The Waffle -- worst restaurant experience EVER
I know that this place just opened this week, so we went in for lunch knowing there would be a few glitches. What I didn't anticipate was, after an hour and a half, leaving without ever getting our food.
I have never walked out of a restaurant in my life. But my experience at this place was extraordinary! When we first placed our orders, we were the first people in the place and noticed that there was a large party getting ready to sit down. We asked if we could put our order in before them. The waitress said ok. And then she left for 15 minutes to take their order instead of ours. Super.
Finally we placed our order.
25 minutes later, it came out wrong.
5 minutes after that, it came out wrong again.
And again.
And again.
After waiting for an hour, and still with no success in ordering an EGG WHITE SCRAMBLE, we called over the manager. He assured us that he put in the correct order. (for the 5th time). And then he vanished.
After another half hour our waitress basically told us that our food was never coming and told us to probably leave because she really didn't know if our egg whites would ever show up from the kitchen. At this point, the restaurant was packed. They couldn't turn a table to save their lives, and we started joking with fellow diners about being stuck like a bunch of hostages.
Unless you are some sort of masochist, avoid The Waffle at all costs.
LilZ
Feb 22, 2008 01:17PM
i was there too! it was like a POW camp in there with wild chickens running around upstairs!
i give it -4 stars.
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Obviously there's no excuse for your experience. But it's worth noting that The Waffle didn't just open this week, it opened yesterday. So you were there on either their first or second day of business. Though you may choose to never go back, I think others who might be interested should still give them a fair shot -- after a requisite ramping up period.
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I owned a restaurant and we had a 'soft' opening for a week to work out the glitches. When we had our 'Grand Opening', all went quite smoothly. There is absolutely no exuse for the situation LilZ had, even if it was a soft opening. It doesn't sound like this place has any competent manager or any qualified staff.
It won't be around long unless they change (drastically).
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And just think, they're supposed to be open 24 hours ... so there isn't even a down time for the restaurant to regroup.
Too bad, Scooter Kafner deserves better than this.
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Yikes! Hopefully things flow a lot smoother next weekend when I plan on going.
~H.C.
http://la-oc-foodie.blogspot.com
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i saw the mention in "daily candy" today but the location is too far east for me to bother making the trip unless a place gets raves, so i ignored it. a friend then thoughtfully e-mailed it to me because they have gluten-free waffles on their menu, and i can't have gluten....but i explained to her that i was leery of a waffle place that offers only one gluten-free item, and prepares it in the same kitchen, and most likely with the same utensils - and cooks it on the same surface - as everything else. after reading the reports/reviews on this thread, something tells me my skepticism is justified, and that if i did actually manage to get any food there, it would likely be contaminated.
think i'll stay home and make my own. i'll bet mine are better anyway ;)
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Reading this is such a bummer. I remember scooter kanfer from the house near Larchmont. They had the best mac & cheese, which I also see on the menu at The Waffle. I know that service is usually bad when a restaurant first opens, but what you experienced was beyond bad--that just sounds like total incompenence. I would usually avoid this like the plague based on the poster's comments, but I have to go there once for the mac & cheese.
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Wow. That sounds like one of those stories you'll be telling at parties for years to come! My goodness! After 5x! How hard is it to make an egg white scramble anyway? And, for the waitress to say you should probably leave? I'm at a loss for words!
I can just imagine your frustration!
Thanks for sharing with us though! I'm no masochist...so I'll just be avoiding the place...
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Good:
- seated fast
- nice waiter
Bad:
- eggs basic
- hashbrowns needed oil
- heard the owner give away 3 meals
I was sad. Nice logo, nice interior, food at the same level as dennys but not as good. I'm satin if I'm gonna get something that basic it better be either unhealthy dennys or the healthiest tastiest greasy spoon.
Hope they get better.
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I saw no mention yet but I'm going to guess the prices don't look like Denny's. I looked at the Waffle web-site last week, but the "menu" page linked to a nice discussion of the concept of their menu, but no menu. In my book, not a good sign....
