Cafe Red — Restaurant in Town of Smithtown

A group of 8 met at this restaurant on a quiet Monday. Including our group there were no more than 14 patrons dining. We asked one of the 2 waitresses to prepare separate checks for our table. Too much for her, she said. Really? Ok, on to the food. 2 of us ordered Cubano sandwiches. Who puts hot, wasabi or Chinese mustard on a Cubano? Crazy, considering it was not sushi and that some diners might actually detest that condiment. Those who ordered ricotta pancakes found them heavy. Others who ordered quesadillas and Tuscan chicken sandwiches were satisfied. Overall, we were underwhelmed and not likely to return soon.

Since I could not respond to the restaurant's input, let me state that I have 7 witnesses who struggled with the waitress's pushback about separate checks. Finally, we gave in and asked her prepare 4 separate checks, which she accommodated. As for how often we were asked if we liked the food, I recall being asked once and asked another dining partner if she remembered more. Answer: no. We are a polite-to-a-fault bunch. A food reviewer for Newsday once told me to always be polite in a restaurant. This is our problem; we were nice. That's not to say that several in our group were unhappy with their meals. But I brought home my 1/2 sandwich in the hope that I could scrape away the Chinese/hot mustard in the sandwich. Unfortunately, I could not. It had permeated the bread....

I recently visited Red Café and unfortunately had a disappointing experience that I feel compelled to share. While the restaurant itself has potential, there were several unprofessional aspects that made the evening uncomfortable and unpleasant.

During my visit, my companion offered a glass of wine to our server, who not only accepted it, but proceeded to sit at our table and engage in a personal conversation with him, leaving me in an awkward and excluded position. This behavior felt highly unprofessional, especially in a hospitality setting where servers are expected to maintain respectful boundaries with customers.

Additionally, the choice of music was completely inappropriate for a restaurant atmosphere. The heavy metal playing throughout the night made it difficult to relax or enjoy our meal. It was loud, disruptive, and not at all fitting for a dining experience.

I’m sharing this feedback with the hope that management will take these issues seriously, as no other guest should have to go through this kind of experience. A restaurant should provide a welcoming and respectful environment for everyone at the table,...

Okay the only reason I had to slip the service down to a three instead of a five is that your first greeted by these bus men or women who seem rather emotional and maybe even emotionally unstable. The woman who is about middle age who gave us water and bread just could not manage to smile no matter what we said or did. She looked like her dog just got put to sleep that morning and truly should not have come to work with that demeanor. The waitress was fabulous and her kids and husband came in which was really delightful as well:-) but when we mentioned the demeanor of the bussing woman as being rather dry and almost uncomfortable she had nothing encouraging to say to us, and perhaps even seem to judge our comment quite a bit. The busboy, who was actually a bus man because he was probably in his 40s, was very friendly at first but somehow took on the demeanor of the other individual who was grumpy and the next two interactions we had with him he seemed to join her ranks. It just made for a very wonky feeling evening when we really wanted to enjoy it so much. Food was good and atmosphere...