Charm | Covina, CA
I love trying new places, especially if it means not sitting in the infamous Los Angeles traffic. A local recommended this place to me after discussing my love for brunch. They said it was good, close, and cute. Sounds promising? The following weekend I went down a couple streets and landed at Charm.
How do I say this politely?
..
It was not a pleasant experience.
I went to school for hospitality management, I worked in a restaurant, I’ve also been to a couple of restaurants, so it’s safe to say I know a thing or two. To start off, just the layout of the restaurant was atrocious. The tables were awkwardly shaped. Not to get into too much boring detail but altogether there were nine tables. There were four “six” top tables and five “two” top tables. We got there as a party of three, and they had sat different sized parties everywhere so it wasn’t very organized. They had us wait for a long time, just to sit us at a “two” top table that had been opened since we got there. I say “two” top liberally since it was set for two, but they said it would fit three? But I don’t think it would even fit two? My brother asked to be placed at one of the bigger tables. The issues with the tables are that they were narrow but long but it doesn’t make any sense. Just the tables and the overall layout didn’t make any sense.
I had ordered the buttermilk waffle topped with bananas, strawberries, blueberries and their housemade whipped cream along with hot chocolate and a side of bacon. Good news, it’s really hard to mess up a waffle. Bad news, the bacon was eeh and so was the hot chocolate.
There were only one server and one cook. They ended up turning away patrons because they had run out of food. They only had packets of syrup and not bottles. Opening up a restaurant isn’t as easy as people think it is. I hope Charm all the best in their future but they need a better layout, staffing, and stock strategies.
she swallows 