Cafe Edison

A true gem. I loved this place. Good bye blintzes. Good bye white fish platter .
I own the Polish restaurant in Orlando, so the Polish Tea Room was a wonderful treat. Good bye sour cream. Good bye meatloaf. Will miss you matzo ball soup. Your service and atmosphere were top notch. You were among my first impressions of NYC and I thank you all.

We were taken here by a friend to experience an «old New York» place on the cusp of closing. It is worn around the edges and has a weird hybrid feel with the décor… is it a 50s diner or a slice of early 20^th C grandeur? As opposed to other Unilocal[er’s experience, service was fine. I had the matzo brei and LOVED it! Better than my mother’s recipe. My matzo had texture and chewy but wasn’t crunchy. Eggy but not enough to overwhelm the matzo. Lots of syrup to sweeten it up. I hope it stays open because I would go back in a New York minute for more!

We came here craving some Jewish deli favorites, and it was pretty average overall. We ordered matzo ball soup, a reuben and some cheese and blueberry blintzes. In general, things weren’t very flavorful, and also not the huge serving size you get accustomed to in Jewish delicatessens. The highlight of the meal was the cheese blintz, but it wasn’t any better than the countless other blintzes I’ve had in my life. It’s also important to note that it doesn’t feel very clean here — the floors look grimy, and everything is just… gray-​ish. I think it might be time to either clean up and renovate, or move on, Café Edison!

One of my friends is a huge Broadway buff and has been aggressively campaigning to save Café Edison for its historic value to the theater district. I totally get that and support the idea, so my man and I went there to eat for the first time.
Honestly, it wouldn’t be so bad for this place to get a freshening up. Parts of the café were literally held together with duct tape. You can see how the space was beautiful once, but now it’s just run-​down, dirty, and kind of sad. I understand the Edison Hotel next door, which owns the space, will be doing some renovations. I hope they preserve the historic design elements, but the facelift is badly needed.
It was hard to find something to eat on the menu, because it was lots of carbs and processed meats. I got soup and a salad, and my man got the salmon. All the food seemed sort of old and greasy, like it had been sitting around for a long time.
Service was awful, but I kind of understand why the server seemed miserable. I was really hoping we’d find a gem in the theater district and be able to enjoy the historic restaurant. But we definitely won’t be back.

Just ate here this morning whole staying at the Edison hotel. It was… eh. Mediocre, I guess. I had a cup of tea, two eggs sunny side up, with bacon, home fries, and toast. The food wasn’t bad, but there was nothing special about it. Fairly bland, it was the same thing you could get in just about any diner in any town in America.
The service, however, was terrible. I got seated quickly, as I was on my own, but then I sat there for at least five minutes just waiting for someone to come by with a menu and ask if I wanted some coffee or tea. The entire meal went like that. Ridiculous wait after ridiculous wait, and all for mediocre food that was vastly overpriced, based solely on the Times square location.
And on top of that, the place only accepts cash. Come on, it’s 2014, get with the times.
There seemed to be some sort of campaign going on to try to save the place from imminent closure, but honestly I say if this is the best they can do, they don’t really deserve to be saved. I for one won’t be returning.

It’s a legend in NY theatre and sadly closing. The landlord won’t renegotiate the lease. I hope they find a new location.

Always love to stop by here when I can get to the area. The food is like mama’s kitchen and the atmosphere is like the NYC of the mid century.
Like at other NYC establishments, a waitstaff that can be brusk and to the point and also friendly and helpful in their way. The potions are generous and very tasty. Matzo ball soup, always buy extra to bring home, kasha varnishkas, love buckwheat, actually all their soups! The location in the hotel Edison looks so deco, but just heard in the news that this café might be moving. Can’t wait to come to their new location!!! I’m getting hungry just thinking about it ;-)

For history alone, you should come here. Google this place and read about it before hand, it will make the experience that much better.
We got the Matzo Ball Soup, a bowl is the way to go for sure. Outstanding!
The corn beef and cabbage special was fresh and juicy.
Go online and sign the petition to save this restaurant from being turned into another white table cloth mess by Times Square!

