Cafe Augusta

My husband I and just went to Café Augusta for the first time and had a pretty «meh» experience. We went for lunch. Everything tasted fine, but the service was the main issue. We ordered an appetizer and our lunches at the same time. 30 minutes later our artichoke spread came out. About 15 minutes later our simple sandwiches showed up. Very little interaction with the waiter. Had to motion to him across the room that we finally needed our check. We were there for an hour! We had to get back to work! The place was about half full. At the end our waiter (unprompted) apologized for the long wait. But the «excuse» was that it’s not normally this busy. Huh? It WASN’T busy. Again, the food tasted good. But if I can’t go somewhere for lunch in the middle of week and get fairly quick service, it’s not going to be some place I go back to.

We had a Groupon and our friend Shannon Lipps was singing there so we loaded up the Caddie and cruised down Suicide Highway (35 South) to West 87^th St. and into Suburbia. This little joint is tucked away inside one of the typical suburban strip malls. Kind of a crappy location, if you ask me and it wasn’t looking very good at first, but… yikes! Quit being so judgmental dude!!! We walked in and a young lady quickly greeted and seated us. It was just before 9pm on a Saturday night and there weren’t many patrons at that point, which was fine with us. Shannon was singing one of her sultry numbers and our drink orders were immediately taken. A few moments later, a very pleasant, polite, young man approached and introduced himself to us as our server. He explained the menu and we ordered the crab cakes for our appetizer. I ordered the Szegediner Goulasch with South African Peanut Soup and my companion ordered Jamaican jerk steak with whipped sweet potatoes and a house salad. Score big points number one! The crab cakes were perfectly cooked with pieces of corn and a nice brown crust and a very tasty dipping sauce. Even my seafood-​hating companion announced that the crab cakes were acceptable. Acceptable my derrière! They were excellent. We didn’t have to wait long for our entrées. Score big points numero dos! Or should I say… deux! My deboned pork short ribs were perfectly cooked and tender and seasoned with a paprika sauce, served with a warm, generous side of mashed potatoes. I almost couldn’t finish it all. But, it was very good. My dining companion’s Jamaican jerk chicken was also cooked perfectly rare and had a nice seasoning but seemed a bit heavy on cloves but that didn’t bother me. My take on jerk meat is that it is going to be rather warm from the Scotch bonnet or habañero chiles. The whipped sweet potatoes were also surprisingly tasty and this coming from someone who doesn’t care for sweet potatoes… generally. I have one gripe… why, does it have to be so dad-​blasted dark in these places? I mean, I know there is an element of ambience expected with lower lighting for Pete’s Sake! Look, I have to wear bifocals now and it’s a dang shame when a person has difficulty reading the menu even with bifocals. Very annoying. Ok, I’m done with that rant. Overall, this little bistro is cute but the initial impression is kind of blah being stuck in a nondescript strip mall. The staff though, are very personable, polite and attentive. The food is well executed and the portions are more than adequate. We will probably be back. It’s a fun place to take a date or a small group of friends or your significant other for a nice, quiet, pleasant evening of great food, great service and great music.

My personal opinion:
So I bought the groupon and came back because I liked the food. But I thought the service was worse than ever. The place was close to empty yet it took a long time to be greeted and to get refills. She took her sweet time checking on us. She forgot my friends coke and had to be reminded… during the time she forgot the coke we watched her do almost every possible task but check on us. I got the vegetable sandwich again which I really liked the first time but it was made differently. The vegetables were left cut waaay to big and the sandwich basically fell apart as I was eating it.
This place has such potential to be great yet it isn’t living up to what it could be. Overall the food is good but the service needs to decide to care.

