Woodbury Cafe — Restaurant in Woodbury

Dined in with three other friends for breakfast around 9am after a 5 mile jog. We were excited because the food looked great. Greeted and seated by hostess, waitress came, served us a cup of water and a thermo full of coffee, she gave us a little time to decide and came back to take our order. We never talked to our waitress after that. It seemed like just a normal busy restaurant for a Monday morning. There were no waiting line as we were seated immediately. There were three other people seated beside and after us, also assigned to the same waitress. We waited approximately 30-35 minutes, the three people beside us had already received their meals. We even noticed that people seated on the other side of us that were seated after us but assigned to another waitress also received their meals.

So I walked up to the hostess and asked her to check why we’ve waited about 30-35 minutes and most of the people after us have already received their meal. She asked me to show her where we were sitting and I did. She said she would check on it. We never heard from her again, but I did see her whispering to our waitress but don’t know what she said. Waitress never approached us to let us know food was ordered and coming even after I assumed the hostess mentioned us to the waitress. By this time I had already drank three cups of coffee. I checked my friends watch and it was 10:06am. We had been waiting patiently for an hour without no reassurance from either hostess or waitress. I saw the waitress walk pass our table, I immediately followed her and just asked her from behind “did you put our order in” while she slowed down to glance at me, by this time I was ready to walk out. She immediately responded “yes I did” in a rushing manner and walked away. What seemed like about 5-8 minutes after I asked her, she came directly beside me to ask the single male if he was ready to check out. She picked up his check and walked away. I thought she was going to reassure us that our meal was coming but again she walked away. Everyone that sat beside us and came in after us that we can visibly see had received their meal and was either ready to check out or almost done eating. I was furious by this time!!!

I picked up my wallet and we walked out. I don’t know what happened that morning with the waitress, cooks, the whole restaurant service…maybe she was having a bad morning, who knows, but it is common curtesy as a public serviceman to reassure and apologize for potential slower service or whatever the case maybe so customers can understand the situation. Had we been assured by her we would have probably stayed even if it took over an hour, given we were hungry.

I speak from my personal experience, given I was a waitress at one point in my life…I have never walked away from a table and never checked again on them….and I’ve worked in busy restaurants too. I am still a public service provider just not in the food business and til this day and I would never act this way…just walk away and never check on my customers/clients.

I gave one star simply because I understand the food looked great and I hate that We didn’t get to try it, but I wouldn’t give any stars for the terrible service we received that day. Maybe my business isn’t a loss to the restaurant because We were just another customer but all I know is that I won’t be coming back and I’ll make sure to let my round of community people to be aware of potential bad...

I came in with my family after my daughter’s basketball game. We had a party of 7. We were very patient and waited awhile at our table- approximately 10 minutes before the server came. At that point we were not worried because we were enjoying each other’s company and weren’t concerned about not getting service, as the last couple of times of being there in the past, it had been great.. but, this time was far from that. Our server brought us water and we were ready to order since we had waited so long. We ordered drinks and food. About 20-25 minutes later our food arrived and we still had not received our beverages. The food runner asked if we needed anything, I told her my meal had not come yet. 15-20 minutes later, everyone was close to finished eating, the server came back and asked how we were doing- I let her know our drinks had not come and we asked for more water, as the small glasses of water we received were all empty , AND I still had no food. She came back with the 2 juices a couple of minutes later, with out my food, or the chocolate milk for the kids (and at this point they were completely done eating) , or more water. The food runner finally came with my food. Everyone was done eating. We asked for the chocolate milk and water and the food runner brought it about 5 minutes later. The server came and asked how we were doing and asked if I wanted a cinnamon roll for here or togo for the inconvenience. I declined as we just wanted our check and to leave. I had lots to do today and wasted over an hour of our time here waiting for things. When ordering I tried to split our checks into two families, we got 1. There were extra charges on there that we didn’t order so I had to stand up front to get it taken off and checks separated. While I was up front there were other complaints of waiting 30 minutes for refills, which felt extremely familiar. People mopping and doing side work up front apologized and blamed the server; and said she was new. They called a kitchen (maybe supervisor or manager) to come and talk to me. He asked me what the issue with the bill was, I explained the extra charges and tried to explain the service issue, and it was ignored by him: My question, is why were there so many people doing side work and 1 server and 1 food runner helping every table, while most tables were left with very little service to them. Woodbury cafe is not a cheap breakfast place. They have good food which should come with good service for the prices. Needless to say, I was very disappointed. If they were short staffed, I completely understand, but there was a girl rolling silverware, a girl sweeping and mopping, and a host seating people. They had cut the floor and left this “new” server to fend for herself, with no help but that of this food runner. The servers name was Susan. I do not want all the blame put on her, but there was no help, or recognition to the people that were not getting service, and no amount of team work or care that they were still open. As we were trying to leave a couple walked through the door asking if they could still get service, I wanted so badly to tell them it is not worth it- as I saw the person that greeted them ask if they can seat them, and then the supervisor or manager from the kitchen helping me had checked the time and asked someone else while ignoring the people up front. It was...

This is our second time back here. The first time here, a year ago, I thought it was a bit expensive, but the food was very good, and our server at the bar seating was great.

This time, we we're seated quickly, that was good. Our server was very friendly, but that was the best part of this visit. First, the prices are exorbitant! Though that is somewhat to be expected with the current economy(side note, I warned everyone that I could, two years ago before the election, this would happen but stupid people didn't know any better!) Still, it is even a bit more expensive than Key's which is two miles closer to us. Ok, I ordered a standard 2 egg, bacon, hash brown, toast breakfast. I asked the server if over-easy eggs here have the whites cooked? She said, "over-easy are very runny!" I ordered over medium. They came out Hard Fried. I tracked down the server and asked for new eggs that were not overcooked. She was very nice about it and said that she would get new eggs. When she brought the new eggs, she said, "I think they overcooked them again." I cut into one, and it was overcooked. She offered to redo them again. Well, the rest of my food was already cold by then, so I just took the overcooked eggs. The bacon tasted fishy to me, but the single slice of toast was good, and the hashbrowns were fair, not crispy, but ok.

My girlfriend ordered Avocado Toast. Eggs on top of Avocado on ciabata toast with some lettuce and cucumbers. There was very little to absolutely no avocado on her avocado toast. She is not the type to ask for it to be fixed, so she just ate it. Although the server was very nice, she offered no discount for my eggs being cooked wrong twice. This would not be that bad except when you are paying top price for a standard breakfast it should be made to exacting standards. This is not Denny's. Where actually you get a better grade of food much cheaper. For the cost, this should exceed chain restaurant quality! Over $42.00 w/tip for two standards breakfasts and 1 cup of coffee is ridiculous, even in the current administration's inflation.

I pride myself on my restaurant reviews, and if you read them, you will see that they range from 1 star to five stars, but there are many 5 star reviews. So, I am not a complainer. I just call it like it is.

We will not be returning to this restaurant again.

Update: Went to, Not Justa Bar and Cafe in Bayport, last Saturday. Same meal: 2 eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, and toast, cost $10.50. That's $7.00 cheaper. The eggs were done perfectly, there were 2 slices of toast, and the hashbrowns were crispy. Our server went above and beyond for our table of 8 adults and 1 child....