Cafe Carpe Diem

Great food, very nice ppl. They even offered me paper towels to dry myself off with when it had been raining!

I ate here just a couple days after it opened, so the extra star is to acknowledge that there are many, many bugs to be worked out. Having said that, this was a pretty bad meal. I ordered the spicy yakisoba combo, which was literally dripping in chili oil, had epically overcooked chicken and steak, and noodles that had crossed the line from pleasantly chewy to crispy. My companion got the veggie yakisoba, which looked much better, but there are clearly improvements that must be made - especially when you consider the ubiquity of this quasi-Asian style of restaurant around Eugene. I may give it another chance, but beware the No. 14.

The food is quite good, but the service is incredibly slow.  I have waited over an hour for a student bowl - rice with teriyaki chicken on it - at lunch.  I have had to leave without receiving food, even though I already paid, after 45 minutes due to having to go to class.  They don't organize nor expedite orders, nor do they organize tables to have the food come out even remotely close in timing such that a group may dine together if on a schedule.

I never give a new restaurant a bad review unless I go at least three times.  So far my food has been tasty enough every time, but my waits have been 12 minutes, 48 minutes and 1 hour and 6 minutes respectively, even though the place was approximately the same amount of busy each time.  That's not to mention the time I had to leave after 45 minutes of waiting in order to get to class.  

It's sad because they have good food, good decor, good prices and absolutely the worst service I have ever dealt with in my history of eating lunch.