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 been back there 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 heardgoodthings and i'm dying to try some more interesting sauces for my frittes!

love it here, original food, always yummy, specialty bloody mary's, i had the bloody maria - made with tequila and lime juice - yum! it was spicy but delish. brunch here is fantastic, cheesy yummy skillets, and great drinks (they will serve your underage kids to state laws! which is an added plus for me!) overallgoodeats whatever you get! the blackberry turkey sandwich is the best turkey sandwich i've had in my life!

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 elsegoodto 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 coming back to cc or any of their sister restaurants.

i had dinner and had the club sandwich. it was good, but not asgoodas i had hoped. the fries were hot and fresh and that is always a great thing!

i really like it. i have been to cafe centraal a couple of times for both brunch and lunch and really like it. the staff has always been really friendly and hasgoodsuggestions. the feel of the place is big and open but still manages to have a really cozy feel to it. there seem to begoodspecials on the menu when i've been there. when the home fried potatoes first came out with my brunch, they just initially looked to me as though they were going to be hard, chewy nuggets and i wasn't looking forward to tasting them. however, they turned out to be some of the best breakfast potatoes i've had anywhere. i could be wrong, but either the mayonnaise is homemade or its a much higher quality than i've had anywhere else. i always seem to be there for brunch or mid-day and not really up for drinks, but the drink selection appears to be substantial. we've yet to be disappointed here.

favorite brunch spot. milwaukee has a lot of great brunch spots. which is great because i lovegoodbrunch. that being said, the place i go to most often is cafe centraal. partly becuase they also service it on saturdays. i have been going here for a couple years and have never been disappointed. the food and service is constantlygoodand they have a great beer selection. i have no problem recommending this or the cafe hollander establishments.

lunch at centraal. enjoyed lunch at cafe centraal on 9/12 with my wife. we both opted for burgers off the menu (i had the bay view, she had the centraal). both were well seasoned and cooked a perfect medium rare as requested. the "frites" that came with them weregoodwhith the dipping sauce we ordered, but seemed to be a boughten product and not hand cut. still, i did'nt remember reading on the menu that they were hand cut so really no big deal. the south african chicken peanut soup was a real winner with great flavor and substance. service at lunch was pleasant with a smiling waitress but a bit to casually paced for lunch that was not very busy.

best brunch in bay view. we come here often for sunday brunch, they definitely have the best in bay view and maybe milwaukee. there are so many options, i love the granola parfait and the quiche is creamy and delicious. you have to have their home fries too, freaking amazing! yummy sandwiches too. i wish though that their dinner was asgoodas the brunch, we've come here for dinner twice now and the only thing that we were overly impressed with was the sausage over mash. oh yeah and i love their outdoor patio with the huge umbrellas - perfect ambiance!

beautiful belgian beers. i purposely looked this place up and went out of my way to go there. they have an extensive selection of belgian and abbey beers (the sole reason i went there). the list isn't as long as the bier markt in toronto but it had a few i hadn't tried before so i was very happy.
it was late and rainy so i didn't get agoodfeel for the neighbourhood but from what i could tell it seemed decent. the interior was very cool and relaxed and was surprisingly busy on a monday night. many people were eating (after 11pm) so i followed suit and had a b.e.l.t. and fries and it was delicious!
service was good. i highly recommend cafe centraal if you are in the neighbourhood or if you love abbey beer.
cheers.

love this place. went for the first time and it lived up to the hype. started with the doughnuts (with coffee), dozen for $7, which were delicious. they come with a strawberry cream cheese that adds some nice sweet flavor. i had the hot mes( $12) rosemary potatos with scrambled egg on top covered with bacon tomato cheese and sausage which was really good. the steak n eggs benedict ($12) is reallygoodas well. it was hard to decide what to get cuz it all sounds great. waiter was awesome and the restaraunt itself is really cool. i'd def suggest trying it for brunch. my new favorite brkfast/brunch spot

great time and really, reallygoodfood. our first and definately not last our trip to cafe centraal was full of pleasant surprises. i had some family and friends (all who have never been to the cafe centraal before) meet here to celebrate my wifes birthday. we were greeted by the hostess and was accomodating to us when we asked to have at least 8 seats at the bar. our barkeep also greeted us kindly and started to suggest us our cocktails or one of the many many beers in house. we ordered four apps which were all fantastic. corquettes, frites cone, calamari and the scotch egg. food was hot, presented great , flavorful andgoodsized portions for the $. another great part of centraal is that it is smoke free and a great place to people watch! our group was really happy and we will all be back.

not outstanding. went on a friday night, when they have a fish fry. the fish was ok. i would say the food in general was good, but nothing that has made us say "let's go back". the place is loud and you can't hear the other people at your table, i hate that. so all in all maybe agoodplace to go for a drink after the dinner hour, but not that impressed with the place for dinner.

pink hair &goodfood!. 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 be back to 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 verygooddining 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 go back again but wouldn't make a habit of it.