What If Cafe

What a wonderful place to eat. My husband & I were going through town and found such great reviews on this restaurant. I must say the great reviews were spot on! The food was Awesome! Loved the homey, yet elegant feel. The owner and chef came out to visit with us table side to make sure we were completely satisfied with our dinning experience. If you are in town or passing through, I highly recommend. A true culinary treasure in an unexpected location.

We met our friends here for dinner last night, since they had been here several times and had enjoyed every meal. At first glance we had no idea why they picked this place (we were driving all the way from York, and it doesn’t look like much from the outside), but when we stepped inside, a wonderful dining experience began. We first decided to sit out back in an intimate patio area (consisting of maybe 4 tables) to wait for our friends. When the server heard we brought beer (it’s BYOB), he quickly brought out two frosted mugs for us! Our friends arrived and, feeling it was a bit warm out, we retreated to the cool indoors, to a special alcove where a single table for 4 awaited us. I’m afraid I don’t know the exact names of the dishes, but the variety of exotic items on the menu were impressive. I had Shepard Pie, my wife and one of our friends had salmon, and the other had a steak. Each dish had been prepared with care, and everything was fantastic. The chef even stopped over to greet us! The desert menu was too good to pass up, so my wife and I shared a delicately made Strawberry Shortcake.
A wonderful evening was had by all of us, and we look forward to visiting What If Café again soon!

Very good and creative food, great atmosphere, and service! Portions are a little on the small side, but also very inexpensive.
It’s in a rough neighborhood and doesn’t look like much on the outside but it’s actually quite nice on the inside.
Parking tip: off-​street parking is available on the south side of the building, along the north rail.

This is a Unilocal find while on a cross country road trip and what a gem. It is in kind of a rough neighborhood and we definitely would have not stopped without a Unilocal hint but once inside the décor was very nice, the people are friendly and the food is top notch. Everything is clearly home made and well balanced. We brought our 3 sons and all found something they were happy with on the menu with sufficient food to satisfy the picky eater and the bottomless teen stomach. Well worth the visit.

I have been here once before and it was also a 4 star experience. The other day, we had a (late) Christmas party for work. There were about 20 of us, but the staff handled it well. The apps came out first: café portobello: very delicious– beautifully roasted portobello with a drizzle of balsamic topped with creamy crab imperial; black bean margarita: good but plain– layers of beans, guac, sour cream and salsa served with tortilla chips; crab & artichoke dip: highly recommended– flavorful combinations of cheeses mixed with tender artichoke hearts and jumbo crab. Next, the bread basket came out with fresh cream butter. There were a variety of types of breads that were all very good. For my main course, I got the tenderloin and crab cake. The two stars of the plate were accompanied by green beans & mashed potatoes. Both the beans and potatoes were good, but nothing made them stand out. The crab cake was pretty basic and used a mix of backfin and lump crabmeat. The remoulade sauce was different and a bit zesty. The tenderloin was cooked to a perfect medium-​rare for me. The meat was topped with sliced mushrooms in a madeira sauce. The madeira sauce is what made me order this meal. I love the nutty flavor of madeira and rarely see it paired with meat. The flavors worked well together. I had the crème brûlée for dessert. It was very creamy and set perfectly. The food was great and the staff was wonderful. Its a very comfortable setting. Even though it doesn’t look like much from the outside, it is warm and inviting inside. I highly recommend this place :-)

I ate at the What If last night. We had the following:
Crabmeat/​Arugela Bread bowl appetizer 10 out of 5 stars!
Ceaser Salad 5 out of 5 stars
Apple/​Walnut Salad 5 out of 5 stars (apples were fantastic!)
Lobster Ravioli — my friend gives it 4 out of 5 stars (sauce was average but the ravioli’s were good.
Chicken Marsala — 5 out of 5 stars
Peanut Butter pie — My friend had it and gives it 5 out of 5, but I had a taste and it was a bit too sweet and rich for me, but I grew up on European deserts which aren’t very sweet so don’t go by me.
The service was excellent. They didn’t hover annoyingly but checked in on us to make sure we had everything we needed. My friend has tinnitus so we’re always trying to find quieter, non chain, restaurants. By our request, they sat us in a quiet area which was wonderful.
The building is an older building, but it was clean and nicely decorated.
I’d been there a few years ago and it’s nice to see that the quality of the food hadn’t gone down hill.
Giving a review of food is difficult. Everyone has different tastes and considerations on what ‘good’ is.
I really enjoyed the «What If Café»

Went here for lunch. Very nice décor. Food was fantastic. I had the crab Alfredo. It had lots of real lump crab as well as grilled shrimp. My mom had the petite filet. So tender you could cut it with a fork. Dessert was a cream puff filled with French custard and fresh whipped cream. Our total bill was 33.00!!! We spend more than that at red lobster and what if café is 100 times better.