C&R Kitchen

Where to start…. So I’ve been a patron of Citron and Rose for many years, I travel for business to the area and drive an hour for the food and experience. I brought my team many times, and all they had to say was good things about it, food, service, atmosphere, all 4-5 star. I took my most recent trip, when I arrived at the venue there was a note on the door stating “as of September 15th the restaurant will be closed for private parties only, but please enjoy our new public location down the block at C&R Kitchen”. Hoping for the best, I hoped back in my car and drove down the block. First thing that’s different is there’s no parking lot, so trying to mangle with traffic and find a spot that isn’t far is a challenge in and of itself. I was seated promptly, the location is nice since it was converted from Zagafen, however that’s where the positives stop. Looking at the menu, they seemed lean heavily into their burgers (which were really good), and prices did seem a bit steep, however if they were as good as the other place, it’s fair for kosher. Menu was simplified and asking the waiter for recommendations seemed to have caught her a little off guard. I ordered the Spiced Lamb Popcorn and the Smokehouse Stack burger based on her recommendations. Restaurant was pretty empty, so was surprised at how long it took to get the lamb. I took one bite and it tasted like an overcooked/hard flavorless meatball. I put it aside waiting for the waiter to ask about it, my burger came, I was hungry and so I dove right into it. With the first bite it got poked by something hard, I opened it up and noticed the “smoked brisket” was a dried hard piece of meat that was thick like a block, the outside was rock hard and is what poked me. I removed the two blocks of dried hard meat and at the burger. Burger was a little dull, wasn’t tender or too flavorful, but I was hungry and it was edible, so I finished it. I waited and waited, eventually the matre D asked how the food was, I told him that there was no resemblance of a popper and that they were dry and hard. He initially challenged me saying that’s what it was supposed to be, and I told him that’s what it says in the menu. He got himself a menu and then made an excuse that they changed chefs and the menu was changed. He agreed to take it off the bill and not charge me for it, to which I asked him about swapping it for the cauliflower tempura that I was debating between, to which he agreed. 20 minutes later I received a bowl of cauliflower and buffalo sauce, when biting into it there was no semblance of crunch other than the crunch of the undercooked cauliflower, the color was from the soggy buffalo sauce. Was terrible. Being disappointed I figured I wouldn’t waste anymore time or money, and decided to order something to go for lunch the next day. I asked for a menu and waited about 15 min before I went up to the waiter and just put in the order directly with her for a steak sandwich and settled my bill. I waited around 25 min just checking out what was going on, I could see that the kitchen staff were 3 clowns, no one knew their head from their feet, people started arriving for dinner, and the patrons were getting restless waiting for their food they’d ordered 45 min earlier. People were being turned away at the door because they were told there would be an hour wait, while it was only seated at 50% capacity. I waited another 10 min and my order was finally ready. When I arrived back at my hotel, I opened the $32 steak sandwich to find it was in a hamburger bun, 3 small pieces of steak, mushrooms (which I asked to hold), and caramelized onions that weren’t caramelized. To say I was disappointed is an understatement, the best thing was the half decent sweet potato fries. My advice to the owners, fire all the staff and return to the old location with the prior staff. When I spoke to some of the patrons, they’re response was “we know”, and they want to support the business, however they will only last so long, please revive this before it becomes history.

GREAT food for sure. Everything that we order was great - but took over an hour to get - all came at a different time - i would think that soup would be one of the first - not the last to come out. I would really suggest that they get more waiters - the guy serving us was running around like crazy!!!! Please as well - get someone to clean and take out the trash mid day. The trash cans were FILLED - floor sticky - bathroom not clean. I would love to go back for food but we did not like the fact that we had to wait over an hour to get it.

We were greeted warmly and instructed how to order the food shortly after stepping in. We ordered a pie, beet salad, fries (not pictured), and fries topped with cheese and pizza sauce. The first three dishes listed were thoroughly enjoyed! The “loaded” fries were good as well, but I prefer the standard ones. (The pizza sauce made the fries a bit soggy.) The food was served quite fast and our needs were well attended to. If you’re looking for kosher food in the area, go ahead and visit Zagafen. :) In addition to the tasty food, they offer a lovely space.

Before you read this comment, just know that it is extremely rare for me to leave such a negative review. I have had some bad experience in the past but never got the need to write it online as I am a strong supporter of kosher restaurants. Citron and rose (c&r kitchen) is probably the worst restaurant I have ever done in my entire life for so many reasons. First, it took forever to get our meals to the point we had to tell the manager if they forgot about us (around 45 min wait). We got a chicken which I assure you anyone cooking chicken for the first time would do better. We had a side of risotto which was basically basmati rice. We ordered a burger and they gave us the wrong one. On top of that, we asked for it to be cooked medium and we received it completely cooked like I’ve never seen before. To apologize, the manager told us we’d get a 5% discount which we came out to be about $8 out of $150 bill. We thought that it wasn’t much but we all appreciated the effort. Once we actually received the bill, we noticed that the discount counted only towards the burger so we basically got $1.40 discount which is ridiculous. When we left, I talked to the manager in private to tell him calmly that it was shameful to give a dollar off and he just left saying goodnight. My advice to you is save your time and money and do not go there. The good reviews come from the previous restaurant Zagafen which was delicious and always recommended it to all my friends from Philly or visiting me from different states.

Warm, family friendly atmosphere with delicious food and fast service!