Magnolia's Deli & Cafe — Restaurant in City of Rochester

Ayr on the side of caution... This was my first time going... My friend suggested we have lunch here. She said she had been before and the food was good and she enjoyed it. Well, I am always up for something new so I thought let's do it! It is a very cute cafe tucked in on park avenue near oxford. Parking is terrible because it's Park Avenue and they have no lot, so it's all on street. That was the least of the worst. I arrived early so I had plenty of time to sit and observe. As you walk in The host greets you politely takes your name or seats you , I was lucky enough To grab the last two seater table against the wall so I was able to observe the Entire restaurant the whole time I was there. I watched the host ask other tables if their waitress had been there yet their tables said no... When the waitress did arrive it was like she was in a Whirlwind daze... When she came to my table I ordered my drink no problem. The place was packed With people waiting at the door so I had high hopes For the food... I studied My menu. Until my friend came And then her and I went over it a second time. I decided what I wanted to eat. I'm ready!! Our waitress comes over to get my friend's drink order... I ask for extra sugar and tell her we have enough cream. And my friend and I continue talking. Our waitress comes back with the coffee and my friend uses the sugar she brought and then we're looking for the cream can't find it?! In her daze she grabbed our cream! Now we have to try to get her attention just to get one creamer after asking her and then waiting another additional few minutes I suggested my friend walk up and get her own cream... As our waitress had moved on to other tables at this point and I didn't want my friend's coffee to get cold waiting... Eventually the waitress comes back to take our order. I Must have confused her with my couple of questions I had. I specifically told her what I wanted my friend said yes. I know that's what you want, but help me decide. So I helped my friend decide and then the waitress brought us 1/2 of the sandwich each of my friend order to eat and soup?? Maybe she should write the orders down?? She wasn't doing that and I believe it had a huge impact on her service and why I never got my food?! It's OK because I didn't like anything anyway... I tried the French onion soup which is my favorite and it was gross oregano as a topper? I have no idea why they thought that was a good idea. Oregano doesn't belong on french onion... It was overpowering and awful. There was also some kind of a sweet taste to it...It was weird?! So I moved on to the Wisconsin cheddar sandwich because that's what she decided I wanted to eat that day... gross! The cheese was not even melted it's supposed to be a grilled cheese!! Then they had a "spread" for lack of a better way to say it on there. It was just not good. Needless to say I should have made my friend go to my first choice for lunch... Who knows maybe if she brought me my correct sandwich I would have at least enjoyed that the world may never...

I don't normally write reviews for places, but Magnolia's deserves a few minutes of my time.

I went to Magnolia's with a friend after having not eaten much for 8 days (I was a little under the weather and had no appetite. Also I wasn't in the mood to eat). My friend took me because he hoped the cute atmosphere there would make me feel better. There were plants in the window and cute decorations everywhere. The deli also had solid fall vibes, thanks to some of the more festive decorations.

I wasn't really in the mood to eat, but felt bad not eating. I noticed that one of the items on the menu had raspberries. I love raspberries, they're one of my absolute favorites. Unfortunately, they were on a salad and I hate salad. Even worse, it came with an apple cider vinaigrette. I hate every vinaigrette I've ever had. But, there were raspberries so maybe it couldn't be THAT bad. I got ranch as a secondary dressing because I expected the apple cider vinaigrette to be disgusting.

When the dish eventually came out, it was very well presented and looked actually kind of appetizing for a salad. I tried a dash of the vinaigrette on my fork and it wasn't bad? So I put it on a tiny section of the salad. When I tell you that this salad was one of the most delicious things I have ever consumed, I am being completely honest. I HATE salad. I HATE vinaigrette. I'm not a big fan of almonds, and goat cheese is eh at best. But when you put them all together??? It creates the most wonderful mash up of flavors. The entire time I was eating the salad, I couldn't stop thinking about how absolutely delicious it was. It is now an inside joke between my friend and I to say "How was insert any random thing?" "It was good." "But was it as good as that salad?"

I cannot more highly recommend Magnolia's. The chefs there really know their flavor combinations and if you want to taste some absolutely delicious food, that's the place you want to go. The salad I got was a special called the Fall Salad. It had lettuce, apple slices, goat cheese, raspberries, and apple cider vinaigrette (it also comes with cucumbers, tomatoes, and raisins, but I asked to not have those). It was absolutely delicious, everyone there is very friendly, and if you're thinking of trying them out- I HIGHLY...

We went for Sunday brunch. We were seated right away because we chose to be inside on a fairly nice day. The service was excellent. We had one girl who came and took our drink order, another one that came and took our food order, and a third girl that brought out our food in a timely fashion. The restaurant by the time we got our food was pretty busy. I noticed I was missing a knife so I went to the counter and there was a woman talking on the phone so I waited there. The third girl that had delivered our food walked right behind the woman on the phone and I called out to her. She did not hear me, but the woman on the phone said to whoever she was talking to “ can you hold on a second” and she put the call on hold. She looked at me and very disgusted said “can I help you?” I said to her that I was trying to get my waitresses’ attention who was standing behind her and she turned around and saw the woman and said “she’s not a waitress“. She said “what do you need “, again very rudely. I explained to her all I needed was a knife. She gave me a knife and gave me a very dismissive look. I was so shocked. I really didn’t know what to say. I didn’t interrupt her phone call and I was trying to just to get the attention of the girl that bought us our food. I have never been treated so rudely in a restaurant in my life and when I asked the waitress who this woman was that was on the phone when she came to our table later, she told me that she was the general manager, her name was Alyssa. I have two groups of people in my family who owned pretty big restaurants, very recognizable restaurants, in this city and one on the lake, and if their general manager ever treated a patron like that, they would be reprimanded if not fired. I did nothing to warrant this woman being so rude and snotty to me. It might be a while before I go back to Magnolias but I do have to say the food was very good and our servers were excellent. If I was the owner, I wouldn’t want this woman representing me or...