October
2002
Mystery
Muncher: Willie's City Café
Willie's
"City Café" Restaurant
312 East State St
609-396-1114
Willie's City Café meets the test
I think it's marvelous that we have so much in Trenton and so
many places that just seem to ignore time and stay the way they
were made. I sat at the counter at Willie's and perused the menu.
"All sandwiches are $5.10 & served with fries and cole
slaw," is how it reads. Okay. That makes it easy, but let's
look some more anyway. %20-%20sm.jpg)
Club sandwiches are from $4 to $4.75; specialties are city cheesesteak,
chicken cheesesteak, turkey melt, reuben, city pastrami, tuna
melt and chicken parmigiana-all $5.10. Willie's offers 6 different
salads from the standard Garden or Spinach to the more elaborate
chef's or Greek salad, three pastas, five Italian platters, as
well as a complete breakfast menu.
I ordered a chicken Caesar salad with house dressing ($5.75)
and Munchkin ordered the classic California cheeseburger, with
fries, slaw, and a nice pickle. The burger (about 6 ounces) looked
home made, not like those perfect frozen discs you sometimes get
passed to you as original. It was cooked as ordered, which is
sometimes hard to get when you have a burger because of cooking
regulations, and the lettuce was crisp with freshly sliced tomatoes
(not precut). The fries were better than anything fast food cranks
out and were plentiful. All I could get out of Munchkin was "m-m-m
great, this is just what I needed!" So I assume it met the
test!
My salad was a healthy portion of mixed greens and croutons,
onions, and chicken that was moist and flavorful. The croutons
looked homemade and the dressing definitely was a backroom specialty.
For refreshment, we had a small misunderstanding about sugar in
the tea, but the true mark of a really terrific place is when
you get no argument about who was right or wrong just a smile
and a replacement. This is the way a good café should be.
I had a hankering for some pie but the pie case was depleted
of any confection goodies so I just took the check and went my
way. I'm going to revisit for breakfast to try their coffee….
there's a good idea…when I finish doing Trenton at lunch,
I could start breakfast reviews...or, "Trenton Makes Breakfast:
how to start your day and rebuild Trenton energized"...Anyway,
I Highly recommend Willie's for a quick (under 30 minutes) lunch
with quality food and a friendly wait staff. Willie's Café…right
across the street from City Hall.
Hours: Open 8 a.m. daily, closing at 4 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 3:30 Sat.
and 2:30 Sun.
