Stone Park Cafe

12/20/09

Good food, but a no go

by shacked at Citysearch

My girlfriend and I went here for brunch yesterday and unfortunately we will not return. She had been there many times and always had a fantastic experience. Let me start with the good. The food was fantastic. Fresh and very tasty. My Bellini, while 9 dollars, hit the spot and the fruit puree used to make it was top notch. Unfortunately our waiter was the problem here. He was smug from the start and treated us like garbage. After we sat down i noticed that our table was very wobbly so I asked if we could be moved to another table or have it fixed. He said he would fix it and preceded to climb under the table and start jostling it all over the place. Our drinks were spilling all over the table so my GF and i grabbed our drinks and held them up for about 5 min while he continued to try and fix the table. After we had ordered, he proceeded to ignore us for the rest of the meal. My water remained empty for the rest of the time while we observed him filling other patrons glasses. After our food arrived he did not stop by to see how our food was or acknowledge our existence. We finished our meal and sat there for about 10 min waiting for our plates to be cleared but no such luck. I asked for our check and even when he brought us the bill no words from his mouth, a grunt, and the plates remained. When my GF was trying to sign the bill she had no room to do so as her plate was still on the table so I grabbed her plate and made a little noise as I did so and stacked our plates in front of me. Our server was at the table next to us and saw me do this and still would not come by to clear our table! We we left him a very generous 15% and got outta there. It is unfortunate as this place has fantastic food but this poor schmuck has soured my palate and I will not return.

• Pros: Fresh delicous food
• Cons: Worst service I've had in 3 years

11/01/09

Good food, but...

by Felsina at Citysearch

The food was good. However, the racket is not limited to the bar area (where a TV blares sports). Even in the back, the music drowns out conversation so that people have to shout to hear themselves heard above the din. It's unfortunate, because in other ways it's an ideal brunch place, and the decor — plain, soothing — is at odds with the bar-like loudness. Go there for lunch, if you can: they have a good prix fixe, the food is just as good (if not better), and it's quiet. But for brunch I'll go elsewhere.

• Pros: good food
• Cons: very loud

02/22/09

great brunch! mostly friendly service although a bit unkempt...

by minilove at Citysearch

This is the kind of brunch spot that you will crave. Something on the menu for all walks. Whether you are in the mood for simple eggs and bacon or codfish cakes. There is always a bit of a wait, but not too bad.

The actual restaurant is warm , open, and very comfortable to be in. The only problem with the ambiance is their choice of music. Way too loud and noticeably distracting. My experience with the servers is usually good. Attentive and friendly. Although I experienced one rude server who rolled her eyes when I requested something from her. The other thing I don't understand is why everyone looks like they just rolled out of bed and decided to wear pajama's to work that day. Oh yeah and let's just throw some flip flops on too. Kind of turned me off . Servers in any kind of restaurant should be a bit more presentable.

All in all definitely check it out!

02/21/09

Overpriced and Sometime-sy Service

by JayWhiz at Citysearch

OK....so I love brunch and always get the same thing wherever I go - pancakes, 2 scrambled eggs, and good coffee. I've been to Stone Park before - once for dinner, which was yum and a few times now for brunch. Typically, I am very happy with the food and not overwhelmed by the service but satisfied enough. Well, today I had a very different experience. I ordered my usual pancakes and two scrambled eggs (for $3 per egg, mind you). Easy enough. The plate comes out with half of a scrambled egg. I should have taken a picture. I specified two eggs as I have at a gazillion other restaurants. I know what 2 eggs look like. I told one waiter that it didn't look like 2 eggs and he was skeptical, told our waitress who asked the chef, who said that it was two eggs. Incredulously, I cut the two bites of egg on my plate in half and asked, "So this is one egg, and this is one egg??" She said yes. Now mind you, I am very nice to waiters having worked in food service before, so I'm not just a nit-picky customer. She then asked me if I wanted another $3 egg and I said no (b/c I just wanted the full portion of $6 scrambled eggs I'd paid for already). Ridiculous. If customer service was good, Stone Park Cafe would A) Not have the audacity to charge $3 for an egg anyway and B) At least have the decency to give customers the portions they are overpaying for. And C) Know the difference b/t one and two eggs for such an expensive brunch. Hell, for good measure -- they should have offered to bring me another egg just to be courteous. After all, it wouldn't have cost them more than 25 cents. Go to Rosewater instead for your overpriced organic brunch. The pancakes are better. The scrambled eggs are sublime and the portions make the prices worth it (even if the staff isn't necessarily falling over with gratitude to serve you). OR, better yet, go to Cheryl's on Underhill and Lincoln and get the whole package-- smiling service and amazing fancy pancakes.

