Not So Sweet Mimi’s Cafe and Bakery Review Saratoga NY

One lazy Sunday summer morning we decided we would go out to grab some breakfast. Saratoga Springs is the place to be in the summer! A quick google search for “best breakfast spots in Saratoga” resulted in quite a few highly reviewed places, we chose Sweet Mimi’s Cafe and Bakery. We made our short journey (about 7 min) to downtown Saratoga, parked and took a little stroll in search of Sweet Mimi’s.

Upon arrival we realized Sweet Mimi’s was a tiny little restaurant and we definitely wouldn’t be able to fit our bulky double stroller in the door. I went in alone to put our name on the list as the place was quite busy. We needed a table for 5, with such a small establishment and a hungry tribe like ours I’m always weighing how long do I need to entertain these guys before the food hits the table. I asked the owner how long the wait would be she looked around at the table behind her and said about 10 minutes. I’m thinking 10 minutes that’s great, perfect amount of time for a game of eye spy, and may a little dance contest. As I turn to walk back outside to join the the rest of our trippy tribe I see two more women approaching, they had 3 small children as well. Although the boys are well behaved it always takes a little of the edge off when we see other families with small children. So here we are all waiting outside {with this other party of little ones}.

Sweet Mimi’s is situated very close to the road so we were trying to keep all the little ones together and safe. We figured 10 minutes that’s manageable, shouldn’t be a problem.

One of the woman in the other party got a little antsy and she went inside and called out to a woman Mimi who I assumed was the owner. After she returned back outside not even five minutes later the owner comes to the door. I motion to the boys thinking she is finally telling me our table is ready yessssss lord finally getting these boys inside to eat! Well 45 minutes went by and we were starting to get a little heated.  Had we known out the gates it was going to be a 45+ minute wait we would have just found another place to eat that day. But nope to my surprise she called the group that came in after us! Now I’m feeling my blood boil because I am in shock as to how the group that clearly walked in after us didn’t say are you sure we were after them, no of course not because I realized that when I saw this women go inside to speak to Mimi she obviously knew the owner and had some words with her. I was trying to calm myself down thinking don’t jump to conclusions maybe they are coming right back out to get us or maybe the table wasn’t fit for us ( although we had the same number of adults and little ones that needed highchairs). Sitting and stewing another 20 minutes go by and I debated leaving a million times but now it was to the point where I had to see the table they were seated at and ask someone how did this happen? Not only were we told 10 minutes, now we are at a little over an hour. The party that came in after us, who had their name on the list after us, who happen to have the exact same number of adults and children, were seated 30 minutes before us! FUMING at that point we had things playing on our phones to entertain the boys which we try to avoid at allllll costs. Finally someone comes out and calls and by the look on their face and my face it’s clear that something funny was going on. Sure enough we walked in and the table that they were seated at was the same exact four top table we were seated at and they were actually in a much more spacious end table as we were stuck in the middle of a booth. I sit livid wanting to say something but knew I had to calm down first. They are literally eating their food and we are just being seated.  I must admit you could tell that all the waitresses knew something was up they were trying all too hard to be overly pleasant and awkward as they were watching us take pictures of the menu maybe starting to wonder who we were and where we came from,  rather than just saying sorry and owning up to what happened (I would have preferred). 

I had a hard time staying to eat but if it wasn’t for wanting an answer and the boys being so hungry I couldn’t stand to walk back to the car without food. One of the main reasons we stayed was to make a blog about this breakfast spot which boasts the best pancakes in the world. We order our food and waited. The table that was seated before us said farewell to a couple of the waitresses as they also called their little girls by name and said goodbye to the owner as well. It was clear to me at that point this woman knew the owner and they disregarded good business practices to seat their own friends sooner regardless of their own no reservations policy. Our food finally arrived and the food was good, to be completely honest it was actually really really good.

Nonetheless our visit was tainted by Sweet Mimi’s poor customer service and business practices. As we got our bill I went to cash out, the boys went outside to get the stroller ready. The owner Mimi cashed me out and I calmly ask what happened? “We came in put our name on the list before that table and they had the same number of kids and adults” I mentioned it seemed like a friend of hers. She just replied “I’m sorry she told me she was going to go somewhere else and so I decided to seat them first” and  then offered me a free muffin. I let her know how disappointed we were and how this was our first visit here. There was nothing left to do as a free muffin was not the answer. Ultimately we will probably never go back after that experience although the food was awesome the service and business ethics of this place were just not up to our standards.

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