Paperback Cafe

ABSOLUTELY AWFUL.
I had breakfast there on Sunday.
Scrambled eggs were inedible, not fresh, but a commercially prepared mixture. Waffles were also not fresh and largely inedible. Bacon tasted like an old kitchen in which the griddle has not been cleaned in years. Service was marginal at best.
For $ 17.00 for Eggs, bacon waffle and coffee… look elsewhere.
Unfortunately this restaurant has seen better days… there are other better alternatives in town (JAMMS) …time to move on.

After a day of shopping, we figured we would stop at Paperback for a light lunch. The food has always been good. As soon as we walked in the door, We say hello to the girl behind the counter making a cappuccino (or something) and all she says is ‘Anywhere you like’. We say ‘hello’ again, and she repeats herself 2 more times– with a rude look on her face. Never once saying hello back. We walked out. It doesn’t appear (even from the other recent reviews) that anyone is teaching their staff what customer service is. Being in the customer service field myself, this was unacceptable. Not a good impression walking in (and OUT) the door!

Great coffee, I love the chai latte and very reasonably priced. But the service can definitely be an area for improvement. Wait staff is generally friendly but it takes them a while to work their ways to all the table.
Food is mediocre. For the Benedict, they just used a sliced cheese on top, so it was very rubbery tasting. The english muffin was very soft and chewy, which I liked. The hash browns were a little overdone, so it was very hard to chew and a lot of it was too charred to eat.
Overall just the coffee you order at the front desk is good. The food was disappointing but from my experiences, the wait staff are usually very friendly, they are either understaffed or just need to better learn to manager their people more efficiently to ensure proper service at the tables.

Scale: 1 – 5, 5 is best.
Long-​time customers of the ppbk.café., has its highs and lows. Seems to have changed hands again.
Food: 4
Service: 2
Attitude: 1
News flash: you’re not doing me a «favor» by taking my money.
There are better options in the area.

My wife and I had lunch here yesterday, as she had been here once before. The atmosphere was quaint, and what you would expect for the kind of community that it was in (which was nice).
The food here was fairly good. My wife had the barbecue avocado burger and I had an omelette with cheese, bacon, sausage and ham. My wife thought her meal was great, and was particularly impressed by the baked fries. My meal was okay, the actual on itself was fine; but overall it was kind of small for a restaurant omelette.
The service was up and down. When we first arrived, we were seated immediately and our waiter took our drink order right away. However after bringing the drinks, and we weren’t ready to order right at that stage, it took quite a while for him to come back to take our order. It also took quite a bit for our food to come out; and then for our plates to be taken and bill to be delivered at the end of the meal.
Overall, this was an average dining out experience.

Love — Hate relationship with this place.
I really wanted to like this place more than I do. Came here for breakfast on a Saturday morning. We waited at the counter and there was not even an acknowledgment that customers have arrived. When I asked one of the people who work there if there any tables open she looked at me like I was interrupting her day. Once we got a table it was another 10 minutes before anybody came to even offer a cup of coffee. After we placed our order it was another 25 minutes before the food came out, which was not a particularly complex order by the way. Then it was another 40 minutes before someone came to offer a refill on coffee. Highlight is the food is pretty good. It’s just painful to go through the process of getting it. The waitstaff seems to go back-​and-​forth between ambivalence and animosity towards the customers. Very disappointing.

I wanted to like this place. They have a prime location near Walts, the same lot as the Farmer’s Market, and really just the heart of the town. The setting inside is quaint. I feel like I’m in my old Family’s house with the nautical map, and the built-​ins displaying National Geographics and knick knacks.
The food?
Overpriced, and not great. I know we love details of whats wrong with the food, but folks, its just not memorable. Point blank? You can get a lot better in other places around town.
Whats worse? Usually service is a saving grace when the food may be lacking. Nope, not here. I waited 15 minutes for someone to come and give us the check. Oh, wait. I had to ASK for the check because after the plates were dropped off by a different waiter no one came back. Our Male waiter was not friendly, and the female waitress never even made eye contact when I spoke with her.
Skip this place.