Easygoing staff — our waitress was working her first night and one of the chefs kept coming out to check on us.
Great cocktails to start off — both of us got mango martinis.
The highlight was the Nepalese momos… a twist on samosas, they are curry scented vegetable dumplings with spicy roasted tomato chutney.
This was also complemented with this amazing curry squash soup, served hot. Delicious!
Also ordered tomatoes provencal, brie en croute, and bistro fries. The bistro fries featured blue cheese crumbles, garlic, and rosemary.
What a hidden treasure, just off I-​35 in Lenexa.
It reminded me of Spaghetteria Mamma Mia in St. Louis — a great treasure, with far too few customers on a weeknight. Unilocalers — support these places, and tell your friends… or they will go away!
PS I was too full to even try the delicious in-​house desserts, but they have a ridiculous amount of fresh-​made cakes that are just amazing in appearance… I can’t imagine what they taste like.

Café Augusta is a must visit location. The menu is wonderfully diverse, and the specials are as creative and exotic as the printed menu, so you can count on a gastronomical adventure every time that you visit. Guten Appetit!

Went back to Café Augusta today and again the service was horrible. It’s LUNCH TIME!!! People have jobs. We were there over 40 minutes before we even received our food!
This time I actually looked at the bill. YIKES! I had the roast beef sandwich again. It is $ 9.50 and then they charge an extra $ 2.25 for fries. This is no $ 12 lunch people. It is some cheddar cheese and roast beef grilled on sour dough bread! The fries are fine, nothing to brag about, certainly not $ 2 good.
I will only be back one time to use a groupon I already had. Save your money and your time!

This place is a darling little much needed café in the pretty depressing shopping area of 87^th Trafficway and Quivira.
Stopped in for a quick lunch and the décor is very welcoming and lovely– the perfect little french bistro. Cute little bar as you walk in and plenty of seating.
The menu has a lot of great appetizer options and is very vegetarian friendly. They use fake bacon in their BLT so this place was really earning its place in my heart.
Everything was delicious.
I cannot wait to go back for dinner– this place has lots of character. I guess Monday is german night with authentic german specials and there is also live music. Too cute!

Café Augusta was good, but it didn’t blow me away. When we first got there, we correctly read the sign directing us to seat ourselves, which I thought odd, but hey, I’m easy-​going about it. We sat down and after a few minutes, our server came to let us know he would be right with us. The poor guy was the only server in the dining room, even though there were four or five parties there before we had even arrived. We had a groupon and were determined to use every penny of it, so we ordered a couple of small plates and our entrees. We didn’t realize our entrees came with a salad so we got those too. It was going to be a very food-​filled evening.
I ordered the Kassler Ripchen, a bone-​in porkchop with a cream sauce on top. The waiter informed me that they were all out of potatoes for the mashed potatoes which came with it and could he get me a different side. I got rice instead.
Husband ordered the Four Corners Meatloaf, a spicy meatloaf with sweet potatoes.
The small plates we ordered were the Salmon Bruschetta and the Crab and Corn Cakes.
The first things to come out were the two small plates. The Salmon Bruschetta was basically a deconstructed bagel and lox. It had goat cheese and salmon on top of that with a side of tomato-​onion-​caper tapenade type thing. It was good. Not amazing, but good.
The Corn and Crab Cake was also good. It was very difficult to eat, it just wouldn’t stay together. Again, it was good, not amazing.
Then our salads came out. They had an impressive variety of salad dressing choices. Husband opted for balsamic vinaigrette and I got sherry vinaigrette. Salad was covered with crunchy fried onions (like the type you put on green bean casserole). I didn’t love it as much, but my husband is now convinced that any salad he eats will have these on top of it.
Entrees were good, but not amazing. My pork was a bit undercooked on one side, I just steered clear of that side. Husband liked his meatloaf but it was spicy with the Thai chili glaze and jalapenos.
After awhile, another individual started helping out the lone server. He was wearing a chef’s jacket, and the service was MUCH better after he joined in the fun, including finding a thing to jimmy under the table to make it stop wobbling and finding which small plate we preferred. He just about made up for the lack of service during the first part of the evening.
Overall, it was good, but I don’t feel compelled to go back. The prices may have been much for what we got, but since we had the Groupon we didn’t worry about it. Next time, I might not feel as comfortable with those prices.

