Union Cafe — Restaurant in City of Schenectady

We waited forty-five minutes to get our food. The service was awkward but other customers were treated worse-some people waited an hour for food, others waited ten minutes to even be seated, a few waited forty-five minutes to get pick-up orders. We waited so long to be seated that we almost thought that we misunderstood the restaurant rules and had to seat ourselves. The servers did little to placate the situation and the kitchen kept delaying orders. I work in service too so I understand being understaffed or stressed, and most of the customers were understanding, but the organization and communication between kitchen and staff was terrible. People waiting for their orders were discussing how long it was taking, trying to ask when the orders would be done, and were forced to keep standing there. The servers didn’t clean off tables until ten-fifteen minutes after families left, the crowd at the door kept getting bigger and bigger, and tension in the restaurant was unbearable. Legitimately the most tense restaurant I’ve ever seen. I ordered chocolate chip pancakes and when they finally came out, the chocolate chips were sprinkled on top?? They were just plain pancakes with chocolate chip topping as if they forgot that we ordered chocolate chip pancakes?Huh? I even took a photo of it. I would’ve sent it back, but I was already running late to work and couldn’t afford waiting another forty-five minutes for pancakes. I felt bad for our server, as he was forced to cover for an incredibly unorganized kitchen. I don’t usually review places but I had to say something...

This is essentially a Greek-style diner, but serving only breakfast and lunch in a sandwich-shop storefront.

We're very happy to have a place like this in the neighborhood, but now that we've been there four times, it must be concluded that the slow service is endemic to the place and not just a feature of their burn-in period. Since the meals we eat here are, almost by definition, fit in around the work day, this is not good. We've also had to ask for missing things multiple times on all but one trip.

The cooking is decent, above average for diner fare but without much in the way of signature originality. We've tried most of the greek favorites and some standard things off the menu. The reuben and burgers are good, wraps good but quite small, salads the usual non-greenery stuff, and the greek stuff (souvlaki, etc.) is good but not wonderful. The gyros are well above average.

They're very friendly and the atmosphere is relaxed, so if you're not in a hurry and want homey diner stuff, go ahead. If you have to get back to work, like we do, you will want to time your visits for days when you don't have to get...

We came for lunch on a Sunday at 12 pm. We were told that there was no outdoor seating and to wait a few minutes for her to clean a table on the inside. There were multiple table open on the outside but there was some other people waiting.. She never came back and another server asked us if we were on the wait list. We told him what the other server said and he looked confused. He brought another couple inside that had just walked up to a clean table then sat us at a dirty table. He cleaned after we asked. Meanwhile another couole walked up and were seated at the table on the sidewalk that we were originally told to wait at. Not much communication going on. We were offered drinks. He Came back 5 mins later for our order which took about 1/2 hour for 2 wraps. The food was mediocre at best. I have the buffalo chicken. It was luke warm and stuffed with lettuce. The pickles tasted spoiled. Also the servers were not exactly pleasant to deal with. We will...