It’s so difficult to find a reasonably priced restaurant so close to Times Square. Delicious Jewish food (try the Matza Ball Soup). French fries are also big and plentiful. SO MUCH FOOD for such a great price.
I attempted the Basqueburger: beef burger served with spinach sauce, tomato, onions, green peppers and mushrooms. The bad: It was incredibly messy and fell apart in my hand. The good: when I used a fork and knife, the burger itself was delicious. One of the best kosher burgers I’ve ever had. Combined with french fries and cole slaw, it filled me up for the rest of the day and even PAST dinner time.
All of the Jewish selections are fantastic. Hotel Edison is considering closing this restaurant and replacing it with a ritzier former version of itself. This CANNOT happen as tourists need a fast, cheap option when traveling to Times Square.

When I first came to the city not so long ago, places like this were ubiquitous. Somehow, even though they represent the real New York far better than Taylor whateshername or aggressive Elmos, they have become unfashionable and are dropping like flies.
Yes on one level, it’s just a deli. Sandwiches, burgers and soups are the way to go. It’s probably not the right place to order a steak, but the corned beef was pretty tasty. Prices are par for the course these days. Waitstaff are friendly but not excessively so. No, they don’t accept credit cards. Fortunately this is the city, not the deep woods of Arkansas, so there are about a bazillion ATMs nearby.
The atmosphere, accumulated over the years, cannot be replicated. And your fellow diners are that rare breed, real New Yorkers. The kind that also seem to be going extinct.
Enjoy it soon, because, of course, the landlord is kicking them out of the unexpectedly ornate, high-​ceilinged space in a few months. That’s how the Apple crumbles.

Amazing matzoh balls, amazing blintzes. Nowhere in NYC can you find quintessential Jewish food this good, this cheap, and this convenient.
It would be a huge shame if they close this place down!

I ate here with my parents while staying in the Edison Hotel. What appears to be the manager looks like he’s some random schmo in plain clothes who barely takes his eyes off his phone to look at you, point at you with how many fingers you have in your party and then points toward the general direction your table is located.
The guy who brought butter and jelly to our table was kind and quick. The guy who took our order was the worst service I received in NYC. He didn’t greet us when he first came to the table. We told him we needed a few minutes and he just stormed off. When he came back he said, ‘Ok, you order now. Tell me your order now.’ Rude. My blood is getting warm now. My mom said she would have the Spanish Omelette. The server said, ‘No. You don’t like peppers. You have the western omelette.’ Now blood is boiling. The thing is, I told my mom to get the western omelette for other reasons, but what he said was wrong, regardless.
I told him not to tell us what to order and to just put our order in. The food came quickly. Definitely just cooked food, not prepared. There was no taste to anything beside its normal taste. The eggs tasted like eggs. Green peppers like green peppers. Nothing was seasoned.
My dad had to seek a manager asking if he would ever get a refill on his coffee. The manager stopped looking at his phone long enough for me to vent and just said, Sorry, he must be having a bad day. I’ve never had problems. Then went back to his phone.
Overall, horrible service. Overly priced. And no taste to their food. I recommend NOT EATING HERE.

We just had breakfast at this old but cozy café, everything we tried was good and portions are big enough to share if you are not so hungry. We didn’t have to wait for too long as some of you say on your reviews. And the lady that took care of our table was nice and quick.
Don’t leave without trying the cheese Blintzes.
The reason I’m giving 4 stars is for the «cash only» thing which I still don’t understand

I waited all morning to be hungry enough for this place. I found it, quite by accident, on one my most recent trips here. It would be really easy to walk by this place, which has the nickname «The Polish Tea Room».
The must-​have menu items here are the corned beef Reuben, cabbage soup, home fried potatoes and the cole slaw. The sandwich is served open-​faced with excellent Russian dressing available (ask). It comes with a thimble full of coleslaw, so splurge and get a side order. The home fries… to DIE FOR!!! They are prepared and served from breakfast forward, so get there before 1115 if you want to stand a chance of having some.
Breakfast here is good, too, but you can get that almost anywhere in NYC.
If you are looking for a solid alternative to Carnegie or Stage delis, this is the place for you! I’d give it 4.5 stars, if I could. A little more corned beef on the sandwich would get a five from me!

