Cafe Joul

This is a superb find! Everything we ordered was fresh and delicious. The staff was warm and friendly and made us feel at home - many diners from various tables seemed to know each other. Love the photography exhibit that they currently have up. Very cool that they sell these changing works on a regualr basis. Wine list has some interesting picks and good values.
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Tuesday, September 25, 2007

EXTREMELY BAD SERVICE! Five friends and I went to Cafe Joul for Sunday brunch on 3/11/2007 and were disappointed with both average food and extraordinarily poor service. Our orders were very slow to come to the table, which would have been perfectly acceptable given the size of our party and the Sunday brunch rush, but the waitress also made a mistake with one of the orders and said the kitchen would have to re-cook it. She barely shrugged off an apology, and certainly didn't offer our friend any extra bread or another drink while he waited, so he sat there with an empty place in front of him while the rest of us had our food for over 15 minutes. At the end of the meal, we decided to leave a 10% tip rather than our usual 15-20%. Stunningly, the waitress and her manager actually confronted us on our way out, exclaiming that they "tried their best given how hard it is to wait tables," and "even if we didn't have a good experience, it's still not right to walk out without leaving a tip." Of course, we *did* leave a tip, just a smaller tip than usual, but the waitress and her manager didn't count the bills on the table correctly. After pointing out their error, however, the manager still felt the need to confront us about the size of the tip, and in front of other patrons, no less. It boggles the mind that these are people who make their living in food service, and that they assume 20% tip is given and not earned. We will certainly never be back.
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Jeff
Tuesday, March 13, 2007