The Bad Waitress

Food, music and service were great. Garage doors were open on a beautiful Thursday night and the atmosphere made for a perfect chill spot.

I kept high hopes despite the onslaught of mediocre reviews. But, as per usual, Unilocal was spot on. On paper, the menu items look great. Tons of vegetarian options to choose from. But, ultimately, the food is dull and portions are kind of pitiful.

The Bad Waitress is my one of my favorite finds. I always get a number 1 two eggs & toast adding a pancake for an additional 2.25. Let me just note* the pancake is as big as my head! If you don’t like pancakes there is a meat option but who doesn’t LOVE pancakes??? Spyhouse caramella, total YUM!
You fill out your own ticket, leaving little room for error.
Day or night our food is always perfect and delish.
Our servers are usually Julia or Jamie, we adore them both.
We don’t just frequent the bad waitress because it is close to home,
we go there because it feels like home and that we love.

We waited 5 minutes for a booth. Our server, Julia, was exceptional, she was helping, serving, speedy, cheerful. She was also the manager.
You order food off a little notepad, give to cashier, pay and then they deliver your food. We ordered a breakfast sandwich and hash-​browns on one plate. The other order was scrambled eggs, hash-​browns and 2 nice strips of bacon. The 2^nd order also came with a 14 inch pancake, it was huge.
The clients were mostly the eclectic from MCAD and local folks. The costs were a bit higher but you are close to downtown Mpls near Nicolett Mall. Overall, a good experience, a great server, excellent food. I will return and recommend.

This was a fun place with great atmosphere. I was referred there by a local resident when I asked at random for his recommendations for good fare.
Natural and local ingredients make for an awesome menu offering. Breakfast items are served any time which is always a plus for me. I had a baby spinach salad with cherry tomatoes, a plentiful supply of strawberries, mild red onion, and very generous portions of fresh walnuts. Add to that 2 well portioned scoops of fresh chevre cheese and it was a great salad complete with blueberry vinaigrette. A slice of crusty rustic bread finished off the meal.
The Bad Waitress is probably named because you come in and seat yourself. Then locate the menu and write out your choices on a slip of paper which are presented at the register to order. You fill your own water cup if one is desired. I had an occasion to talk to the server was a delightful lady.
I also enjoyed a pot of the Rooibos cinnamon tea, also with local honey. It was delightful. There was enough in the pot of well steeped tea for 2 + cups.
I asked for a slice of chocolate cake to go and it was packaged up for me. It was a little dry. As I am a baker, I tend to be a bit picky about cake.
I gave the review 4 stars as the music was loud for general conversation. It featured great rock hits from the 70s and 80s. I was there on my own so I didn’t need to converse with anyone in particular but I observed others in groups that were shouting pretty nearly in order to communicate with one another. I could easily over overhear their conversations. Combined with the music, it was just a bit too much noise for me.
I thoroughly enjoyed my meal however after walking 6 – 7 miles all over Minneapolis today so that makes up some of the difference. I left feeling very satisfied with a healthy and local meal.
When visiting Minneapolis again, I will definitely keep The Bad Waitress on my list of places to visit.

I’m posting this from a booth, after several hours of sitting here. I’m in from out of town, and needed a place to station with wifi that would be comfortable between engagements. I had the Matador scramble (which was delicious), but the highlight, ironically, has been the service. There’s free refills on mug coffee until 2pm, and the waitstaff has kept mine full.
It’s busy enough on a Friday late morning-​lunchtime to feel vibrant and happy, but not so busy that I feel bad staying here.
Plus, the music has been wonderful. I couldn’t have asked for more from my time here.

Really liked it. It’s a café style service, you fill out your own order and turn it and they bring it to your table.
The food was very flavorful and really liked the idea that it was organic and local.

