Paoli Grocery & Cafe

Absolutely the worst lunch I have ever had. I payed $ 10 for the smallest and most poorly made Reuben. They didn’t use corned beef. They put very salty old pot roast in it with a ton of sauce and a little bit of sauerkraut on stale bread. I don’t know why there were carrots on it. That was most certainly pot roast… I know what pot roast is. The Reuben is my favorite sandwich I always get it. There is no way that was right. Couldn’t even eat the potato salad. It was warm. My mom got a $ 9 pulled pork sandwich literally the size of your fist. If it’s going to be that size it should be good quality. The bread was stale she said. This one they put hardly any sauce on. The potato chips were stale. This took 30 minutes or more to serve. There was no one there. The waitress was rude and seemed upset that we were there. I’m not upset as much as I am amazed how a place could be that bad. The sandwich hasn’t sat with me well. I’m still in disbelief. Really gives that sort of market a bad name. I wrote this so no one else’s afternoon gets messed up. I feel like it’s a scam and that they are taking advantage of well meaning people.

My wife, daughter and I ate lunche this afternoon at the Paoli Café. My daughter is a vegetarian and they have several vegetarian options on the menu (which supposedly is «made from scratch» — or so says the sign).
Our waitress was the twelve-​year old daughter of the owner. I have absolutely no problem having a young family member learn the business. Yet, she knew very little about the menu and was not terribly willing to go back and get answers for our questions. (Perhaps a little more supervision would’ve helped — but there was no additional supervision given).
We were given three glasses of water — no ice. The water is likely well water as it has an odor. We all understand well-​water is well-​water, so my wife asked our 12-​year-​old waitress if she could get a lemon wedge. I don’t think the poor thing had any idea what she was being asked for — she just said we don’t have that.
On to our orders…
I ordered the egg salad sandwich, my wife ordered a trout salad sandwich, my daughter ordered a grain burger (vegetarian burger). The owner came back out in a few minutes and let my wife know they didn’t have trout. Instead, she ordered a bowl of chili. Also, the 12-​year-​old asked my daughter how she wanted the grain burger cooked which really seemed odd. Ummm, I don’t know, «cooked» works. (Medium was the final answer.)
I also ordered a diet pepsi ($ 2.50 for a 12 oz. can btw). The 12-​year old brought out a diet coke. I asked her for a glass and received a deer-​in-​the-​headlights look. She brought back a glass, full of ice with my soda poured over it. There was probably 6 oz. of soda in the glass — but I did not get the remainder of the can (at $ 2.50 a can). Oh, they do have cans of diet pepsi in the display case as well as coke products.
The grain burger was ok — nothing spectacular but did have about a ½″ of onions on it (which my daughter removed).
The egg salad was fine — but also had a ton of onions in it (which I could not remove).
The bread is not homemade — it’s pepperidge farm (they sell it in the attached store front).
Now let’s consider the chili. Recall, there is a sign saying everything is made from scratch. It came without any onions, cheese, sour cream or crackers and was bland and tasteless. Kwik Trip’s chili puts Paoli’s to shame (at ¹⁄₃ the cost). My comment was «made from scratch in the kitchens of Sysco.» Chili was terrible.
One last thing, throughout the meal, our glasses of water were never refilled.
Overall it was a very disappointing $ 24 for lunch for three in a unique artisan based community. I expected better.

3 words. best quiche ever!
It’s a bit pricey but for the portion and quality it’s totally worth it

I had the awesome Paoli melt sandwich (smoked Gouda and kimchi belong together). The potato leek soup was also wonderful. My friend’s quiche was also tasty. This is the place to stop for breakfast or lunch made from local farm produce, eggs and meats on your next drive or ride to Paoli.