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Full menu and prices are on their site, here:
http://www.thewaffle.us/iWeb/Site/Men...
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Went there today and agree.
A place that claims to be on the organics-local sourcing bandwagon should at least have fresh orange juice, which they did not. I mean come on, it's the height of citrus season and you're a block from the biggest Farmers' Market in LA...buy some oranges.
Also, major points off for not using real maple syrup (it's served in little pitchers, but sure tasted unreal to me).
Food was way overpriced for both portion and quality, and yes, we got a dish comped because they got the order wrong.
Serving of bacon was tasty but tiny.
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Is this the place at Sunset & Vine? I walked by this morning and it didn't look open yet.
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I was there this morning and had a great time, decent meal and no long wait for the food. Unless you have experience opening a new restaurant where you actually put into effect the training you've been trying to give your staff before the place is open, then I suggest you give it time to sort itself out.It's not easy starting a new place especially when there are particular people out there, ready to scrutinize every negative detail about the place. How about "great bar and lounge area upstairs"?? How about, "friendly serivce"??? How about "gee, I can't wait until this place sorts out the kinks because when I am hungry at 2am this is the place I'll be happy to eat at"???
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How about not subjecting your customers to your learning curve mistakes unless you're offering introductory prices?
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It's on Sunset, one block east of Vine.
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I agree; was there on friday and placed an order for eggs sunnyside up, hash browns, coffee and toast and waited, and waited, and waited and finally got the blasted dish, having lost my appetite, ate it and left....awful experience; clueless waitresses, ordinary environment, prices OK, but would never go back either......i prefer square one anyday.....oh for the days of scooter at the house...
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At the risk of kicking when they are down I'm about out of patience with this place. I want it to be good SO BAD because it truly would be a great addition to the neighborhood - I like the space, I like the location, I like the prices, but the food. Unfortunately it's just ineptly prepared. I have been here twice (see I really am trying to like it), they've gotten my order wrong once and what they did serve didn't match the description on the menu. I've read they are thinking about opening two more of these places but maybe they should try to figure out how to run one restaurant successfully before they open two more. I'm hoping somebody is telling them about the comments on here, because even after two bad experiences I am pulling for them to get it together.
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I went to the Waffle last weekend, and to be the optimist, I would actually try it again in the next few weeks. I had the basic waffles and was somewhat disappointed by the fact that they came out lukewarm. I also didn't understand how a place with such a blatant moniker could serve their waffles with pre-packaged butter. From what I was told the syrup is homemade, but it should have been served warm. There's nothing worse than cold butter and syrup on hot waffles. All this being said, I hope they are listening to feedback and will improve in the next few weeks.
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>>There's nothing worse than cold butter and syrup on hot waffles.<<
Sure there is, (and you had it). Cold butter and syrup on "lukewarm" waffles.
And there's even one worse than that, same two items served on cold waffles.
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We went there for a late breakfast (10ish) before a meeting nearby. I loved the location but do agree that the service and the food are mediocre at best. Especially at the prices charged. We should have gone to Doughboys which is not that far away.
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I hate that this happened you, LilZ, but as with ANY restaurant opening, there are going to be kinks, with food, with service, even with ambiance. Hounders are notorious for pouncing on a place before it's had the opportunity to work out the kinks.
Let's be honest, Scooter comes with a solid resume and The Waffle will turn out to be just fine, in my opinion. If everyone goes back in mid-March, I would hasten the guess that 90% of the problems mentioned here are GONE.
FWIW
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Kinks are one thing. These sound like knots.
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I dunno, Scooter was not getting such hot reviews on her last endeavor.
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I looked at the menu, posted somewhere in this thread, and found no mention of an egg white scramble. Perhaps if you'd ordered something they offered to serve?
(Just kidding -- I get all het up, too, when the Water Grill won't satisfy my craving for chicken & waffles).
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i know you're just being cheeky, but at the bottom of the egg page on the menu there is an "egg whites optional" note ...for the requisite additional charge, of course.