We LOVED our experience here!
A very interesting take on the diner feel. You fill out your own meal card then take it to the front to pay. Hot drinks are delivered to you, but water is serve yourself!
We got a few different items to make sure we tried a variety. The breakfast burrito turned out to be the best item ordered. It’s build-​your-​own so you can choose from a few different toppings, so be creative!
The croissant breakfast sandwich was amazing! It’s also build-​your-​own so you can choose your own meat and cheese. Don’t forget to ask for cholula!
But I loved the organic oatmeal just a little bit more. So much fruit topping and plenty of brown sugar!
I ordered a hot chai and was very pleased! Spicy and creamy as they should be!
We loved our experience and look forward to coming back next time we hit up Minneapolis!

I enjoyed my experience here and thought it was fun and my food was delicious but there were a few goofy things I didn’t like.
I came with a group 5 and it was nice we were able to make reservations ahead of time. We were seated immediately and told we were to fill out our slips and order at the register. I went up to order and they said our whole group had to order at the same time. This is understandable for ordering at a table but the 5 of us had to walk up and stand around the counter to order. We were right next to the front door where people were trying to get in/​leave as well. The employee said they do this so all the food goes to the cooks at the same time and comes out together but it was so inconvenient to all stand around the counter and order together but each pay individually. We weren’t sure if we were supposed to tip either since we paid ahead of time and didn’t have a server.
I ordered the half sandwich/​half salad and got the pulled pork shoulder sandwich with a salad with a raspberry vinaigrette. Our meals came out pretty quickly and this part was probably the best. My meal was delicious and a great serving size. The salad was so fresh and the dressing was perfect. My sandwich was a bit smaller but very filling. The pulled pork was super juicy and cilantro, onions, and avocado made it very fresh.
I liked my food here and would come for a coffee or something simple but wouldn’t recommend a larger group to come since it’s a little goofy to all stand at the counter together to order and pay.

After living in the Whittier/​Eat Street neighborhood for a little over a year, I’ve had easy access to a lot of great eats… but this is the place I keep coming back to! Despite the name and the unique ordering system, the service is actually really great. While it is counter service and you get your own waters, etc., all the staff is super friendly and very prompt with bussing, coffee refills, etc.
And the food is amazing! It’s the perfect place no matter what your dietary preferences/​restrictions. There are tons of vegetarian options and substitutions like tofu available (perfect for someone like me who prefers a mostly veg diet!), but they also have meats ranging from chicken to chorizo. Most dishes are pretty customize-​able, and you can add meats or veggies or hashbrowns, etc. (Ok, so I almost exclusively come for breakfast so that’s the part of the menu I can speak to.) Some of these are included in the price of the dish, and some you will end up paying for, so if you love extra meat and cheese, it will definitely cost you.
Highly recommend all of their different scramblers. The name is escaping me at the moment, but the one with potatoes, white cheddar, rosemary, and roasted tomatoes and broccoli is so bomb! Definitely one of my go-​tos, especially when topped with a little hot sauce. Gotta love a place that has Cholula at every table! Also, make sure to ask for their house made jam to go with the toast! So delish!
The ordering process can be a bit confusing for first timers, but it is actually super convenient and allows you to order at your leisure. Menus and notepads are included at each table, and you simply write the table name (it will be a superhero or villain), along with your order and any specifications, then take it up to the front to pay when you are all ready. Your food will then be brought out to you. Easy peasy!

I love the self-​serve order process. The food here is fantastic, the staff are very helpful if you don’t understand the process, or have any questions about the food. The real star here however, is that chocolate cake! it’s vegan, it’s rich, it’s decadent, and it’s the best freaking cake i’ve ever had in my life! Unfortunately, it’s a little too good. If you’re there Thurs-​Sun, you’ll have to get there before 5pm, they run out of the cake pretty quickly!

I had no idea what to expect coming here. With the name «Bad Waitress» I thought they were going to play into it. I thought the servers were going to be sarcastically ‘bad’.
The whole experience was just awkward. What you do is you come in and sit down. The menus and the ‘notepad’ that servers usually your order on are on the table. Each meal has a number by it, so you write down the number and then any changes you want to make. When you are done, your whole table has to go up to the counter and pay at the same time. So if you’re with more than 2 people, you are all awkwardly standing there to pay. When everyone’s food is done, they bring it out to you at your table. You help yourself to water, silverware and napkins.
The experience is similar to a «fast-​casual» restaurant like Panera or Noodles & Company. However, Panera and Noodles are executed more efficiently and make more sense. I’m confused as to why you even have to write down your order, rather than just tell the cashier what you want, pay and sit down.
Overall my food was decent. I got half a Reuben sandwich and a side salad for $ 8.95. I also got a bloody that was $ 5 for about a 10 oz. The bloody was a bit spicy for my taste but it was manageable. Our cashier was nice, even though I think she could sense that we were all frustrated and confused with the process.

