Crown City Steakhouse

I read reviews on the Crown city steakhouse and decided not to eat here, even though I was staying at the Ramada Inn. Luckily I looked at other reviewing sites which were much more positive than the Unilocal reviewers. I don’t understand the negative comments of the Unilocal reviewers. I am very familiar with proper aging and selection of beef. A good rib eye steak will contain fat and some chewy sections on the perimeter of the cut. My serving had some tiny amounts of fat and chewy sections, but the steak was tender and very flavorful. I ordered «rare» and it was served to perfection. The vegetables were perfectly prepared. The waitress was knowledgable and the service was fantastic
I have dined all over the world and this steakhouse compared well as an example of American «steakhouse» restaurants. Nothing exotic, but a good dinner for a night while traveling. I recommend everyone traveling to Cortland, NY visit the Crown City Steakhouse

I went here for breakfast when I was staying in town and could not eat it. Left everything on the table. Not worth the money or the time. The eggs were rubbery, the potatoes were hard, the bacon was overcooked, and the syrup is little more than tinted corn syrup. But worst of all, I ordered an egg sunny-​side up and was served an egg that was completely uncooked on top. It was so gross. The bagels are from a freezer package, the toast is Wonder Bread. You can get overly sweetened juice in small, disposable plastic cups, and my table was dirty when I was sat. Seriously disgusting.

Don’t waste your time or money! It took over a half hour to see the waitress who I had to get just to have her take my drink order and wait another 20 minutes just to have the bartender tell me that they were out because the waitress was no where to be found and the place was nearly empty ! I should have walked out when I seen the place was empty at 6 pm Dennys across the street has better service

We have had 3 outstanding meals in a row here now. We stayed here at the Ramada a year ago and both breakfast and dinner were great. So this year it was easy to decide where to have dinner tonight. We both had an appetizer, the smaller cut prime rib, and desert. Everything was cooked to perfection and very tasty. I’m already looking forward to my omelet at the breakfast buffet.

If there were zero stars I would give it just that! Food service was worse I’ve ever had. The waitress didn’t even know what shaved steak was. The boubon chicken pasta came with no chicken. The waitress forgot the salad, mentioned and still didn’t bring it until my 6 year old asked for it. Never got our mayo we asked for. She didn’t return to ask how the dinner was or to refill the water. It was just terrible, wouldn’t recommend to anyone! She wasn’t even friendly… wrote an email to the manager and never heard back. Zero stars… don’t waste your money, you’re better off waking across the street to Taco Bell!

I read mixed reviews on this place…,
It was late, I left Syracuse at 8 PM attempting a 3 hour ride home. I was hungry and tired. Wife wanted me to put up for night instead of risking the ride home. So…
I decided to stay at the Ramada because it had this steak place.
I ordered the rib eye which is usually a great steak just about anywhere. Not here. It was grizzly and fatty. You get two sides. I ordered steam broccoli and rice pilaf. The rice was ok. The broccoli was like eating the bottle of salt.
Would I come back… Heck NO!
As for the hotel, it reminds me of all the slimy hotels you see and hear about in the movies. For $ 80 a night, I guess that’s par.

I went there because it was a short walk from my hotel. Nothing fancy in appearance but that doesn’t really matter to me. There was approximately 8 people at the bar. I sat in the restaurant proper. There was one family of 3 seated. I didn’t even sit in my booth yet and they wanted my drink order. I order a beer that came relatively quick. The glass was warm and so was the beer. I added ice to cool it down. A single person ans a couple were seated shortly after but with at least 2 people waiting tables, service should not be an issue.
I placed my order. The first to arrive was the onion soup. The cheese was not melted probably because the soup was Luke warm at best. I ordered a ribeye and rice. They looked very appealing when they arrived but both wew also warm. So much for a hot meal. It’s like it was sitting around for a while before it was brought to my table. The rice had a couple of spaghetti noodles mixed in, no doubt by accident. When my food was delivered, I ordered another beer. I was about ¾ through my meal before it was delivered and only after I asked when it would be delivered. It was colder this time.
Bottom line, food is mediocre at best and I’ve had much better for the price. If the beer was cold and the food hot, I may have given this 2 or 3 stars.

Don’t let the name fool you.
We went to the Crown City on the recommendation of a staff member of the Hope Lake Lodge (who admittedly hadn’t eaten there but had heard good things). It’s a standard issue hotel restaurant in terms of décor — nondescript and generic. The service was good enough, considering that when we went in we were the only customers there.
The food was what caused us to sign up for Unilocal in the first place. For a place that names itself a steakhouse it’s clear that the chef (s) know little about cooking steak. Two of us had the strip steaks. While mine was tender enough it had almost no flavor apart from the fond that was cooked onto it. Another in our party ordered his medium rare and it came out well done. Way, way off base. It was replaced with no argument (a plus), but it was still an amateur level mistake.
I also had a potato-​bacon soup that had good flavor but had obviously sat in the pot for way too long — it had the consistency of wallpaper paste.
Clearly we had expectations that were too high for a hotel-​based restaurant, but if you’re going to name yourself a steakhouse you should at least be able to put up quality steak.

