symposium cafe restaurant & lounge

hit and miss. wasn't expecting much the firsttimei went but was pleasantly surprized. i had a steak which was very good however the surcharge for the blue cheese sauce which was no more than a tbsp. full was a bit outrageous. happened to be mussel night and they were quite good as well. my wife had the flat iron steak (or baseball....can't recall the cut) and strangely it came cut up like a stir fry....however it was quite good as well. the desserts look a lot better than they actually taste....they were ok. we went again for lunch this past weekend. our waitress was very good....attentive and accomodating. my burger however was a let-down. pre-fab patty....enuff said. the one bright spot was a basil dipping mayo that came with the plate....it was very good. my wife had a breakfast which was simply ok and my daughter had a quesadilla which she enjoyed. i will add another note if we indeed give it another shot.

firsttimecoming to this location. service was fast and attentive. mussels were pretty amazing! ordered the one in a white wine sauce with spinach. the cakes are also very delicious. it's pricey but the portions are pretty big. would definitely come back for mussels and dessert.

ok, no more no less. we have been a fewtimenow. breakfast , lunch and dinner. number one, the hosts are always very friendly which is more than i can say about the servers. only once have we had a friendly server (male, older). always slow to get to us, slow and we always end up asking for everything, from ketchup to water or more drinks. the food has been hit or miss. never a problem with breakfast or sandwiches. the mussels are fantastic. the burschetta was very soggy once, the goat cheese sandwich was good (not enough gotacheese), the steak was not bad, just not as tender as expected. the place is not bad, it doesn't "wow" us but have gone back. the service and prices are what keep us form going more often.

just decided to look out of curiosity at how this place is doing after having multiple poor experiences. my girlfriend and i went shortly after they opened because having been to the location in waterloo a few times, we excited to have one within walking distance of where we live. our firsttimewe had some mussels and beer. nothing exceptional but the staff were friendly and the bill wasn't too bad, so we decided to try it for a full meal. thistimearound was different. we both had pasta and more mussels. thistimethe mussels were tiny and bland. i had flank steak pasta and my girlfriend had (i believe) carbonara. portions were actually way too much (so much so that we could have split a meal). i know many would say this isn't a bad thing but it was a huge waste and neither our pastas had much flavor- really quite bland. service thistimewas slower. we waited almost 15 minutes for our server to come for our drink order. from that point he basically never left us alone, but not in a good way. we were constantly being interrupted with random conversation- i think we actually spent moretimein conversation with him than we had ourselves ! after this experience we figured we would give it one more chance in the hopes it was just poor luck. not so much. thistimewe tired the mussels marinara which again we tiny and tasted like someone opened a can of tomato sauce on them. for dinner we both had burgers ( turned out to be the "special") both burgers were overlooked and dry and didn't come with fries (they were extra) which pretty much negated the "special". service was average- kinda slow but our server was nice so it balanced out. at this point we decided we wouldn't have dinner there again, however they had a mojito and sangria pitcher night we thought we would try ( we have had these in waterloo and they were great). first and onlytimein my life i have sent drinks back (tried the mojito- fail, sangria-fail) both were made with sprite- i'll say no more on this. a final note: my patents went with friends for dinner and said the food was almost inedible- a friend couldn't even eat their meal ( this is a very unpicky person) on our final visit we actually witnessed a couple on what appeared to be a first date complaining about the food and actually pay while leaving their plates mostly untouched. all in all a horrible restaurant i would never recommend.

best cafe restaurant in k-w. the environment is beautiful, great for casual or formal dining. it's comfortable, unique, and their menus are out of this world!
it does take me a while to decide on what to order, from drinks to deserts, but the wide variety is what keeps me going back. i've yet to repeat a meal there!
and the prices were a lot lower than i had expected, my first outing there.
overall, what an exceptional dining experience: good atmosphere, great food/beverage selection, reasonable prices, friendly/young servers, and the restaurant is more than suitable for any occasion, and any group of people, anytimeof the day! four thumbs up for coffeebean!