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| Photo - Food Network |
Positive Reviews:
- "The new decor is great but I never went for that reason. If you want a great breakfast with everything done the way you want (crisp bacon, extra crisp hash browns with onions), this is the spot. Unless the place is jammed, the service is friendly and timely."
- "This place is great. It's not a dive. It's not fancy. Nice, middle of the road, comfy place. The food is great. Especially breakfast! The staff is friendly. Service is quick. I go here every time I'm in Saugatuck."
- "We had breakfast here on Saturday morning and we are glad we stopped in. The breakfast buffet was great. So many choices!"
- "The Kalico Kitchen looks very nice. The numerous decor details were fun, but the dirty bathroom was not. Clean that up too. The formerly testy staff was very nice and when above and beyond to serve well."
Negative Reviews:
- "So the service was lousy and the food was a mix of good and bad, but mostly bad. I get a very similar meal at a restaurant in my hometown for about $3.50 less and the service is outstanding. There are far too many restaurants in the area to waste your time on this mess."
- "The service sucked took 20 plus minutes just to get a menu. After me and the two others I was with ate there we all ended up sick. I will NEVER return to there!"
- "There is so much BAD to be said about this restaurant, it is hard to know where to begin...This young lady was so upset because she expressed to us this happens all the time. The owner decides to change the prices without notice and does not change the price on the menu and customers complain. She starts crying and the woman manager comes over and asked her "Why are you crying?" She replies because this is upsetting and I have to explain the price changes to customers all the time. The Mean manager tells her I'm not worried about it so why are you"
- "First time visit, so disappointed. Service is poor. The food is awful. The TV show makeover is not helping a bit. Highly not recommend at all! keep away from this restaurant! Don't waste your time and money! "
- "This was the WORST place ever!!!!! The food was under cooked. We were never ask what do we want to drink...... Don't waste your time going to this place."
Conclusion:
Kalico Kitchen has had many more bad reviews than good reviews since Restaurant Impossible came to visit. This should be an interesting episode judging by the descriptions of the owner Catherine, who is also known as "Big Mama" according to the Kalico Kitchen website. Kalico Kitchens seems to still have big problems with their service, as there are many complaints about it. There were also a lot of complaints about poor food and the higher prices. The review about the owner changing prices and many customers complaining about different prices being charged than those on the menu was pretty interesting too. Kalico Kitchen does keep an up to date Facebook page, which shows they are trying. They have been open since 1977, so hopefully they can turn things around after the makeover, but it doesn't look like they are off to a good start.
UPDATE from 8/1/2013 - Check out this VERY LONG post from the Kalico Kitchen Facebook Page where they said they were told to leave the grease on the kitchen floor until Restaurant Impossible came. They also claim Robert and crew were sitting around eating and drinking beer while volunteers did all the work. Sounds like they didn't like how they were portrayed on the show, and now are on the attack. They were advertising the air date and very excited about the show up until it aired, so they obviously didn't like how they came across.
UPDATE 12/2013 - Kalico Kitchen has closed due to financial issues, as well as health department issues. More Information about the closing.
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I'm watching this episode right now. I haven't had this little faith in an owner since Palianis.
ReplyDeleteWhat a bitch
ReplyDeleteAmen to that. She seems so bitter and high and mighty. I felt bad for her son and granddaughter. :(
ReplyDeleteNo surprise that this place is failing. You can dress it up but you cant cover up a terrible personality.
ReplyDeleteIs there a show for staff impossible
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the most dysfunctional groups of people/family ever. I feel so sorry for the son, the grand kids and everyone.
ReplyDeleteJust watched this episode... My goodness, she's one of the worst owner's I've seen on RI. I have so little faith in them.
