Mimi’s Cafe

We came here for Father’s Day and had the worst customer service experience. We had called in advance to make a reservation and was told we didn’t need one and just walk in. When we got there we were asked if we had a reservation and if we didn’t it would be a 35 – 40 min wait. Well, we waited for over an hour for our table and the hostess, Sandra, was extremely rude. They shouldn’t have someone in the front with a bad attitude. After over an hour of waiting, we waited over half an hour just to get our food. It’s a shame since their food is actually good. However, the lack of customer service and bad attitude from their employee Sandra made us not want to visit this restaurant again.

I ordered the Ruben Sandwich. It was nothing like the usual and was rather tasteless. The portion was large though and I could not finish it, nor desire to. The service was painfully slow and they ran out of the dessert that had been proffered. I’ve eaten at Mimi’s before, a long time ago and it was good. What happened? Definitely won’t be going back.

Worst experience I have ever had at a Mimi’s before. So bad my family and I got up and left and did not eat there. The one hostess needs a major attitude adjustment. To make it even better we went there on Mother’s Day for me as that was what I wanted to eat.
The manager was nice, but still didn’t make it any better.

I live a mile away from the Lake Forest Mimi’s and really want to like this place. Like my good Unilocaling friend Jim T. (an excellent Unilocaler if you get a chance to read his reviews) says: ’ great Cobb salad.’ Yes, I agree the Cobb and the soup have been consistently good. Maybe a little less salt in the soup Chef. I have seen Mimi’s improving in a few other areas, such as reducing the vast amount of salt that the Mimi’s chef’s uses as he liberally poured salt on almost everything. So less salt on the items I have ordered, I see as an improvement. But, still the quality and service at Mimi’s Lake Forest is so far below other resturants in out area (EG Denney’s; IHOP; Snooty Fox; Peppino’s; Lucille’s;…) I don’t understand why they struggle.
Today, I ordered the corn beef hash Benedict. which needs a lot of improvement. If I compare Mimi’s beef hash Benedict to International House of Pancakes, Mimi’s would get half a star. Mimi’s to twice as expensive, lacking in flavor, a very small serving size (how did Mimi’s find an egg that small was the joke at the table)? I am tempted to bring my own eggs if I go again.

Used to work here years ago. It was great back then! High level of what they expected as far as friendliness and customer service and even food quality. But, it has gone down hill! Took 12 minutes for somebody to come to our table (it wasn’t even busy). Waitress was not friendly. We had to ask for everything. After waiting for someone to come for 10 minutes I went to the hostess stand to ask about it, and they said «_​_​_​is your server, she will be there soon.» And just stayed there. Was very strange. But, it isn’t just this visit, it’s every time we come, which has become much more rare because service is bad and food is sub-​par now. It’s not like it used to be. Sad. I liked this place!

The food tasted excellent, but it was hard getting a refill on drinks. The waitress had zero personality. I saw another waitress with the table beside us, she was great and bubbly. The muffins here are fantastic, we had 3 at our table. The chefs are clearly doing their job but the wait staff could use some training as well as the front of house staff.

