Cafeteria — Restaurant in New York

I’m truly disappointed with Cafeteria as I visited here several times and never had an issue up until now. I dined here with my BF on 8/16/20 and it would be my final time; waiters were not attentive nor welcoming. Utensils were dirty as was the water. However the real reason why I’m beyond displeased is because I ordered fried calamari as an appetizer with fish & chips and a cranberry juice, we waited 37 minutes for the appetizer and no drinks. I asked another waiter can I have a cranberry juice and he went to our previous waiter to ask him what happened to the drinks, our waiter finally came and stated “ we ran out of cranberry so I brought you another juice”. I stated “ next time acknowledge us and inform me of the situation I waited over 30 mins like come on”. Next I realized other tables that were seated after us were getting their meals and drinks; when I got my appetizer I stated why the long wait smh? A guest at another table saw my calamari and ordered it and received it in not even 5 mins. When I asked why was the other tables getting their food before us and an appetizer within 5 mins and it took us over 30 mins to get at least something the waiter ushered for the manager “Clement“ to come because at this point we just wanted to wrap our food up and leave. I explained the situation to the manager and she stated “ the appetizers were not ready when we ordered and my BF’s burger was to be prepared well done which is taking longer” that was BS to me because other tables received their appetizers and had 4 burgers and fries next to us hmm 🤔. At this point my BF & I just paid for the drinks we had and the appetizer. We wanted nothing else to do with this restaurant. The manager wasn’t helpful and talked over me rather than listen. You guys need to have better customer service and be more attentive and welcoming. I will never return and spend my money here again. It saddens me because I was just here last week and spent nearly $400 with my coworkers and gave such a great review...

Just paid and walked out…. Without the server even asking why we left almost everything untouched. Shocker!! Not sure what happened to this place but WOW. It fell completely off!!! Would not recommend for any Cafeteria Vets. Just don’t go.

My girlfriend and I have been coming here for YEARS and have never had a bad experience. Until today…

We were sat and given menus… Which we didn’t think we needed because we had been here so many times. However, the first two things my girlfriend asked for were sold out. Fine. She made her third selection. Ginger salmon.

Starting with the drinks. I asked for the Rude Margarita and let me tell you, it was so rude that whoever made it decided to rim the glass with jalapeño and then not add a straw… I thought it was a little strange but sipped from the glass anyway. Seconds later my lips were on FIRE and I couldn’t bare to continue drinking it. Didn’t make any sense to me.

Then came the mac attack. Which we were so excited for!! The bacon was BURNT and all three of the macs were bone dry. Not to mention that the truffle was missing truffle…. WHAT?

We let it slide and waited for our entrees…

My meatloaf came out and looked exactly the way it always did… Until I tried to cut into it. DRY. It crumbled and not in a good way. I will say that the mash and garlic green beans were great, but who comes to manhattan for mash and green beans ???!

My girlfriends food came out and OMG the SMELL… I can’t even imagine what the kitchen looks like if the salmon smells like this and a chef thought this was worthy of selling…..

At this point we decided to just stop eating and ask for the check. The server didn’t even seem surprised OR ask why we didn’t touch our food. We paid and decided to at least finish our drinks until I sipped mine and there was a floater in it. Not lime, not jalapeño, some foreign floater. GROSS.

We got up immediately and just walked out. Please save yourself the trouble of...

I visited during lunch time and the place was packed. I remember seeing about three empty tables only.

The entrance is a little weird. The host stand is sort of in the way. People were blocking the door way coming in and out.

The host was busy with other guest but another lady greeted me and took me to a table. The waiter that we had was amazing. He was really nice and took my order quickly.

I ordered the fried calamari. It was very delicious. It came out hot. It was crispy. The pieces of spicy peppers are amazing. Unfortunately we had a hair on our piece of lemon. I also had the prime rib sandwich and the fried fish sandwich. Both sandwiches were disappointing. Very underwhelming and bland. I really had high hopes for this food and felt disappointed. The meat in the prime rib was soft which was nice. The au jus sauce needed salt, needed garlic, it needed flavor. The bread had alot of flour on the outside of it. The fish sandwich was disappointing. The batter on the fish is not good and doesnt leave the crunchy texture one expects with fried fish. It needed seasoning badly. My biggest issue is that the bread was COLD. I kept touching it with my finger because i couldn't believe it. The fries were over fried, too too hard but they thankfully had salt.

This place leaves alot to be desired. Especially for their prices. I made the waiter aware of the hair and he actually comped it from our check without us asking. That was really nice of him, i did not expect that.

The restaurant itself is nice. The decor is simple, neat. It's smaller then it looks from the outside. This place has a narrow width. It also has one side that looks like a garage door. Its nice and ive seen it open during the hotter months. The only downside is that it was cold inside (its winter time).

I've heard some good things about this restaurant so I'm disappointed that it didn't give what i thought it would. I'm not sure if...