Cafe Madison — Restaurant in City of Albany

MAR 2023 UPDATE: They've been working on the interior. The steel steam table pans on the walls have been replaced with wainscoting and the acoustic panels have been replaced as well. I didn't think to check on the shelving cart 'seat' at the front door was changed out. The silverware...a lot of it still flat. But we're thrilled to see they're working to keep it updated and comfortable! As for our meal, they were quite accommodating to our requests. One egg dish was a bit cold but they quickly scooped it up and remade it fresh and hot. KUDOS!

DEC 2022: We first went to Cafe Madison on Madison Ave and decided it was our favorite breakfast place in Albany. The food is consistently good, it offers a quaint atmosphere, and the staff, for the most part, are friendly and helpful. Street parking can be a challenge and if you arrive as late as mid-morning, you'll find yourself waiting in their tiny foyer or outside.

Having headed out mid-morning, we decided to try the Northern Blvd location. Located in a newer strip mall, it's a bit disappointing to see that the restaurant is showing its age and lack of care.

Metal shelving carts flank the entrance with one having been dented to the point of 'why have it there?' (Hint for the owner: get a car jack and pop that 'seat' back up to make it usable.) The cute and upcycled decor needs to be touched up or taken down: steel steam table pans are dented or totally missing on the walls and acoustic panels are torn and/or missing on the ceiling. And the flatware, well, it's quite flat.

An upside to this location is parking as there is plenty. Their foyer and lobby space is much larger which is helpful as the weather grows cold.

The food, well, I'm happy to say it's just as good as the Madison location. We've had eggs Benedict (the whites have been a bit runny in both locations), omelets, and the occasional weekend special.

One dish that failed to compare to all others we've had is the Bayou Omelet. I was told the filling of Chorizo, peppers, black beans, corn, and tomatoes was premixed. I suspect it's a product that comes in a bag (minus the sausage) because it lacked in both flavor and freshness. I find products like that to have a bit of a dishwater taste to them and this filling had just that. I would not recommend the Bayou Omelet.

I also tried to Irish Soda bread for the first time. I cannot say I'm a fan but that's a personal preference. If you haven't tried it, soda bread is dense and crumbly. Google says it isn't heavy and should be tender and soft inside. It shouldn't be eaten on its own but rather with butter, jam, or meat. For me, grape jelly did nothing to make it palatable. But then, I'm not a biscuit fan so take that into consideration with my review.

While their weekend specials are offered Friday through Sunday, we found we were too early on Friday during our most recent visit. We were told the ingredients were just arriving. I'd rather be told that specials are not available when we sit down and before I set my sights on something...just a tip for the servers.

PHOTOS: Eggs Benedict with ham, the Bayou Omelet, and...

Zero other people in the place for lunch and still had to wait at the entrance for the manager to finally pull his face out of his laptop to turn around and say that we could sit anywhere. Didn't bother to get up and seat us or give us menus.

The waitress came and set down menus, asked what we wanted to drink and walked to another table as we were answering to reset it. Again, we were the only people in the place.

She came back and took our order and then returned a short time later with our meals.

Rather than just enjoying our meal, we spent half our time removing the wilted, slimy, black, nasty lettuce that made up our salads.

The waitress never returned to ask how our meal was or if we needed anything. In fact she walked up to us as we were already done eating and stopped about 3 feet from the table just to say "your good" and turned and walked away.

When she came to collect our plates we explained why a significant portion of our salads were on the edge of our plates. She made no apology or comment other than "ok".

When the check came we put our credit card down right away. We waited several minutes and for the waitress to come and take it but apparently she had something more important than us (her only customers).

I finally got up and went up to hand it to the waitress and explained that we had an appointment and needed to go. That seemed to translate to her to slow walk our receipt.

After waiting several minutes again, we decided to go up to the exit where she came over to hand us the receipt.

Still gave her a 15% tip but would normally have been double that.

We have been here before for breakfast and it was excellent. The food was fantastic and the service was great.

In my opinion, this place should just stick to breakfast.

For lunch there are only a few items to choose from and clearly those items are not pulling in a lunch crowd. That results in few tips and frustrated wait staff. Even the manager came across like he didn't want to be there.

You know what they say about opinions, so take mine for what it's worth to...

I just don’t get it. I truly truly don’t get it at all. What is the hype around this place? The food is on par with any upstate diner, or worse in many regards. Oatmeal pancakes with raw batter in the middle, omelette made with bucket-o-eggs and doused in fake truffle oil, soft mushy home fries, cinnamon french toast that taste like regular french toast. M

Service without a smile. We received dirty glasses. When we asked for new glasses, the server tied to gaslight us and tell us they were just hard water stains. Guess what- we both worked in hospitality in the past and we know that hard water on dishes means your water lines or your washing equipment needs to be serviced or updated. Also…..the glasses were just dirty.

The place was freezing cold, like an icebox people were shivering all around us. It was crazy loud. Our server was shouting at us over the music. It was not pleasant. The interior “decor” was similar to a lunchtime cafeteria/sandwich counter located next to a courthouse in the 80’s.

They have an outdoor area (a section of the parking lot) that should’ve been a red flag for us indicating their lack of pride in the place. It’s an ugly industrial looking metal and vinyl canopy the vinyl top is dirty and giant ugly concrete blocks weigh the whole thing down. Under the canopy are folding tables and folding chairs from Amazon. Not even the nice ones that you can pay $20 more for. These are the cheapest possible seating option besides throwing your food directly on the concrete parking lot pavement and providing you old newspapers to sit on. They couldn’t even spring for a few flowers to make the place nicer? How about not using dollar tree grey vinyl table clothes?

You own two locations! I expect more, but maybe that’s my issue. I need to lower my...