Sugar and Spice, Cortland, NY

Vegetarian Restaurant Review by Jennifer Kumar.

Meet and Greet
We were not met or greeted at the door. It appeared to be a sit yourself establishment. It was crowded when we entered around 12:30pm on a Sunday. Only one corner table was free and shiny clean, so we took that. Though in my opinion the Feng Shui of this sitting area is not suitable for any position one could sit in at this table. It’s difficult to face anyone you sit with at the table, and at most angles it feels as the traffic of the establishment is coming toward you or that all others can watch you eat. It’s not a comfortable seating arrangement. But as we were not approached by any waitress to discuss other seating arrangements, we took this table.


Mise en Scène
Part of this has been discussed under ‘meet and greet.’ There are other aspects of the environment besides the physical surroundings that must be noted. Maybe it’s because I am more of a city dweller and am used to seeing well dressed, clean and friendly waitresses that I will say what I have to say next, or maybe it’s because we were out of towners too. Firstly, after sitting down, we were not offered menus for about 10-15 minutes. We were waited on by a well-trained waitress, but approaching us with a casual dress and an uninterested attitude in serving us. To elaborate, her outfit consisted of an untucked, oversized t-shirt with large pictures and words not relevant to the establishment and pants that to me seemed like pajama pants- with patterns all up and down the legs. In comparison to the other waitresses, there was not much difference. Another waitress had a very similar outfit, looking more like a pajama set than a waitressing uniform. Another waitress had more of waitress-looking outfit on- white pants and white shirt, but with stains all and down the front of her dress. Of course, being a waitress one may spill on themselves, but at other establishments this is overcome by wearing some type of apron.

**We did not have to use restrooms, so no comment on that ambiance!


Choosing a Veggie Treat
We stuck to the breakfast menu, with egg options as there were very few interesting vegetarian options on the menu, including lunch options. Lunch options for vegetarians who also eat eggs included a short list of: grilled cheese ($1.95), egg salad sandwich ($3.20), and of course sides such as French fries, onion rings, cheese sticks, jalapeño poppers, and fried mushrooms and zucchini. If a vegetarian would come here during a dinner hour, there are no vegetarian meal options unless breakfast options are available at this time. Within breakfast options, many egg options exist, including pancakes also.

I ordered two hotcakes with over easy eggs ($3.25). It’s good that this is not easy to mess up, though the eggs were closer to over hard than over easy. The hotcakes tasted like any other pancakes I have had, so no issues with that.

Krishna ordered the fried egg sandwich. He said the egg tasted ok, but there was something about it he would have improved. Not sure what that was.

Checking In
Our waitress bought our drinks, then our food. She did not check in between to refill coffee or ask us if we wanted anything else.

See you later
We waited a long time for the bill, longer than should be expected. We approached the register to pay. They accepted all forms of credit card as payment.

Pay Scale
$1-5 per person
Tips
10% is standard. We gave 10% though I would have preferred to give much less.
Star System 1.5/5
The only aspect of this visit that accorded a good score was value for money. The food is really cheap, but as they say ‘you get what you pay for.’ I actually wonder if the locals feel the same treatment when they enter as we did. They did not seem to mind the atmosphere as it was fully crowded throughout our stay.


To find/Contact
Sugar and Spice Restaurant
3901 Route 281 #6
Cortland, NY 13045
Directions to Sugar and Spice
Phone (607)756-4606

Hours: Daily 6a-9pm
Delivery Mon-Sat. 8a-2p and 5p-8p

Review based on October 2008 visit.

Have you eaten at Sugar and Spice, Cortland, NY? If so, please share your thoughts below.

Thank you for reading!

Note #1: This Sugar and Spice is not affiliated with the Sugar and Spice in Horseheads, NY that I reviewed earlier (here).
Note #2: I had hesitated to post this review as this is the first one I have done that overall is not favorable. This is indeed one establishment I would not reenter. This blog is here to explore the good and not-so-good in terms of not only cuisine, but service, ambiance and overall experience.

Lovin’ Cup: RIT Park Point, Rochester, NY

Vegetarian Restaurant Review by Jennifer Kumar.

Meet and Greet
Lovin’ Cup is a café bistro, guests are welcome to approach the bar or food counter to order. Once the order is placed at the register, drinks are given at the bar and food is left on the bar for guests to pick up. At the register guests are given a pager. This will light up, buzz and bounce once your order is ready to be picked up.

Mise en Scène
I enjoyed the décor and flow of the interior. Though you can choose to sit outside if it’s warm out, there is plenty of indoor seating at high café tables, large comfortable booths and shorter tables in addition to the bar. Art by local artists hang on the wall, many pieces for sale with a tag of about $400 each. There is also some ambiance music playing on speakers throughout the establishment. Besides being a little loud, the music, which to us did not promote a relaxing atmosphere, ran on repeat. We could have done without the music, for sure.
**We did not have to use restrooms, so no comment on that ambiance!

