Riverside Cafe II

In town for a funeral and stopped in to get a quick bite. This place was really good, fast service and overall tasty for breakfast. It is not anything fancy and that is ok as long as the food is good!

Arriving at 7:30 on a Saturday morning the parking lot is nearly full. Good sign. Inside the cozy, but roomy, café is bustling. The fast and very friendly staff seems to know most of the patrons by name but they treat me like an old friend. I order up coffee and a «Number 4» with sausage patties.
I’ve immediately got a steaming cup of good tasting, medium-​strength, coffee in front of me along with fresh cream. In about five minutes a plate piled high with awesome Midwestern goodness is place in front of me on the copper-​top high-​boy table.
The eggs are great (if you like over-​medium, then order over-​well). The sausage and rye toast is top-​notch. The hash brown potatoes are standard with no surprises.
All-​in-​all, a very solid breakfast with an awesome wait staff, inside a great little café. I will definitely be back soon.

If there was ever a restaurant to take over operations when the Livingston’s Café (also of the Jeanne’s Café and Livingston’s Café on Webb) vacated the premises in early 2010, boy, was it appropriate to hand it off to the folks of Riverside Café. They’re both in the same business of offering dirt-​cheap home-​cooked food to the neighborhood folk.
Have you ever had an awkward situation where you order a couple of menu items, expecting one to be a side item given its price, and are surprised with two entire meal’s worth of food? That’s what happened when I ordered the meatloaf sandwich and the Frito chili pie. I mean, what better test to the utter core of American cuisine than two dishes than embody home cooking? And while I was far from impressed from the plain, untoasted white bread that surrounded my meatloaf sandwich, I would be remiss without mentioning that the meatloaf itself was pretty dang homey, and I ate it all. It was a bit small (i.e., what a normal person probably should be portioned), but the heap o’ fries made up for it. Freshly fried as well as most places in Wichita (which is to say, limp and a bit greasy), but for $ 4, you can’t beat it.
And while the chili in the Frito chili pie wasn’t the same homemade vegetarian chili advertised elsewhere on the menu, it again made up for its blandness in quantity, as I was provided with far too much food to eat at a price that was well below $ 10. The service, too, wasn’t probably much more than you might expect to get for the price — some friendly folks who aren’t concerned with pretensions or formalities so much as treating you like part of the family and making sure you get the hookup. And while I can get behind that, and even admit there’s a need for places like these, it’s not something that’s appreciated depending on what you’re looking for.

Great food

We used to go here when it was Livingston’s Café. The new owners expanded the menu quite a bit. Although we always get the same thing when we go for breakfast on the weekends.
Some mornings they get pretty busy but we have never had to wait for a seat.
Service is always fast & friendly. One waitress always remembers us and usually doesn’t even bother bringing us menus and she remembers our order.
Food is consistently good and never disappoints.

I use to stop here often when it was Livingston’s Café, and I love the original Riverside Café, so had to check it out.
What was your first impression? It is a small place and over crowed with tables. Was full at lunch but found a table that was just emptied.
How was the Quality of Food? Great, I ordered breakfast, Coffee, 2 eggs, crispy bacon, hash browns, & toast.
What about the valve for the Buck? Great price, less than $ 8 total.
How was the appearance and cleanliness? Good, cleaned my table right after I got there.
Did you receive exactly what you ordered? Yes, all was great even the extra crispy bacon I requested.
How was the service? Right on the mark.
Summary and will you go back? Yes I would be glad to stop here when I get the next chance. Would be a 5 star if it wasn’t so crowed with tables.

This is the «companion piece» to the original Paul’s Riverside Café, this new one located on the east side of town where the old Livingston’s Café used to be on South Woodlawn. A tidy spruce-​up on the interior and the predictably tasty menu has brought new energy to the old neighborhood corner. Come on in and join the very large fan club that has already formed in support of this friendly enterprise!