Central Cafe

Friendly bartender. Had the burger with sauteed onions and mushrooms and it was cooked perfectly. Plenty of TVs. Great place for food, drinks, friends and watching the game. Will definitely be back, and highly recommend.

1^st Timers to Central Café. My wife started off w/​a Bloody Mary, I had a Yuengling draft. The Bloody Mary was watered-​down, not good at all. She didn’t even finish it (and that was a first for her).
We ordered the Deluxe Nachos platter and 12 of the Honey BBQ wings. Food took a while to come out. Nachos were decent, we liked them, but the amount of salsa that came with the platter could have been more. Wings were OK — meaty wings, which we like. The sauce was not to our liking, but we were the ones who picked it, so we’d just order a different flavor next time (and they have many different flavors of wings to choose from).
Basically, Central Café is a standard bar with average food. Since it is relatively close to where we live (about 14 miles away), we still might come back in the future to try other menu items. I’m thinking a burger next time.

We eat lunch at Central Café 1 – 2 times each week. They open at 11 which is a plus. Typically there is a local crowd at lunch with one bartender/​waitress running the place. They are all very nice and greet and offer you a drink though with a staff of one, at times they are very much «on the run» as there can be 0 – 10 folks at the tables. They typically gave 5 beers on tap. There is an extensive menu. Generally portions are very, very large. The chicken chili is superb, tasty, spicy and filling. Chicken or beef whole quesadillas can be a meal. The deluxe nacho platter is best served to 3 – 4 people. Fried dough and a variety of fries are filling and inexpensive. They do a great job in wings (Plainville is the Wing Capitol of CT with Central Café, J Timothy’s, Sliders, D’Amicos and a few others!) There are 38 (!!!) flavors with servings of 6 – 24 and multiples. They can be served wet or dry. They are medium sized, perhaps 6 – 7 per pound. I prefer the Teriyaki with or w/​o honey, Caribbean, Garlic Parmesan and a few others! Yum!
Salads are very fresh and large. The steak burger is huge, tender and tastes great. They are cooked to order and I have never had an issue. The Classic BLT is huge and well made. My wife loves the grilled chicken wrap with ranch. We have only rarely had the dinner entrees so we cannot accurately comment.
It is a friendly local place. You will need to tell them up front if you are in a hurry at lunch as? I state as Ther is usually one lady running the front. At dinner there are 2 – 4 servers so that is a more well-​covers time. I find the prices to be low/​inexpensive for the large portions. Folks at the bar are usually very friendly and ready to buy folks a beer/​drink. If you prefer you can also stay on your own. There is music from the digital jukebox. Evenings there is quiet music and karaōke. There is an additional room for private gatherings that can serve 30 or so folks.
We will continue to eat here. In addition there are great inexpensive a Happy Hour specials-​$ 2.50/$ 3.50 domestic and imported beers. From their website:
Mon. $ 1 off house wine
Mon Nights 7pm to close — Coors lite drafts — $ 2.00!!!
Tues. $ 1 off draft beer!!!
Wed. DJ Trivia and $ 1 off all well drinks
Paint nite — twice a month on Wednesday nites — call for dates & times
Thurs Nite. Free raffle for our door prize of the month @ 8 pm on the last Thursday of each month
Fri. Entertainment!!! Call for info
Sat. Karaōke with Carol Willis

Love love love the wings! Also great staff. Most underrated wings in Plainville. I’m taking them over Jtims or Sliders any day. Not chewy meat like the previous 2 mentioned. Get the breaded ones. They need to work on the TV setup for games but great prices on food and drinks. Angela is a server there and is always amazing. Ask for her!

My friend and I went to Central Café last night and from that one experience, I wish there was a 2 ½ star option, because this place is smack dab in the middle of the road for me.
Central wasn’t originally in our plans for the night, but after waiting over 20 minutes with no service at Sliders, we decided to leave there and give this place a try. My friend is a Plainville resident and had been to Central before, and I hadn’t despite living right near the Plainville-​Bristol line my whole life.
Located right off of one of Plainville’s main streets where non-​residents might not notice it, Central Café definitely had a «local» vibe to it. In this case, that meant a lot of «bros.» No, really, I can’t even count the number of times I heard «bro» get uttered by the group of guys sitting near us doing their fantasy football draft.
My friend said they had pretty good food and we were both in the mood for wings, and I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of flavor combos they had and it’s something that would make me come back again to try more.
I went with a buffalo-​horseradish combo that I had never seen anywhere else before, and I was unfortunately disappointed with it. There was not enough of either flavor, and the horseradish texture felt pretty weird on wings. I wouldn’t get that flavor again, but I’d definitely try some of the other ones on their menu for sure.
One sort of odd thing that I didn’t like about the place was their chairs — the backs and arm rests had a weird shape to them that made sitting somewhat uncomfortable at first. Also, there was trivia night going on there which is odd for a Thursday night. And if you aren’t participating in said trivia night, it’s pretty annoying to have to listen to a guy asking questions over the PA system instead of music.

awesome people and some really good wings!!!
i would recommend this place to everyone!

