If you’re not eating here you’re a silly goose! The best breakfast burrito around! Service is outstanding and the muffins are 10/10!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
L978FRlauras
It pains me to write a review like this because this establishment has been such a comforting presence in our community, but I no longer feel welcome and won't be coming back. This happened in early August and I've waited to write about it because I was advised by the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights to wait to see if there were others with this experience. I did find a community of people on message boards complaining about this same issue, so I'm finally speaking out. The food here is good, but the waitresses refer to all of the people as "guys" no matter their gender or the identities they hold. I (female) was sitting at a table with 3 other women, two of whom are human rights lawyers and in their 70s; they spent their entire careers fighting for equal rights for women in the workplace. Every waiter/waitress (mostly waitresses) who came over to us kept saying, "What can I get for you guys?" (You guys...as if "you all" are "guys"). This happened over the course of the hour and was relentless. "Is everything good over here, guys?" "How's everything tasting, you guys?" "Do you guys want the check?" At some point, my friend, God bless her soul, interrupted the waitress and said "we're not guys. we're all women. you wouldn't go up to a table of men and call them ladies as in 'what can I get for you ladies?' would you? In the same way, we will not be misgendered. Let's keep the patriarchy out of this and let women be visible on a Sunday morning when we are paying customers, just trying to enjoy our breakfast." But...alas....it didn't stop. So the group nominated me to speak to the manager and owner, a tall lady who I thought would understand—as a woman of the world who gets paid 80 cents on the dollar to the men in her life, who's been invisible in most professional settings, and who has fewer governmental rights than the men she knows—but this is where things actually got worse. When I brought this to the manager/owner, she got very upset and started yelling at me. Here are all of the issues: 1) first, she told me that calling women "guys" isn't misgendering because "guys is a gender neutral term." My friend just wrote a book on the history of patriarchal language and how it's been used to erase women's identities, so we asked her "really? how many guys has George Clooney been married to?" She didn't have a response to this since, obviously, we proved that "guys" is far from a gender neutral term. 2) The manager/owner said, "if this happened to me, I wouldn't feel this way." We kind of just stood there speechless. Customer service 101: don't invalidate the lived experience of someone else. It's not relevant how you would feel in this situation. We felt invisible in your establishment, and that matters because it happened to us. We have the right to feel the way we feel. (By the way, it's worth mentioning that while we were having this conversation off to the side of the counter, the owner said to a group of women who walked in, "We'll be with you guys in a moment!" We were pretty sure she said this just to stick it to us and show that she had no intention of making sure that women felt seen for being women - and not for being subjugated under male identities - and that she didn't care what we had to say about it. 3) Finally, the owner became so dysregulated that she yelled, "'I'm over this conversation!" and physically pushed past me to get out of the conversation. Such poor customer service here; to not be listened to, to be told that your experience didn't matter, and then to be abandoned and ignored mid-conversation... A better, more appropriate, and helpful response would have been to offer me to the chance to speak off hours, when the cafe wasn't so busy, and then to listen and take the complaints seriously. Responses like "I'm
Elena Lettieri
Always loved this place. Food and service amazing! Always stop here on my way through town.
Don Rossi
Under new Management. Food is terrible, like they don't even care. Cheap ingredients, really bad chef..what happened? this used to be good!
Cheyennemtn
Wow has ths establshment gone downhill. Ive been eating here for a long time and don't believe that I wiill return. Worst breakfast ever. It's lke they don't even care about the qualty of the food. Cold, undercooked hash brown, soggy eggs benedick, low qualty meat and weak coffee. Absolutely terrible.
Journey83939
I ordered a vegetable omlette with avacado. There was 1 thin slice of avocado in the whole omelette and I found it very chewy. I took 1/2 of it home. When I went to warm it later I saw there was a sheet of wax paper in the omelette!! I called to let them know and was told they changed the company they get the cheese from & the cooks were not use to dealing with the wax paper!?! They offered to refund the cost of the omelette to my credit card. We will not be returning.
