Cafe On Main

Café on Main is your quintessential, southern-​style, meat and three dining establishment. My personal favorite is their chicken spaghetti and all of the fried vegetable sides of course! I would also be remiss if I did not mention their to-​die-​for desserts… the pies and cakes are out of this world fantastic! It’s a great little place to stop by for lunch!

Beef soup was missing the beef, chicken was raw inside only the batter was cooked. However the server was very nice and didn’t charge me for the meal. I was really hungry, but couldn’t eat the food.

I eat here often and always love it so when my daughter’s wedding was coming up I talked to Peggy (Owner) about catering the wedding. I could not have chosen better! They went above and beyond my expectations at a very reasonable rate. I can not express how happy we were and got all kinds of compliments on it from the wedding guests. I know most of the reviews here are for the sit down restaurant (Which I love) but don’t hesitate to use them for their catering either cause I was 100% satisfied and would use them again in a heartbeat!

Really good food. I’ve liked everything I’ve gotten there. The okra is almost as good as my grandma’s.
Make sure to budget a lot of time to go here, even to go, or ask about what will be quickest. The burger is huge and amazing, but it takes a lot of time to get. Same goes for the okra. So, make sure you either ask, or have at least 30 minutes to wait, after you order. The line gets long too, because the food is amazing.
Edit: I got the chicken and dumplings with sweet potato and roll today. Within 15 minutes of placing my order, I was back at the office, clocked in, and working.

Stellar locals only haunt with great food — when you roll thru Columbus, this is where to go for an awesome burger. They will cook it like you want it and have never failed to get me HOT fries. Yum Yum!

The sweet potato casserole is a must. I had a meat and vegetable plate. I would be interested to try the Angus burger and think I will next time. If they make it with sugar its good.

We stopped in to Café on Main during the Market Street Festival to enjoy the A/​C and a place to sit. The atmosphere is cute. Almost like you’re sitting at an outdoor café.
Ordering is done by way of menu cards that you fill out. You choose the entrée and the number of sides from the list. It comes with a roll or cornbread and sweet or unsweet tea or water included.
They were pretty busy from all the bustle of the festival, so there was some confusion among the staff over who had ‘jurisdiction’ over our table, and whether or not we had been helped. I won’t fault them because it was pretty crazy. Even with all that, our food came out VERY quickly. This seems like a perfect place if you need a quick meal on a 1hr lunch break.
The food was alright. Nothing to blow me away, but it was cheap considering how much you got. I got a chicken fried steak, potatoes, green beans, and cornbread for $ 8.25 with an ice water (it was pretty warm outside and I was super dehydrated!). The food seemed lukewarm, like it had been under a heat lamp a while, or it was sitting and waiting or my husband’s food to be ready. We likely got the tail end of what they had, since they serve lunch til 3:30 and we walked in at 3pm. The desserts looked spectacular. I think that’s their true strong suit. Sadly, we were already sugared out from the fair, and very full. So that will have to be a different visit.
Overall, decent priced food if you’re in a rush downtown.

Granted, I’m fairly new to the South, but I happened across Café on Main one Sunday and thought it was fantastic. The service was excellent and the waiter, a relative to the owner, was cheery and helpful. Price is good for the portions and the deserts are excellent. The main seating area is very well naturally lit from large panes of glass facing Main Street, giving it a great ambiance. On Sundays it is generally populated by families after church services in their Sunday best, but normally dress is casual.
Excellent choice for good ol’ fashioned Southern food and desserts.

This past weekend my husband and I were on a short road trip. We traveled through Columbus Mississippi and we heard about a restaurant called Café’ on Main. We heard it had a wonderful lunch on Sunday so we went and were promptly seated. We ordered our food and it came in a timely manner. Cathie, our server, made sure we had everything we needed. Peggy Strauss, the owner, came over and said hello. She asked if there was anything we needed to be sure to let them know. We ordered the fried chicken and some vegetables. The food was just like my grandmother made when I was a child. I had forgotten the comfort of southern cooking. The hospitality and the food were what the south and this restaurant, Café’ on Main, were built on. After we ate our meal we opted for desert. We decided on «Sampler Three» which was a sample of three deserts of our choice. When Cathie brought our desert it was like when you were six and your mother brought out your birthday cake– it was so pretty. The presentation could not have been better. Peggy came over and asked whether we needed anything? I said” yes” and told her that she needed a warning on her menu «don’t eat all of your lunch so you can eat all of your desert»! I would like to add one more thing: Peggy, please provide bigger napkins so I won’t have to lick my fingers. Enough said.

This place makes you feel like you are in the south with layout and prices (the food is dirt cheap) Beware of their menu they run out of things fast and todays food menu won’t be the same as tomorrows. I find their food to be inconsistant in quality and quantity. I went with a friend for the first time and had the fried fish with hush puppies and they were delicious so good I took my husband their a few days later thats when I found out the menu changes and so does the quality of their food. I had the lasagna and lets just say that greasy mess would make any Italian cry. I also found that their waitresses don’t get a salary at all they live on the tips so if you go and they do a good job keep that in mind.

I was expecting a lot more for the food, food was cold and not tasty at all. The place was decent in regards of cleanliness and staff courtesy, but again for the price range I was expecting a little more. Overall, not bad, but wouldn’t go back.

The other Unilocal reviewers are a little harsh. I eat at Café on Main at least once a week and though some of their sides miss the mark, their entrees are typically really good. Catfish, fried chicken, lemon pepper chicken are all really good. A great option for a good meat and three in the heart of downtown. They also consistently win Best Dessert in the local newspaper voting contest.

«It wasn’t horrible.» Is about the best I could say when we left the restaurant.
When you go in, you circle what you want on a piece of paper and the wait staff will come by and pick it up. I ordered the salmon croquettes with turnip greens and black eyed peas. The greens and peas were way to salty, and while my croquette had good flavor, it was cold. It also was extra greasy, as if the fryer oil wasn’t warm enough.
Our waitress wasn’t good, though not rude. She only refilled our drinks once, even though I spent most of my meal with an empty glass.
I can understand it’s appeal, but it’s just not for me.