It isn’t often that I wait so long to write a critique on a restaurant. But this one, the Garden Cafe in Twin Falls, Idaho, is an exception. Usually we rate a restaurant on a 1 to 5 star basis, 5 stars being superb. With that in mind, the rating for the Garden Cafe is -1 Star!!!
And here is the reason why the rating is so poor. (1) The floor manager, Tom, needs some schooling in intra-personal relationships, (2) The floor manager should never be so arrogant as to tell customers, “No, you can not sit there because that area is used for large groups (the area is photographed below)”, or “No, we can not turn on the lights because this is the ambiance we like at this time of day (lunch time)”. “If you want to sit in a better lit place, go sit over by that wall”. “What are you doing? You can not take photos in here”. The photos that I was taking was one of the dining area above – which, by the way, is the area we wanted to move to. I don’t see any customers there, so I can not imagine why he was so offended and offensive. We have taken photos at many, many restaurants, but have never been refused the opportunity to photograph the interior.

But on the plus side, and there is one, the waiter we had was fantastic. Well schooled in how to treat a customer and attentive to our needs. Polite. The food was good, nothing really exceptional, but good. Since the floor manager, Tom, is the one in charge, the responsibility has to land squarely on his shoulders for such a poor experience. There is just nothing more that I can say about this experience. It was worse than bad.