396nadiac
They prepare an excellent breakfast.Their friendly staff and it is not true that they are so slow, but apparently their owner does not like dogs.We take our cain terrier inside their behavior is excellent. The next day they put up a sign No dogs allowed😡
Maaz Ahsan
Solid nitro brew coffee! Staff is super friendly and plenty of seating outdoors
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Danielle Carnelli
Paperback Café is hands down one of my favorite spots! The food is always fresh and absolutely delicious. They have amazing and unique specials that are so thoughtfully put together. I love that they offer so many options for both breakfast and lunch, and the fact that there are tons of gluten-free options makes it even better for me!
The kids' menu is fantastic, and both my kids love it—which is no easy feat! We all know how hard it can be to find food that kids actually enjoy, but Paperback Café has it down.
The service is always on point too. The team works so well together, and they make sure we have everything we need. The restaurant itself is super cute with adorable decorations everywhere, and the bathrooms are always clean, which I really appreciate. Plus, they have outdoor seating, which is a huge bonus!
I definitely recommend this spot to anyone. The baked fries with homemade ranch are out of this world, and I can't get enough of the pulled pork hash special! Also, my absolute favorite pick me up is the toasted marshmallow latte! Britt makes it amazing!! If you haven't been, you're missing out!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Berry Berry French Toast, Yogurt Parfait
Megan McNivens
Stopped in to get a coffee this morning. There were two members of staff behind the counter working. I understand it looked a bit busy but after standing there for a few minutes without being acknowledged I just left. I would have at least liked a “we’ll be with you in a second.” I took my business elsewhere.
The Paperback Cafe is a great small business restaurant in the downtown area of Old Saybrook. The food is good quality and reasonably priced. I would recommend this cafe!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
diane marcolini
The food was delicious.Had the chicken salad with cranberries on a croissant. The gals that have waited on us on any given day are always friendly and fun.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Hash Browns, Berry Berry French Toast, Avocado Toast, The Big Breakfast
Greg Ellal
This place is awesome. We get either breakfast or lunch here often. If you haven't tried Paperback Cafe, your missing out.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Poached Eggs Monterrey
Britney Ortiz
This was a very bad experience overall, bad service and my entire family got food poisoning.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 1
Service: 1
Jerry P
Food is good, but it takes way too long to be prepared and served. The wait staff is friendly and fine, but the wait for food is interminable. We went twice over a two day period and food prep was some each day, forever. Won't return.
If you’re not eating here you’re a silly goose! The best breakfast burrito around! Service is outstanding and the muffins are 10/10!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
It pains me to write a review like this because this establishment has been such a comforting presence in our community, but I no longer feel welcome and won't be coming back. This happened in early August and I've waited to write about it because I was advised by the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights to wait to see if there were others with this experience. I did find a community of people on message boards complaining about this same issue, so I'm finally speaking out. The food here is good, but the waitresses refer to all of the people as "guys" no matter their gender or the identities they hold. I (female) was sitting at a table with 3 other women, two of whom are human rights lawyers and in their 70s; they spent their entire careers fighting for equal rights for women in the workplace. Every waiter/waitress (mostly waitresses) who came over to us kept saying, "What can I get for you guys?" (You guys...as if "you all" are "guys"). This happened over the course of the hour and was relentless. "Is everything good over here, guys?" "How's everything tasting, you guys?" "Do you guys want the check?" At some point, my friend, God bless her soul, interrupted the waitress and said "we're not guys. we're all women. you wouldn't go up to a table of men and call them ladies as in 'what can I get for you ladies?' would you? In the same way, we will not be misgendered. Let's keep the patriarchy out of this and let women be visible on a Sunday morning when we are paying customers, just trying to enjoy our breakfast." But...alas....it didn't stop. So the group nominated me to speak to the manager and owner, a tall lady who I thought would understand—as a woman of the world who gets paid 80 cents on the dollar to the men in her life, who's been invisible in most professional settings, and who has fewer governmental rights than the men she knows—but this is where things actually got worse. When I brought this to the manager/owner, she got very upset and started yelling at me. Here are all of the issues: 1) first, she told me that calling women "guys" isn't misgendering because "guys is a gender neutral term." My friend just wrote a book on the history of patriarchal language and how it's been used to erase women's identities, so we asked her "really? how many guys has George Clooney been married to?" She didn't have a response to this since, obviously, we proved that "guys" is far from a gender neutral term. 2) The manager/owner said, "if this happened to me, I wouldn't feel this way." We kind of just stood there speechless. Customer service 101: don't invalidate the lived experience of someone else. It's not relevant how you would feel in this situation. We felt invisible in your establishment, and that matters because it happened to us. We have the right to feel the way we feel. (By the way, it's worth mentioning that while we were having this conversation off to the side of the counter, the owner said to a group of women who walked in, "We'll be with you guys in a moment!" We were pretty sure she said this just to stick it to us and show that she had no intention of making sure that women felt seen for being women - and not for being subjugated under male identities - and that she didn't care what we had to say about it. 3) Finally, the owner became so dysregulated that she yelled, "'I'm over this conversation!" and physically pushed past me to get out of the conversation. Such poor customer service here; to not be listened to, to be told that your experience didn't matter, and then to be abandoned and ignored mid-conversation... A better, more appropriate, and helpful response would have been to offer me to the chance to speak off hours, when the cafe wasn't so busy, and then to listen and take the complaints seriously. Responses like "I'm
Always loved this place. Food and service amazing! Always stop here on my way through town.
