Cafe 210 West

When you turn 21, Café 210 is by far the bar you have to go to!
Prices: If you go during their happy hour, the drinks are at a reasonable price. I would also definitely recommend the long island ice tea or the blue long island ice tea. Also as a reminder, there is a cover charge. It is $ 3 dollars on Thursday and the weekends and $ 5 on Friday (Cash).
Service: The service is as good as it gets for a college bar. The bartenders and servers are fairly nice and helpful.
Environment: During the weekend, Café 210 has live bands playing throughout the whole night. It is a great place to come with your friends and just dance. Also if you are not really into the band, you can sit up towards the front of the bar, where it tends to be a bit more quiet.

Easily the BEST place to drink outdoors in downtown SC!

I began working here during my freshman year of college and remained with Café for three years. I gave up most of my nights and weekends in order to work here, but I wouldn’t trade those times for any of the events I had to sacrifice missing. Café 210 is owned by two of the nicest men you will ever meet, and the entire staff is like one big family.
This bar definitely has the best prices for their happy hours. Sunday-​Thursday from 9 – 11 is half priced ANY shot, mixed drink, or draft beer (excluding Miller and Yuengling). And the bartenders make sure that your drink is excellent! Sure, it may be served in a plastic cup at night (they recycle those!), but if you really prefer glass, just ask and they will gladly serve it to you in that!
They are famous for their $ 6 Pitchers (32oz) of Café Teas– their version of a Long Island and it comes in 12 flavors– they are located on the back of the menu. Yes there is a lot of alcohol in them! and No, they isn’t any actual «iced tea» in them!
Although there is no Drink menu, trust me the bar can make pretty much any drink or shot — excluding mojitos & moscow mules because they don’t carry mint leaves or ginger beer.
My favorite food items include: Buffalo Chicken Dip, Skillet Fries, pretty much all of the apps because they are fried and delicious, the Turkey Club Sandwich is my go-​to meal & this place has the best french fries, and best hot wings– worth their price! Honey Garlic, and Zesty Parm are my two favorite wing sauces.
This place gets VERY BUSY when the weather is nice or there is an event going on in town. There can be a line waiting at the gate before they even open at 11am. It is one of the largest bars so there is a lot of room for people to sit both indoors and outside, out front and out back. Sometimes it is anticipated that the bar will be busy, like on weekends, but sometimes it gets unexpectedly busy (perhaps on a random Monday afternoon) — bar tours can bring in 50 customers at once! Café 210 TRIES to have the correct number of employees working, but sometimes things can get a little crazy when large groups arrive all at once. Please, if you are here or at any restaurant and you see that there are 100 other customers and very few servers, but your server is literally running around to do their best, please don’t be mean to them!
I would easily choose Café 210 over any of the other small, gross, basement bars that State College offers. Café 210 is the best!

Drinks are good. There are a ton of shot and drink options. Everything is decently priced, too.
This place gets crowded. Sitting outside is nice.
The $ 2 nachos are $ 2 nachos. Don’t expect anything great.
The skillet fries were all the rage — but in reality they’re just fries with some stuff on top — nothing amazing. Great drunk munchies though.
It’s a great SC bar.

Decent bar and decent place to eat.
I dont think this place is anythin special.
Barwise sometimes it gets crackin and they usually got live music goin on… but its really not my scene as far as the music goes. You can actually dance tho as they have a dance fool. Theyre also mad spacious at the front and the back so u can bring a big crew. Crowd can range from nonexistent to pretty good. Like ur other college bars, the drinks are pretty cheap and its nuthin special. They got some decent craft in bottles tho. They also got things huge variety of «teas». By that i mean variations of the long island iced tea.
Foodwise…
Black and Bleu burger ($ 10) — Came out decent. Med rare and tender. Not many frills but def a good solid burger… way better than five guys eff that place.
Buffalo Chicken Dip– Pretty wutevers. I wouldnt order again but the chips were good. Dip was just aite.
If ur goin to school here theres almost a 100% chance ull stop by and its a decent spot. If u aint livin here, theres better options out there.