Good food with large portions wings are awesome they offer a ton of flavors. Beer is mostly typical stuff like bud, coors, Sam nothing to crafty but the prices are right and they have a pool table. It’s a nice casual place.

Central Café gives you portions so large,
Enough for the whole platoon and the sarge.
My experience here was a little bit weird,
But I’d probably come back for an app and a beer.
Heard that Central Café had some of the best wings around, so had to give them a shot. They had 60 wing flavors, so good luck choosing one. We got Michelle’s Dream Team, which was a mix of BBQ, Teriyaki, and Sweet & Sour sauce. The flavors blended together really nicely and I highly enjoyed the sauce. We also tried the Peanut Butter & Jelly wings, which was a little too bizarre for my liking. The wings themselves were large, meaty, and dripping with sauce. Their biggest downfall was their lack of crispiness.
For an entrée I got the twin hot dog special. Nothing great– rubbery hot dogs and buns with freezer burn. My girlfriend got a quesadilla, which could have fed a family of 4. Huge.
The beer selection was the same as any other bar. Nothing special– mostly macrobrews.
The service was a bit slow, but the waitress was very nice. Only one waitress for a whole lot of tables was not enough on a Friday night. It was also kind of annoying that the fire alarm was going off for about an hour during our meal. They had to wait for the fire department to come shut it off, and the response time was slower that I hoped it would be.
In summary, an average bar with average food. Come hungry.

Good wings!

I’ve been to Central Café maybe 3 or 4 times now. I’ve only eaten there once, the other 3 times I got take out. The wings were excellent every time. Meatier than J Tims and Sliders for sure, 12 of these filled me up. They have 67 different kinds! I’ve gotten hot, buffalo blue, bronson’s death wish and nick’s spicy dream. Bronson’s were hot, but not unbearable. The other reviews talk poorly of the atmosphere and people who frequent this bar. If the food is good I could care less what kind of people are in there! Keep doing your thing Central Café!

I can’t accurately review this place with stars because I didn’t stay. I read all these great reviews so decided to give it a try for lunch. Walked in at 12 noon, it was ridiculously dark, like I had walked I to a seedy bar, and smelled like old armpits. I looked around at old men and some suits slouched over the bar, 80% tables empty. I walked in and walked right back out. No way. Maybe the food was good there, but I didn’t stay to try it. The smell alone put me off… And the tables were all tall tables and chairs which annoyed me… I like to be able to keep my feet on the ground, thanks. Just not my scene.

Stopped in here with my girl to give a new place a try. Our goal: burgers. However after reading the reviews on the wings we figured we’d give those a go as well. The wings were good. The burgers, not so much. We ordered medium, we got the well of the utmost well. It’s like they were flipped several times, pressed on the grill with the spatula, and then flipped several more times. They were completely and utterly devoid of all things moisture. The steak fries on the other hand, those had plenty of soggy moisture attached to them. Totally let down. This is one of those places I WANT to like. I’ll try it again some other time I guess.

Amazing wings. Horrible service.
Bartender was rude, basically huffed and puffed while I looked at the menu (after I had told her I was from out of town and had never been there before), then acted super put out that I asked for the wifi password. Delivered my wings, never spoke to me again. Cursed a lot, looked at me and sighed dramatically a lot, but I finally had to flag down another bartender to get me a box and my check.
Don’t bother eating in. Just get some wings to go.

If you consider yourself a chicken wing pro and you haven’t been to Central Café: go tonight. These are by far the best wings I’ve had in CT and might make it into my personal Top 5. (Top 10 for sure…)
At this point I’ve been to most of the major CT spots (still need to make it out to Bidwell Tavern) and although I’ve had great wings elsewhere these were PERFECTION. The sauces we sampled were all very good and creative: #54 «The Shaggy Rotten» and #53 «Pete & Dawn’s Trio» are combinations of 3 other sauces and present layers of flavor with a good amount of heat. I plan on trying their classic #3 «Hot» sauce or their second hottest #47 «Centrals Revenge» next time I go as I do like a bit more spice. Their primary style is slightly breaded and I do mean slightly; just enough to give a nice crunch. All the wings we had were cooked perfectly. (They will split an order between breaded and naked styles but like most places won’t split flavors.)
The location is out of the way but I think it adds to the appeal; it felt like a pilgrimage for my group. They don’t have any specials or «Wing Nights» but at volume their prices match other places’ deals every night. The beer selection was pretty good and prices reasonable. We went on a Wednesday night and it happened to be Trivia Night; bonus. The service was good enough to support the main attraction and as you can probably assume I will be going back, soon and often.
(Full disclosure: One of my buddies was unhappy with his dry rub Garlic Parmesan naked style wings but I don’t consider Central Café to be at fault. His absurd diet and failure to realize that dry rub wings are never acceptable is to blame.)

