared it with them. They mentioned they were seated before us and still didn’t have any food. We wished them luck and left. Your staff failed you tonight. I guess Jamie and Race would rather be right than courteous and fix the problem.

For the owner who responded

With all due respect, you were not there last night and you don’t know what they served me. Furthermore, would you rather I just wait and eat the whole burger and have an ambulance call so you can have me taken to a medical facility about a half an hour away? I know what you served me and it was blue cheese. But you know what gets me is that rather saying OK let’s fix you another one without it or put it on the side. You just chose to belittle me and treat me like I didn’t matter. My wife’s meal Was not a good meal, she ate the plain baked potato because it was OK and she ate some of her fish, but the plate came out, floating in grease and butter, and she left most of her meal. We were looking for a decent experience you made it a nightmare. Rather than admit, fault or take this as a learning opportunity for your staff you chose to tell the customer that they’re wrong again and that I’m a liar. I will never visit your restaurant and I’ve already shared with my friends in my community that this is not the place to go. We all have bad nights for food isn’t what it’s supposed to be, but you did nothing to make it right, you made no effort to make it right, you put more effort into demonizing me and calling me a liar than anything else. A comped meal that will put you in the hospital is not worth the risk. I don’t think you’ll ever understand that and that’s why I’ll never return to your restaurant.

Lastly, i’m not surprised you chose to make this entire response about the fact that I’m a liar and don’t know what food taste like. You neglected to even address the fact that we waited over an hour for some fried fish and a burger? You response was exactly like your managers, rude and disrespectful. F the customers they...

Disappointing Experience Under New Ownership.

First, I want to be clear that I rarely write reviews. I also understand that you cannot please everyone, no matter how hard you try. I was hoping so much that our visit to Our Place would be just as great as it has always been for so many years. Additionally, I was rooting for the new owner to do great things with this time-tested Café, so that it could continue to be a bright spot in Wetumpka for many years to come. Unfortunately, this (obviously) is not the case.

Our Place Restaurant has earned an outstanding reputation for the past two decades as being a quaint upscale Café with a rustic atmosphere and consistently delicious food—especially the steaks, seafood and pasta. The She Crab Soup has always been a #1 favorite of mine. My significant other and I recently visited the restaurant for the first time since the new owner has taken over. What a disappointment! We could tell from the moment that we walked through the door that things had changed….and NOT in a good way.

The staff, mostly dressed in t-shirts, jeans, and sneakers, did not present the level of professionalism one would expect from a restaurant of this caliber, nor what we have grown accustomed to. We didn’t receive the usual friendly reception or basic courtesies like complimentary water, bread at the table, or freshly ground pepper. This has been the standard in the past. Actually, there was no salt or pepper offered and there was none on the tables. The appetizer, She Crab Soup, tasted fine, but unfortunately, it had shells in it. After about 35 minutes, some bread was FINALLY brought to the table. This was after we had already finished eating our soups and salads. Even the bread is not the same as it used to be. No longer a crispy bread that you break and eat. It was some kind of doughy soft concoction with sprinkles on top.

We were then hoping that the entrée would be great! No such luck! It was also a disaster! The two ribeye steaks, ordered medium well, were only cooked long enough to reach RARE. The broccoli / vegetables on the side were overcooked, had a light yellowish tint to them and were soggy. The only thing on the plate that tasted and look good was the baked potato. Reluctantly, we sent the two steaks back for additional cooking, both were returned to us still undercooked and the kitchen kept my baked potato. Come on guys, you can do better than this!! The place was not busy at all and this was on a Saturday evening. They seemed to be over staffed and both of the women behind the bar were texting or playing on their cell phones while snacking/eating. This is not professional or appropriate in my view.

The overall experience felt rushed, and at $150 this was a very expensive disappointment. We did not eat the steaks. We paid the check, normal tip and left.

We will not be going back again. Others may want to think twice before they do as well.

Final comment: I do not think for a moment that the folks in the Wetumpka area will support this kind of nonsense at this price point. The owner really needs to pay attention and be present at the restaurant (in person) if she is wanting to be successful here. One of the many reasons that the business has been so successful in the past, is that the Owner was present! He was on the job! He would personally come out of the kitchen in his chef attire and speak with the guests. He wanted to make sure that the dining experience was what you expected and that you were happy. He made sure that the staff were very friendly and were appropriately dressed for the job. They also had to be engaged in the task at hand…not on their...

This place used to be really good and the fried green tomatoes and crab claws were good but, the service was horrible from the moment we were finally seated after about 30 min (which was understandable being new years) once we were seated we could see that the server was not excited to have us in her section I guess because we are younger and she probably assumed we weren't going to tip well. Whatever she thought about us you could tell she didn't want to be bothered with us and as such had a real dry/aggravated personality.

She didnt stop to check on the table except for when taking our food orders which went like this; she took appetizers and drink orders then 20 min later when she brought the appetizers she refilled the 2 people that got waters and i had to drink the rest of my coke quickly cause she had to reuse my glass instead of getting another. She didnt get our entree and salad order until she came and got our empty appetizer plates which was another 20 min. Once we got the salads we sat 25min waiting on the steaks we ordered. We watched our server pass by our table multiple times and never checked on drink refills (we started refilling the ice and water ourselves as we were sitting by the drink station) she never offered or brought bread to our table (we wouldn't have known about them having bread except all of her other tables had bread).

Then the steaks finally arrived 1 out of 4 ribeyes were cooked correctly the other 2 medium-rare steaks were so undercooked that the meat was purple and the meduim-well was actually medium-rare and they all 4 were bland and flavorless and chewy like rubber. They were so bad that we all only ate one bite. We brought this along with the service issues up to management that said that they could take them back and put then back on the grill but that if they were over cooked that they couldn't un-cook them(which we didn't understand the reason for the un-cook statement since ours were undercooked) we declined the offer to throw it back on the grill as it wouldnt fix the fact that it was chewy and flavorless it would have just made it worse.

They then acted rather indignant about it and never once offered an apology for such a subpar meal and dining experience. Once we got the check they had charged us the full 34 dollars for steaks that we only were able to eat one bite out of and even after pointing out that along with the bad service they gave us 10 dollars off each steak so we basically paid 24 dollars each for one small bite of undercooked flavorless steak. This place used to be good with a warm friendly atmosphere but i guess since they have had some success its gone to their heads.

Tonight was my wifes birthday and thanks to the fine folks at our place cafe for making it so horrible that she didnt even feel like doing the other things we had planned to do. Instead we all just went home. She looks forward to when we go out to eat on her birthday each year but your attitudes and actions took that from her this year and even though she would just say forget about it. I wont, we will not be dining there again and along with this review i will tell everyone i possibly can about the awful service, the steak that wouldnt be fit to be served from macdonald's dollar menu as well as the indignant management that cant muster up the humility to even offer an apology for either. I will do my best to let people know that they should spend their money at a more...