Updated review:
New ownership is not an improvement. I’ve tried and tried this place under new management and it’s just not happening. The former glory will never be recaptured, and after many returns filled with hope and ending in disappointment… I will tell the final tale of woe.
A yummy unique place is now yet another uninspired breakfast joint, with none of the joyful foodie explorations of the past.
I won’t bore you with descriptions of banal omelette combos, the disappearance of unique breads, greasy potatoes, or the dreary feeling of the interior, once so bright, now so in need of an update.
My final last experience:
I ordered an egg sandwich on a bagel. On the menu it’s $ 5 (or so?) with cheese and coffee. I asked to hold the cheese and got the typical lackluster white bread commercial fake bagel with bland eggs. How do diners consistently make these commercially yellow eggs? Are they premixed and sold in a gigantic tub? Coffee used to be so good here… Watery, and yet bitter at the same time. I don’t even feel like I’m drinking caffeine
Then the bill came and I got charged separately for every item, eggs, bagel, coffee, much more than the bagel sandwich combo I ordered, without cheese. The owner (who was our waitress) didn’t think she had made a mistake, she said since I said no cheese, that clearly meant I wanted everything separately, and that’s what I was charged for. When I pointed out that it’s a little silly to say I wanted her to charge me double, for less food, and that generally when someone orders a sandwich without cheese that usually means a sandwich without cheese.
This sort of situation really really annoys me. Business owners who are sneaky because this is a wealthy area, and many people don’t even check their bills. It’s the last straw for me with this place.
I declare the Paperback dead.

Arrived early for weekend getaway so we went here for breakfast. The bacon and cheddar omelette was delicious and the hash browns were tender and crunchy in the perfect ratio. He had a sausage and egg sandwich that had just the right amount of spice. The staff is fast and polite. The total with drinks was under $ 20. Very clean, seriously the knickknacks and plants were dust free and the floor looks to maintained as well, the chairs look great too. If you ever went to a place where the front end made you pause and re consider you’ll understand why this place stands out for being spotless.

I joined a friend for breakfast last Friday morning. Omlettes, French toast, and paleo breakfast were satisfying. Service was prompt and efficient. It was my second visit for
only complaint, which is minor, is that the table when seated was quite small to accommodate our order.

Paleo special! Nice surprise. Ordered paleo banana pancakes with turkey sausage. Both were really tasty. There was a side of agave for syrup. Perfect.
The side of fresh fruit however was super SAD. Sliced chunks of orange: runs and all with canned pineapple and cantaloupe.

Great paleo waffles and pancakes, served with agave syrup or a warm berry medley. The coffee could be better, but it is not horrible. OJ comes in a huge glass, it serves two or even three people. Many options for everyone, from the health concious to that friend or family member who really indulges when on vacation! :)

I always enjoyed eating breakfast at this restaurant over the years. But this year I was disappointed, Apparently there was a change in ownership. You can see and feel the change and it is not good. I ordered an egg white cheese omelet and it lacked taste.
Those serving seemed to have no personality. You did not get any feeling that your eating at this café was appreciated, This café was just not friendly.
This Seems to be an example when new ownership/​management do not live up to the previous ownership/​management’s quality and service. There are many other restaurants in the area serving breakfast so I probably won’t come back. I always enjoy eating breakfast out.
TRAVEL KAL

This place used to be great, but not anymore after the ownership changed last year. We used to go about once a week. We’ve been back 4x since the new owners took over, which I think is enough to call it – Paperback is dead. Every visit something has been very wrong with our food, from the merely irritating (cold eggs, warm salad greens), to the genuinely concerning (funky-​tasting, off-​smelling smoked salmon), to the blindingly stupid (bacon/​egg/​cheese/​hard roll sandwich served on a wonderbread-​like hamburger bun – you know, the type that costs $.99 for an 8 pack at the grocery store.) That was the last straw for us. Did they think we wouldn’t notice the difference? Did they run out? If so, why not come out and tell us? I know I must sound very fussy, but this place used to be GREAT. It is really sad to see it go to the dogs.
Bring back the competence and quality please. I gave it two stars because the barista and the bakery are still good.

I just had a small cup to-​go of the Chocolate Cherry coffee to go. It was DIVINE!
It really wasn’t that expensive either, like a dollar something for a small. It would be a cute place to get lunch and bring a good book to get lost in. The people working there were very nice.
I love Old Saybrook!