Waited two hours
Paid and left without our food
We just walked out

Two words: CARNITAS TACOS! Do yourself a favor and order some when you get here. They will literally melt in your mouth. Mind you, I was born and raised in Mexico City for 17 years and I have what you would call a discriminating palate when it comes to Mexican food, so me endorsing their tacos here is a BIG deal.
Kinda weird that you have to write down in a piece of paper what you want and then get up and take it to the cashier, but hey that makes my meal cheaper so I’ll take it.
Overall great place in a busy corner of Eat Street, liked the low light ambiance, intimate and comfortable. Will be coming back to try some more stuff.

Had heard good things about this so figured we would give it a try for breakfast. Street parking only which depending on time of day, season and weather can be difficult. Seating is ample with a pretty quick turnover. I got scrambled eggs with toast and a side pancake. Nothing special about the eggs and toast. The pancake was enormous but not really to my liking, maybe it was just a bad mix. It was overly eggy for my liking, almost as if they used the batter from the French toast. Speaking of French toast my wife had that and said it was good and would have it again.
The format as explained before is pick your menu items, write them down and get up and pay at cashier then the wait staff will bring to you. What I never like is the tip line on the receipt before you’ve even tasted the food or had any service. I suppose you wouldn’t have to tip at this point and just leave it on the table but the why drop the hint at payment? Overall, I would say worth a shot but don’t go out of your way or wait too long just for breakfast.

This was not our original destination and I will say, I am glad we found it. Parked on the street, no problem.
As soon as we walked in, we were welcomed and were told about the ordering process. I see here people have problems with the self ordering — we thought it was fun and my daughter said «Ah, I get it, I’m the Bad Waitress» and we both laughed.
I am a VERY picky eater — I was so happy to see Gluten Free items, Veggie burgers and home made granola with PLAIN yogurt — Huge for me. My daughter on the other hand was very pleased with her hash browns and fried egg sandwich. There is something for everybody which I need when I go out.
Service was great — waitress and Manager — just dolls.
Now keep in mind, this place looks big but they do not have alot of tables and the kitchen is small. I can see people have said that it takes a long time to get food — I can see if it was busy that you would have to wait — but as big as the place looks — its really a small café with great ambiance and a really nice staff and the food rocked!
My daughter goes to College in Minneapolis and we are planning on having weekly dates. We want to try lunch there next week.

Although I didn’t find the breakfast selection on Bad Waitresses menu inspiring, it led me to ordering their ‘seasonal pancake’ — which is definitely one of the best pancakes I’ve had in the Twin Cities. It could rival the blackberry pancake served at Al’s Diner. In this case, the seasonal pancake leveraged a mix of fresh cranberries, walnuts and wild rice (Yes… wild rice) to create the perfect mix of flavors (sweet, tangy, earthy) and textures (crunchy, chewy, melty). Definitely a 5-​star pancake.
Other items I ordered were less successful. The hashbrowns were way too crunchy (good) to arrive at my table as cold (bad) as they did. I suspect they cook the browns in batches and I got a piece near the end. The sourdough toast arrived perfectly — with crunch and tang — but after I had finished the rest of the meal.
I love the open-​air concept of the Bad Waitress, which has a wall of garage doors that can be opened next to cushy booths. The restaurant is clean and spacious and the servers are kitchy and kind. Fewer tattoos and longer skirts than Glam Doll donuts down the block, but only slightly so.
This place is a hipster haunt.

