Scratch is a restaurant that caught my eye because they have a fried chicken dinner available and it just so happens that my husband has been on the hunt for his favorite rendition of fried chicken. What piqued my interest was that they use fresh ingredients as their name suggests and it is conveniently located near Shoreline Amphitheatre.

We were seated in a spacious booth. You couldn’t be greeted by a nicer and more welcoming person than Isaiah. He was able to be personable and professional guiding us through our experience with honest opinions and interesting information on the preparation of their cuisine. We realized later he was perhaps the front of house manager, which made sense because we felt as if he genuinely cared about us having a great experience.

We ordered the fried chicken dinner combo for the table (of 2). It was an elevated comfort food feast. The food came out hot. They give you share plates and then you go at it. Breading on the chicken was delicious and the chicken itself was surprisingly moist. Eye popping good. I don’t know how you take a classic meal and make it this memorable? But they did! Beautiful thick slabs of bacon were with the greens and the mashed potatoes were so incredibly delightful. We had a scoop of ice cream that we shared at the end of the meal with coffee service.

Street parking was easy on a Wednesday, late afternoon. It is a nice neighborhood to take a stroll and check out the shops. We look forward to returning and trying other items off the menu. Well, that is I am curious about other items but my husband is in love with the fried chicken.

ATTITUDE PROBLEM from the manager, Clara!

I want to be clear that the food was actually great. But honestly, after dealing with the manager’s attitude, I can understand why there were only a few tables occupied on a Saturday dinner.

We came in with a party of 7 and let Clara, the manager, know at the front. Right from the start, she had a look on her face like she really didn’t want to deal with our group while taking us to our table.

Later during dinner, my friend saw Clara, the manager, walking by and politely asked if she could get a clean napkin. Clara basically tossed the napkin onto the table. Then my friend asked if she could take away the dirty one, but Clara just walked off as if she didn’t hear her—or just didn’t want to help. I know serving tables is usually the server’s job, but as the manager, you’d at least expect some basic courtesy.

At the end of our meal, we asked to speak with Clara, the manager, and told her that her attitude had really made our dinner unpleasant. She said she didn’t mean to throw the napkin, but then she slammed her hands on our table twice to “show us” what she meant, which honestly just made things worse. We asked if she could apologize, and she did—but it felt forced and full of attitude. When we asked why she seemed so upset with us, she mumbled another apology while walking away and disappeared into the kitchen.

We honestly have no idea what we did to deserve that kind of treatment. We know customers aren’t always right, and we definitely don’t expect special treatment. We just expect to be treated with basic respect.

I do want to give credit where it’s due—the servers were fantastic. In fact, another server who wasn’t even taking care of our table came over to sincerely apologize for the manager, Clara’s behavior, which we really appreciated.

There are plenty of great restaurants in the area. Unfortunately, because of this experience, this won’t be one of the places we’ll be coming back to. Hopefully others will have a better experience than we did.

Delicious dinner at Scratch! The Brussels sprouts were crispy and tasty, the filet mignon was tender, and the scallops were light and perfectly cooked. I ordered a piña colada that came with an alternative rum (didn’t know and personally not a fan). My server was super kind and quickly fixed it for me. Both she and the front desk lady were so friendly and welcoming. Great food and even better service!