Cafe Cedar

Where can I begin with Cafe Cedar in Parkville? Let me start with the decor. Located in a building that looks like a riverboat, you walk in and the first thing you notice is a gift shop (?) with a lot of Lewis and Clark related items. There is a old convertible in one area of the restaurant that used to be a salad bar, but I'm not sure if it still functions as one. The rest of the decor looks as if furniture, lighting fixtures, etc. from the previous restaurants in that space were left and just slightly changed each time the restaurant changed hands to match the current theme of the restaurant. Retro 50's lighting fixtures and chairs that looked like they belonged in a castle dining room. An interesting combination I would never have thought of. There were supposed to be belly dancers, but they hadn't started by the time we left. However there was a band playing during our meal. The highlight of this was when they started playing the Sesame Street theme song.

Quirkiness of the decor aside let's get to the food. To begin with, we ordered 2 appetizers. The spinach pie and halloumi cheese. Both items were very good, but my favorite was the spinach pie. The phyllo dough was flaky, buttery and delicious. I would have been content with just eating plates of spinach pie all even, but alas I had ordered a meal. I ordered the special of the day which was some sort of chicken concoction wrapped in phyllo dough. I had high hopes for this entree, but was disappointed. The sauce was slightly sweet, but good. The phyllo dough was soggy and not as good at it was on the spinach pie and the chicken was dry. Maybe it was the overall texture of the chicken and phyllo dough. Maybe it was between ordering it and receiving it, we started talking about how the special of the day it typically all the stuff the restaurant is just trying to get rid of, but whatever it was, I wasn't a huge fan of my meal. Luckily the appetizers had been good or I would have considered this a waste of a trip to Parkville.

I would be willing to go back and give it another chance since I loved the appetizers, but I won't be rushing back there anytime soon.



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