Carl R’s Cafe

Well… We got here at 7 and the table beside us was dirty with all the leftovers etc… Now it’s 8:45 and still dirty but now it’s joined with 4 more tables just as dirty. Waiting for refills on drinks… my fajita combo was wrong… Steak/​chicken… Only got chicken. Ugggg I don’t even want to begin typing what was wrong, NOTHING was good… Short in wait staff… And just a bad bad night. I am so sick and tired of working hard to go out to enjoy a meal to just throw money away on crappy food… Crappy service. What happened to this place… Owner… Look around you and see what’s wrong!!! Can’t miss it.

I rarely give one stars but they deserve it. Stopped here while driving to killington, it was a bad idea, food was very bland. The interior of the restaurant is very dated. The waitress was very rude and clearly hated her job. I would give 2 stars if it was just based on food but the waitress was the icing on the cake.

Just a quick drop in been years since I’ve been here use to be a great little place for a frozen margaritas and or frozen daiquiris many flavors available choice of glass or in a pitcher fortunately these are still available can’t say much for taste was more like a shot of tequila over ice. Very disappointed in the super nachos was nothing super about it very small not much on it compared to menu description. Didn’t bother to order dinner after the disappointment
Exterior bldg was run down unkept inside was clean however don’t care to return

Stopped with some clients for lunch based on their recommendation.
I went with the fish tacos which oddly came topped with a mountain of packaged shredded cheese. There was a single piece of fish in each of the three tacos which tasted like it had been frozen. The sides were a bit of shredded lettuce topped with more cheese and a fried mini taco shell filled with rice and covered with, yup, more cheese.
Service was okay but the food was not even remotely appealing. The décor is stuck in the 1980’s with tons of golden oak and dirty ceiling tiles with dingy lighting.

In desperate need of updating. The waitress at breakfast was more interested in chatting with friends and relatives than taking orders and delivering food. Nothing great here. I think it only exists because it is near the exit.

Not the best experience on earth. Thought it a bit odd the bartender in a Mexican restaurant had never heard of Tacate beer. The huge menu was all over the board, but the chorizo quesadillas were edible.

I was driving with friends along the interstate and saw a sign for Carl R’s. Being a Chipotle type gal, my palate for Mexican is quite high (LOL). Since the evening was rolling into 8ish we needed to stop somewhere so decided to chance this unfamiliar restaurant. Once we got in we were met by an incredibly friendly host and to my surprise they had an awesome live band –triple stars for that treat! There was definitely an upbeat vibe all around. Immediately our attentive waitress came and greeted us with chips and salsa. The food came out incredibly fast and couldn’t have been more delicious. In an age of corporate type Applebees, Red Lobsters and Olive Gardens, Carl R’s is a true independent gem and worthy of a visit. Support restaurants like these guys before they buckle under economic McDonalds pressure!

My cheese & onion enchiladas were filled with cream cheese (nasty) and my husband’s chicken burrito was filled with what he described as «chicken that tasted like it had been pureed.» Chips were stale & salsa was bad. Don’t go here if you like Mexican food.

Whatever you do, do not stop here to eat. The TexMex food here is microwavable, greasy, poorly cooked, and criminally overpriced.
Really, Carl R’s just seems like a place for the locals to get Corona and XX, the food is just there to revolve around the Mexican beer.
Most everything about the place is unappealing, and you’d be better off getting food from the gas station across the street.

Love the place. It’s like cheers everyone knows your name. Big portion plates drinks strong and everyone is so nice. Even the boss dances :) music Wednesday through Saturday’s.

We stopped on our way from New Jersey, USA to Montréal, Canada. It happened to be across from the gas station and we didn’t look up the reviews beforehand.
Food is mediocre at best, I had a chipotle chicken wrap which was meh and the rest in my party had burgers which were just a simple burger so no harm no foul.
The waiter took forever but was nice enough, place was basically empty minus a few regulars sitting at the bar.

