Cornelia Street Cafe

08/21/09

Came highly recommended, but I was totally turned off

by sweet1105

This place came highly recommended so my 2 friends and I made a reservation for 3 people. I arrived and since they wouldn't seat us until our full party was there, we sat when I arrived. Party of 3 reservation, 3 sitting.... We ordered a bottle of wine for the table and after a friend called and said she wanted to join us, we held off on ordering dinner til she got there... Well the rude host came over and didn't even ask us anything, rudely said "you guys have to move to the bar, we have parties waiting for a table", after we had already bought a $50 bottle of wine and were just taking our time!!!! And there was a full table behind us and in front of us open!!!!! We were basically forced to order dinner right then and there otherwise we'd have to be kicked out of our table that NO ONE was waiting for. the whole rest of the time we were there, the table sat empty. Being in the service industry myself, this was very rude, especially after we had already ordered.

Word of advice - tell your friends to get there on time, even if they were not part of your reservation, otherwise you will be scolded and rudely treated. The food was good, but this guy ruined my experience, and I will definitely not recommend this place again.

• Pros: Good Food, can't complain there... but...
• Cons: Rude host, blah service

04/29/09

Love it

by RestaurantReviewer234

Went there for lunch. It was about 80 degrees out, they had the windows/walls at the front open. My table was almost outside. It was great ambiance, like a nice European cafe.

The lunch menu wasn't very long, but everything they had on there looked good. And it was good! I've had better of course at much more expensive restaurants, but this was still pretty good, and definitely worth going back.

And if you're a poet, apparently this is the place to be.

• Pros: Pretty good food. Great ambiance
• Cons: n/a

08/14/08

snubbed at cornelia street cafe

by iamed28

A quick exit at Cornelia. It was 5pm on a summer Tuesday. Looked over the menu, and they had a pre-dinner menu posted with light appetizer style food. We told the waiter/host that we would like to sit outside and eat light. He basically said no, these 'empty' tables were for people ordering full course dinners. Since I am not a tourist, and I know Greenwich Village has a lot of other places, me and my date simply walked to another restaurant, relaxed with a few glasses of wine and some light food. NYC is filled with restaurants, if Cornelia Street Cafe doesn't want me, I won't go back.

06/13/08

This cozy coffeehouse has been a multi-culti literary fixture of the West Village for more than 20 years.

by Contributor

In Short
The downstairs performance space hosts a packed calendar of poets, novelists, storytellers and musicians. On Saturday evenings, a multi-cultural reading series features work by writers from the Arab-American, Italian-American, Russian-American and Greek-American communities. Unlike its ritzier neighbors--Po, Home, etc.--Cornelia Street Cafe remains true to its humble beginnings, offering such contemporary cafe fare as grilled portobello sandwiches and fish and chips.

05/21/08

and they have great jazz too!

by madmax64

The Cornelia is a charming little place in the Village. Nice atmosphere, excellent food, and then you can go downstairs in the evening for some high-quality jazz, or a poetry reading. The menu is not extensive, but some of the entres are unusual and worth the try. Overall an excellent experience, which can be repeated depending on who plays downstairs.

02/09/08

VERY disappointed

by jemako11

What a disappointment! This place used to be great! What happened? The waitresses were rude and treated every request (even for a coffee or water) as an annoyance. We arrived THREE minutes before they opened and were told, "We're not open yet. We still have three minutes. Wait outside."

Enough said. For the price, there are MUCH better restaurants in the neighborhood that still have charm and wonderfully attentive waitstaff. Go across the street on Cornelia for a better meal and experience.

• Pros: located in a wonderful neighborhood
• Cons: poor service, over-priced

02/06/08

Rude Service - good bread pudding

by WestVillageRobert

Went in for dinner on a recent Thursday night, very disappointed. A friend had said to check this place out because it was supposed to be a ?local?s? stand by and the most reasonably priced restaurant in the village. I certainly don?t understand why. We alternated between feeling jostled and ignored. The restaurant was empty, but we were rudely told we couldn?t sit where we wanted because of ?reservations? (which, by the way, never materialized before our meal was over). Instead we were seated near the bar and the waiter?s station. Because of our proximity to the host and the woman who seemed to be the manager, we were forced to listen to their conversation the whole time. They continuously and loudly bad mouthed their own staff, which I found abhorrent and unprofessional. If the food was spectacular and inexpensive, maybe I could have dealt with sitting so close to their gossip fest, but it wasn?t. Though the flavor was decent, it was poorly presented and over priced. One good thing was the bread pudding dessert, very rich!

01/21/08

What a let down

by JulieEats

Did this place change management? I?ve live in the neighborhood for 7 years but was out of town for my job the passed year and a half. This used to be my favorite spot for a low key dinner. The food was good, basic and fairly priced, they always had great wine and desert, and the staff was fun and familiar. I was excited to come back to ?the cafe? as we neighborhoodies always called it. WOW, was I disappointed, the local community feel is totally gone, the prices have gone up and the service, from the moment we walked in the door (we were greeted by as if we were an annoyance) until we finally paid our bill (after we waited FOREVER for our change), was harried and rude. I am so sad over the loss of this once cozy and warm establishment. I asked around and was assured that it is the same owners? but it is certainly not the same cafe!

11/24/07

no bragging rights here

by ellehcim18

We came to this restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner and were expecting a great meal. The dinner was a three-course fixed menu at a set price of $50. We knew this before setting up the reservation. When we got to the restaurant, we were quickly seated, which was great - unfortunately, things went downhill from there. It took ten minutes for the waitress to get our drink order and another ten minutes to actually receive it. We got our food pretty quickly but had to ask multiple times for refills for cokes and it took about ten minutes apiece to receive them. The food, while not bad, was certainly nothing to brag about and definitely not worth the $50 a plate. When we received the bill, we found out that each coke refill cost $3! We literally had $27 worth of coca-cola on our bill!

This place is ridiculous down to the slow waitstaff and inflated prices. New York city has far better to offer - don't waste your time or money here.

07/07/07

Nice atmosphere - go early there's a crowd

by nycboy212

went to brunch last weekend though we haven't been there since we lived in Bklyn.

Good service - had the brunch prix fixe of Eggs Benedict, crossaint , OJ, coffee

$35 pre-tip for 2 is good, though too crowded to sit outside (weather was perfect, we sat near the door in the barroom which was fine

• Pros: Coffee and fresh squeezed OJ - ham on benedict was very good, service friendly not overbearing
• Cons: None