The Village Bakery & Cafe — Restaurant in Woodside

Unbelievably poor service and very average food. We dined here on a Saturday afternoon. It was not overly busy but there was an event on the back patio that they did not seem to have prepared for adequately even though it had clearly been reserved well in advance. As a result, we were kept waiting an hour with no service except for water refills. No coffee refills. The only ordered item they brought out was a cinnamon roll from the bakery. Couldn’t even get us their very generic fruit salad (which was supposed to be kiwi and clementines.) We were told they were behind because of the patio. After an hour we complained to the waiter and asked for our meals to be expedited. They came out about 15 minutes later, lukewarm, meh. The food’s not bad but it’s not worth waiting for. It’s average at best. When we asked for the check the waiter showed me the bill on his handheld, including the mandatory 20% tip. Nothing had been comped, and no apology had been made. I told him I was surprised by this. He said he could take 1 or 2 things off the bill. I asked him to remove the 2 most expensive dishes. He said he’d have to check with the manager. Several long minutes later he said the manager was busy with the party on the patio and would come by in a little bit. At that point I’d had it. I said I was not going to wait any longer. He could remove the two items from the hill or I would walk out the door without paying and he could send the manager after me. He adjusted the bill. We got up and left. I told a staffer at the front of the house that I would like to speak with the manager. She went out front and got him. He was not busy, he was standing around. I explained the situation and made my dissatisfaction quite clear. I told him the bill had been adjusted but there was no excuse for the poor treatment we’d received. The servers were highly skilled and there were plenty of them. To us this was clearly just incredibly poor management and consistent disrespect for customers. The manager did not convince me otherwise to say the least. This is not a place worth visiting. The food is average at best and the service is...

I would highly recommend this place. The atmosphere was very nice and quite and the decor was very nice. The decor goes really well with the woody setting that is around the area. My girlfriend had a really well mix drink and I nice Zin. The service was on top of taking care of the table and had a very well understanding of the menu and how things are prepared. We had the Heirloom Tomato Salad, which was very will presented. The balsamic had great flavor. The fresh basil created a nice balance with the tomatoes and the balsamic. The Tomatoes were a bit hard and were not quite ripe. But overall the dish was still good. For a main I had the salmon that was very well presented. The salmon was presented with the nicely cooked skin up on asparagus and a yellow corn fondue. All very well balanced. My girlfriend had the Gulf Prawn Orecchiette, which I would say I was blown away by this dish and would say it was dish of the night. The pasta was really well cooked and all the flavors working together really well. The nice garlic taste that was not over powering with the lemon zest. The prawns were cook perfect and not rubbery. The red swiss chard seemed odd a first but totally worked. It add nice color to the dish and add another element to the dish. I would highly recommend this dish! For dessert we had were torn, so we had the lemon tart and the Ricotta Bombolini. The lemon tart did not have the lemon as punch as I would have liked. The Ricotta Bombolini was excellent. They were very fresh and warm and the jam added the citrus flavor to balance out the sugar for the ball. This simple dessert was great. This is a must for dessert.

I will be returning...

Giving an extra star for ambiance. I feel bad leaving a review that reflects on all the staff but I have to leave an honest review about my personal experience at this establishment.

Came here to celebrate my Dad’s birthday and multiple exchanges with the staff rubbed me the wrong way.

We waited for a table we reserved online for 10 minutes. It was crowded inside the waiting room so most of the group waited outside and we didn’t see we could get a complimentary mimosa while we waited. So a few of us went back to get a mimosa after being seated and a man with a long beard gave us a hard time about it because we weren’t “waiting to be seated.” Nobody should be shamed by someone providing customer service. That’s a fundamental.

We spent over $300 for our group between dishes, drinks, and desserts. But the servers kept asking if we would order more things like drinks and dishes and desserts. They had a “that’s it?” attitude.

We told the server it was my Dad’s birthday and the server said we don’t do anything for birthdays but we could order more for dessert… then someone came after and gave us a free cookie for my dad. Kind of related to my second point. But it seemed like they wanted us to order more dessert before knowing if my dad would get anything for his birthday.

I dislike establishments that are surface level nice but really just pretentious and treat people like walking paychecks. The food was fine but not worth more than a one time experience for the ambiance. I hope they can shape up and treat people who visit in the future with more authentic...