ReplyDeleteThe owner is never going to change......she may say she is going to .......but that was for Robert Irvine........to impress him..........People like her never change, and the minute RI is out of there, she is going to yank that restaurant back from her son. Isn't strange that the restaurant is hers.........but she came back to it being 400,000 in debt......I have never known a time for a bank to give a loan to a manager without the owners permission, and it cant be all back taxes or she would have lost the place already.........i wonder how much the family ran the business that far in the hole and how much dear sweet (sarcasm on) Catherine has pocketed herself..........jmo
ReplyDeleteCatherine you were right. You are going to lose your restaurant and your family. Donny, you need to get you and your family out of there and start somewhere else because this woman (Catherine) is an angry bitter woman who sadly does have influence and is teaching very bad habits to all of you. Open your own restaurant or buy it from her. See her on holidays.
ReplyDeleteCatherine is so far in debt because she goes to Arizona all the time and stays there to gamble. Donnie has always had his hands in the register and staff is always unfriendly. You are docked a daily wage from your paycheck if you want to eat or drink anything other than water. If you don't do that and you have ANYTHING you will be fired. I used to work there. This is first hand info.
ReplyDeleteI want Robert to be more direct with these folks most of the time. He cannot change horrific people like this owner with a two day visit. They will revert to their character. I would rather he come in, inspect and interview, and then determine whether he will invest in a remodel. Also, any place that has a filthy kitchen should be turned in to the health department.
ReplyDeleteAmen! Wish one day he'd come in, see it's actually an impossible job and say "Screw it...you're on your own"
ReplyDeleteIt would probably get better ratings that way too... Like Amy's from Kitchen Nightmares
ReplyDeleteI don't think anyone is going to close to one-upping that meltdown. I'll bet the director couldn't wait to get to the editing room with those tapes!
ReplyDeleteCatherine was clearly not sincere. You can't change prices and not put it on the menu. Robert never got to the bottom of the debt- I suspect it is hands in the drawer and what value was the nephew bring? Sell the restaurant for whatever they can get. The filth was more than unacceptable and showed they didn't really care. The granddaughter showed passion and honesty- she was a bright spot!!!
ReplyDeleteShe has the audacity to claim she never treated employees that way and says they told her not to clean her greasy floor. I don't know if they would try that or not, but what owner would agree to not clean their restaurant? .
ReplyDeleteThree servers have quit and she still won't say why she's $460,000 in debt
http://www.hollandsentinel.com/news/x1806129100/Kalico-Kitchen-owner-thanks-community-and-discusses-Restaurant-Impossible-taping-menu-chef-Robert-Irvine
I also find it interesting that Robert Irvine was her "hero" but she consistently miscalled him Robert Irving. Who doesn't know the correct name for their hero? Just shows how insincere this woman really is.
ReplyDeleteDid Catherine really think that calling her son "a worthless piece of s..t, wasn't going to hurt his heart, not to mention calling her Grandaughter "stupid" constantly wouldn't affect her. Just how "stupid" is Catherine.
ReplyDeleteThe health department has closed this restaurant....
ReplyDeleteYup... Will have a post on this tomorrow... Thanks!
ReplyDeleteso the one complainer is saying they had to eat their meal with no drink? pfft.... same bitchy stories placed on the other RI resturants me thinks someone gets around alot to judge them all
ReplyDeleteRead the article you linked to, and my first thought was, "Of course they told her not to clean the floor." If they hadn't, what would have happened? Think about it -- when company is coming, you clean house. So the film crew gets there and finds a nice, clean place that shows none of the physical problems from the initial interview, and then what can they do? And when it comes down to it, that's more of a misrepresentation than it would have been if they hadn't told them not to clean. They even said in the episode that it was clear that the floors hadn't been cleaned in years, so much so that the sheer amount of grunge had dissolved the grout and tile adhesive, and bugs were breeding UNDER the tile. After years of not being cleaned, how much worse was it going to be if they left it for a few more weeks?
ReplyDeleteAnd it wasn't just the floors, but the ceiling fans, refrigeration units, ductwork, trim, everything was covered with months or years of dust, grease and grime. So basically, they were just telling them, "Keep it honest by not cleaning this craphole up before we come back."