Central Cafe — Restaurant in Bradenton

Today, I had the opportunity to eat with three other people who all ordered a different item on the menu, so I'll have a little more input on the options on the menu. To start, one of our party members ordered a Ceasars salad, which had options to add a choice of protein, salmon in this case. The salad was well made and decently sized with the salmon cooked wonderfully, worth the money spent. I myself ordered a pizza that was available as a special, and it is a pizza that sauce lovers (I'm more of a cheese guy) would enjoy with a nice thin crust to compliment the ingredients. The next order was blue crab cakes, with this person spending extra to get a second cake, and while the diameter of the cakes may not be too large, they are thick, and this party member said they are the best they've had so far (comes with a side too). That being said, his total came out to more than 25 dollars, including drink, so it was rather expensive. Finally, our last member ordered a blue cheese burger with an extra patty and bacon. It comes with fries that were delicious and tasted like genuine potatoes rather than the usual fast food joint. But some negatives come from how the patties were cooked as his came out burnt, and while he still says the meal was worth the price, he did leave with some disappointment.

Overall, it was a wonderful experience. Food was on the pricier size but good with a lot of options, the atmosphere was nice and calm in the late morning I visited and the staff was polite and as speedy as possible despite being a little short on staff. I do recommend this place for anyone and their group of friends looking for a locally owned business to experience with...

Visited for the 1st time early on a Saturday evening and they seemed to be having a combined kitchen, service, and management meltdown.

We had a table of 5 couples. Our server was either new or simply overwhelmed. One person received a dinner she did not order and when pointed out to the owner she was told what she ordered was not available. The plates with french fries on them received cold fries. The plates with green beans on them received undercooked beans that were not edible. Another meal was delivered cold, that person asked that it be sent back to the kitchen and warmed up - it came back dried out and barely edible.

The owner kinda apologized saying in so many words we are understaffed and then explained how shes poured her life savings into the business?!? While we were sympathic, all we wanted was warm food that was edible.

When the checks came, 4 of 5 were incorrect. At that point we got the one with the most aggregious errors corrected and surrended on the other 3 as people tried to pass money around to pay those in our party who had drinks and food on the wrong check.

To be fair and balanced those who ordered the salmon or the crabcakes all said it was very good.

Unfortunately the overall experience was one of witnessing...

We went to Central cafe last evening. (Friday night). We have been many times and have had mostly good experiences. We enjoy restaurants that are farm to table and that is why we have enjoyed it in the past. Restaurant was loud and difficult to hear each other speak, food ok, portions small, prices high for what you get. Last night we had a server with a Terrible demeanor. No smile, no greeting, hardly spoke to us. No offer of water or anything else. Service was prompt as far as our food, drinks were slower. (asked 3 times). Now the server would of went down as no big deal however I chose to mention our experience to the manager/owner just for constructive input and that’s where it all went sideways. Instead of apologizing for the experience she explained that server was new, restaurant was busy, we didn’t know what the server may be going through, “but service was prompt and food good right?” My husband and I are both in service related businesses and would of handled complaints with listening, acknowledging, apologizing and thanking the patron for any input to make things better. We won’t be back the manager/owner was argumentative...