Comments on: Pine Cone Restaurant

By: Stefanie

Stefanie — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:16:50 +0000

Regrettably, I have to agree with those who experienced poor service at the new Pine Cone. We were the first customers to arrive for breakfast, yet we waited 25 minutes for food that was none too good and part of the order was wrong. When my husband, who is not a hothead, expressed frustration over the long wait, the waitress told him he didn’t have to be rude. Not to mention she delivered the meal with not a word of apology or thanks for your patience. A rare opportunity for my husband and I to have breakfast out together was blown on this place. From now on, we stick with the tried and true Sam’s For Play Cafe on Sebastopol Road. Good food and good service, all day, every day.

By: Dennis B

Dennis B — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 21:51:05 +0000

Ok, this is an update to my comments a couple up from here. We had gone for Sunday brunch, a month back, and liked it, but thought service was POOR. We went back for dinner a couple nights ago…
The dinner menu is like Willie Bird had a shotgun marriage with Anapurna. Our choices were 4 Indian dishes, and 3 turkey burgers, and 3 veggie burgers.
I ordered the Chicken Curry, which was okay, but not spicey enough and literally came in a small condiment-size ramikan, with a dry cup of brown rice, and some spring mix salad-all for $10. Oh and some Nan-bread arrived too. Decent flavor, but not remarkable and way too small serving.
My wife ordered the Nut Burger, which was GREAT. Nice and cheesey and rich flavor and texture. Best non-meat burger I have had.
BUT, the service was really BAD, and that is considering that we had both owners fawn over us and ended up dealing with both waitresses. (two waiters for a 50-person place??) We sat down and literally waited 15 minutes before anybody asked if we were ready, offered water, wine list etc. One owner sat us down, one waitress took our order, the other owner delivered our food-in akward stages, and the other waitress did our check. I have had fewer staff at Cyrus, and the Pine Cone’s service still stunk. The kitchen is very fast (why not with premade curries, and burger assembly), and is way ahead of the servers. They ran out of french fries on a Friday night right as my two boys were licking their lips for the fries they ordered with their $6 quesadilla!!
I am willing to try for a third time, since the food has not sucked, but I don’t know if all are so generous.

By: vegan's partner

vegan's partner — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:14:41 +0000

Tried this with an omnivore pal at lunchtime the first week it was open. Was delighted to see that they served breakfast thru the lunch hour and ordered the roasted veggie benedict. It was excellent, very tasty and well prepared, and the service was pretty good for a brand new place. I noted that there were many menu items my vegan could snarf up, so I was excited to bring her to the new Pine Cone. A couple weeks went by, and that opportunity came along — vegan and I went for lunch. Absolutely, unqualifiedly, the worst meal I have ever been served (though ‘served’ is a generous word for how the food, such as it was, reached our table). My turkey club (ordered because I knew Willie Bird was a co-owner) took nearly an hour to arrive, and when it did — I’m not making this up — there was no turkey in it. There was a limp slab of turkey bacon, a wad of iceberg lettuce, a wan wedge of ping-pong tomato. No mayo, awful bread. The plate looked like it had been dropped on the floor and half of its contents had been hastily picked up and thrown back on it. My vegan ordered a bowl of dal, having enjoyed the dal at Annapurna. What arrived was a cup (our ‘server’ explained that this was the bowl, and when asked what the cup looked like, shrugged and said nobody had ever ordered one), a cup containing what might have been leftover three-day-old dal from Annapurna watered down to the point that only the color faintly remained — no lentils were visible, even in pureed form. She also ordered, to her ultimate regret, a side of home fries. These arrived (quite a bit later than the dal) burnt dry — turned out to be a good thing there were only a few on the plate. What the hell happened between my first meal at the new Pine Cone and this disaster?! In this economy, it will be a long time before I risk scarce meals-out bucks here again.

By: It's an East West Knock-off

It's an East West Knock-off — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 10:22:30 +0000

It’s too much like the East West Cafe right down the street. The niche for tofuties has already been filled, and there is nowhere in Sebastopol to get a traditional breakfast. I’d go weekly if I good get a good stack of pancakes and a side of crispy bacon.

By: Dennis B

Dennis B — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:28:33 +0000

I went to the old pine cone for the typical greasy spoon and kid friendly menu. I personally think that Apple Trees down the street had better breakfast and greasy spoon fare. I like the more interesting fare in the new Pine Cone.
If you want pancakes and omelettes and burgers (but kidnda expensive) go to the Farmhouse or Apple Trees. I think the more “fusion” fare is a nice change and the amount of people always in there seems to bear it out? The decor is finally out of the 1960s, and the food is finally caught up to the tastes of most younger “East-West Cafe-like” Sebastopol residents.
My main complaint is the waitstaff took forever and then brought our food without utensils, coffee refill, syrup and condiments. Then took forever to bring the check, with our 3 kids bouncing all over the place. Will return for food, but hope service is better.

By: Dennis B

Dennis B — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:26:30 +0000

By: a.styles

a.styles — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 08:57:45 +0000

wow…….they should have left it alone and servered the food that people came there for…..i give it 6 months

By: Patrick

Patrick — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:17:38 +0000

My wife and I went there Sunday for breakfast. The waiter we got was either stoned or hung-over from Saturday night. He had no idea if they had muffins or not. On the good side the omelettes were very good (I had the Spanish and she had the Greek) and we liked the décor. On the minus side the bread tasted like store bought and was very disappointing. The potatoes were ok, but nothing special. But worst of all the coffee was either very weakly brewed or maybe from the McDonalds down the road. If they get some better coffee and bread we may give it another try. Till then we will stick with Willow Wood in Graton.

By: Kimbo

Kimbo — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 14:02:01 +0000

A weekend ritual while walking our way to the Analy Theatre for a double bill matinee was to stop by the Pine Cone for piping hot fries and a couple of chocolate Cokes. I can’t remember how much it cost but I think the show was a quarter for us kids. I’ll let you imagine how long ago that was. By the way, the Analy Theatre is now the Safeway parking lot. I don’t think many in town knew what tofu was back then.

By: david

david — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 12:22:33 +0000

Maybe people should try the Nepalese/Indian food, since that is Maskey’s / Annapurnas specialty.
If they serve the butter chicken, I am so there…and, mmm, naan bread.