Disclaimer: I ate here Sept. 2011 so this review may be outdated, though I doubt it. Can’t really forget such a terrible restaurant experience.
Probably one of the worst restaurants I’ve ever been to. I normally Unilocal a place before I go but at the time, this restaurant only had 2 reviews, which were both 4 stars. and there really aren’t many options in Cortland. Not really sure how this restaurant could ever get 4 stars.
We came for dinner one night and the restaurant was almost entirely empty which felt very eery since it’s a relatively large restaurant. Don’t even get me started about the food. I ordered the «salmon» which came with a side of broccoli. The salmon looked like chicken and the broccoli looked like it came out of a frozen bag. It was mostly the stems. The steak looked like it came out of a prepared frozen foods bag too. was very thin and of poor quality.
I don’t remember the prices but honestly, that doesn’t even matter with how bad the food is.

We came from queens and we decided to have dinner here which inside of the hotel and the steak was delicious and the ribs are great! The waitress Victoria was outstanding very nice young lady and she provided us a great service. The drinks are smaller at the table because at the bar the glass is bigger. Daiquiris are the best! Pineapple and blackberry daiquiris are a must to try!

Wow! One word for this place. TERRIBLE!!! The wait was terrible, the service was terrible, the food was terrible. The first time we ate there my order was wrong. I sent my plate back and they sent out the correct order 30 minutes later and my steak was burnt. Seriously. It was burnt. I sent my plate back and they took the meal off the bill. The second time we went there the place was kinda packed. We were the only ones at the hostess station waiting for a table. A couple were on their way out and had stated to us that they have been waiting 45 minutes for their meals. As I looked around, I noticed that only 2 tables were eating. We waited for about 6 minutes when we just called it quits and left. I would never go to this place ever again and really hope that you will not either. I hate to see my friends disappointed. TERRIBLE!!!

Went here for Easter Sunday.
The worst meal we have ever had. emailed the restaurant and they never responded back, which is really spineless.
The Easter buffet was. $ 17.95 per person
No omelets to order
Overcooked vegetables
No shrimp from the previous year
Horrible service… terrible food
We asked for orange juice and was charged extra for orange juice
$ 18 per person and the worst food ever
Even worse–
Wrote to the restaurant and they NEVER responded
COWARDS!
Never again

Found ourselves in Cortland last Friday night, and we were staying at the Hampton Inn just a short walk past the Ramada to Crown City. Debbi Faye and I had had a big lunch so we stopped in here around 8:00 pm just for some cocktails and an appetizer or two.
The Crown is connected to the Ramada so it’s not a bad place in terms of appearance. We were seated immediately and a nice waitress took our orders promptly. We were shocked at how inexpensive this place is. Coconut shrimp app was around $ 6 for five small but tasty shrimp. They came with this white dipping sauce that had a heavy coconut flavor to it, and it was delicious. We also had a sampler of 2 potato skins, 3 mozzarella sticks and a few onion rings. This was around $ 7. I don’t do the rings but the cheese sticks were actually quite tasty and the marinara sauce was good too. Debbi Faye said the rings were excellent.
I had a few Tequila Sunrises that were $ 3.50 each! In like a pint glass and pretty strong. What’s not to love about that? Debbi Faye had a Kahlua concoction that she enjoyed.
Not much going on here in the way of what most Unilocalers would call «nite life» though. There was a DJ who looked to be about 65 and he played a very mellow song at around 8:30 pm. It was a song I’ve never heard before but think elevator music but with vocals. After that song ended about 10 minutes went by when i guess he realized that there was no music playing and he strolled back over to his turntable and plopped down another vinyl disc, this time the extremely mellow version of Layla that Clapton does live. This went on like that for the whole time we were there. Probably heard four songs in an hour.
The place was deserted on a Friday night, but that may have more to do with local economics than the quality of the place. As I’ve said before, Cortland certainly appears to have a very depressed economy as do many of the old industrial /​mill towns in northern NY.
But the Crown was perfect for what we were looking for: someplace to have a snack and a few drinks before returning to the hotel. I’m sure I’ll be back as the Hampton Inn was great and it doesn’t have a saloon.

I’m fairly certain that no one really knows about this restaurant unless they’ve stayed at the Ramada Inn in Cortland or they’ve gone by recommendation. Crown City is almost always empty. I would normally take this as a sign of bad food or bad service, but the food here has been consistently good over the course of the past few years.
While Crown City boasts itself as a steakhouse, it does offer several other menu options including chicken, burgers, seafood, and pasta. There are a few vegetarian options (mostly pasta, salads, and an oversized stuffed potato).
I’ve found the steaks tend to be cooked slightly rarer than expected, but I’ve adjusted my ordering accordingly. Many steak lovers would scoff at this, but I really enjoy the filet mignon. It has always been well-​seasoned and extremely flavorful. My boyfriend raves about the bourbon strip, and we’ve both been known to get the prime rib when available (Fridays and Saturdays). Each entrée comes with your choice of two oversized sides; some of the options include mashed potatoes, sweet potato fries, soup, salad, onion rings, sauteed mushrooms, fresh vegetables, and rice pilaf.
Crown City has a small by-​the-​glass wine list and almost 20 choices for wine by-​the-​bottle. This is a recent change; patrons could once order any of their wines by-​the-​glass. I’m not sure why they made the change, but I hope they change it back!
I’ve rarely had room for dessert, but the menu does have about six dessert options. I doubt they are homemade, but they do look delicious!
If you’re stuck in Cortland, or just driving by exit 11 on 81, think about giving this under-​appreciated restaurant a chance!