Under new Management. Food is terrible, like they don't even care. Cheap ingredients, really bad chef..what happened? this used to be good!
Wow has ths establshment gone downhill. Ive been eating here for a long time and don't believe that I wiill return. Worst breakfast ever. It's lke they don't even care about the qualty of the food. Cold, undercooked hash brown, soggy eggs benedick, low qualty meat and weak coffee. Absolutely terrible.
I ordered a vegetable omlette with avacado. There was 1 thin slice of avocado in the whole omelette and I found it very chewy. I took 1/2 of it home. When I went to warm it later I saw there was a sheet of wax paper in the omelette!! I called to let them know and was told they changed the company they get the cheese from & the cooks were not use to dealing with the wax paper!?! They offered to refund the cost of the omelette to my credit card. We will not be returning.
They prepare an excellent breakfast.Their friendly staff and it is not true that they are so slow, but apparently their owner does not like dogs.We take our cain terrier inside their behavior is excellent. The next day they put up a sign No dogs allowed😡
Solid nitro brew coffee! Staff is super friendly and plenty of seating outdoors
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Paperback Café is hands down one of my favorite spots! The food is always fresh and absolutely delicious. They have amazing and unique specials that are so thoughtfully put together. I love that they offer so many options for both breakfast and lunch, and the fact that there are tons of gluten-free options makes it even better for me!
The kids' menu is fantastic, and both my kids love it—which is no easy feat! We all know how hard it can be to find food that kids actually enjoy, but Paperback Café has it down.
The service is always on point too. The team works so well together, and they make sure we have everything we need. The restaurant itself is super cute with adorable decorations everywhere, and the bathrooms are always clean, which I really appreciate. Plus, they have outdoor seating, which is a huge bonus!
I definitely recommend this spot to anyone. The baked fries with homemade ranch are out of this world, and I can't get enough of the pulled pork hash special! Also, my absolute favorite pick me up is the toasted marshmallow latte! Britt makes it amazing!! If you haven't been, you're missing out!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Berry Berry French Toast, Yogurt Parfait
Stopped in to get a coffee this morning. There were two members of staff behind the counter working. I understand it looked a bit busy but after standing there for a few minutes without being acknowledged I just left. I would have at least liked a “we’ll be with you in a second.” I took my business elsewhere.
Service: 1
Restaurantji Recommends
The Paperback Cafe is a great small business restaurant in the downtown area of Old Saybrook. The food is good quality and reasonably priced. I would recommend this cafe!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
The food was delicious.Had the chicken salad with cranberries on a croissant. The gals that have waited on us on any given day are always friendly and fun.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Hash Browns, Berry Berry French Toast, Avocado Toast, The Big Breakfast
This place is awesome. We get either breakfast or lunch here often. If you haven't tried Paperback Cafe, your missing out.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Poached Eggs Monterrey
This was a very bad experience overall, bad service and my entire family got food poisoning.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 1
Service: 1
Food is good, but it takes way too long to be prepared and served. The wait staff is friendly and fine, but the wait for food is interminable. We went twice over a two day period and food prep was some each day, forever. Won't return.
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