Cafe Laura — Restaurant in State College

This is unquestionably the best dining option in state college, especially if you are thinking in terms of value and quality. There’s no competition. I had a shrimp appetizer with perfectly cooked shrimp; fully cooked yet still tender, without a hint of chewiness. If you cook you know that there is a very small window between under and over cooked shrimp, and these nailed it. My salad was fresh and well balanced. In particular, the walnuts on the salad were fresh and tasty. Nuts are often taken for granted and walnuts in particular can quickly taste a little rancid or stale. These were fresh and nutty and balanced the nicely crumbled blue cheese and fresh, crisp apple slices among the lettuce. Just the right balance. For dinner I had a strip steak, cooked medium. It was local PSU farmed beef, so well raised and fresh. It was perfectly seasoned as it was cooked, with herb butter topping. So savory and delicious. It literally made my mouth tingle. I believe the steak was sous vide cooked and then seared. I normally dislike this style of cooking because it changes the texture of the meat to the extent that it feels unnaturally soft in the mouth. In this case, the searing added texture back to the meat, which saved it. I was very pleased. The steak was accompanied by mashed potatoes that were remarkably flavorful and rich. They tasted Ike they might have been made with some chicken stock, yet the taste of the fresh potatoes was not buried. The vegetable was broccoli rabe, which can be tough and bitter, or over cooked, but this was neither. It was fresh, flavorful and cooked perfectly. The stalk was still a bit crunchy while the florets were not mushy and still retained their texture. The steak was served atop both of the sides, allowing the herb butter topping season them both as it melted. For desert I had their version of traditional grilled sticky buns with Berkeley Creamery vanilla, which was nice but unremarkable. I accompanied it with surprisingly good coffee. My wife had pea soup, the same salad and salmon with the same sides. She said the salmon was similarly perfectly cooked. What made this an exemplary dining experience was the fact that every course of the meal was done well and was as good or better than I’ve enjoyed in restaurants charging 3 times the price. Literally. Our combined check was less than $100, which is simply amazing for the quality. Amazing and wonderful. Take all of this and realize that the meal was prepared and presented by students and it’s simply astounding! Bring a bottle of your favorite wine (even the wine glasses were of high quality) and enjoy a...

This was my first visit to the Cafe. I was more than a little disappointed in the quality of my food as well as the service. I ordered calamari ($8) as an appetizer, which was very good, however, my entree (veal Marsala ($22), was chewy and bland. Our bread was served cold and the oil that accompanied it had an over abundance of rosemary. When my appetizer was served, the waiter served it from the other end of the table and reached across the person beside me saying “Pardon my reach.” When the floor manager addressed our dining table, his introduction began with, “How are you guys doing tonight?” We were a table of mature women, not “guys!” In addition, our server couldn’t remember who ordered what and seemed to forget about us when it was time to pay our bill. Finally, I would NOT have...

I was very excited to go to cafe laura and grab some breakfast. I had heard great things about the bacon egg and cheese on ciabatta. Unfortunately when I got there, some dolt in front of me took the last bacon egg and cheese! I was furious, and would have left a scathing review, if not for the kindness and warmth of the manager, Ryan. He convinced me that the chicken and waffle dish was just as good, and after I tried it, he was right. Thank you Ryan, for turning my poor experience into a...