When Applebee’s moved from its location on 13th Avenue, a well-known breakfast restaurant took the opportunity and moved in. With the recent location change, customers who live in the West Fargo area no longer have to drive down to 25th Street to eat at Village Inn.
Village Inn has been open more than 50 years and has a total of 200 restaurant locations. According to the Village Inn Web site, the restaurant takes pride in their “homemade buttermilk pancakes.” Knowing all of this prior to my visit, I had high expectations for the breakfast restaurant.
The restaurant takes on an orange brown theme that seems at first soothing, but becomes over the top. The walls are covered with at least 10 different shades of oranges and yellows with an odd color green trying to accent it. Random colored circles display no sense of design and feel rather odd because they do not fit the color scheme.
The tables are modern, with comfortable chairs to make customers feel at home. At first glance, the menu can be extremely overwhelming. As an indecisive person it was hard to go through four pages of breakfast options that did not seemed to be in order.
Village Inn’s menu has relatively average prices for a breakfast restaurant in the area. The menu does have a section called the “INN-credible V.I.B.” where customers can chose any four items out of 30 options for only $6.99. If anyone wants to add a fifth item to their “INN-credible” meal it only costs a dollar. The menu also features a wide variety of omelets, pancake combos and other combos with the usual breakfast options, such as French toast and eggs.
When exploring the menu a featured image caught my eye: the “Farmer’s Skillet with Home Fries.” The description promised “crisp hickory-smoked bacon,” a “generous helping of creamy country sausage gravy” and “county-style home fries” with pancakes on the side. This however, is not what I received.
After waiting a ridiculous amount of time for my meal considering the number of people in the restaurant, 20 minutes to be exact, I received what looked like a ripped off version of the menu picture. The gravy was not a generous portion at all. It was gone within my first few bites of fries. The bacon was not the “crisp hickory-smoked bacon” I was hoping for, rather chunks of fatty bacon. It was a skillet that came with eggs, or what can be perceive as eggs, but tasted like bland rubber. Along with the skillet came three pancakes that were smaller than the palm of my hand. They were bite-sized, but listed on the menu as “fluffy, made-from-scratch buttermilk pancakes.”
The best part about my meal was the seasoning on the fries. It gave a bit of a salty spice, but did not overdo it.
Customer service was also disappointing. When questioning my waitress if I could take the onions out of my skillet she replied with “I don’t know. I can write it down.”
A simple mistake I understand, but it was the tone and uncaring attitude that made me feel uncomfortable. Later when she tried to make small talk I heard her say that she “could not believe this (insert vulgar word) weather.” I was appalled that a waitress would so carelessly throw around curse words in front of customers.
Later my waitress asked if I needed anything and after that, I never saw her until the end of my meal. I sat waiting at the table for my water glass to be refilled but it never was. I was also disappointed that a manager was not making rounds to be polite and make guests feel like home.
With such a bad experience at the new Village Inn on 13th Avenue I know that I will not be heading back there anytime soon. I will make the smart decision to head to Perkins to pay the same price for double the food.