Early Bird Restaurant-Bradburn Village

Reviews 4

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Ryan Soliday

June 17th - Wanted to try something different for breakfast, regret walking in the door. Came in on a Friday around 10, place was pretty hoppin which is normally a good sign. Got seated pretty quickly, space was tight as we had the other tables servers rear-end repeatedly to stare at. We were handed the menus and then our server asked what we wanted to drink - hadnt even had a chance to open them. Drinks came and that was the last we saw our server. 15 minutes we sat there with our menus, at this point we werent sure who our server was. I kept eyeing them as they helped other tables, the hostess kept looking at me knowing we hadnt been helped but didnt take the opportunity to check into it. Meanwhile servers are checking their phones in between tables - thats where my patience ran out. I was about to walk out - luckily my girlfriend went and told one of the hosts that we had been sitting down for almost 20 minutes and nobody had checked on us. Manager overheard and tried to resolve but it was too late at that point. Whos table is this? he asks, servers look clueless. A good dining room manager walks the floor and is engaged with the front of the house. I worked service industry for almost 15 years so Im familiar with a dining room managers responsibilities. Fail on his part. Im guessing most of the better reviews are from locals as this place is located in the Bradburn Village. I cant rate the food as I never had the opportunity to try it. They could have comped the meal and I would have still went elsewhere. This experience reminded why most chain or established restaurants like IHOP are better - consistency is key. We were seated, acknowledged by our server and at one point the manager came by to check on things. Hate to compare this place to an IHOP but that was the reality that day. Service and food go hand-in-hand - you cant be successful in the industry with just one or the other. This place might have good food but the staff really needs a course on customer service. I mean - how difficult would it have been to just ask has anyone been by to take your order? But even that was too much for the host/hostess. And where was the dining room manager? Only appeared once my girlfriend spoke up. But thank you for the opportunity to rate and review my experience. Hopefully future patrons dont have the same experience and this is a lesson learned for the manager and staff. And if you do have the same experience, remember IHOP is just a few blocks west.

AN

Anders Lankford

Great service, a nice place, and an intriguing menu. They have such great potatoes. Everything else was a disappointment. A flavorless green chili topped the mostly flavorless huevos rancheros (guacamole should not overpower the flavor of any green chili). The breakfast tacos were bland, too; again, the guacamole was the standout ingredient. Okay, the guac was very creamy and nice, but guacamole should not take focus like that in any meal unless its a bowlful of guacamole. And Im not saying the guac has a strong flavor or that there was a lot of it, it just had the strongest flavor on the plate--a very simple, slightly seasoned avocado flavor. Also, the hot sauce (made in house) isnt remotely hot or flavorful. You could tell they used high quality ingredients--Im sure the bacon is terrific for those of you who base your breakfast around bacon--but everything was so underwhelmingly flavored. The coffee was weak. Even the music matched the food (the mildest 80s pop, Bryan Adams, Billy Ocean, Huey Lewis, Lionel Richie, that sort of thing). It was frustrating because this place looks so nice and the menu looks so clever, the service was quick and pleasant. Again, all of the components for a terrific restaurant experience were there. It just fell short. Also, the components of the meal were all fresh and obviously very carefully selected ingredients; they boast about making local choices. The meal just had no complexity or sense of balance (I think there was a form of pico de gallo on the breakfast taco that tasted like chopped tomato and nothing else, needless to say, the guac overpowered that too.) My advice is to stick to the simple menu items that dont require any complexity of flavor to work and that highlight one strong flavor. Pancakes and maple syrup are probably great here (I mean the maple syrup is probably very good and even a bad pancake would redeem itself with good syrup.). Bacon here is probably great. The potatoes were out of this world. The potatoes are worth the one star above the otherwise two star meal. I can imagine how one could have a four or five star experience here as long as you order the right items or if you really like guacamole and are the kind of person who could sit down to a bowlful for breakfast.Ask your server for whats good and youll probably do alright.

VI

Viktoria Ritchey

Weve been coming here for two years, very regularly and absolutely love the place, the food and the service. Weve brought countless friends and family with us and recommend it to everyone we know. Today, we came in to get brunch, and were completely appalled at the lack of customer service. We were seated around 11:05am and at 11:55am we still didnt have our food. The people next to us had theirs already, and when we asked our server (Michelle) she couldnt even give us an answer, she completely ignored us saying that it was just busy. We told her wed been waiting for 40 minutes and she then gave us some mumble about a computer issue. Sounded like our order got lost, but she didnt actually come out and say that. She was not apologetic and borderline rude. Its pretty ridiculous from a customer service stand point that we had to ask her where our food was that much later after ordering and instead of giving us a straight answer, she was making it sound like we were expecting something crazy by wanting our food without waiting an hour. We left without getting our food, and will seriously consider whether or not we will be back. Terrible service. Edited to add: After calling the location and asking to speak with the manager, we are even more disappointed. He was very dismissive of the situation and didnt seem to care that your establishment just lost long term customers.

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Leah Knudtson

Awful. Dont waste your time. We have been there twice; the first time, we were told that it would be a 20 minute wait and after 45 minutes of waiting we asked how much longer it would be. The confused hostess said maybe another 30 minutes, but that it could be an hour or more. Wtf?? We left. Today, for some reason, we tried again. We called ahead and they said it would be a 20 minute wait (again...) so we got there in about 20 minutes and the same dumb girl said it would be another 30-45 minutes. Are you kidding me? So we tried going to the place next door, but they had just gotten done serving breakfast. Every other restaurant was on a wait Im sure so we went back to wait it out. I complained when we went inside again and were seated in about 10 minutes. On to the food...this crap is mediocre at best. The prices are pretty high ($11 for French toast/pancakes) and the names are fancy, so we had high expectations. The eggs are fake carton eggs, the "creme brulee French toast" is plain ass, boring, cheap, yellow diner food, the fruit was cut up a week ago...I could go on. Yuck. If you stumble upon this place and theres NO wait, try it out if you like Dennys. But dont ever waste your time waiting here. Youll wait forever for some gross, expensive food.