Gateway Grille

Stopped here on a whim and were glad we did. Nice little family-​run place, right on Main st. Cheery décor, nice folks, good food (finally, good grits in the north). We don’t get to Canandaigua that often, but we’ll be back.

Food is really good, but every time I eat there I have to wait for more than hour for my food to arrive

After the farmers market we were looking for a place for breakfast and spotted Gateway Grille. We had a double stroller and left it outside since we couldn’t fit it through the entrance. That should have been the first sign. The second was when we saw numerous empty tables and one of the employees said it’d take about 10 minutes to clear a table. Ok. So we are seated after almost ten minutes with a 3 year old, 9 month old, my husband and I. Now we had to wait for a high chair since all of them were in use. When we finally order about 10 minutes later, it took at least 30 – 40 minutes to get our food. The food was decent diner food. Not the best or worst I’ve had. I had an omelette, my husband had eggs/​toast/​home fries, and my daughter had a pancake. It looked to me as if all of the servers were bussing their own tables which slowed everything down. I’d recommend getting a busser and an extra cook, along with a couple more high chairs to speed up the painful time spent waiting. I really wanted to love this place but can’t waste 1 ½ hours to eat breakfast.

Great service by nice people. The food has always been very good. I eat breakfast there nearly every Sunday.

In the spirit of the holiday season, I’m giving Gateway a very generous 3 stars but will not be planning to return anytime soon.
It would seem if you find yourself craving weekend breakfast and are near main street in canandaigua Gateway is one of your 3 options. Not in the mood for crepes, the better half and I decided to check this place out. It’s easy to find and seating was plentiful; I actually liked how there was a «please seat yourself» sign in front, which avoids the awkwardness of waiting for a hostess to show up.
The service was great if not outstanding; coffee was attentively replenished and things seemed to run quite smoothly here. But the food was very lacking.
If your going to serve diner food, it needs to be good. This is stuff even the cooking impaired like me can make reasonably well in our own kitchens. My Gateway french toast (which was coated in oats) sounded like it would be good, but was served at a rather cool temperature and on cheap bread with little if any cinnamon flavor. Served with what I believe was margarine (gasp) and a patty of the chewiest toughest overcooked sausage, I left very disappointed. My better half got the belgian waffle topped with a blueberry compote which was pretty sad looking as you can see in the photo attached. The coffee was ok as was the water; probably the most enjoyable components of our meals.
Was definitely in the mood for a crêpe after leaving this place.

We tried to eat there today. We walk in and see a sign that says seat yourself so we do. Then we waited, an older guy (i think he is the owner). Walks up to our table sees we do not have menus and just walks away. We waited some more, then kept waiting. The entire time employees looking at us and then walking away. Finally a young guy comes up and asks what we want. We told him we need menus, once he figured out what we meant by that he brings us menus. Then we waited and waited, can you guess what we did next? If you said waited you are correct. Finally we decided to leave. As we are the old says are they leaving and that is it. I am disappointed, I live close to this place and wanted to make it my weekly breakfast spot for my family. I will just have to go someplace that serves families.

My favorite breakfast spot in canandaigua. This place is beautiful. If your looking for a fun atmosphere with great food priced right the gateway grille is for you. I love this place.

Seat yourself… Wait… Waitress «I’ll bring some menus» (did not ask if we would like coffee or something to drink)… Wait again… menus arrive along with a clipboard of hand written «specials» … Still not offered beverages… Wait again… Took order then finally brought drinks, as I waited the 20 minutes for eggs and French toast I realized the ATM was in the room for a reason, although on the outside door there are visa/​mc stickers. I got my cash paid the $ 2 fee. Not a good experience.
I suggest the owner watches a few restaurant rescue type programs and learn a few things about service and how to treat your customers and employees. Because the owner decided to charge me $ 2 to get cash, that cost the employee to get a tip $ 2 short. Don’t you think that replacing the ATM with another table and two chairs would make up your fees for the year? Although, I would suspect your unaware of how much revenue each chair in your establishment is worth annually.
A couple tips for the owner:
Successful diners never have an ATM in the dining room
You can afford the custom gateway grille floor mat then you can afford a credit card machine.
Customers are not stupid.
You are open 6 – 2 most days. You are not a «grille», your a diner. You don’t grill breakfast.
No wonder this place was empty…

clean… delicious …homemade food … reasonably priced …a little slow on the service but still recommend

I was with my mother visiting from out of town and decided to try Gateway Grille in Canandaigua. To make a long story short, there is nothing on the menu that you couldn’t make yourself at home in 2 minutes, and even if you did make it at home, I’d bet my fat ass and yours as well that it would be much better. I’d even go above and beyond and say that any processed frozen microwavable meal that you got would be better.
It’s been some time since I had a grilled cheese, so I decided to try it at Gateway. You would have thought I ordered steak, it took over 20 minutes to have the dish served. When my grilled cheese with tomato, did arrive [ panini style ] it lacked flavor. The tomato that they had used must have been shipped in from Guadalajara 18 weeks ago. I am not sure where they got it from, but I didn’t even notice it was in my sandwich. When I looked at Gateway’s menu, it’s as bland as could be. Hot Dogs, chicken sandwich, soup, BLT. Like I had originally stated, you’d be much better off staying home and eating.
The highlight of the afternoon was when the owner served us the bill and told us they don’t take credit cards or debit cards. Why? We’re almost in 2012, right? Why should I have to use an ATM machine to pull $ 20.00 and get the additional financial rape charge of $ 3.00 for a $ 7.00 sandwich? She proceeded to tell me, the credit card fees we’re just «too high», that’s all bullshit, no one should tolerate a place not taking credit cards.
This restaurant won’t last. Save your money and head elsewhere.