Is this place still open? The food wasn’t bad, but the service and atmosphere were lame. It’s out of the way, so no reason to go back. I honestly have not thought of it since I’ve eaten there. That should tell you everything.

Went here for a team luncheon and my team is picky. I’m always reluctant to go out with these folks. Love you guys, but there is a reason we don’t dine together. That being said, no one complained. No one! The dishes arrived timely. I had the tuna patty. It was good, but I likely won’t order it again, The cheese was a bit of a drier cheese and it needed something to moisten it up. Besides that the sandwich was good. Everyone else was happy and complemented the food. The best part though were the bistro fries (I think this is what they are called.) Blue cheese and rosemary sauteed fried. I was all over that! So yumm! My coworkers even snagged some. It was unanimous, those fries are good! For the melt, fries, dessert and tax the total was $ 16.00. You decide where that fits in your budget. Happy eating!

Although I respect their opinion I don’t agree to the previous reviews about The Cafè Augusta restaurant. Their food is superb and the desert is outstanding. I had a German Rasberry Cake that was simply delicious. As far as pricing, the whole visit with cake and a cappuccino was just under $ 9.00, completely reasonable.
Their cappuccino was just about perfect and didn’t leave anything to be desired to any Starbucks drink. Very well made and served very hot, meaning that they did pay attention to the temperature of their foam when preparing it.
But, what really made the difference and would be something that will continue to attract me to Café Augusta was the live music they have now on Fridays. The Jazzy rithyms of Nathan & Ross was just exciting and motivating, they simply openned up the weekend for all kinds of fun, good job and congratulations on the management for choosing this incredible jazz duet.

We came with friends, who were excited to bring us to Café Augusta. In their experience, this place offered excellent food at very reasonable prices. They were not wrong about the food. It was very good — you’d NEVER have thought the menu would be so refined given the 1980s strip mall location.
If I was rating this place based on the food alone, I’d have given it more stars. I don’t have a complaint about the food, at all. I can see why my friends love it.
Here’s the deal — the prices have gone up from what my friends remember. The wines by the glass have doubled, the bottles have almost doubled, and the entrees themselves are a few dollars more. It changed the nature of this place from an excellent value for fresh, delicious food to a price-​point par-​for-​the-​course. Herein lies the problem: the atmosphere is uninspired and cafeteria-​like, and the location is odd, meaning that unless you have a reason to be a destination (like the value), there’s not much reason for a return visit. This might account for the fact that the restaurant sat only four tables for Saturday dinner.
If they dropped their prices again, I’d be back regularly.

I decided to go to Café Augusta today because earlier in the week I scored the $ 1.01 lunch special at Rosati’s sponsored by 101 The Fox — I’ll explain the significance of this later.
I decided to get the Roast Beef :
«Roast beef and cheddar on Sourdough with chipotle mayo on the side served Panini style»
…with a salad. The other choices of side were chips or Bistro Fries ($ 2.00 extra).
The sandwich was quite delicious. Beef was tasty and the bread crisp. Both the chipotle mayo and the ranch dressing were obviously homemade. The dressing was pretty tasty, while the chipotle mayo was lacking in chipotle flavor.
Overall, it was a very good tasting meal
Now, on to my mention of the $ 1.01 lunch earlier in the week…
I knew before going in to Café Augusta that the price was high, very high. The Roast Beef sandwich was $ 9.50! That’s right folks, a roast beef sandwich and salad for $ 9.50, no drink, no option of fries without adding another $ 2.00. Unbelievable!
What was really disappointing, considering the price, was the size of the sandwich and salad. Very small. Really, for $ 9.50, the sandwich should have been as big as the entire to-​go container.
Don’t get me wrong. What I got did a pretty good job of filling me up, and, honestly, some of us typical Midwesterners need smaller portion sizes along those lines. But, for what I got, I’d rather see the price point be closer to, lets say, $ 6.50.
Food — 4.5 stars
Price — 1.5 stars