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They do not put the egg white scramble on the menu as such, but at the bottom of the eggs/scrambles section, there is a comment regarding a $1.50 supplementary fee for egg whites on any of those dishes.
Just came back from breakfast meeting there, and I had the pecan waffle while companion had the basic Belgian waffle. The servings consist of two small waffles, and in my case the roasted pecans and powdered sugar atop, while on the Belgian version, powdered sugar only. Small syrup containers needed refilling, and yes the butter was wrapped, yet good nonetheless. Do not blame them for using the wrapped variety, for health dept. reasoning if no other. How many times have you been to a restaurant that uses open slices instead of the wrapped variety, only to discover that the butter had been sitting in the refrigerator since the beginning of time, and was suffering from freezer/refrigerator burn - awful.
Waffles were not overly hot, yet above luke warm, but as we were talking, they were cooling!
Portion size was very appropriate for the $8 price. Doubt you would get similar fare at the Griddle, or maybe Broadway Deli in Santa Monica for any less.
Key question here: Where is the fromt door? All doors to the building look identical. Well, it is the one directly under the sign visible from Sunset.
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I hate wrapped butter. Maybe I just have big clumbsy fingers, but I hate fumbling with the wrapper. I happy to pay a bit more for sliced or currled butter on a small plate.
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I just had lunch there yesterday, and I was expecting a fairly bad experience based on what I have read here. Perhaps it's because I didn't order breakfast, but I really enjoyed my lunch. We were seated quickly (at 12:30pm) and the hostess apologized that only outdoor seating was available. We were greeted within two minutes, and although my iced tea was forgotten, it was dropped of soon thereafter. I had the meatloaf sandwich, which although not easy to eat (meatloaf was not in a perfect slice, so it crumbled) it was still very tasty. The meatloaf was moist, the bread was fresh (I opted for sourdough) and the sauce was a good compliment. I had the coleslaw as a side dish, which was standard but tasty. My date had the roasted turkey sandwich, also on sourdough, and also a little hard to eat. He said it was not dry, and much better than the standard turkey sandwiches. Our iced teas were refilled when appropriate, and when I asked for an extra lemon, the busser returned quickly with three wedges. The bill was $33.24 including tip. I have to say that my experience was good enough for me to return, and soon!
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Hate to add to the barrage of complaints. And, yes, I understand a new venue, and the need to work out the kinks. But our experience was the sheer MEDIOCRITY in ingredients, craft and kitchen finesse.
And I feel bad because I would like the restaurant to succeed, and hope it can get beyond some large midjudgements.
Our food also came out lukewarm - a sandwich with bread that was soggy, and cheese that was unmelted on the ingredients inside. Undercooked french fries.
We're vegetarian, and ordered the really-appealing vegetarian menu options, which really impressed us. But the execution was really -- we thought of this afterwards -- amateurish. We know this is supposed to be "diner food" like in the old days of coffee shops and comfort food. But it was all like someone's home-cooking who doesn't really know how to cook, went to the supermarket and grabbed pre-made ingredients (Boca burgers, fake-bacon-bits, fake-cheese) but didn't have the art to put it together properly.
The sandwich was limp, 2 boca patties inside, grilled onions, unmelted cheese. So ordinary and badly made.
Compare it to Flore Vegetarian Restaurant on Sunset, which has been packed since the day it opened a few months ago. They are doing the same concept of American classics but vegan - a reuben sandwich, un-tuna melt, club sandwich, that kind of thing. But everything is made in their kitchen, the flavorings and ingredients are inspired and interesting, and - I know this sounds like a commercial or I own shares, which i don't -- every bite is amazing. Their sigature salad - also $8 or $9, can't recall -- has lettuce, avocado, hummus, faux egg salad, beets, edamame, is enormous, and the best salad I've ever eaten -- compared to The Waffle's Cobb Salad, which had almost no ingredients, tiny fake-chicken cubes, a few slivers of insipid supposed-bacon flavorings, and really bad mustard vinaigrette that had the artificial sweetness of Smart n Final.
