1713 E Colorado Blvd
Pasadena, CA 91106
(626) 683-3309
http://www.novelcafe.com
My sister bought a $25 gift certificate for The Novel Cafe from Restaurant.com. Their menu looked good and healthy from their website. We decided to go there for dinner and use the GC.
We weren't really sure if it was a coffee shop, a restaurant, or a wine bar. It was more like a combination of all three. We walked in, and nobody was there to greet us. We walked up to the bartender and he told us to sit anywhere we liked. A waitress brought us the menu a few minutes later. We showed her the Restaurant.com gift certificate, and she just said, "oh we are no longer taking those." That was all she said. But why? The GC wasn't even expired. So my sister just bought them for nothing? Can restaurants do that?
Goat Cheese and Eggplant Melt ($9.50)
melted goat cheese, marinated eggplant dipped in parmesan and basil pesto, grilled spinach and onions, shredded carrots mayonnaise, and a sun-dried tomato pesto spread
We ordered two dishes to share. We both love goat cheese and thought Goat Cheese and Eggplant Melt sounded delicious. There were grilled spinach and onion in the sandwich. It tasted pretty good, but seemed like I can easily make the same thing at http://www.eileenlikestoeat.com. Their salad came with balsamic vinaigrette dressing, and it had a very strong sour taste. I didn't like it too much.
Garden Vegetarian Burger ($9.95)
vegetarian patty: brown rice mushrooms, barley, soy and onions, tomato pesto, swiss cheese, green leaf, tomatoes, pickles, grilled onions, avocado, and sprouts
I was too full to eat my half of the Garden Vegetarian Burger. I had it for breakfast the next day. It was sooooo yummy. I love their vegetarian patty. Everything in the burger was fresh even when eaten a day later.
Most customers were drinking wines and having tapas that night. Somehow the waitress didn't give us the tapas menu. I guess because we didn't order wine? The food was good, but it wasn't anything too special. The waitress wasn't attentive. We had to wait for a long time to get her attention. And how they just stop taking Restaurant.com gift certificate wasn't very cool. So I don't think I'd go out of my way to go back to this place.
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The veggie burger looks so good! I still think they should have accepted your restaurant.com coupon! Plus they should contact restaurant.com and tell them they arent accepting the GC anymore so people won't be wasting their money! I hope your sister gets a refund or something!
ReplyDeleteYeah they should.
My sister said she'll contact restaurant.com for a refund.
Hi Eileen! This happened to me too once. Here is the info from their FAQ:
ReplyDeleteWhat do I do if I attempt to use a Restaurant Gift Certificate and the restaurant is permanently closed or does not accept my Restaurant Gift Certificate?
Although rare, restaurants can go out of business or change owners without informing Restaurant.com. If the restaurant is permanently closed or does not accept your Restaurant Gift Certificate, please contact Customer Service at info@restaurant.com (include your Restaurant Gift Certificate number or code) or call us at 1-800-979-8985 Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Central Standard Time and 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday. Our Customer Service department will exchange your unused Restaurant Gift Certificate for equivalent credit to Restaurant.com in the form of a Restaurant.com Gift Certificate. You can then use your Restaurant.com Gift Certificate to choose another Restaurant Gift Certificate or Merchant Certificate from Restaurant.com.
http://www.restaurant.com/help.asp#15
:)
Thank you so much for the info, Stephanie.
I'll let my sister know.
你来我们这一片啦？
ReplyDelete哈哈
是啊
上去吃了三天好快樂