Culture Cafe — Restaurant in Williamsburg

2018-04-03 wow the food and decor are amazing and unique, lady waitress was nice and location is across hehe street from College Delly at/near William and Mary, on the same side as Green Leafe Cafe (formerly known as Paul's deli), and parking is behind Green Leafe Cafe. Side salad with house dressing, Jamaican meat pies, fried chicken in a bag, dirty rice with blackened salmon, pork veggies and rice dish, and the peach pie right ice cream dessert were all amazing. Upon entering, a paper on an old typewriter says, seat yourself, we sat at a booth (couch) and table with 2 chairs. Silverware, napkins, plates and water bottle are all in the table, you can get what you need from the little stash of silverware, napkins, plates and water bottle. Highly recommend!!!

2018-04-10 had the same food as last time but this time had no-meat salad and Korean beef entree (which was spicy) ; the blackened salmon tasted a little fishy today and the dirty rice tasted better the first time; the peach pie and ice cream was the best part of the meal, it tastes so good!

2018-06-20 wow the dirty rice and blackened salmon was amazing, we also had garden salad, garbage can flatbread (avocado and chicken), fresh baked bread and peach cobbler with ice cream, the food was good and the servers were very nice people

2018-08-07 the lemonade, biscuits, sliders, linguine and salmon with dirty rice were good. Really nice bathrooms too.

2018-08-17 the lemonade, chopped salad, flatbread, cheeseburger and salmon with dirty rice were good.

2019-07-20 Lydia was very friendly and patient with our guests, and the food was excellent! Our guests tried the Italian sausage pasta dish, did not like it, Lydia took it back and later brought the fried chicken and waffle and they loved that! The kids had the kid cheeseburger and loved it. My wife and I had the cheeseburger and salmon with lentils (which replaced the dirty rice and salmon). I had the depression cake (flour less chocolate cake) and a scoop of ice cream and it was good too. Highly recommend Lydia and...

So I’m giving 2 stars bc we had a chill experience here yesterday, but had a terrible one the next day (at PM).

As someone who has worked in the industry for years, I can always spot a red flag - and one of the biggest is the owner working the floor.

My friend ordered an old fashioned which was disgustingly sweet (yes we know what an old fashioned is, but the sweetness level should be minimal at best) - this was steeped in simple syrup.

When we (super nicely) asked if he could exchange his drink for another, the owner basically argued with us that we didn’t know what an old fashioned was, and that she “couldn’t by law exchange our drink bc of VA ABC laws” but that she would “make an exception for us” - why? Lol. Just do it or don’t.

I ordered a dish and after 25 minutes of waiting, I was told that they didn’t have it. Not really a HUGE deal to me, but not a good look. I got shrimp tacos instead and couldn’t eat them. They tasted and looked undercooked (I’m not sure of this) and microwaved. Our server asked if i wanted them boxed and I said no. Typically when this happens a server should be like “was there something wrong w them?” - but she just said okay and took them away (I had taken 2 bites out of 3 huge tacos)

The worst part though was a very bizarre incident that we still haven’t fully processed.

While we were waiting on our apps, some of us were on our phones (like ever human in 2023) - and we were approached by a server (another owner? Older guy).

“I’m very sorry guys, but this is a hard rule here - we can’t have cell phones at the table.” And he went on for about 1 minute while we sat there shocked and confused. He then broke character and goes “I’m just kidding. I do this to all the tables”.

Yeah, not funny, guy. No one wants to hear or go through your weird unfunny bit, and honestly it threw us off for the whole meal.

We were so happy to pay our bill and get the hell...

Extremely disappointed. Like their own website says this place has atmosphere but not much else. The food that I had was horrendous. Went on a rainy Sunday for brunch. Ordered the brie appetizer which was just basically a butter layer of overly melted brie on piece of stale toasted baguette. I've seen this dish before. I've made this before. Keep the two ingredients separate! Melt a triangle of brie and give me some crostini and let me build it. I didn't expect cheese on toast for $14. My entree was a ham and egg and cheese fritatta topped with tater tots. It was served in a cast iron pan and the second I looked at it I knew the eggs were overcooked. The cheese was melted in one spot in the center instead of throughout the entire dish and two deli slices of ham layed right under the first layer. The tater tots were bland and sparse and a complete and total after thought. Cook it less, spread the cheese, use diced ham chunks and season the tater tots. Instantly fixed. My wife wasn't happy with her dish but I didn't taste it so I can't say anything about it. I can tell you that if you're going to serve a focaccia pizza topped with a fried egg and a side salad together you should pic better plates. A diamond shaped cutting board for this dish is ridiculous. It makes eating it more of a balancing act. The service was adequate. It seemed like the kitchen might of been in the weeds but the place wasn't that full. I cant imagine what it's like in season and packed. Overall the place has incredible amounts of potential and beleive it or not I'll go again because that's how comfortable the vibe in the place is. They need to step up their food game. Part of me would love to go back and see this place during their opening month when they were putting their best...