Across the street from my best friends beautiful Santa Cruz home is this little gem, delicious brunch place: Harbor Cafe. A place where happy people come to be happier, if that's at all possible. The food is everything you could want in a burger or sandwich. The fries even come in polenta style or regular. I myself, did not dig the polenta fries, however, was glad I tried them! Mimosa Molly, our server was the star of the show. Molly was a "little fairy of goodness" who brought us ever lasting mimosas..until 2:00pm (when they closed :-). The cafe is one of my favorite spots in downtown Santa Cruz and I recommend it to everyone who wishes to nurse an enjoyable evening prior or simply wants to experience the kindness of Mimosa Molly!

A French Disconnect

I was very much looking forward to Chez Spencer since I had such an amazing experience last time. My love and I met old friends and they love it there too. We arrived and we were told we were 15 minutes early in a funky toned voice. That's cool, we knew that and we were going to wait. They couldn't hang on to our bottles of wine we brought. I finally had to ask the bartender to chill one for us while we sat at the bar and waited for the rest of our party. He was not exactly thrilled to be there. As I think back the only one who seemed like he wanted to be there was the one male server assistant who did not know what he was doing because he was probably new :( It was really odd, when we were ready to sit I went over to the hostess and let her know then we all just kind of stood there looking at each other (her included), she kept repeating that we could just hang out at the bar if we wanted, after I repeated that we would like to sit at our table, LOL.

So we sat and well, I could just complain about the service until my hands turn blue from typing so I won't. Service seems to be a huge problem over the last few days all around. The food was just fine. Foie Gras was to die for. Scallops were alright. The duck was over cooked and bland. It is Liberty Duck which tends to be more difficult to mess up but apparently it happens. We had to ask for our wine to be opened (seems to be a theme for this weekend). Quite possibly service staff dislike when consumers bring in their own wine because they think that cuts in to their tip since there would not be as much alcohol sold. This was not the case with us since three out of five were drinking wine while the other two were ordering drinks.

There was not a whole lot of space on our table of five people so when I told the server my boyfriend and I were sharing but she did not need to bring another plate she was rude. Half way through our meal, she was at the bar (having a staff "end of shit" drink?) and then was gone. So...no server now?

For a special restaurant that is very nice in the style of the place, the menu and the perception; this night was bunk. With the economic troubles everyone is going through, restaurants should nurture the patrons they have because one would think it is word of mouth and now social media that will spread news and tell people where the great places are. People are becoming more picky when they spend their money now. At the same time after going out more and more I am beginning to wonder if the staff in restaurants are taking their jobs less seriously because there is always something else if it does not work where they currently are....

Carneros Bistro: To eat or not to eat breakfast....

I frequent the Carneros Bistro and always enjoy it. I keep it on my "nice, high-end food and wine restaurant" list so naturally all of those restaurants are higher priced. I made reservations for my guy, best friend and myself for this morning. They seemed a bit busy when we arrived; we waited a few minutes, no biggie. Our server came over to us after a few minutes (about 8) of us seated. I saw on the menu the "table side Bloody" for $12, I Thought I ordered that when I ordered a Bloody Mary but that is not what I got... so it was alright. I asked our bus boy for Tabasco and Worcestershire sauce and he was so sweet (Balti was his name) he pulled out a mini Tabasco bottle from his pocket and made us all laugh. I asked for the L and P's and he must have over heard me say "I won't be a pill and ask for horseradish" because he came back with a little ramekin with L and P's mixed nicely into the horseradish. Nice.

I ordered the Carneros Bistro Eggs Benedict, looking very forward to delicious poached eggs and the sweet potato hash. I was finished with one when I realized I was so hungry I dug in without noticing there was no hash and it was ham. So it was wrong. Not only was it wrong, the eggs were over cooked and the holidaise sauce was broken and glazed over as though it sat under the heat lamp for a few minutes (and possibly the eggs were cooked right and they sat too long and became hard), potatoes were hard, dry and gross. They were obviously made for the buffet and dried out since it starts at 7:30 and we were there at 10:30am.

My best friend ordered the Petaluma eggs and sausage which comes with toast. The server never brought the toast. The eggs were hard and dry and they looked and tasted like they sat out in a hotel pan for an extended amount of time.

My guy ordered the brioche french toast. There was not batter. It was like grilled bread. They either dipped it very quickly in runny egg batter or only part of it; whatever the case it was completely half done and not worth $12.

My guy mentioned to our server that my order was wrong and that my friend never received her toast. she pulled out her pad and said "oh, I thought you said Classic Benedict". Well I know I mumble sometimes but I am pretty sure that when I said "I would like the Carneros Bistro Eggs Benedict Please" that is so clear and not possibly mistaken for "Classic". No apology either. She dropped our check quickly and did not ask if she could get us anything else. We sat there for 20 minutes and she finally came back and said "do you need change or anything?". Service standards are supposed to be much higher, in fact I know they are higher for the Marriott and this was so disappointing I will not return for breakfast/brunch ever.

We continued to sit there and chat and after paying $70 for three people to eat a Much less than mediocre meal we were not even refilled on coffee or water.

While this may be a fluke and it's New Years Day and as my friend mentioned, they were probably hung over, well, the customer does not suffer because the service staff or kitchen or manager (which was nowhere in sight) is not feeling 100% because they partied....

I had gone before for brunch and was so excited to have a great meal with my best friend whom I never see, I picked Carneros because I always love it. I am so disappointed and feel totally ripped off. I will always go back for apps or dinner because Danny works nights and he makes sure everything is always awesome. The whole staff and management in general seem to have a better handle on things. Morning time on the other hand is completely unorganized, scattered and obviously okay with serving cold, half done, over cooked and dried out food.