By far, the best wings around. (My «go-​to» flavor is Cajun Honey BBQ.) Food is good: traditional bar & grille fare such as bacon cheeseburgers and nachos, but also uncommon & original options like Buffalo chicken crispers (egg rolls) and a Buffalo chicken fried dough pizza. There’s often something going on there most weeknights: karaōke, trivia, etc. They also have the football package to watch every game on Sunday on over a dozen TVs. Bartenders are great, always ready to pour a refill or offer an opinion for something different. Great place, kind of overshadowed by a couple other wing places in town.

This place has great food and an extensive drink selection. Great for sports games, dinner with the family or night out with friends. It is also very clean which is a rare quality in local sports bars.

I had been here once with my (now ex) boyfriend (whom I realized that night was the town drunk) At night it’s packed with «townies». Word on the street is all the «now of age» drinkers used to drink here when they were underage and they remain loyal to the establishment. I had no desire to ever return as the crowd attracts the hard core career drinkers. The drink till you pass out, get in a fight, or get your 3^rd DUI type. At least that was the crowd the night I was there.
One night I was at J. Timothys and overheard someone talking about PB & J wings. To me that sounded scrumptious. When I asked the stranger where one finds these wings, he said «Central Café». To be honest I didn’t even know they served food.
Months later my current (and amazing) boyfriend and I decided to check this place out for lunch on a Sunday. I had scanned Unilocal’s photos and was determined to try their Nachos w/​chili. Honestly, some of the best nachos we have had. The chili was decent too. More often than not I find that in most places the chili is watered down and /​or tastes like Alpo smells. I also had the BLT with onion rings. It was pretty huge. So much so, that I can’t even fathom what the club version they offer looks like.
Note: our server informed us that these Buffalo spring rolls that they offered were a big hit so we ordered some to go and the PB & J wings. The Buffalo Spring Rolls were «meh», not worth ordering. The PB & J wings. Soooooo freaking good!!!
We will most likely be back to try other things, we were very pleased with the extensive menu selection, quality of food and the service. Who knew?

It’s been a while since I was here. I was not really feeling awesome after each time I would go for wings.
So decided to test the waters again.
We started with a special which was a buffalo egg roll wraps.
These were awesome and they are crazy if not added to the menus permanently.
We sampled 6×4 sets of wings.
I don’t like the inconsistency in the sizes of wings. Some are huge while others are super small. The blue cheese is home made and can’t figure out if that’s what bothers my stomach after. It is very rich.
We asked for the mcguyvers wings to be hotter the advertised, but were nothing special.
I love the atmosphere of this place more then there wings. Sorry.

We went there for a Sunday lunch to enjoy the warm weather and blue skies. We sat out on the back patio after telling the nice bartender lady inside the bar that we were gonna be out there.
My life partner and I chose their nachos and opted for the grilled chicken on top. I requested extra sour cream cups too. We also ordered 12 garlic Parmesan wings (dry rub) which comes with celery sticks and bleu cheese.
So… The nachos come out on a lunch tray. It was a lunch tray sized portion … of nachos. I was pretty excited about that. Id say four people could eat this portion and feel pretty satisfied. I would have preferred they used fresh jalapeño slices since the pickled ones look a little lackluster. But I was surprised to note there were red hot pepper slices in there too. The cheese was all good and melted over the tortilla chips and there were plenty of fixed tomatoes and chives. They might want to try using shredded grilled chicken instead of the cubed form because that would make the cheese melt more integrally over the meatand stay on the chip in a more ingredient balanced bite. The cubes are more likely to tumble off the chip you have stacked with nachos stuff.
I really liked the flavor of the wings. They were temperature-​hot when they arrived to our table and stayed hot for awhile. I dig the dry rub option because you don’t really need to get goopy sauce all over your fingers when the restaurant offers the dry option.
They have Palm on tap which is a Belgium beer I hadn’t tried before but enjoyed for its drinkabity.

We went here for the first time on a busy Saturday night and it was loud but fine.
The waitress was very friendly and got us chairs so we could sit at a table for 2.
The food and drinks were good but we were blown away by the wings!
They have Sliders, J. Timothy’s and Bidwell Tavern beat and we can’t stop raving about Central Café’s wings!
They have over 60 flavors and were so tasty… cooked to perfection.
We are getting a group of people to go with us to see for themselves after the car show this Sunday.
Looking forward to it!