I wish I took photos, but I didn't think this far at the time. But, since talking to other diners of Cafeen/Park's Edge, I feel the need to warn people.
I had been there several times, but only for coffee. Since having meals, and spending more time there and hearing the staff's responses to issues, I will never go there again.
My biggest issue: they do not respect dietary preferences. I am vegetarian, my fellow diner has stricter dietary restrictions, but merely expected to receive a vegetarian meal. Instead she found a significantly sized piece of ham in her scrambled eggs. I would have been livid, but she handled it far more gracefully than I would have. I had to bite my tongue when they reacted so nonchalantly.
Two orders came wrong, no cutlery when our breakfast arrived (eggs don't stay warm long) and service was extremely slow. The waitress confirmed that she put the order in correctly, so the kitchen was to blame. We let it go.
We then ordered dessert, thinking it would make up for everything BUT the waffles came burnt (black) and doughy, the pancakes came burnt and rubbery (two people ordered waffles and two ordered pancakes ALL of them were burnt).
We spoke to someone senior. The response, "That's how we always serve our waffles and pancakes" / "We go by the recipe and if that's what the recipe says then..." (Shrugs) / "we receive very little complaints." In other words, they have no intention of changing the way they serve it. Blaming the recipe is ludicrous... The restaurant controls the recipe and what it produces, the recipe doesn't control the restaurant. I've never heard such a complacent response.
The response to the ham in what should have been a vegetarian meal: "we are not a halal restaurant so..." (Shrug). Fine, but I am VEGETARIAN, and I ordered similarly, so had that been in MY meal, would they say "we are not a vegetarian restaurant so..." (Shrug)? Similarly, if it was someone KOSHER would they say "we are not a kosher restaurant so..." (Shrug)? Or should I assume they're only apathetic towards halal? Either way it's still WRONG and disrespectful of people's dietary restrictions.
We/People with dietary restrictions, are aware that we cannot eat everything from any restaurant's menu, so, for the sake of the people that we are dining with, we go out of our way to choose or design something around our dietary restrictions, and restaurants usually respect that... I was appalled by their response as a result.
I have spoken to several people and those who have been there all complained about the service, even the regulars, who are only regulars because they live around the corner. Just because people don't complain doesn't mean there aren't complaints.
The fact that there was so much wrong in one visit, I cannot see fit not to warn people considering going. The view/setting is all that I can say was good, but it really wasn't enough to make up for everything else. There are plenty of restaurants in the area. I have visited many of them and will return to all of them. This is the only one that I will never return to. Hope this helps anyone considering dining in the area
