CitySēn Lounge — Restaurant in Grand Rapids

We visited CitySen for the first while we were downtown for an event. The menu looked promising. We ordered the breaded artichoke hearts, beef skewers and the barbacoa quesadilla.

We also ordered a couple drinks.

The drinks came out fast and were fine. But the bar was a little crowded and it seems like they only had one person working. I'm not sure if this person is in charge of both serving a full bar and cooking the food, I hope not, but that is the impression I began to have as we waited.

When the food came out it was bad.

The breaded artichoke was decent but was covered in dried parsley and I'm not sure what dip was with it but it was room temperature and not great.

Unfortunately that was the most edible thing we were given.

The quesadilla had no indication it was actually cooked on a flat top. The accompanying jalapeno and pickled red onion were also room temperature.

The beef skewers were hands down the worst though. There was hardly anything on the skewers, the meat seemed like maybe it had been microwaved with some cheap teriyaki sauce and then sat there for a while and got cold again.

I would never recommend this food to anyone. I could see myself returning for drinks maybe but even then there are better spots on the city if I just wanted drinks.

We tipped 20% because I feel like this was not the servers fault and that this person was being made to cook and serve the lounge simultaneously which is not their fault.

I would honestly give the food 0...

I went in really wanting to be able to give a 5-star review, because it seemed like a lot of the reviews on Google and Yelp were a little bit picky.

But, alas, I cannot. The food and atmosphere were definitely average. As to atmosphere, you definitely feel like you are sitting in a hotel lounge. Because you are. A nice hotel lounge, but a hotel lounge nonetheless.

The food was aggressively average. Shrimp a little tough. Roasted cauliflower a little underdone. Good attempts, and decent flavor, but just missing something.

We went for the happy hour before a show at Van Andel, so food was 50% off. That made it worth it. It definitely would have felt "overpriced" if we had paid menu price.

The exception to the gist of other reviews was that the service was excellent. We were well attended to by the solo server who was also the bartender.

I would not go back, even for the happy hour. But you could...

Don't go here for lunch. I will say the waitress was great and very friendly. I also noticed that all the good reviews on here were because of dinner and or happy hour. It had been a very long time since I had been here for lunch and now I remember why a friend and I stopped going here. Thankfully I have an hour long lunch and even with that I was almost late getting back to work on time. I was the only person for the 1st half an hour and then 3 ladies came and sat at another table. So that was it for the lunch rush on a week day and it took 20 minutes to get my food.....? The food was average the bun for my chicken sandwich was old and crumbly. Then I was done eating and had to ask for my check. I heard the other table commenting on how long things were taking..... My lessened learned empty restuarant at lunch, leave the place its empty...