So 2 of us arrived at 6pm and there was no hostess at the waiting area to greet us. We had to wait about 5 minutes before somebody showed up to seat us. Not really a big deal, but it’s definitely not a great way to start off a meal considering I was in full blown Unilocal review mode! After being seated, a waiter did not great us for 10 minutes! Really? There were 2 servers in our room and there were about 5 other groups in the room when I arrived. Do the math yourself and see if a 10 minute wait was justified. Once a waiter decided to check on us, he was very nice and took our orders but one other thing peeved me. In addition to our drinks, we ordered 2 glasses of water. The water came in these tiny glasses. The annoying thing is 1) He didn’t refill our water until I flagged him down at the end of our meal and 2) In the middle of our meal, I glanced around and there were 21 other guests who ALL had water cups that were 3x the size of ours.
Let’s get to the actual review:
Food
–Pot Roast — The flavor of the beef was pretty good and the texture was excellent. Very tender and moist. The mashed potatoes were good. Not spectacular but not bad. The broccoli was soggy! That was a downer because I love broccoli when it’s cooked correctly and that would have been a perfect compliment to our meal
–Chicken Mac n Cheese — The initial flavor of the Mac n Cheese was spectacular. The flavorful bacon just exploded in your mouth. My problem was this dish was too rich. A few bites is perfect but if I ate that as a meal I would get sick! This would have been a great appetizer or side dish but I’m not sure if it would count as a great entrée.
Service
The waiter was very professional. He greeted us warmly and was prompt when we asked for something. The only 2 negatives were the long initial wait time and not refilling our water until the end (and I guess not hovering around where I could make some eye contact and ask for the refill).
Overall, I was tempted to slap Mimi’s with a 2 star review but when I thought back I realized we did have a good meal, the ambiance was good and my son enjoyed himself. A few tweaks would have made this a 4 star experience so I settled with a solid 3 stars.

Save your money. This place used to be good a few years back and now it’s mediocre at best. Just had the corn beef hash Benedict. Ugh. I could make everything at home better than they do here and I am not the best cook. However, I do like to eat good food and this just isn’t up to par, especially for the price. The only thing good is the soup. Don’t waste your time, go to bagels and brew, panera, Paul’s, or the many others that offer a bite worth tasting.

We have been patrons of Mimi’s for quite sometime. Here recently, however, their restaurants in Costa Mesa and the one in Lake Forest, seem to be having food quality and staffing issues.
Yes, I get that the week between Christmas and New Years is a very busy time, many people off work. But one would think that Mimi’s could anticipate such an influx and either raise staffing levels or get their «top performers» on the schedule. This morning, Thursday, December 29^th at the Mimi’s Lake Forest Restaurant we received one cup of coffee (well ¾’s cup of coffee) and did not see our waitress again until the food arrived some 40 minutes later! Breanna, our waitress, required help from other staffers to get the food and coffee to her small gathering of patrons.
Last week (the week before Christmas) on our 43^rd Anniversary, we went to breakfast at the Mimi’s Restaurant in Costa Mesa. Having a coupon (to celebrate our anniversary,) I was told I could not order a less expensive food item as it wasn’t considered an «entrée.» One would think staffers would jump at «less expensive.» When my substitute meal arrived (corned beef hash) there was a whole lot of hash, but miniscule bits of corned beef. Upon questioning our waitress and calling over the manager, my substitute breakfast was again substituted for ham and eggs. New ham.. .old eggs and potatoes, and to aggravate and excerbate the situation, my meal didn’t arrive until my husband had finished his meal almost 20 minutes hence. Such a disappointment — ruined our anniversary breakfast!
Mimi’s is not a low dollar menu restaurant. Our advice. Save your money, go to McDonald’s and get an Egg McMuffin, better tasting, faster service and easier on the wallet!

The food was served promptly, perfectly prepared and absolutely delicious! My friend and I enjoyed a perfect blended red house wine for only $ 5/​each. The ambiance is lovely and the people who work there made our dining experience the best!

Had to post due to quality here. Hadn’t been to MiMis in awhile and here is what I discovered.
Used to have the best corned beef hash around. In fact, we came here for it. They now use canned corned beef hash. Also, the breakfast potatoes used be so flavorful and cooked well and now they use baby potatoes some of which weren’t even cooked all the way though.
Buttermilk spice muffins used to have nuts throughout now they put small amount on top and that’s it.
On the plus side the eggs were cooked perfectly and the coffee is still really good.
So for breakfast/​brunch quality has declined and we won’t be back.

We decided on Mimi’s Café after walking out of the restaurant we first stopped to eat at tonight (Woody’s Diner in Laguna Hills… yuck!). We know Mimi’s has good food but much to our surprise. It was better than usual. The service was above and beyond as well as the food. We could not be happier and wished we would have gone there in the first place.

