Cafe Victoria

 I had a very mediorce experience one brunch at the cafe Victoria
 recently. The idea is so and the place is unique, but the food
 presentation and quantity were of low quanlity. At $14.95 a pop, there
 is better value to be add elsewhere in Pittsburgh. Also they kind of
 fipped, telling me that they had roasted lamb and prime rib during they
 Bruch service. Well, it should have been roasted lamb or prime rib. In
 short, not a repeat performer for me.
 - kz

 I went Cafe Victoria around 1PM Friday and was extremely disappointed,
 too.  Avoid the place.

 Our first warning should have been the menus: the dinner menu, not the
 lunch menu, was displayed on the pedestal at the door.  The lunch menu
 listed the names of items only -- no descriptions.

 We ordered a Tart Provincale (as you said, a small piece of quiche
 with no garnish, $7.95), a Victoria Salad ($5.95), the soup (cream of
 tomato, $4.95), and tea.  Portions were tiny for the price, and flavor
 wasn't anything special.  My salad was served as a little row of
 romaine stalks, looking like someone had just whacked the ends off of
 the head of lettuce and spread the leave out a bit.  Neat idea, but
 very hard to eat.  The house dressing was thin, under-applied, and
 unimpressive.  The soup was chunky and we only received a small cup
 (for our $4.95).  Neat flavor, but I had to wonder if the texture and
 color were intentional of the result of being kept in the cooler too
 long.  I've had MUCH, MUCH better tomato soup at Craig St. Coffee for
 a third the price.

 Service was uniformly poor: we didn't get a tour of the menu, the
 server wasn't knowledgable about vegetarian options and didn't offer
 to find out the answers, my water glass was never refilled, and my
 lady had to repeat her request for milk for her tea three times.

 The couple at the table beside us had very similar compliants: service
 was very slow, they never got their tea at all, the salad was served
 without dressing, and the food was generally unimpressive.  Even when
 they complained to the hostess, nothing was done.  Our waiter, at
 least, volunteered to take the tea off our check.  They told the
 hostess that they never intended to come back.  No one ever bothered
 to ask us what we thought of the place.

 All that said, it's a very neat building with some beautiful
 furniture.  An elegant settng for bad food.

 -- Sam

 On 21 Jan 2001, BNtylions wrote:

 > Friends of mine went there for lunch on Friday and hated it.  A tiny
 > sliver of quiche ($8.00) was bland., salmon was undercooked, however
 > they said the salads were fine.  Has anyone had any experience
 > there?

 On second thought, I wasn't completely fair. I wrote:

 >  An elegant setting for bad food.

 The food wasn't bad.  The experience was bad.  The food, had I been
 expecting its eccentricities, including the small portions, would have
 been adequate or even good.  It's more that by the time our food
 arrived, I was already feeling bad about the experience.  This
 probably had more to do with the service than anything.

 None of which really changes the fact that, after eating, I not only
 lacked the patience to even listen to the dessert menu, but I actively
 wanted to go find a different restaurant for a second lunch to help
 erase the memory of this one from my mind.  After reading the earlier
 review here and one at realpittsburgh.com, I'm thining that our
 experience was pretty typical.

 http://www.realpittsburgh.com/auto_docs/dining/14045.html

 -- Sam

 Friends of mine went there for lunch on Friday and hated it.  A tiny sliver of
 quiche ($8.00) was bland., salmon was undercooked, however they said the salads
 were fine.  Has anyone had any experience there?

 B