cafe centraal

i'm sure it would be wonderful if it were smoke-free. i ate at cafe hollander a few days after it opened and liked its beer selection and wonderful menu items from the low countries. of course, i haven't beenbackthere because (1) i moved out of the east side, and (2) it turned out to allow smoking, which i didn't know when i first sat down. since it is owned by the same people, i think centraal has basically the same offerings, but i wouldn't know, since i won't enter a place if i know it allows smoking. when centraal bans smoking, i'll be there when they open the door, because i've heard good things and i'm dying to try some more interesting sauces for my frittes!

fun place, great food. food is outstanding with a lot of selection! service was really great except when i asked about a food allergy in one of the sauces, they never gotbackto me. that was a little disappointing, but not disappointing enough to stop us from coming back. we will definitely be back!

poor service and crowd control. i’ve been to café centraal several times since my girlfriend lives really close by. other than the excellent beer selection i really don’t have much else good to say about the place. the food is just so-so. my last experience was my worst yet....on new year’s day went here for breakfast. first, they forgot about us and never sent a waitress and i had to ask a bar tender to get us service. next, their ability to control the people waiting for a table was outrageous. my table was completely surrounded by people waiting. it was like the bar i was at the night before somewhere around 1am. butted up against my table was four people waiting for a table. the place was so packed with people standing that they were nudging against my table and surrounding me to the point of feeling claustrophobic. i know that new year’s day is going to be crowded, but this was ridiculous. it ruined my entire meal and because of the poor “crowd control” i won’t be comingbackto cc or any of their sister restaurants.

will not return. the closest food to the highbury pub i walked to cafe centraal at the start of half-time to get a burger to go. waited almost 10 minutes at the bar to order, despite numerous attempts to get the attention of the two bar tenders. after ordering i waited another 25 minutes to get my burger, which was cold by the time i gotbackto the soccer match (21 minutes into the next half). terrible service, despite decent food.

bad bad bad brunch...and service.. i will start off by saying that the beer selection is excellent and the burgers and fries are perfect...everything else we tried was awful (horrible brunch). the server brought us the wrong items, didn't apologize and by the time we recieved replacements everyone else was done eating.

i would say that i will most likely gobackfor a drink and some fries but would not reccomend them for brunch.

great food - awesome brunch. i would definitely recommend cafe centraal - the service is excellent, the food is great and the brunch is good. i like the non-smoking aspect, there is abackarea outside to smoke - but if you're eating do you really want a side of nicotine from someone else's table?

pink hair & good food!. i have walked by cafe centraal for months now, always thinking about trying it but not quite getting around to it. lucky for me, my friend pulled me in on our way to sugar maple.

we found our waitress (heidi with the pink hair) to be sociable, fun and oh, so knowledgeable! when sharing the specials, she learned that i don't like beer so she took the time to convince me belgian beers are different! she explained several with sweeter flavors (my favorites) and even gave a little sample to prove it. turns out, i do like beer, but only belgians! i will definitely bebackto try more.

both my friend & i had the fish cake specials, so sold by heidi, we didn't even look at the rest of the menu. they were big, tasty & everything she promised. i loved the sweet potato fries too!

clone but good. wow. have always loved cafe hollander so when we dropped into centraal we felt like we were sitting at hollander. the belgium-centric beer list, the frites and mussels. so stepping away from the deja vu i have to say it was a very good dining experience. the space is very open. the copious amount of windows allow for natural light to pour in.

the food was good. we had the chicken sandwich (with an upgrade to salmon) and a veggie burger. the veg burger was black bean based, spicy and very moist. the salmon sandwich was a bit ho-hum. salmon was pretty uninspired but the toppings were a nice compliment.

the wine and beer list are good. the beer list focuses heavily on belgiums. i would gobackagain but wouldn't make a habit of it.

belgian bliss!. i absolutely loved this place! the belgian beer selection is unbelievable, the food was fun and fantastic, and our sever deserved her large tip. we will definitely bebackagain and again. try the mussels and frites or the meat loaf! our veggie friend loved her black bean "burger"