We come here every once in a while to have a enjoyable meal together, but it’s always very annoying.
They could only have a couple sets of people in eating…“but” it takes an act of God to get your meal (40 mins.)
Maybe the manager needs to open her eyes to the reviews and make a few changes… or perhaps they don’t care?!
To bad… good food, but crappy service!

I was here on sat morning with my g.f. despite the extremely rude experience I had here about 5months ago.
At 1^st when we got there they gave us lunch menues when they clearly asked us if we wanted breakfast menus, once that was cleared up we orderd o.j. I ordered their breakfast tacos (eggs, cheese, hash brown, salsa) they wernt bad at all. They didn’t fill me up like I was hopeing for, but still good.

I’m not sure what is going on with this location, but their service has taken a nose-​dive! The past couple of times I’ve eaten here, I’ve gotten pretty bad service. The servers are nice… they’re just not doing their job well.
A few months ago, I recall a server who took forever in between coming to our table. Today, our server brought the wrong order to the table and then charged for 2 drinks versus 1. Then came to the table and questioned herself and had to go back to double check the receipt. She is very young and it’s probably one of her first gigs… I get it, but this is starting to deter me from this particular Mimi’s. I don’t ever remember poor service before this year. I wonder if they have poor management/​high turnover?

Okay, I never review chain anythings, because let’s face it: Everybody’s already been there. However, there are two things that make me like our Mimi’s a lot more than ever:
1. The new Lemon-​Herb Brick Chicken. The entire meal is wonderful (Don’t forget the brie appetizer and fresh bread).
2. Didn’t catch his name, but we always give the guy that looks like Tom Colicchio a hard time about looking like Tom. .. well, you know. Seriously? This guy might be the best waiter in OC.

Mediocre… Poor service and dirty silverware… Patio was disheveled and furniture shabby… Ordered the ‘new’ Deviled Eggs… Three (different) flavors… Hah! you could’a fooled me…
Pieces of shell in them too and very young inexperienced server said;“Ohh that happens eh“
Where do they find these people… Don’t they interview them… hadn’t a clue about the menu !
The Waffles were sopping wet on one side (from the steamer?)
Quiche was under-​cooked to the point of being runny
Used to the classy one in Mesa, AZ on Baseline that outshines this about 400%…

My son had an excellent waffle here today!
The wait staff was friendly. They were too busy for servers staffed. It took 40 minutes to get my food.
I would not recommend the California Rueben. I love Mimi’s food. Just not today. They did take my meal off the bill. Very nice.
So just one of those days. I want to come back to eat the Eggs Benedict!

I’ve never had any major issues with customer service here. We get a pretty friendly waiter most of the time. I agree with others that the food is hit/​miss, so find what you like and stick to it.
Favorites:
— bacon & bleu salad with chicken (my go-​to)
— Tillamook Mac and Cheese (gooood)
— steak and frites (husband’s choice)
— egg white & veggie (breakfast)
— cranberry orange muffin (seasonal)
— blueberry muffin (usual)
Pro-​tip: sign up for their emails, they ALWAYS have an active «buy 1get1 free» coupon for meals.

We had the best meal here last night!!!
My friend and I were so happy with the food and the service. Paul the manager welcomed us, along with our waitress (I believe her name was Brianna) and were both friendly and attentive throughout the meal. I ordered a white sangria and my friend ordered the red sangria, featured on the menu board as we came in, for $ 5dollars a glass. We ordered the brie for two as an appetizer, and it was delicious! I definitely want to order that again! For dinner we had the Fire-​Grilled Seafood Skewers with Atlantic Salmon & Shrimp, it came with Corn on the Cobb brushed with garlic butter and a yummy garden salad. Could not have been happier with our meal, and we both felt it was one of the best meals we’ve had in a long time! I wish this meanies was a little closer to where I live, so I could frequent it more often!