I forgot to mention the onion "rings" -- that were not remotely rings but finely shredded lightly-flour-covered fried onions. They were pretty tasty, but not rings - and nothing like signature onion "rings" at places like The Alcove or Birds on Franklin.
The service was lovely. They graciously recooked the Boca Melt, and ended up not charging us for it.
But the thing in LA is: there are so many choices, and the quality of cooking, ingredients and concept for the veg items was so amateurish in comparison with all the great places -- and for those who are veg, more keep opening up every week -- that we can't imagine an improvement that could be so transformational that we would go back.
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I think you hit the nail on the head, sounds like my experiences there exactly.
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I was curious to see what all the fuss was about and went to lunch on Thursday around 2pm to specifically avoid rush. I ordered a Caesar salad and the smothered hash browns. 3 other tables seated, one of them finished. It took 10 minutes for the salad, 13 for the hash bowns, the server didn't want me to wait for everything at once since I was getting antsy. The Caesar had butter lettuce mixed with romaine and big chunks of Parmesan, the dressing was OK. The smothered hash browns were good, not great and not worth the $9.00 tag. I sat at the counter so I could see the kitchen at work and its problem seems to be getting everybody in sync. Their timing is off. There is also the possibility of literally having too many cooks in the kitchen. You always overstaff when opening places, including the BOH, and too many bodies bumping into each other can throw off the cooking. Give the kitchen some weeks to develop their groove since there didn't seem to be much of a lead time to hire and really train the BOH between announcing the Waffle and opening it. Get the kitchen in order and the FOH staff will usually come in line also. A better kitchen in sync makes for a better FOH staff, unless they're totally clueless. Just so you know, I've worked in the restaurant/food industry for 25 years and have held every position in a restaurant/bar/gourmet retail food establishment, from bottom to top, both BOH(yeah I've worked the line in places similar to Waffle) and FOH, with the exception of owner. I've even worked with Scooter. I'll check back later and see if there's improvement.
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Sounds like this place needs to hire you as an expert consultant, and SOON!
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Yea I hate to say it but the overall experience I had was very mediocre. I went with the gf during Sunday morning to grab some breakfast and to start things off the day was pretty cold. As soon as I walked in I noticed a few people waiting inside so I looked around for the hostess. No one looked like they were taking control of the front so I talked to one of the waiters and he pointed me into the right direction. The hostess took my name and added me to the list and in about 10mins we were seated. The table to the left of us was seated just a 1 minute earlier and the right table 5mins after. As we were seated we were greeted by the waitress and she took our drink and food orders. We got an egg white scramble, steak and eggs ($14 priced very reasonably) and some waffles. After about 10mins the left table got their food. 5 more mins passed and the table to our right got their food. 10more mins passed and then another 5. by the time our food came out the tables next to us had already finished and paid!#!#! it had been about 35-40mins before we got our food. to make matters worse my gf didn’t even get the correct order. Her egg white scramble totally looked yellow which could mean only one thing, yolk. We asked the waitress politely if she could confirm and she left. When she came back she of course said it was egg white only. The fishy part was that the order didn’t even have the correct side which made the matter even more questionable. She then took the dish away to the kitchen and came back with the same one only to reply that it really was egg white only. We didn’t believe her because it was freaking YELLOW so we decided to just cancel it and share my food. Sad part was that nothing was offered to compensate for it. Overall the food was ok, nothing really amazing about it. The waffles were kind of luke warm. Butter was rock solid cold and the syrup was average (should’ve been served warm). The biscuits which looked really good came out cold too. Overall very disappointed. I think the waffles and biscuits at Soup Plantation were better… lol. The place was also freezing and everyone sitting towards the entranced noticed it.
The experience was terrible and hopefully within a few months they’ll be able to get their act together.
I’ll definitely be back to give it another try.
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A link to a Metromix article about The Waffle has been split to the Food Media & News board:
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/500714
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Well, I'm glad to know that the problem isn't with the restaurant; that the real problem is that “Chowhound is a despicable entity".