Pretty average and no disappointments here. Caesar salad w/​grilled chicken was good, and the egg white omelet w/​hash browns were also good. Looks like we just missed a jazz band that was playing on Sunday 11÷17÷13.
Staff was friendly, and the place looked clean. No beer or wine though

SUNDAY BRUNCH REVIEW
I don’t know what it is about CT but it seems to attract a lot of hard to please critics. After reading all of the reviews you would be hard pressed not to think twice about this place. I was with a group of 8 people and they were able to seat us within 15 minutes, which is usually unheard of at most decent brunch places in Boston. They had a fantastic jazz band playing the old standards to perfection.
The food was tasty and reasonably priced. The service was fine (nothing to write home about but nothing to want either) and the environment was great with the music playing the whole time.
I don’t think anyone at our table unhappy with their food (wife did send omelet back to be reheated…) and I enjoyed my omelet and short stack of blueberry pancakes.

Nice clean place, good food & coffee. Kid friendly with outdoor seating. Good service.
NO WIFI

Today was our first time at Paperback Café. We almost went for lunch a while back, over the summer, after attempting to go to Liv’s for lunch and finding that it was a dinner only establishment — but we were there too late and Paperback was about to close. I am so glad we ended up back here today.
We came for lunch a little after 1pm and the little restaurant was packed! Every table was full so we had to wait, but only for a few minutes. Afraid my hungry boyfriend might want to go somewhere else instead, I quickly said, «it must be busy for a reason. Let’s just wait a few minutes.» Right away I noticed a comfortable, cozy atmosphere, almost kind of like you’re eating in your own dining room at home. I appreciated the books and pictures lining the built-​in bookshelves and the large map of the Long Island Sound on a large wall. While we were waiting I admired other peoples plates and noticed that the salads looked big, fresh, and delicious. Everyone seemed to be enjoying their food — a good sign!
Shortly after we arrived we were seated. When I opened the menu my jaw dropped. An entire page of Paleo menu items?!? Holy smokes, I had never seen that before anywhere!!! If you follow my reviews, I obviously do not adhere to a full-​on Paleo diet, but I have been trying to incorporate more of it into my life mostly with my own cooking (there’s a whole backstory to this but I will spare you). As it turns out, the owner of the place is a Crossfitter (I’ve been obsessed with doing Crossfit for about a year now and the Paleo diet and Crossfit go hand in hand). There are both breakfast and lunch dishes that are Paleo and many, if not all of them, looked great.
The rest of the menu was tempting too. I ordered the Four Play Salad, because, let’s be honest, who doesn’t like a little Four Play? Seriously, though, I was attracted to the variety as it came with their signature chicken salad that had cranberries, apple and walnuts, tuna salad, egg salad, and seafood salad, all on top of the house salad. This was enormous. The chicken salad and seafood salad were terrific, while the egg and the tuna salads were good, but all of it got a little heavy in my stomach from all the mayonnaise. My boyfriend ordered the sausage and vegetables stir-​fry off the Paleo menu and he liked it but the portion was on the smaller side. It was about a third the size of my salad, no joke, so he inhaled his dish then helped me with my big salad.
If you’re into sweets they’ve got those here too! Right when you walk into the place you are faced with the sweets case that today had pumpkin pie, lemon meringue pie, a chocolate cake and cheesecake creation, brownies, several types of cookies and seven layer bars (these looked amazing!). I could not help but notice the Paleo Banana Zucchini Raisin bread and had to buy one when we were leaving. The owner had made it himself. At $ 8 for a small loaf, it’s definitely pricey but worth it. So Incredibly moist and flavorful, I might go as far as to say that it is better than any banana bread I’ve ever had.
I cannot wait to come back here to try many more things off the their menu. Hopefully next time I come the Paleo banana bread will be available again. This place is awesome!

A little breakfast, sandwich and salad place on Main Street in Old Saybrook. Came here once and had an ok meal. Not good enough that I would come back if there were other options around though.
The menu is gigantic, but I actually had a hard time picking anything that I wanted. In the end I got a mesclun salad with avocado, shrimp, and tomatoes. The shrimp were nicely done and surprisingly tasty. The dressing was on the heavy side and the tomatoes were under ripe. Portion size was ok, but not heaping and I was hungry enough that I was dreaming of flan the entire walk back to my Starbucks encampment. They also left off the caramelized onions and apples (or they were so skimpy that they couldn’t be found) on a second dish.
Service was ok, but not particularly warm. They had a group service structure so we dealt with a whole bunch of different people, not just one waiter. In the end it is an ok place, but nothing special and not somewhere I would go back before I’d tried all the other alternatives.