Choosing a Veggie Treat
We were taken off guard when we first glanced at the menu as we strolled around Park Point because of the creative names given to each menu item. Each menu item had been given a title that we have never encountered at any other eatery. After carefully reading the descriptions of each menu item, we were both pleased to see a café serving a wide variety of vegetarian options. There are actually about 20 vegetarian entries on the menu (no meat, no eggs), including four varieties of meatless grilled cheeses! (I am tempted to go back to try that, though at $5.99 a plate, I am not running over anytime soon…) There are also about five breakfast entries with eggs for vegetarians who eat eggs. Though some meat options (sandwiches) may loose its signature made vegetarian, I am sure sandwiches of any variety along with any other item on the menu could be ‘made vegetarian.’ After debating over what to get, and realizing we were coming during ‘happy hour’ and not meal time, we chose two appetizers- fingerpoppin’ (bruschetta) and burnin’ down the house (nachos).

It must be said, that though the items were freshly made and had a descent taste we are apprehensive to try the nachos again. Firstly, for bruschetta and nachos, a fifteen minute wait is not acceptable. Secondly, when you get food after waiting 15 minutes, you hope it would be toasty hot and look natural. It was lukewarm and the cheese on the nachos almost appeared to like some melted Velveeta ** (not natural cheese). I really want to believe that is not true.

In ordering drinks, we did have a little better luck. I ordered a hot apple cider. The medium size seemed to be a large. Also, since this size was not yet programmed in their register, they decided to charge me for a small size! So far I have had hot apple cider at about five places, and conclude it’s really hard to mess this up! My husband ordered the chocolate jerk, their mocha drink. Hubby likes the bitter chocolate more than the sweet, so continues to prefer Starbucks mocha drink much better!

Checking In
This is not a restaurant where you needed to be waited on, so no comments are required.

See you later
We ordered and paid directly at the register. Upon completing the tray of food, guests return the tray to the waste basket, throwing the garbage away and placing the trays and dirty dishes on top.

Pay Scale
$6-10 per person (This is for two drinks and two appetizers)

Tips
Not required. Nice addition, possibly more so at the bar.

Star System 1-5? 3/5
(I believe this establishment is only a few months old, and staffed by all newbies. I think some kinks still need to be worked out (not all menu items able to be rung up, food preparation time is too long, etc.). Overall it was a good experience.)

To find/Contact
Lovin’ Cup
Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Park Point
300 Park Point Drive, Suite #101
Rochester, NY 14623
Phone: 585.292.9940
Lovin’ Cup’s website –lovincup.com
Directions (This place is not yet on Google maps! It is near the corner of John St. and Jefferson Road -252. Entrance is on John Street.)

Review based on October 2008 visit.

** I did a search for Velveeta and ingredients. There was no direct links from Google and the Velveeta links through Kraft’s site doesn’t work! I did find on a few sites however that it’s debatable if Velveeta is a ‘cheese food’ (containing 51% cheese or more) or a ‘cheese product’ (containing less than 50% cheese).

Have you eaten at Lovin' Cup? If so, please share your thoughts below.

This Review is linked at outside.in.

Thank you for reading!

Sugar and Spice, Horseheads, NY

Vegetarian Restaurant Review by Jennifer Kumar.

Meet and Greet
We arrived about 11am on a Saturday morning. Walking in, guests are expected to seat themselves. Guests are then greeted by waitresses once they have sat down and made themselves ‘at home’. Though the seats were about 80% occupied, we were able to sit in the corner booth, which was spacious and comfortable.

Mise en Scène
It is like most country diners, with some booth seating and some table seating. I remember the décor to be spacious, light and open. The tables and booth seating were nice and clean.

The one interesting thing I remember of the décor was the paper placemats they have created. On the placemat, each side of the rectangle has a town name on it. I said out loud “Fairport” as that made me think of Fairport, NY (outside Rochester). I was curious why it said Fairport on it. When I asked the waitress, she said Horseheads used to be called Fairport until [they dug up Horsehead skulls in the area] the town near Rochester decided to take it for themselves. Though that is true, I am curious where is the ‘port’ in Horseheads?

**As another interesting side note, there could have been two Fairports in New York. There are two Rochesters in NY. The metro being in Monroe County, the rural one in Ulster County.

Restrooms were clean and spacious.

Choosing a Veggie Treat
We came here for breakfast. There were plenty of breakfast options for us as we eat eggs. We choose the same dish, scrambled eggs, toast and mini potato pancakes. The mini potato pancakes were a little different than expected, but they were tasty, especially dipped in the side of sour cream. The portion size was perfect, it was not too overwhelming. We felt full after eating, not stuffed.

Checking In
Though our waitress checked on us a few times, our coffee was not refilled promptly as compared to other similar diners we have visited.

See you later
Waiting to get and pay for the bill was no issue.

Pay Scale
$6-10 per person
Tips 10-15% depending on your interest
Star System 3/5
(Good value for money, tasty food, but would have expected better service in a small town diner.)

To find/Contact
Sugar & Spice Restaurant
300 Watkins Rd
Horseheads, NY
Phone: (607) 739-5303
Directions

Reviews at Yahoo!

Have you eaten at Sugar and Spice in Horseheads, NY? If so, please share your thoughts below.

Thank you for reading!

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