Culp’s Cafe

Extremely disappointed to find that this formerly nice and quaint café has been reduced to the quality of an airport kiosk. They don’t even make it for you, you grab it out of a cooler. Honestly my husband and I have had better airport and plane meals than this. His sandwich barely existed and had no condiments on it. My tri color salad was three small cups of barely mediocre tuna, chicken and cottage cheese, two sad pieces of romaine, and some grapes. $ 20 for a sandwich, salad, chips, yogurt and perrier.

Still waiting for our food at 50 min since order. Nice diner atmosphere, yet café personnel are unable to multitask. This is the third experience with a long wait time. Not again

This is a great example of an attraction restaurant having potential but falling short of expectation. We visited on a rainy day when it was slow so the staff had every reason and all the time to greet us and treat us. Instead they were aloof and the food was slow and underwhelming. I’d recommend many other places before this one.

snore.
The food wasn’t gross but it wasn’t anything special. My «hot ham and cheese» was a cold ham and cheese between two pieces of toast. My kid’s cold tuna salad sandwich was cold tuna on toast, too. On the menu it says «hot or cold» but apparently it’s the same thing either way. There were two waitresses for like 6 tables, when we arrived, but neither of them were around… doing anything. Some tables that needed to be bused when we arrived were still covered in dirty dishes when we left, but the hostess was basically doing nothing the entire time we were there. The napkin my silverware was wrapped in had what appeared to be blood on it. Our straws looked like they’d been through a tumble dryer. One of them was complete with stains on the wrapper that made it clear it had been soaked with something gross. None of the staff have been trained on how to use a vacuum cleaner, mechanical sweeper, or (heaven forbid) a broom, as evidenced by the detritus underneath all the tables. My wife’s strawberry phosphate was good, though the outside of the cup had sticky ice cream fingerprints all over it (none of us ordered ice cream). My lime phosphate, though sharing a similar stickiness of vessel, tasted more like a urinal puck smells than like lime. In the end, I can find no fault with the ingredients used, or the preparation (as i’m assuming the waitress just didn’t write down the «hot» part of hot ham and cheese). The staff and unkempt nature of the place will probably keep me from going back. There are too many good restaurants in Dayton to waste time on a place where nobody’s heart is in it.

Ever want to visit one of those old timey soda shops with red stools lining the counter and rich, thick milkshakes made on the spot? Then come here. Located on the grounds of the Carillon Historical Park, this café is open to the public without having to pay admission to the grounds and has a pleasant little patio on the outside.
The boy and I stopped by during the Dayton Heritage Festival when the hungries started to take over. They had 2 choices for the day — a special take-​away menu for $ 7 if you wanted to eat picnic style whilst listening to the bands play:
–Mains: Bourbon Chicken, Pulled Pork, or Hot Dog
–Sides: Rice, Chips, or Cole Slaw
–Drink: Bottled water or Soda
I thought that this was a pretty good price for a festival (usually bottled water itself is $ 4 – 7!) and the quality was delish! The boy got a hot dog and was immediately regretful that he didn’t order my Bourbon Chicken which was flavorful without an overload of sauce.
They also had a choice of the regular menu if you sat down at a table with water service. We were impressed by the take away menu so we can’t wait to go back and try their sit down menu!