Earth to Scooter: if people are complaining about the service, then the problem isn't the complaints: it's the service. If you need time to work out the kinks, then do a soft opening, or offer "work-out-the-kinks prices" alongside a disclaimer that you know things are rough, they'll be getting better, in the meantime please have patience. Absent that, it's perfectly reasonable for us to expect professional-level service.
(Not that I have much sympathy for anyone who read how much it sucked, then paid a visit, then came back here and complained that it sucked. I was going to write a post mocking them, but I didn't care enough.)
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Was at The Waffle recently and while I enjoyed my waffle sundae, the service was not good. Waiter forgot one of our orders and was absent most of the time while other servers were chatting it up amongst themselves. I'd still go again though because it is open late and the waffle was pretty good, but will take a more cautious approach with the service.
I'm noticing a pattern with Scooter-K's restaurants, the last venture I tried (The House) was OK food and bad service
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That's nice. It wasn't life-changing or anything, just a decent waffle sundae
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mine was life changing, like i decided to not eat at the waffle ever again as long as I live - ESPECIALLY at those inflated LA diner prices . . .
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The waffle sundae was actually pretty cheap, around $5 if I recall
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my breakfast with eggs, bacon, and coffee came to like 20 with tip
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There's a Denny's down the street with even lower breakfast prices if you prefer, but at ~$5 my waffle sundae was reasonable
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never eaten there - what do you usually get?
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Haven't been in years, but you should be able to get your bacon, eggs, coffee, and a waffle for under $20. Here is a menu for you to peruse:
http://www.dennys.com/en/page.asp?PID...
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are the Denny's in the "east side" better?
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Are you tipping 80% or what?
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Guys...it ain't cheap. If he got one of the egg dishes that come without bacon:
3 egg 4 cheese: $8
Side of bacon: $4
Coffee: $2.25
Total, with 8.5% tax and 15% tip: $17.78
...which is "like 20", near enough.
Despicable entity that I am, I'll probably be eating elsewhere.
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While I certainly ain't gonna defend the place's service or consistency, I found their prices, across the board, to be shockingly reasonable.
The 3-egg breakfast WITH Applewood smoked bacon is $8.00, including a huge portion of insanely good hashbrowns and one of the best biscuits I've found in L.A.
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I agree about the prices being very reasonable. I had the ham, eggs and pesto breakfast, and thought it was a steal.You also get a choice of a side (i got a beautiful bowl of fresh fruit) plus toast or a biscuit.
I was wary about the place based on all of the posts here, but my breakfast was delicious and the biscuit was definitely a winner. I wasn't as crazy about my friend's waffle, and despite the name of the place, I think they do better with their egg and protein dishes than with their waffles.
The service the day we went was eccentric but friendly. All in all, I would definitely go back.
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"Kanfer-Cartmill hopes to open 30 more locations in the future, including several in and around L.A."
I think this says it all, this is a business plan, not a restaurant.
And, sorry, but you can't open with as much hype as the Waffle did and then say it's unfair for people to judge you in the first month. You want a soft opening, have a soft opening...not one promoted on blogs. The internet giveth and the internet taketh away.
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This quote is astounding. I haven't been to the Waffle yet, though I am a local and had planned on it. After hearing an ignorant statement like THAT, I am certain that I will instead continue to patronize the Griddle and grub.
Imagine if somone had said, "Disappointed diners are a despicable entity". Doesn't sound quite as nice or as easy to supprt, eh? Yet the meaning is the same.
She would have engendered a lot more support from me (and, I assume, other 'hounds) if she had said something to the effect of, "we've had a rough start, but I'm certain that in a month or two we'll have are systems all in place and I can make breakfast fun again."
Too bad she didn't.
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Finally went and blogged about it ( http://la-oc-foodie.blogspot.com/2008/03/mini-foodventure-58-waffly-opinion.html ) -- in short, it's not bad but definitely not all that, but kind of disappointing given