Unfortunately I have to join the bad reviews. The waitress was really nice.
The lady seating us, an older lady, was a little gruff. But that’s not a big deal. This is a quick stop restaurant.
The food is BAD BAD BAD.
The only thing I liked were the chips and the salsa. They were both tasty.
We ordered the Guacamole. It was so bland?! Avocados are so easy to do! I don’t know how they can’t get that right. They need to taste things before they send it out.
We also shared the pork enchiladas. They were overly sweet. We added the salsa onto this dish and it tasted a little better because it masked the enchilada taste :). The tortillas looked like they were not even cooked and the sauce seemed like it was taken out of a can.
We were hungry and stopped here because it was close. But I definitely wouldn’t recommend it. There are some fast food chains nearby. I think that might be a better choice for people like us.

Piss Poor. Those are the only two words that come to mind when I think of this shit hole. The first bad sign was seeing absolutely no one else there for lunch. I should’ve walked out but I just had to experience it for myself.
First, they bring over arguably some of the stalest and most bland chips I’ve had in my entire life. Then they try to sway me by offering me three different «mexican sauces.» To say the least, not great. I then received my main course, my chimichunga. This was probably one of the smallest and blandest fried burritos I’ve had; I could’ve gone to Wally world and purchased a chimi for one dollar. In addition to the disaster that was the chimi, the side dishes were also piss poor. After one bite of rice and swoop of guacamole, I was done. I begged for the check and ran to the nearest bathroom. The experience within the bathroom was very unpleasant, it just kept running out of me; I felt as if I had an entire brown water park come out of my ass.
Clearly, Carl R’s has no interest in improving AT ALL, otherwise they would have checked their Unilocal reviews and changed. The only redeeming quality was the readily available bathroom on the right where I proceeded to release everything I so wrongfully gorged myself on; thanks for nothing.
P. S. The only reason my friends will come here is if they lose a bet and they really pissed me off. You should be ashamed of the quality of food you produce.

My wife decided she had to have one of Carl R’s Border Quesadillas recently, so despite half a dozen or more wretched experiences here in the past few years I said okay and we went. Never again.
Lunchtime on Saturday, there was one party already seated and no one at all noticed when we came in. We waited over five minutes while discussing where might be a better place to eat (hint: anywhere) when my wife finally retrieved a server from the kitchen. She was apologetic and seated us, took our drink order, and brought us an incredibly stale basket of tortilla chips. These weren’t left over from the night before; the taste and texture suggested they had been out in the air for a week.
I ordered the Super Burrito with fajita chicken instead of the usual (awful) shredded chicken. The Tex-​Mex selections are usually the safest thing on their (too-​large for them to properly manage) menu. The burrito itself was good and they remembered to leave out the refried beans as I asked. The chicken, however, was completely unseasoned and bland, which I could fix with salt and pepper, but it was also 60 seconds away from being completely cooked. Just a hint of pink and a mushy mouth feel that made it impossible for me to put any more in my mouth after the first bite.
When our server noticed the massive pile of uneaten chicken on my plate, she asked if everything was okay. «The chicken is a little undercooked,» I told her, and she apologized and promised to slap the cook, who she said was her nephew or something. I wasn’t angry, because after so many very lousy meals, it really, truly was my own fault for ever agreeing to visit Carl R’s again.
My wife and I have come here for over 20 years, and since she and our son were happy with their quesadillas, they may visit again. Not me. I am done with the mediocre service and terrible food. The drop in quality over the years has been astonishing to witness and I won’t waste my money or risk my health ever again.
Pro tip: The correct response to discovering you’ve served undercooked chicken to a customer is to take it off the check and fix whatever catastrophic problems are going on in your kitchen. We paid fifty-​five dollars with tip, but if that’s the price I have to pay to be free from the worst restaurant in a 100 mile radius, I can live with that.

The service here has a lot to be desired. If you’re with a large group you get way more attention then if you just came as a couple. Always 10 – 15 minute wait until you get your drink orders taken. The food is always bland and needs tons of salt and pepper. It’s way over priced for the quality of food and service. I suggest finding somewhere else to dine.

Cold food, poor service and flies all over. The place was a joke and a waste of money

We were «greeted» by a gruff server, seated, and then basically forgotten for the duration of our stay. My dad was happy with his burger, but the pasta dish I orderd was bland and watery. Nobody ever came by to ask how we were doing (and I totally would have ordered — and paid for — a different option). When she asked if we wanted our check, she saw my plate of uneaten food but didn’t bother to ask if there was a problem — she handed me a «to-​go» container that she already had in her hands.
So…terrible service, and my food was awful.

