Cafe You're Ripped Off
Written: Nov 16 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: location
Cons: service, food
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| BillTK's Full Review: Cafe Europa |
Located on 57th Street (one of the most rent expensive streets on the planet), Café Europa serves up less than stellar food and even less impressive good manners to the tourist trade that falls prey to this eatery in this exciting area of NYC (the restaurant is catty-corner from Carnegie Hall).
I almost didn’t catch our waitress’ off-putting attitude at first, although my dinner companions were quick to see it. I had my head buried in the menu when she first came around ( bad manners on my part), but when she returned to take our orders her strangeness was apparent. She had that haughty way of holding one’s gaze for a bit too long before redirecting her attention to the next person, the effect being as if to say “You must be kidding, right?” Then off she went. So far, everyone’s still alive, so the evening still shows promise.
I wound up going with the Europa Supreme ($11.95) from their admirably long list of sandwiches. It contains Genoa salami, prosciutto, roasted peppers, fresh mozzarella, arugala, melted tomatoes, basil aioli (olive oil) on Kalamata olive ciabatini bread, which is sort of a thicker version of pita bread. Well, imagine my surprise then when she brought out our food and set a pizza down in front of me. Now, if you’re like me, your initial thought flashes consist of “Hm. Interesting looking sandwich. Kind of looks like a pizza, but hey, I guess that’s the way things are around here.” In the ensuing seconds however, good sense regains its footing and you decide to speak up, “Um, is this the Europa Supreme”? you ask.
To this, our waitress insisted that it was.
“But isn’t the Europa Supreme a sandwich”?
“This is the pizza” she points out to me.
I opened the menu back up and did that thing one does sometimes when you don’t want to get confrontational, and so you feign confusion even though you know you’re right and the other is mistaken. It’s my cowardly attempt at politeness—a way to imply that she and I, as a team, together here now, have a situation we need to investigate in order to reach some clarification.
She peered at the menu along with me, and upon seeing the Europa supreme listed as a sandwich, she pulled up short. But with her mistake now clear, she chose the modern day good ol’ standby excuse: “Oh, it’s a computer error.”
Ah yes, that’s it, of course. I knew that whole Y2K thing would catch up to us sooner or later.
But then the truly shocking happened. She asked me if I wanted what I ordered. I’m not kidding. Those were words too. I suggested that I did, and she then took on an air of disapproval, warning me, threatening me almost, that “Oooooooookay, but it’s going to be a long wait.”
I took my chances and opted for waiting. I mean, come on, it’s a sandwich, it’s not like they have to rethaw a Thanksgiving turkey. So of course the story thus far naturally leads you to expect that indeed it did take an ungodly lengthy time. But aha! No! She returned with the correct order in literally less than a minute. Unwittingly though the waitress thereby proved that the error was hers, not some computer’s. The sandwich was obviously ready and sitting there on the pick-up counter—she simply took the wrong dish. That’s what she gets for showing off by not writing down the orders when she takes them.
Getting back to the food itself, the sandwich was fine. I don’t know if it’s $12 worth of fine, but it was okay.
There is an Old Fashioned Quiche with black forest ham and gruyere cheese and caramelized onions for $11.90. The ham inside is cubed rather than sliced and perhaps this could be why the cheese couldn’t be tasted—it was overpowered by the ham. Too much ham basically and not enough quiche—the egg and crust weren’t allowed to do their job. This quiche order comes with a soup and the mushroom barley in this case was disappointing—too brothy, not thick enough. There was only 1 mushroom spotted in the bowl, and about 5 barleys.
For $11.95 there is the Pasta Minigone, a rigatoni type pasta with sauteed broccoli, plum tomatoes, garlic, and bacon. It is a paltry portion and the tomato sauce was watery. The bacon used was very low grade—very fatty and bland.
They have a Boston Clam Chowder soup which tasted passable, with only a hint of clams. But there were no potatoes in it at all—is that the difference between a “Boston” and a “New England” clam chowder?
Meals come with a salad, and I found the herby vinaigrette dressing tasty although my friend and girlfriend disagreed. The opening round bread basket featured stale and wholey bread. The big holes I’m told are the result of large air bubbles present in the bread during the baking.
For dessert we shared a Profiterol ($5.25) and a French Custard Napoleon ($4.95). The Profiterol is a light cream puff filled with fresh whipped cream topped with chocolate mousse and garnished with fresh strawberries. Now I was operating on the hunch that although dinner was disappointing, this place would rise to the occasion for the dessert course. The décor of Café Europa hints that dessert is its forte—it looks almost like a bakery, resembling also some of the cafes in Greenwich Village’s Bleecker Street where you can find good dessert treats with your hot cup of coffee. Sadly though, both our Café Europa desserts fell to the occasion. The Profiterol obviously came straight from the refrigerator where it must have spent a very long time because the cream middle was still frozen hard. The Napoleon with its flaky filo dough (like in Baklavas, those Greek desserts) was layered with a light custard and although seemed generously hefty, was deceptively so, as it was by and large constructed mostly of angel food cake.
Our coffees were served not hot, but at the drinking temperature you usually expect a few minutes into receiving it. This kind of throws off your coffee drinking pace by removing the sipping, the savoring aspect of drinking coffee. I will say though, that I enjoyed my cold beverage thoroughly—they have this drink called a Lemonata which is a tall glass of crushed lemons served with several choices of flavorings. It’s delicious and refreshing although a little steeply priced at $4.25.
We were here on a Friday night and the place was certainly crowded. They greedily pack the tables tightly together and in so doing you’ll probably hear at least one maybe two glasses break per visit. But that’s nothing compared to the heartbreak of your disappointment. Boo hoo.
*BillTK’s TRIVIA TIDBIT--In Greek mythology Europa was a Phoenician princess and then a mistress of Zeus. He appeared to her as a gentle white bull, and persuaded her to take a ride on his back, and then he carried her away across the sea. Hence the name for Europe.
Service:
hoo boy
Decor:
big wide windows, brightly lit inside. bustling.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
BillTK
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Member: William Kozy
Reviews written: 139
Trusted by: 32 members
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