We went looking for some breakfast on Upper State Street and found Jeannine’s Bakery a quaint little place that serves good coffee and a great breakfast. We give it a 70% rating, here’s why:
As always we used our five key areas to review Jeannine’s and added another additional area because we thought they did such a good job at personalizing it – yes, their website.
Food – 4 out of 5
We tried their Eggs Benedict and were pleasantly surprised. A key thing to note however is that their Eggs Benedict is prepared with freshly made hollandaise sauce, which is not common. So, instead of the normal store bought hollandaise sauce your taste buds are in for a treat. Be prepared for something different. Although, we liked the fresh sauce, we could see how it might turn some people off. They offered fruit or potatoes with the meal, which we thought was great. We chose the fruit as our option. The fruit basket was plentiful with a lot of fruit to choose from. The portion did seem a bit small however. So, as a result of the hollandaise sauce and the size of the meal, we couldn’t give the food a 5 out of 5.
Suggestions:
1. Offer both store bought hollandaise sauce and freshly made sauce at a premium – we say get your add for the fresh sauce you deserve it.
2. Serve a small amount of potatoes and the fruit regardless. Potatoes are too cheap to leave the meal feeling too small.
2. Service: 2-5
At Jeannine’s you must first order your meal and seat yourself, which is quite nice. However, the cashier taking our order seemed disinterested and not overly friendly. This is a key difference to some of the other fantastic restaurants we’ve been too. This is the first person that meets the customers and should be carefully selected in a small business such as Jeannine’s. I would have expected a bubbly happy student taking our order, which was not the case. After we ordered, we did get a bubbly happy server who delivered the meal – great job. There were enough people on staff that it should have been easy to say hello to everyone at least once in the early hours of the morning. The staff was fairly quiet and not involved with the customers.
Suggestions:
1. Staff meeting every morning with a focus on the customers and customer service making everything better for the guests. See how many you people you can make smile – count them.
2. Put the happiest staff member at the cash register.
3. Appearance: 4 -5
The atmosphere at Jeannine’s was very relaxing and peaceful in the early hours of the morning. They were open at 7:00 when we arrived. But, it does seem to get very busy as the day goes on and the seating is “seat yourself” and a bit limited, so you might have to stalk your spot. Still it is a very well kept restaurant and kudos to the owners for the cleanliness.
4. Location/ Parking: 5-5
We went to the Upper State Street location and parking was a bit tight and would be very difficult as the day went on. The location however is great. It’s very close to La Cumbre Plaza and Gelson’s market. So, park your car somewhere down the street and enjoy the walk. Very quiet and safe area.
5. Price: 3-5
We found Jeannine’s to be a bit pricey for the size of the serving and the level of services.
You pay at front when you first arrive and take a number with you to where you are sitting. The servers then bring you the food – you get your own coffee. The price would have been fine with better service.
| Things we didn’t like! |
|---|
1. The cashier was not very friendly nor was she very helpful when we first arrived.
2. The meal was very small, which didn’t give you much room for the food.
3. The selection of coffee was very limited although good.
| Things we liked! |
|---|
1. The food was very good.
2. The location and ambiance were great.
3. We do need to mention that some of the servers were great. So, we felt it was just a matter of focusing the rest of the staff for the day.
| Overall |
|---|
We liked Jeannine’s but couldn’t say we loved it. The food was good. We worry that the hollandaise sauce could be hit or miss (offer the alternative). The hostess was rude but the server was fantastic. The ambiance was great in the early morning when there were only a few people but later in the day it got very busy. So, overall we give Jeannine’s a 70% rating.
Suggestions:
1. Improve the customer service and we’ll come back.
2. Offer both the store bought and freshly made sauce (charge more for the freshly made sauce).
Here it is our 6th area for review – the website:
Things we liked:
Jeannine’s website is extremely personal. It allows you to meet the family and the staff before even getting into the restaurant. And, it gives you a great history of how the business started. This was amazing! Very few websites are as personal as Jeannine’s. This tells us that they care and that their proud of what they have to offer.
Things we didn’t like:
Clearly the site isn’t as interactive as it could be and we felt they could use a few more pictures and video of the restaurant.
However, we felt that the personal touch really overcame the site’s downfalls. That the family pictures are up on the website speaks volumes to how far they will go to make their restaurant a success.