The establishment has an amazing location, from the south it is literally right off exit 18 on I-​87. The building itself is nothing out of the ordinary, it looks like a chain restaurant in a way. You could damn well play hockey in the parking lot as it looks like the person responsible for plowing decided to keep his plow three inches off the ground and then pack the rest down with his truck as to make a nice smooth surface of snow which could then freeze into a solid sheet of indescribably slick ice. Part of our adventure was traversing the hazardous sheet of ice that was the parking lot, I felt like I was in a level from Super Mario Brothers where you run one way and immediately reverse directions and run so as to slow ones momentum.
Upon actually reaching the entrance (which took no less than 5 minutes), we were greeted almost spontaneously by our hostess and taken to an upper level of the dinning room which overlooks the bar and another section of dinning area. We were positioned in a dark almost romantic corner that allowed for a view of everyone else in the restaurant. I suddenly felt uncomfortable as I looked at whom I was in this romantic corner with, but it soon passed as I downed my first beer. Our waitress, tattooed arm sleeve, short punk rocker red hair, nose piercing, and unusually tall and slender for a woman, brought out a dish of chips and salsa and took our drink orders. It was only after she left that I realized I should have ordered a margarita but instead ordered a Killian’s draft. The chips and salsa were a disappointment. The salsa, very bland with what tasted like a dash of chili powder, tomatoes, and maybe a single piece of onion, had no kick to it at all. Trepidation began to swell inside me, like a billowing wind that brings the dreaded snow to this area. I was then very worried about the rest of this experience and worst yet, how much was this going to cost me for a night of bad food?
The waitress came back, after allowing ample time for us to down our drinks and eat some chips, to take our orders. My associate and I had both decided on the same thing (sort of). I ordered the Spicy steak and sausage enchiladas, while he ordered the shredded steak enchiladas. After another round (this time a margarita for me) and some more talk about food, chefs we’ve worked for in the past, and how food should taste, our food arrived in what seemed like a very short time. Our waitress brought out a trio of sauces with our food, which she described as Fiery Jalapeño, Spicy Taco sauce, and Oil dressing. The jalapeño sauce was more of a relish, which was quite delicious, though the person responsible for cutting the the vegetables that go into it needs to learn to make the same cuts, as there were many pieces to large and others far to small. The taco sauce tasted like it was out of a jar that had a label of something like Heinz 57 on it. The oil dressing just confused me. Why would you need oil dressing for tex-​mex food? My plate looked very presentable with my two enchiladas neatly off to one side, salad greens and tomatoes off to the other, and a neatly formed fried tortilla bowl that held what I could only think to call Mexican dirty rice.
I dove in to my plate with voracious vengeance, as did my associate. Onlookers would think this had been our first meal in weeks. I slowed abruptly as I realized I wanted to actually savor this moment, as I don’t get the opportunity to eat at a restaurant very often these days. The enchiladas were mediocre at best. It had no authentic taste, actually, it had very little taste at all. There was no spice to the beef or sausage. The sausage tasted like an average super market fennel sausage. The meal significantly improved by adding the jalapeño relish to the enchilada. My margarita was good, not the best, but good. I downed that after I finished my meal and waited patiently for the check, which was brought to us in a timely manner.
Overall, the hospitality was excellent if not overly fast. The food was sub-​par even by the standards of upstate NY «Mexican» food. The drink, well it had tequila in it and tasted of lime and lemon, which makes for a good margarita. And the conversation, entertaining as always.

What a horrible little place this is. The unholy offspring of a Border Café and a Ground Round, this place offers small portions of low-​quality food at high prices, served in an atmosphere marked by sort of terrible pastel décor I thought we had seen the last of in 1996. Our server was a nice young man who was very attentive, however, and they had 22-​oz Longhammer IPAs, which was enough to get me through the mystery meat of the fajitas. (I do not like this green meat and spam.)
There are a few places worse, but I can’t think of any right now.

Blandest meal I’ve had in months. I tried a chicken enchilada and it tasted exactly what a chicken enchilada should taste like as made by a person who has never had genuine Mexican food.
Skip this place.