Our goal was to get Bloody Marys on a Sat morning. We tried to go to Eat Street Social but it was closed for a private event. D’oh! We had already managed to find a parking spot and were in a bit of a time crunch so we looked around and then my boyfriend saw The Bad Waitress so we headed over. Our first question: «Do you have Bloody Marys?» The hostess said they did but they were made with sake. She also said that they were «good.» We decided to give it a shot.
She sat us and explained «The Bad Waitress» experience. You select what you want off the menu, fill out these little notepad forms on the table, bring them up to the register to place the order and pay, and then return to the table to wait for the food. I am not a fan of these gimmicks. Much like the airport restaurants with the iPads on the tables (
) I am annoyed by this trend that pretends that ordering your own food is somehow more fun and/​or convenient. If someone is still there to greet you, probably seat you, most likely explain the ordering process, answer any questions, solve any problems, and bring you your food, then what is the point of subtracting one element of the process from the server side and adding it to the customer side? There are employees present and available, so how about we get to stay in our seats and give the notepads (or iPads) back to the waiters and waitresses? I don’t want to work at the restaurant, I just want to eat there. Plus, I’d rather support a business that wants to keep people employed instead of replacing them with an iPad or making the customer do the work.
But I digress… My boyfriend ordered a breakfast burrito with a side of bacon and we both ordered a Bloody. The drinks arrived first. I took one sip and that was it. It was DISGUSTING. My boyfriend finished his but did not enjoy it at all. The Bad Waitress should just stop serving their sake version (it’s not even on the menu), or get a liquor license so they can serve a proper Bloody. When the food arrived, I asked the server if I could trade it in for a Spyhouse Caramella Latte. She was super nice about it and brought me the new drink quickly. It was delicious and mostly made up for the nasty fake Bloody Mary. My boyfriend thought the bacon was great and his burrito was very good. But overall he said he would be fine never going there again. I also couldn’t help but hear a guy at a nearby table complaining about several aspects of his meal. I will note that our food came out quickly, no long wait as mentioned in other reviews.
So while The Bad Waitress has a really cute retro decorating scheme and the service was actually quite good (isn’t it ironic?), the food was not worth returning for, the sake Bloody Marys were downright awful, and the gimmicky service is not the type of business model I choose to support.

I wanted to go to the Bad Waitress primarily because they serve breakfast all day and I had a serious hankering for an omelette. We didn’t know too much about it when we walked in. I have to say that I don’t know if it’s a schtick or not, but the staff seemed to be living up to the name a whole lot during our visit. So first, we walked in and stood around awkwardly until a woman told us that it was seat yourself and that there were little papers on the table. You pick what you want from the menus also on the tables, fill in the little form and then bring it up to the register and pay. It was honestly pretty confusing. But we got it worked out and managed to place our order eventually. The woman helping us did get some bonus points for asking my husband whether I wanted honey with my tea. He said he didn’t know. She told him she’d put some on the side, which he relayed to me when he returned to our table. But when my tea was delivered to the table (in the cutest little tea service ever), no honey. I don’t know if she decided it was too much work or what, but I was kind of disappointed.
Food-​wise, it was fine. My omelette was good — cooked exactly as I asked. I did manage to get jam for my toast. I don’t remember what he had. But he had no complaints. In all, I would say it was decent. But really not my favorite. Still if you really want breakfast at night, you could definitely do worse.

Ok, I should have read the reviews before going in when I was on a timeline. The place is SLOOOOOW.
It’s been bookmarked for forever, so I thought I’d grab a quick lunch on my way to a meeting. I found parking right out front, which I interpreted as a sign that I was making the right choice. I was WRONG. I sat down right away, selected my food (egg white omelette– I was having a healthy day) and ordered. You write it down on a slip of paper and bring it to the front and pay, and then wait. And wait. And wait. It took them 25 minutes to bring me an egg white omelette with toast. What in the world. And it was at like 1:30 pm, so it was past prime lunch rush. I have NO idea what took so long and I was getting so anxious.
The omelette itself was decent. It had turkey, red peppers, spinach, and goat cheese. I sprinkled mine in cholula and had to eat it in about 5 minutes so I wouldn’t be late and dashed out the door.
The décor was cute. Superhero theme. I liked that. I love superheroes.
Moral of the story– the food was decent but only go if you have time to kill because they live up to their name.