City Cafe — Restaurant in Northport

For me, City Cafe is serviceable but not impressive. It was extremely busy around lunch time on a Tuesday, with only one table left for us to settle.

Our waitress was very pleasant but could NOT get our drink orders right. Two of us asked for Pepsi. One was brought Pepsi, but the other (who happens to get migraines from fake sugar) was brought Diet Pepsi THREE times in a row. She gave up and ordered sweet tea after that. The first, who originally got a regular Pepsi, was given a Diet for a refill. Not sure if they got their tanks switched or what, but it was frustrating.

Our orders were as follows:

Chicken fried steak, slaw, mashed potatoes;

Country fried steak, mashed potatoes, and dry lima beans;

And a fried chicken breast fillet with mac and cheese and dry lima beans.

The chicken fried steak was probably the best of the meats. The country fried steak was adequate. For some reason, I misunderstood and expected my fried chicken to be an actual fried chicken breast rather than a fillet, which was closer to chicken schnitzel (thin cutlet, no bone, crispy breading). My mistake, as it says what it is on the menu...but it also seems a little weird that a down home restaurant doesn't have REAL fried chicken.

The slaw was disappointing and lacking flavor, the mashed potatoes were fine but unremarkable, and the mac and cheese was pretty good - probably the best side item. Be aware that dry lima beans are different from lima beans. Dry are very light brown in coloration, rather than green/yellow, and tend to blow up in size and get a starchy, almost mealy texture. Not as good as regular limas, in my opinion, and I didn't like that they were thrown on the plate with the chicken rather than in a small cup or bowl. The juices seeped all over the chicken fillet, which meddled with the otherwise crispy breading.

We split a piece of chocolate pie for dessert after the waitress raved about it. It might be a decent piece of pie if one had never had my mother's chocolate pie, but since I have...it was disappointing. The chocolate filling was very sweet and closer to a mousse, and the graham cracker crust was far too gritty.

I sound very critical, but there was nothing BAD about City Cafe. The prices are very good and the menu is quite varied. Just not sure I'd come back when I'm so accustomed to really outstanding...

Quaint diner in the heart of downtown Northport serving traditional breakfast and lunch items specializing in a different array of biscuit combinations.

It is always busy and they are not open all day and not open, at all, on weekends. Parking can be scarce during busier hours but there is also construction in the area at this time as well.

We not greeted in the most friendliest of manners when we first walked in. You don't need to wait to be seated, you can choose yourself, however, I hope I misunderstood what the "hostess" said when she told me "...can't sit there..." in the first section of the restaurant because there was plenty of open seats and plenty of patrons sitting in the section I was not allowed to sit in as well.

We came for breakfast; the plates are pretty small; the food was okay; coffee was okay. We both had the western omelet and shared a short stack of pancakes. The pancakes were pretty good. They were medium in size, and you can choose from 1-3 stacks. They are crispy on the outer crust and fluffy in the middle, they were delicious. The omelet was okay; you can choose from 2-4 eggs and the filling was pretty standard, except for the large amount of melted cheese in the middle. My partner loves that but I wasn't too inclined to that much cheese in my omelet. With the omelet you had your choice of toast, biscuit and/or grits or hash browns or fruit. I got a side of biscuits and hash browns. The hash browns were way over cooked on the outside and slightly aldente on the inside.

We really liked all the hot sauce options on the table and our server was really nice. She was very tentative, as well as the other servers in the restaurant. Overall, a good place for a quick,...

Ordered breakfast BLT sandwich @7:15am. Staff said my order will be ready in 15-20 mins. Arrived at 7:30am and my sandwich wasn’t ready. I waited until 7:40 and sandwich still wasn’t ready. I asked how long will it take, staff said about another 10-15 mins. I explained to them that I have to go to work and I can’t wait that long and I will like to cancel that order. I tried to order lunch for my coworkers and myself on another day and as I give them my name and number the staff said I can no longer order from them anymore because I cancelled my order previously. I tried to talk to the manager and before I can even get a whole sentence out she said” You are no longer welcome here anymore,” and started walking off from me. At this point, I instantly felt like this was a racial issue. I proceeded to walk behind her and she stated that I didn’t not pay for the food. Which was so weird to me because they don’t accept your money until you have your food so how can I pay? Plus I cancel and explained to them I had to be at work. The sandwich was $5 and some change. So I gave her $6 and told her” here’s your money for the sandwich I never gotten since that was the issue of why I am no longer welcome here.” I can see if I called the order in and never picked it up but I was there and ready to eat my dang sandwich! This was one of the most awful frustrating disrespectful experiences ever. ALL BECAUSE THEY DIDNT HAVE MY FOOD READY WHEN THEY SAID THEY WAS! I wouldn’t dare recommend this place ever again for...