Sunday special– $ 2 nachos. Who can pass that up?!
3 of us arrived at Café 210 for lunch on a Sunday around 2pm. The place has indoor and outdoor seating so we chose a spot on the patio. I was teetering on the edge of hangry so we quickly ordered the nacho special. As expected for $ 2, the portion isn’t huge but it was enough to split between the 3 of us as a light appetizer. Corn chips, jalapenos, plenty of melted cheese and to our delight, they also bake the nachos with a tomato sauce that tastes like hearty pizza sauce. They serve the nachos with a side of salsa. We all thought the nachos were very good and were excited to try more items on their menu. For our entrees, we ordered Blazin’ BBQ wings, chicken fajitas, Yuengling battered fish & chips, and a buffalo chicken salad. Let’s break each of those down…
–Blazin’ BBQ: nothing blazin’ about them. Bland. Not even a slight hint of a BBQ flavor.
–Chicken fajitas: huge portion! Onion, green, yellow and red peppers with grilled chicken on top. Side plate included lettuce, a mound of cheese, pickled jalapenos and gauc. The veggies were slightly blackened but held their flavor. The gauc was the most disappointing part. It was slightly runny, definitely came straight out of a bag and didn’t even pretend to be fresh.
–fish & chips: Also, great portion size. The fish had a distinct Yuengling punch and the fries were fresh and crispy, like they’d been double fried. Yum :)
–Buffalo chicken salad: good things– spicy grilled buffalo chicken! Spicier than the wings! The toppings included fries, broccoli, olives, cucumber, tomato and onion. I’ve never added broccoli to a buff chicken salad but turns out, quite the delicious addition. Now, the bad: minimal blue cheese crumbles. I think I counted 6 little crumbles. And my least favorite: The lettuce. The portion size looked awesome until I realized it was a large portion of iceberg lettuce. Iceberg is cheap, has zero nutritional value and it’s a filler. Caesar salad was on the menu so I know they have romaine. I ate the toppings off this salad and that was it. If I eat here again, perhaps I can request romaine or spring mix that doesn’t include iceberg.
We also got a blueberry spiked iced tea and there is no question about the tea being spiked! They have a lot of great boozy iced tea flavors and if I’m back, I will absolutely explore those!
Service was decent. Food was quick but our waitress was a tad slow, not on her A game.
Overall, go for the nachos & drinks!

Half priced appetizers during happy hour are nice. Try the skillet fries.
The other food is really hit or miss but definitely nothing to write home about even when the kitchen is having a «good day.» If you want bar food there’s many tastier and more affordable options downtown.
The teas are sickeningly sweet. Drink more than 1 and you’re guaranteed a hangover. The beer selection is nothing special and drafts are a bit pricier than other bars downtown.
The outdoor decks are really nice. The stage in the back in nice as well and they get some decent bands to come play.

I’ve never liked café, mainly because it always reminded me of a middle school dance, but tonight it went above and beyond the douchebaggery debauchery that was normal for a Saturday night and sucked ass extra hard.
blah blah blah I don’t care, everyone who works there is obviously mad about their own lame lives
fight me, wire rims

This place is sticky. That’s the predominant thing that stuck out with me. The waitstaff at 4pm on a Saturday is nice.

The food was fast and tastes good. I would try the buffalo chicken dip– and if you go on Thursdays the 32 oz pitchers of (any flavor) alcoholic tea drinks for $ 4 and the wraps are all a dollar off. In the summer the outside porch is perfect for a drink on the patio, but make sure you’re not stuck at a table next to another table of smokers.

Café 210 had a decent ambiance, very typical of a college bar. The food was nothing to write home about but the drink specials were a great deal!
I enjoyed eating on the patio except for all of the other people around me smoking
Overall, I had a great night out with my friends and would recommend café 210 for a casual night out!

worst service i have ever received in my entire life BUT the 4 stars are saved by basically everything else. Great drinks, great atmosphere. It’s always the first place that comes to mind on a really nice day if my friends and I want a few drinks (or pitchers…)
Not sure why the service is as bad as it is though… It’s honestly unbearable. Being distracted by friends and the fun of being outside makes it a little easier to tolerate. But it’s harder and harder to watch my tip go in my careless waitress’s pocket every single time I go. On the 1^st day of 55 Days of Café, the waitress took my $ 20 to pay for my $ 6 bill and never returned. Once i FINALLY flagged her down she replied «Oh I forgot». I understand it was busy that day, but it was no where near busy enough to forget to bring me $ 14 worth of change.

Have only been here a couple times every time service is slow and waiting time is long. The food I feel like is very hit or miss cuz it’s so different stuff you either like it or you don’t wasn’t super impressed from what people where saying.

