The Yellow Church Cafe

Friendly and knowledgeable staff, quick and thorough, excellent portion sizes, parking out front. Coffee was okay to me, but others liked it more. Eggs over medium = perfectly done. Scrambled eggs were scrambled! (Not a plain omelette chopped up.) Wonderful atmosphere, easy to find, looking forward to going back.

I am not typically one to easily get upset at restaurants, or write bad reviews. I wish I didn't have to do this one, because the Yellow Church was maybe my favorite restaurant in Ellensburg until this morning. After today, I will not be back. I was taking my mom out for mother's day along with my grandfather and girlfriend. We had a 9am reservation. After being seated, we did not get water or drinks for at least 10 to 15 minutes, and at least twenty minutes before we were able to place our food order. After waiting quite some time, we noticed one table who had arrived just after us, receive their food, then a couple others who arrived a half hour or more after us received theirs. At this point I flagged down the waitress and asked what was going on. She essentially said that it was mother's day and they were busy. I said I didn't understand why people arriving a half hour or more after us had received their food and we hadn't. She left and a few minutes later a manager came by and said she understood we were upset. I said yes we are. She proceeded to tell us again that it was mother's day, they had many menu specials and that the kitchen was busy. Every time I have been there, the place has been at least as full as it was today, and they always have specials, so I fail to see any relevance here. She had a tone when telling us this as if she was annoyed, and it felt like we were being lectured, or having basic restaurant issues explained to us as if we were children. I was a little insulted and spoke up and asked, how does any of that explain several tables who had arrived 30 minutes after us already having their food and us still waiting? Her response was, I'll go check with the kitchen and I'll be back. She didn't come back. We finally received our food at 10:06, 66 minutes after arriving. For the most part it was decent, aside from my grandpa's English muffin being burnt literally to the point of being black. The waitress gave a rather empty apology, and no legitimate reason for the delay other than passing the buck and saying there was confusion in the kitchen. As we were finishing, the manager came back, still offered no explanation, and asked if we wanted a free cinnamon roll or pastry. We declined. When the bill came, there was no discount whatsoever, I had to pay full price. We were all very upset and weren't able to enjoy our time or the food, which was most unfortunate for my mom, being that she was the reason we were there. I've never had an experience like this. I've been in restaurants where mistakes were made, but there has always been some level of accountability, and usually a healthy discount. Today we were made to feel like we were just impatient and they had done nothing wrong, that they were just busy. Totally insulting and unacceptable. If you can't handle a crowd on a holiday, close your doors on those days. Or maybe you're just in the wrong business. None of us will ever be back.

The heavenly loaf is to die for! High quality vegetarian options, ask for the vegan menu. A little slow service at times but the heavenly loaf is so worth the wait! Get like 3 to go for $3 each.

Good food. Salmon a little overcooked but great service and wine recommendation by server. Very smokey inside. Needs fans to keep your clothes from smelling like a BBQ pit. Overall nice food.

We were a last minute party of 10. I called about 15 minutes ahead of time. When we got there, they had a nice table ready for us. The service was great, portions were good and the food was delicious!