City Cafe

I was asked to put together a lunch meeting of friends in a very short amount of time. A friend who live in Rochester suggested City Cafe. We started as a group of four, thinking that we would be six, but ended up being a group of seven. The staff was extremely friendly and helpful in moving our group to a larger table, getting orders into the kitchen as quickly as possible, and giving us all separate checks. The cheeseburger that I had was great and the clam chowder was lovely, too. While the food and drink was fine, it was really the helpfulness of the staff that I remember of this nice experience of Rochester. Pros: Friendly staff, good solid food, informal setting more

We've always liked the city cafe. Though seemingly informal, the food in the past was very good and even the house wine-which offsets the low -end bistro like setting. This last Saturday night (9/29/07) at about 8pm we arrived for supper. The house wine which is usually very good was old tasting-as if it had come from an uncorked bottle that had been open for days instead of a few hours-it was poured in a small glass instead of a larger glass for red, I next ordered a classic martini with bombay gin. I got it in a regular bar glass filled with ice, they noted they were out of martini glasses. I said I'll wait, awhile later it arrived in a regular martini glass both my wife and I thought it tasted very funny, I returned it. And spoke to the bar tender noting a martini is simply made with gin some vermouth and shaken with ice then poured. He noted he had given me a gin and tonic in a martini glass. Someone else came back with the eventual martini simply noting ""it's all good""-I guess meaning I should have just kept the gin and tonic in the martini glass? - I got my martini, but seemingly without the bombay gin--and then it seemed watered down. The meal: salmon/mussels/tune tartare were ok--then she simply gave us the check and walked away-we had to ask about desserts. I ended up just ordering coffee and a glass of cognac, but was asked if I wanted the cognac with ice. Maybe having coffee and then some cognac with ice is a new fad? I suspect the owners may be over extended and the usual attention to detail seems missing. I'm sure there are other resturants that would be happy to have us ( and our $100 next time), as we like good simple meals with a good glass of wine or a well made martini, and to at least be asked if we'd like dessert or coffee. I think we'll avoid the City Cafe for a long time. Maybe it's becoming a beer and burger place for the twenty somethings- but if you oder a bottle of beer make sure you open it yourself! Pros: somethings are good- service extremely poor Cons: poor attention to detail, bad wine and bad expesive martinis more