George's Cafe — Restaurant in Winter Park

This is a hard review to write, because I really enjoyed their Puddsy sandwich, but I was completely disgusted by the toxic atmosphere of this café. The cashier was rude, plain and simple. Not to me, but to so many others.

When one gentleman complained about a miscommunication over his cookie order, the cashier gave him sarcastic answers about his order. Regardless of whether that customer was right or wrong, it's completely unprofessional to mock a customer.

In another instance, a male customer asked if the restroom was open/vacant, and the cashier gave a dismissive answer, something to the effect of, "I don't know if it's locked or what. I have no idea because I've never used the men's room." How does this help the customer in any way? Why don't you politely encourage them to check if it's open, or check yourself, rather than doing nothing about it?

The worst offenses, however, came with her treatment of fellow staff. When someone apparently made a mistake of including a salad with the wrong order, she raised her voice and gave aggressive remarks to her coworkers that felt more like a verbal beatdown than like constructive discipline. For example, even after the little rant ended, the issue was brought up again some minutes later and she said that there would have been "big trouble" if that order was done wrong. No doubt one would feel upset if staff almost ruins an order, but you don't have to treat your coworkers like dirt. Plus, this sort of business should be handled in private anyway.

A few minutes later, a separate incident arose where the cashier had a conversation with another colleague, and the two openly questioned why another staff member was still on the team. I can't remember specifics, but it is horrible to talk behind someone's back like that, especially when customers are within earshot. This is the kind of gossip that you expect to hear at a middle school cafeteria table- not in front of customers.

This place needs to completely transform its work culture. Keep only the employees that are enthusiastic and respectful to each other and their customers. It felt like I was eating dinner at home with verbally abusive parents, so I just kept my head down and ate my sandwich. If I hadn't already paid, I would have walked out the second I saw people treated with such malice.

Yes, the counter got busy. No, that's not an excuse for bad behavior (not that it matters, since they were rude before it got busy anyway). I would be more inclined to understand if they made a regrettable comment in the heat of the moment while having a bad day or week- we're only human, after all. But the repeated examples in such a short time confirmed to me that it's more of a bad habit than an honest mistake.

Don't support this place until they give their workers and buyers the respect they deserve. No sandwich or salad is good enough to stomach a...

Living in Winter Park gives one an endless variety of tempting places to eat and we finally had a compelling reason not to postpone trying George's today: Our fridge is on the fritz! ...(and we're afraid to open it before the GE service rep gets here in two days!) It's a popular place with an order line that would test some personalities (like my husband's ;) He went back outside to choose a table. Charm, music, and whimsy are in abundance though, to keep the mood up before the food arrives. We suspected portions were ample, so we had planned to share the "Havana" sandwich with a side of fries and frest fruit, along with a cup of chili and a giant chocolate/walnut cookie. Boy, did we err. It was huge. We brought home the chili, homemade *chips, and the cookie. Everything was excellent except the menu description said the Cuban sandwich was made with "slow roasted loin of pork," which meant to me, perhaps slices or pulls of meat. All I recognized was the "Cure 81 ham and Swiss cheese" also promised, warmly melded together. It was still good, and did I say Large? I asked the waiter if the chips were their version of the French fries we'd wanted. He said, "No--Those are our Homemade potato chips," like who would want anything else? It was a little startling how he then rushed off without inquiring if the missing fries could be brought out. It wasn't important enough to be difficult and besides the chips were crisply satisfying. I tried one more question: Next to the chili was dense dark bread with chunks of nuts. Is this the big cookie? I asked, and learned that it was banana bread that came with the chili. He hustled back with the hunk of a cookie--which is still sitting in our kitchen. The bread was yummy and I'm sure the cookie will be, too. So, maybe now, I "get" George's: It's a little unpredictable, but it'll be so generous, you won't care much. It offers an excellent casual change of pace on Park Ave. And I take it, that even if your pooch isn't an English Bulldog, it'll still be most...

It's not possible to leave a mixed review, so I'll do my best to justify the rating. Let me start by saying the food was EXCELLENT! The PUDDSY sandwich was amazing. It was the service that brought the rating way down. We walked in and sat down at the counter. A gentleman pointed out the side dish options and then disappeared. A woman came out to bus the tables and never said a word. We sat there for about 5 more minutes and saw people in the kitchen but still nobody said anything to us. After a few more minutes a man came in and the woman that was busing the tables asked if she could help him. As he started to order I walked over, excused myself for interrupting, and mentioned that we had yet to be waited on. It was only then that the woman pointed out that you had to order at the opposite end of the counter. That would have been useful information to be aware of - but nobody told us. We placed our order after the other gentleman had finished - he ordered a sandwich, sides, and a desert item, It was brought to him in less than five minutes. We ordered a sandwich, sides and a desert item and waited, and waited, and waited - more than 15 minutes. How hard was it to make a sandwich. In addition, the 3 people there seemed to be confused about a lot of things. Service...