started great, ended horribly!. i work as a kitchen manager for a prominent, busy restaurant in eugene that has been around for 20 years. i enjoy trying new restaurants and am understanding of new restaurants trying to get a system down. i even understand long food times because i know better than anyone that things just happen. however, i was not understanding at all of the poor service and long food times at cafe 440 this evening. i have never even written a review for a restaurant before but i could not leave this one alone. we looked at the menu online before deciding to try cafe 440. the food selection looked good so we gave it a try but now have huge regrets. our evening started out great, our server was prompt getting to our table and taking our drink order. we ordered the jalapeno poppers at the same time as our drinks. our drinks came out quickly and were pretty good but not impressive, we had the juniper ginger ale. our appetizer also came out quickly and was quite delicious. when our appetizer arrived we ordered our entrees, the meatloaf and fried chicken. this was about 15 minutes into our dining experience. after our server, kim, took our entree order she asked if we would like anything else at the moment. we asked for water refills but unfortunately this was the last time we saw our server for the next 40 minutes. the server who had the table next to us refilled our waters 20 minutes later when she was refilling her table's waters and noticed ours were empty. our food finally came after about 40 minutes, probably longer but i was trying not to watch the clock. our server finally came back to our table at least 10 minutes after we had received our entrees to ask, without making eye contact, if everything tasted ok. she did not come back to our table again until my fiancee had to yell across the restaurant to ask for boxes. what was she doing this whole time you might wonder? for the 50% of the time that i could see her she was standing around talking to other employees. for the other 50% of the time i have no idea because there were only five tables in the restaurant including us and there were at least three servers on. i don't expect a lot when i go out to eat but i do expect a check back on food and water refills and i expect to see my server at least once in a 40 minute span. i know what it takes to survive as a restaurant in eugene, it takes good food and excellent service. i would have been happy to wait for the food if our server had told us it would be awhile or come to our table at some point during our wait to inform us of long ticket times. we were simply ignored and when our food came it was not that impressive for the price. i thought the fried chicken would be seasoned and bone in. however, it was just boneless skinless chicken breasts with tasteless breading, no seasoning whatsoever. it was not horrible but was very overpriced for what it was. maybe i would have enjoyed it more if i hadn't lost my appetite waiting for so long and getting frustrated that it was more important to our server to catch up with her coworkers than it was to do her job. i read on their website that the owner prides himself in customer service. either this has not rubbed off on the employees or he has missed the boat on what true customer service is. i expect my server to make me feel welcome as well as to be up to date on how i feel about my experience. our server had no clue. this a new business that could go quite far but must make drastic improvements in service in order to make it or maybe we just got the short end of the stick as far as servers go. on a positive note, the jalapeno poppers are delicious!