City Cafe

After taking our children to the BSO Tiny Tots program of Babar on Friday, we decided to head on over to City Café for lunch.  I was sans Mr. B since I didn’t think the Meyerhoff and a 15 month old would mesh, especially since it was during his nap.  

There were two options for us at the Café – the Café itself which had a coffee bar and sandwiches, or the Restaurant. We opted for the latter and headed on over to the hostess station for a kid friendly seat. They took us upstairs, which was a good call. Four 3/4 year olds and a 2 year old can cause enough of a ruckus that I would have felt uncomfortable in the main dining area. The booth we got was against one of the walls and looked perfect. What I didn’t realize until I was midway through the meal and my friend, Janelle, commented on it was that the wall was only a half wall overlooking the restaurant. To be completely honest, it would have taken quite a feat for one of the kids to fall over but as a parent I couldn’t concentrate for the rest of the meal because I kept imagining one of them toppling over so was pretty white knuckled every time one of them moved around on the bench.  Which was a lot. I’m sure I’m not the only parent whose imagination is such that it always goes there, right? Right? That aside, it was really nice to have the small upstairs area to ourselves for the majority of the meal. And added bonus distraction was that one of the other walls was a railing with Plexiglas panels so the kids had a ball standing by them and looking down at the tables below.

Unfortunately this place did not have a kid menu, which always drives me crazy because I hate spending adult size money a pint sized person who will usually not eat a large meal. That alone will dock the Kid Friendliness score down. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t NEED for the kids’ menu to be standard chicken nugget type fare, but I also don’t NEED my almost 4 year old child to eat an adult sized portion and don’t want to have to pay for that.

Because of her love for the grilled cheese, we opted for that. It comes with a side and a bowl of soup. L’s not a big soup fan so they did end up taking a couple dollars off the meal since I got it without.  It was a standard run of the mill grilled cheese and nice and crispy shoe string fries, that L was kind enough to share with her friends. I can’t really complain about that, since, in most cases, a grilled cheese is a grilled cheese is a grilled cheese. One day I want to try the winning place reviewed on the (cool) progeny blog by Mary Alice, but this didn’t exceed any expectations. 

I got the French Dip and sweet potato fries and they were delicious! The meat wasn’t very fatty, the caramelized onions lent a nice sweetness to balance out the melted Swiss and the jus was delish. The sweet potato fries were certainly better than the Alexia ones in my freezer (which I also like) and it was a very satisfying meal, even if I chose not to finish it all. Though I did come pretty close because it was tasty.

The report on the bathrooms is that there was no changing table and because I didn’t have Mr. B with me, I can’t report on the high chairs.

The server was very accommodating to our party and didn’t seem at all scared or annoyed. I ordered L’s sandwich long before anyone else ordered because she can either take forever to eat, not eat at all, or start eating right away and scarf everything down and I had no idea what kind of day it was. For the record, it was the last one, but as noted she was kind enough to share.

I thought the prices for an adult sandwich were average, but I thought that charging $3.50 each for a soda and for a lidded cup of diluted lemonade was kind of ridiculous. If places can serve a soda for $1.50, I don’t understand why somewhere else thinks it’s ok to charge $2 more. 

Overall, I would go there again with my husband and/or friends but I don’t think I’d hit the restaurant side again with my kids.

Kid Friendliness:  2/5

Service: 4/5

Prices: 3/5

Taste: 3/5

Reading back over this blog makes me realize that I’m actually pretty cheap. Interesting.