Eric H.

The J & L cafe is located in the cafeteria of the old Wildrose high school. We walked in and the server was extremely excited to see us. She greeted us with a gigantic smile and an enthusiastic "Hi! Come on in! We've been waiting for you all morning!" She was very energetic and smiley in whatever she was doing, whether it was showing us to our table or getting our menus. She told us how happy she was that we came in because there was nothing to do (it wasn't exactly a busy place). We learned that it was her first day on the job and she seemed very excited about that. She said that we were not her first customers ever, but were in fact her third. She said that when she first started taking orders (that morning... two orders ago) she used to write down everything the people ordered. Now, she has learned to abbreviate things and it seems to make things go much faster. So, we looked at the menu of traditional breakfast items. Some of the selections on the menu included 1 pancake with 1 egg, 2 pancakes with 2 eggs, 1 pancake with 2 eggs, but not 2 pancakes with 1 egg. Fortunately for me, she was willing to make an exception and I ordered the 2 pancakes with 1 egg. "How would you like your egg?" "Scrambled please." Our food came out fairly quickly... my one normal sized pancake and one tiny pancake along with what looked like a tiny little omelet, and not a scrambled egg. My counterpart went with the burnt rye toast and burnt slab of ham. He seemed to really enjoy his meal! Mine was ok until about halfway through the normal sized pancake, it started tasting like fish. Hmmm... fish pancakes, not something I ever imagined I would eat. I told our server that I hoped that the remainder of her first day on the job was a great one! Without hesitation, she responded, "It'll probably be my last." What a coincidence... it will probably be my last time eating there too. The J & L cafe most likely would have received a 1 star rating if it hadn't been for the extremely cheery and friendly server... and since that was probably her first and last day, I wouldn't recommend it at all. PS. Either they have something wrong with the cash register or there is a 19.9% sales tax in Wildrose, North Dakota.