I wanted to like this place. Truly, I did. But when you have the most absurd line situation I have ever seen, where my husband ends up feeling like a criminal, you’ve got a problem! (Read on.)
Huckleberry is an American cafe/bakery that opened last month in Santa Monica. I went there with my husband, my BFF and her husband for what I thought would be a nice Sunday brunch. Hubster and I enter through the front door, he grabs a seat, I stand in line to order our food. The place is packed. I fall in love with the decor, it’s modern Americana with wood tables, red chairs and a chalkboard menu. It feels like a San Francisco cafe that was gently picked up and moved to sunny Santa Monica. But then…the love bus comes to a screeching halt once I start noticing the red flags. First red flag. The prices! Now, you know from my past posts that it’s all about value. Expensive food has its place in this world if you can deliver the goods but Huckleberry, where were your goods? Your prices were absurd, in fact, we ended up paying $70 for our lunch, and sure we ordered the jidori chicken, a salmon sandwich, an egg sandwich, bread pudding, a salad and two coffees but $70? Who do you think you are? Just because you’re the hip new kid in town does not mean you turn into the bully, swindling us of our lunch money! Second red flag? The fact that you have to order your food and then find a seat! In a crowded situation, this is chaos! You end up with dazed and confused zombies giving the evil eye to people who have the gumption to find a seat! Why would I want to hold my food and wait for a table to open? This is ridiculous! Hubster gets approached three times by people asking him if he “stuck to the rules” and he ends up feeling like a criminal! Food comes out and aside from the bread pudding (which was fabulous…two words, take out), the rest was bland and blah. Service was particularly crappy that day. We had to ask for our coffee cups, they forgot about our request for additional plates and the overall feeling of chaos could be felt by their 10+ staffers scurrying and shouting in the back. Where was the manager getting these people in order? Overall, I will not go back for at least a few good months till they fix that line situation, lower their prices and get a good manager on staff. Huckleberry. I had hope but it was all hype.
Huckleberry (Yelp) 1014 Wilshire Blvd Santa Monica, CA 90401 (310) 451-2311 Yelpers who gave this 3+ stars, you be crazy. Chowhounders, you feel my pain.