I don’t believe in skipping meals, but if this was your only option, I’d tell you to skip TWO meals! Horrible service, horrible food, ridiculous prices for diner meals.
We walked in, and it was in between lunch and breakfast, I kept insisting that we go someplace else for eating, but my boyfriend was about to naw off my arm he was so hungry. So we stopped. And let me tell you, the little convenient store, next door, has better food than this place, I’m not even kidding.
The place was hardly busy as it was an odd hour, 4 servers were on foot, standing about like they had nothing better to do. I ordered the grilled chicken wrap, and my boyfriend ordered a cheeseburger. His burger was a little larger than Mc Donald’s patties, so I know it wasn’t from Mc-d’s, but other than that, I would’ve been fooled. My wrap was large, and lacking flavor. One pro, several cons. No flavor, chicken was dry as sh*t, and the toppings I asked for weren’t even on the «sandwich wrap». And asking for water during their down time before the next wave of hotel guests pour in, results in attitude. Now I understand why a few famous directors are only seen here for breakfast and breakfast only.
I’m really upset I didn’t force my boyfriend to go around the corner to shake shack for a proper burger, oh well.

I used to go here with my dad as a kid and man oh man has this place changed.
First off, they now have badly drawn «$ 7 per person» signs on all tables which let’s you know at the outset that this is going to be a gross experience.
No sooner did we sit down when Grendel’s mother comes over to take our order. Listen. I get the New York thing. «Whadya want?!» Can be an endearing bit of NYC culture but this woman looked at our table like we were a NAMBLA convention and proceeded to gargle «YOU ORDER!» at each of us.
I’m a vegan and I asked if the veggie burger had egg. She said, and I quote «I don’t know what is in it. We are not one of those place where we know what is in the food.»
One wonders what kind of place we are in. My friends and I sat and ate the mediocre deli fare until it was time to leave. As we were leaving another friend joined us. She was there less than five minutes.
Suddenly like a fat horrid meteor our server struck and started handing out checks «I need the table!» She cried. We had been there for an hour at most. And the to our surprise handed our friend a check for 7 dollars for sitting down.
I asked if her 7 could be counted as a part if my check to which I was told no
So we paid and left no tip. My friends… my fellow Unilocalers this is the second time in my LIFE I have ever not left a tip but this troll doll deserved it.
When she noticed us she gave chase like a badly dressed version of the boulder Indiana jones screaming «YOU NO TIP! YOU SIT HERE FOR HOURS AND YOU NO TIP! F***k You! YOU NO GET SERVICE HERE AGAIN!»
it was awful. Don’t go here. Don’t ever go here. Go anywhere else. Not here.

Came here for allegedly great matzo ball soup. Instead I had a salty water bowl in a virtually abandoned sad diner, ostensibly forgotten among the lights of the Theatre District. Oh and it’s cash only.

Didn’t really enjoy the rushed service. They were closing in 30 minutes and they made sure you knew it.
The turkey sandwich was incredibly dry. The Matzo ball soup was okay — the broth was very light with little flavor.
To be honest, this place has really gone downhill.

PASS!
Between the cop reading her paper while eating breakfast at one table and 3 older gentlemen who seemed like regulars at another– I got the vibe that this was a go-​to diner for locals (which was slightly refreshing in the heart of Time Square).
The service was quick and the menu was appropriately priced. This is the definition of a no frills Jewish diner. My pastrami on rye was decent but not memorable. My wife’s french toast was disappointing– it was literally two slices of white toast served on a plate. Sweet’n low is the only sugar substitute provided, bleh!
If you’re nearby and in a pinch, it will do for a quick bite. Otherwise, I just can’t bring myself to recommend it given that there are so many Jewish diners in NYC that are far superior (many within walking distance).

When you walk in and it doesn’t seem like your typical deli/​diner. It has that hole in the wall vibe but you just know it has a history.
I ordered the beef burger deluxe and a diet coke. I anticipated a slight wait but was pleasantly surprised with the speed of my order. I’d say about 10 minutes max.
I received just what I asked for. A medium rare burger on a toasted bun with hot steak fries. It was on the small side in comparison to burgers from somewhere like Friday’s or Applebee’s but when it’s the day before pay day and the wallet is looking sparse, it was perfect.
My total bill came to $ 8.75
It might not seem like much but this is a place I will revisit. Great, friendly service and good food at a great price.