• Pros: Tasty food
• Cons: Poor service despite high prices

12/14/08

Never go here for brunch.

by gourmand718 at Citysearch

Don't ever go here for brunch. After waiting over a 1/2 hour in the cold, we asked the manager when we could be expected to be seated. He gave us a dirty look and even though he had the list in his hand and could have approximated, he said " I told you it would be 20-30." Since we had already been waiting that long and the food is expensive and the brunch service is not very attentive, we left. My friend had been promised a phone call when there would be a table and they never called us.

Honestly, I've gone here many times for dinner and I thought I'd give the brunch a try again, but it will never happen again. The new managers are horrible and rude. Table service is usually pretty bad. Even if the food is good, you can have a pretty bad time here when the front of the house is rude and doesn't pay attention to you.

• Pros: Decent food
• Cons: Bad, slow service.

11/11/08

Best Meal I've Had Since The River Cafe

by bouncingsoul66 at Citysearch

Went to the Stone Park Cafe on a whim on a Saturday night and only had to wait about 10 minutes even though we didn't have reservations. Everyone here is saying that the service is terrible, but I found it exactly the opposite. Our waiter was extremely attentive and friendly. We ordered the cheapest bottle of wine wine (at $33) and got the roasted duck appetizer special. Excellent. Highly recommend the beef tenderloin and the grilled scallops, which were both out of this world. Even the bread they give you before your meal was excellent. I never order dessert in restaurants, but the food was so good that we didn't want the meal to end. The pumpkin cheesecake was amazing, and the smoked chocolate ice cream was a really unique twist on a classic. Can't say enough good things about this place. It is a bit pricey, but if you want to treat yourself to a fantastic meal and evening out, go to the Stone Park Cafe.

• Pros: Delicious food, great ambience, wonderful service, good wine selection
• Cons: can be pricey, but definitely worth it

09/30/08

octopus salad

by 156mitch at Citysearch

The food was really good and our waitress was great. The octopus salad is my favorite. It's definitely on the pricey side and thats the only real problem.

08/18/08

Go next door instead!

by Baboca at Citysearch

It all started with a napkin that reminded me of my kitchen dish towel, then came the waiter who told us we had to order appetizers, or else we'd starve for 25 minutes for our two fish dishes(?!). As it turns out the fish came in a timely manner, uncooked. Now, if we had ordered sushi we would have obviously not complained but to eat a sea bass raw wasn't our choice of meal for $27. We asked the kind waitress to exchange the order and she promptly apologized leaving me with my salmon that was just about ok and taking the sea bass cut in half back to the kitchen. Nice presentation of the dishes, but seriuosly lacking in the taste department. She came back shortly with a burning hot plate and the identical two poor pieces of fish. I am not sure of the health regulations required but isn't it the case that when food leaves the kitchen it can not go back and then back to the plate? I think McDonnalds has this policy, does it not apply to "stylish-wanna-be" restaurants? There we were with three apologies and two pieces of rubbery fish! Maybe if we were offered another meal instead of apologies we wouldn't have had to leave hungry.

• Pros: AMbience
• Cons: Food

04/27/08

Bad Service and Overpriced

by felivis at Citysearch

The food was ok, but too expensive considering the bad serivce and loud, overcrowded "ambiance." I think this restaurant is way overrated and we had to wait several weeks to get a reservation.

04/03/08

Terrible Service

by brooklyn1982 at Citysearch

I am a frequent brunch customer here as I live close by but lately I have been extremely dissapointed by the service. I was offered a seat at the bar for brunch and I vow never to sit there again.

The barman had an argument with another staff member in front of the customers one week and the week after that when I sat there again all you could here were the same staff members bitching about customers. Not only that but they messed the orders up so we had to wait an extra 20 minutes for our meals to arrive.