• 2
• Absolutely Underwhelming

In an effort to support the vegetarian restaurants in our area, my wife and I decided to have lunch at Democracy. Here's the first thing that bugs me....I don't mind paying for food when I order it, but it really bothers me when the credit card machine prompts me for a tip amount. I mean why am I tipping now? I don't now if the food is any good. I haven't received any service yet so I don't know if it's worth a tip or not but I still leave a tip because I don't know what will happen if I don't leave one at that time. So that's the first thing. We ordered our meals. I had a pierogi pizza and my wife had a smashed chickpea sandwich. We also ordered cauliflower "wings" as an appetizer. They have all sorts of craft beer, but their wine selection is limited. The choices were an organic blend red or an organic blend white. No other options. While waiting for our meal, the restaurant received a food delivery which meant the back door was open and a cold breeze blew through the restaurant necessitating zipping up our jackets and putting our hands in our pockets until the door was once again closed. Delivery schedule needs to be changed for customer comfort. After waiting 40 minutes for our food, I asked a server about it and she brought it out to us immediately. The food was lukewarm so I can only assume that it had been sitting on a counter for some time before coming out to us. The cauliflower wing appetizer came out at the same time as the entrees so we ended up having to eat everything at once. The "wings" were tasty in a light batter but needed to be eaten quickly before the sauce soaked in and they became soggy. Sauce on the side would have been a better idea. The chick pea sandwich was strictly average and came to us without the lettuce and tomato that we paid extra for so it had to go back to the kitchen to be corrected. The pierogi pizza wasn't worth the wait. Again it was strictly average. I've made better myself at home. My sense is that this restaurant is not run by professional restaurateurs but by amateurs trying to fulfill a lifelong dream of owning a vegetarian restaurant. They have the passion but not the expertise to run a successful restaurant. This restaurant seems to get a lot of walk in traffic buying coffee and baked goods which they seem to do well. My suggestion to them would be to stick to what they're good at and abandon the restaurant because it's bound to fail if other diners have the same experience as we did. Updated from previous review on 2017-02-21