Old Neighborhood Cafe — Restaurant in Columbia

Today for lunch My partner and I went in to try the Old Neighborhood Café for the first time! We've lived just across the way for about a year, and hadn't even heard of it until last month when I saw it on here and looked at the menu! We got our food for Takeout, and it was INCREDIBLE! I had The Bodega Sandwich with the French Onion Soup and my partner got the Golden State Gobbler with a side salad with ranch. Everything was fantastic. The service was really excellent! The guy at the counter was courteous when we had questions and got the order perfect, and then went back and made the food himself! The best part of all of this was after we had walked out to our car to head home and eat, he came out after us because he forgot the dressing for the salad! All of the food tasted fantastic. I had the Bodega sandwich and the bread was toasted perfectly, the pickles were crunchy and flavorful, the pastrami was juicy and delicious, and the mustard was fantastic! the French Onion Soup was wonderful as well! Served with bread and some mozzarella cheese it was fantastic on the first of many frigidly cold days this year. My partner had the Golden State Gobbler with was incredible! take the best BLT you've had and elevate it with fresh avocado spread, baby spinach, and pickled onions, all of which were fantastically flavorful. The side salad also had the pickled onions which was a great touch! We will be going back as often as we can! Make sure if you're going in that you bring a few physical dollars to tip in the jar as they can't do digital tips!...

We visited this small restaurant today around 1 pm or so. The lady who took our order at the front window was very nice and enthusiastic about the recipes for the food, claiming they were grandma’s recipes from Chicago. We were the only patrons in the place at that time, and we had a difficult time finding a clean table to eat at. There was one and we seated ourselves. The cook brought us our food, it looked good and was presented in plastic baskets. My husband ordered a sandwich with a recommended cucumber salad as a side, and his sandwich arrived with a tortellini salad instead. He did like both the side and the sandwich. I had ordered a sandwich without bacon or onions, and there was a pile of onions that I had to remove. The potato salad that came as a side was very dry and without flavor . My sandwich bread was a little greasy and without flavor, and the large amount of avocado made it messy to eat. The atmosphere of the place was a bit confusing, as it had board games available to play if a person wanted to stay awhile. The tables in the place were too dirty and filled with condiments to be practical for hanging out to play games. The music was nice and not too loud for conversation. Though the cook was very friendly, we most likely will not...

A new location for the owners of Catfish Katy's. The service is great, the employees are friendly, but the food can't make up the difference.

The best part of the meal were the fries. Hand cut, cooked well, and served with seasoned salt.

The burger was ok, a smash style patty, unseasoned, cooked to order. The bun selection needs to be reevaluated, as the ratio of burger to bun was way off. For the price, you would expect a couple smash patties or a single thicker burger. The patty was very thin, all of the fat cooked off, leaving it dry. It felt like eating a veggie sandwich with a beef patty on it rather than a burger.

The Italian hero styled sandwich looked disappointing, again lacking moisture from any sort of sandwich dressing.

The cucumber salad wasn't as sweet as I expected it to be, which was a delightful surprise. Putting the marinade from the salad into the deli style sandwiches would be a huge step in the right direction. As it's served now, it's hard to distinguish from a QuikTrip sandwich.

One star for the staff and one for the fries.

Catfish is only served on Friday, so if you really need your fix, it's probably the same recipe. Otherwise, calling this place "Columbia's favorite restaurant" couldn't be further...