I loved coming here for lunch when I was in State College. I would come for their burger basket specials with a pitcher. With the outdoor seating, this was the perfect place for relaxing and day drinking.

The quintessential State College Bar.
Listen guys go here for the outdoor seating when the weather gets nice. Just perfect for people watching and day drinking.
Café 210 West has amazing happy hour specials, a lot of space to move around and not feel cramped, as well as appropriate service for a bar of this caliber.
I can recall shots girls here almost all the time so feel free to check it out in the evening for some free shots.

I came here for my friend’s graduation celebration. This is your absolutely quintessential PSU bar to the core!
Everyone’s favorite cover band (My Hero Zero) was playing so there was a small cover fee. I think it was only $ 2. The place was crawling with students, ridiculously drunk, all sweating it out on the dance floor. Classic. Remember, a night here is not complete until you order a pitcher. Warning: they are potently strong and dirt cheap, so watch yourself.
If you don’t want to rock out and dance by the stage – we did – there are tons of tables and bar space, plus a patio when it’s nice out. The employees can be pretty gruff but I’m sure they deal with a lot so I overlooked that in the end.
Overall, a fun time to relive the undergraduate days. Also, if you’re looking to make a few bad decisions with a stranger, this would be a good place to start.

Café 210 is a must-​visit if you want the PSU experience in State College. All of my alumni friends made this recommendation and told me I must try the adults teas.
A cover charge almost deterred me and my husband from visiting recently. I balk at most cover charges, especially during happy hour. I feel cover charges should be limited to NYC and Jersey shore night clubs. Why should I pay to sit and have a drink? About to turn around and leave, we asked how much drinks are. When we found out that happy hour teas were only $ 2.25, we whipped out our wallets to pay the cover quickly. Turned out the cover was only $ 2. One drink + the cover was still cheaper than what I thought I’d be paying in the first place.
In any case, we sat by the front bar and got to listen to a cover band as we sipped our teas. I started with pomegranate and it was okay. Based on the bartender’s recommendation, I went with peach for my next round. Good call! If we didn’t have a concert to get to, I could have been sucking those babies down all night. Apparently during happy hour the drinks are served in (large) plastic cups, versus the little pitchers they are normally served in. I didn’t learn this until I told a friend about the experience. I thought the plastic cup was pretty large and I was getting a good deal.
Moral of the story– just go to Café 210 and a few teas. Don’t ask questions. Don’t doubt it. Just do it.

The Food: (average)
I ordered the Café Classic Special, which is half of their Godfather specially sandwich — and a choice of soup or salad. Right off the bat, the flavors were wonderful and the meat cooked exactly to my liking. The chili (soup) that came with the meal was also very hearty and perfectly balanced between cheese and beans.
Atmosphere: (average)
Often, you will find this place busting at the seems with large parties, sport fanatics, and PSU football game aftermath. For some reason, it was unusually empty on this Friday afternoon. It décor is kind of boring, nothing remarkable. The commonplace picture of Joe Pa, a few TVs, and a bar. The most notable feature is its outdoor seating, probably the largest on College Avenue (seating close to 50 people, I would imagine.)
Price: (above average)
For the Café Classic Special, it cost me $ 8, which is for half a sandwich and soup. Appropriate in my opinion. It should be noted they have $ 5 lunch special, so that deserves some props.
Service: (average)
Service was average in terms of courtesy and knowledge of menu, nothing remarkable.

We went to Café 210 West while visiting my girlfriend’s brother at State College. It was a relatively cool summer afternoon, so we sat outside on the patio. We sat near the street, and it was relatively quiet for being on the main drag.
The menu was well-​priced, and there was a rotating specials list. The drink special today was $ 3.50 Blue Moon Drafts, which we ordered. Bar Service was quick.
The food arrived in a timely fashion, and I ordered the Buffalo Chicken Salad. The greens in the salad were a little old, but the chicken was cooked well.
Service was a little slow. We liked that they provided a pitcher of water, but our Waitress had a lot of tables, so it was a little difficult for her to personalize the experience for us.

Pushy college kid bouncer gave me crap about bringing in a plastic bag from CVS during the middle of the day. Relax kid.
Inside the drinks were fairly cheap but not crazy cheap like a lot of other bars around. Service was fine from the clearly inexperienced bartender, she was trying though so it was all good.
Odd crowd during the day and the place could use a makeover. Meh really was the way to describe it!