Video Cafe

09/03/08

So Interesting You Must Go!

by ksjjj at Citysearch

'The breakfast was exactly what you would expect from a dinner with 80's video posters everywhere?! Good diner food for breakfast, but the stargest thing is they have a Thai menu as well... I have only had the breakfast and it has quickly become my favorite local place for breakfast 24hrs a day. You gotta go!

• Pros: the videos and DVD all over the walls
• Cons: you have to sit very far from your table if seated at a booth

02/17/08

I'd Rather Go Home And Cook At 3 AM

by baybesf at Citysearch

We tried to like this place, we really did. It is the only place open on the way home from my partners bartending job, where they don't feed him. He's starving by the time he gets off work so we gave it three shots. First time, not so bad. I asked for grilled onions with my burger that didn't materialize but otherwise, ok. Second time, pretty unmemorable. Third time was the deal breaker. We waited 45 minutes for service. That is 45 minutes to place an order. People who got there after us got their food before we placed our order. The waiter got my order wrong so by the time I got my eggs, the french toast {which was covered with powdered sugar} was cold. Speaking of cold, we were freezing. At some point during our meal some guy at the counter started screaming he would never go back there. We felt the same way.

• Pros: open at 3 am
• Cons: open at all

06/11/07

Mmmmm Good!

by kleht at Citysearch

In my 20-some years of mostly weekend breakfasts and Sunday night dinners-with-movie at Video Cafe, I have never had reason to complain about the food or the service. The diner food is more than adequate in volume and in taste. The mostly Thai waitress staff is very courteous and attentive. Service is prompt. The atmosphere is simple, consisting of old movie posters along with a bit of Thai decor thrown in. There are several TV screens on much of the time, except for the early morning crowd, which seems to prefer a quiet breakfast along with the morning paper. Sports are a main attraction, especially on the weekend. Movies are shown starting at 9pm. For myself I like to read with my meals. There is no pressure.

Customers are quite varied ? from families with their children (and babies) to young couples to the very elderly, depending on the time of day or night. It?s easy to make acquaintances here since many of the customers have been coming here for years (and decades). The only downside to this popular cafe is the occasional rude customer ? such as the family of six that sat at the table for about an hour next to me one evening. They seemed to be enjoying themselves, ate the meal and had dessert. When finished, they started complaining loudly about the service and that the food was no good. Then all got up, refused to pay and left. Fortunately, there aren?t many episodes like this. Otherwise, Video Cafe is a relaxing place with good food to eat and a place to visit, read and/or watch something of interest on TV or DVD.

06/03/07

oh, that takes me back!

by sacy12 at Citysearch

I fully admit it, my rating is based solely on nostalgia, and is not current by at least a decade. I lived a block away from this magnificent dive over ten years ago, and consumed many an english muffin burger at 3:00 am whilst such films as From Dusk Til Dawn or Happy Gilmore played on the big projection screens encircling the joint. bad movies plus diner food? if there's more to life than that, I don't wanna know it. I'm overjoyed to discover that the place still exists!

• Pros: bad movies, diner food, divey charm, insomniac heaven
• Cons: that there aren't more like it

05/21/07

Video cafe... good food, good service, good videos!

by sfchad at Citysearch

I've lived in the nighborhood for 27 years now, and I've never had any complaints when I've eaten at the Video Cafe. The food is excellent, they even cook you Thai food if you ask. The waitresses have always been friendly and helpful.... which makes me wonder what possessed the writer of the two reviews on 4/19, and I suspect who also wrote the one 2/13 to whine and complain so much. Even though he signed different names, the reviews are variations on the same theme---- he says he's a "long time resident" and he goes to the Video when he has "no other place to go." How pathetic.

His reviews are all exceedingly hostile toward a certain waitress he claims has misused and abused him.... which leads me to believe he is this guy I've seen there a few times, who comes there in the evening to moon over a certain waitress. This waitress in nice enough to him, but she offers no response to his clumsy advances. If he's the one who wrote these reviews (who else?) she better be careful when she leaves work.... he could be waiting outside with his meat cleaver.

A couple more comments about the Video: it's a great place to rent movies, much cheaper than Blockbuster, and they have all the latest. Also, you never have to wonder if the place is open or not.