MCL Restaurant & Bakery

Cafeteria, nothing more. Simple, plain, uninspired for sure. You get exactly what you’d expect at a hospital or nursing home cafeteria.

For living in Westerville 8 years, and have only been here one other time and kind of forgot about it! Then my family was looking for something we haven’t had and decided to take them here. When you first walk in, there is a big, buffet style line in front of you, but they could use some better signage/​direction cause they have a lot of doors and not many are in use.
Everything on the buffet line is Ala Carte. You go through and pick what you want. They also have special meal prices for each day.
Everything is Home Made with old style recipes.
The staff is super helpful (especially if you have never been there!) and extremely nice.
The manager was up helping and being friendly too, which is always nice.
Really big dining room. Nice and casual.

For living in Westerville 8 years, I have never been to this place until now. When you first walk in, there is a big, buffet style line in front of you. You simply go down the line and tell them what you want, essentially building your plate. The staff is super helpful (especially if you have never been there!) and extremely nice. I plan on going back.

MCL has been around forever, the food is ok and the nice thing is you can get what you want, just remember it is a cafeteria not a buffet so you will pay for each item you get. Most of the people that eat here are older 50’s and over but I think they are trying to attract a younger group, they have a kids eat free nite

Now the food isn’t bad. It is nice that they have a buffet. But I never visit out where this is and I also just dislike mcl. Worth trying but I don’t plan on returning.

This is hospital cafeteria meets Denny’s.
Blue plate senior specials are the norm. Expect an older crowd for 4:30pm dinner.
Desserts are big and fresh. I expected more of a La Chatelaine vibe from the website. Overall, I walked in, saw the clientele and though hmm «my grandma would like this place».
Worth trying once, but I won’t be back.

I come for the liver and onions and to feel young, hip and cool. It feels great to be one of the younger people in the restaurant! Also, I like carrying a tray of food, it takes me back to elementary school.
Everyone I know associates MCL with older people, that’s pretty accurate. If you can move pass the reputation of being geared toward an older crowd, you will discover a variety of delicious food. Not only is there a variety, but the great thing is you put your meal together the way you want it. It is easy to get carried away and create a 7 course meal and run your bill up — my kids seem to have a buffet mentality and do this often. If you practice self control, the prices are reasonable. They offer a reduced priced meal, ($ 6) that includes a meat, two sides and bread. It was a decent amount of food although it was served on a sectioned kiddy type plate. I almost always get liver and onions or the chicken livers, my son swears by the chicken cordon blue and the husband loves all the fish dishes.
Besides the food, the service is awesome! Although it’s cafeteria style, they still offer great service — carry your tray, beverage refills, plate removal… Our waitress was the absolute best! For the life of me I cannot remember her name, she’s Hispanic and makes you feel as though you are a guest in her home.
So for a variety of good food, a meal you create, great service and reasonable prices here’s your spot.
The only odd thing that throws me off is the entrance, on the side there’s all these doors with no handles and once you pick the correct door you than walk through a carryout section, a little confusing. There is another entrance, but you’d have to walk the length of the restaurant if you come in the front door. Regardless of the entrance, once inside you’ll enjoy your meal!

First — shut up.
Second — no, I am not old.
Third — see the first thing.
Fourth — The food IS good! It’s total comfort food and when you have it, well, you’ll just feel right as rain. I highly recommend going when they have chicken pot pie — it’s delicious! If they don’t have chicken pot pie, you can’t fail with their fried chicken. For sides — mashed potatoes and gravy for sure… then green beans. Try the Irani tea. you’ll get addicted, no matter if you like sweet or unsweet.
Lastly — get dessert, you won’t regret it… especially the strawberry cake. YUM.
P. S. If you get in an everyone is 60 or over… then you know you’ve picked a fantastic time to go. Just watch these people… they all seem so happy! On my first visit ever, I saw this one nice lady whip out a 110 camera with a flashbulb stick on top — who knew they even still made that stuff?!
This place is amazing.

Wait, don’t laugh at me. Or question my taste level. But I love everything about MCL.
I’ve lived in Columbus for almost a decade, and I had never eaten there until a couple of months ago when some friends finally dragged me with them. I didn’t really know what to expect, but I find this place strangely addictive.
I mean, what’s not to love?
*It’s never busy.
*The over-​60 crowd is pretty fabulous.
*The staff is all really helpful.
*You can pick and choose all the items you want from a giant buffet line.
*They’ll pack you up a to-​go cup.
*The food is all pretty tasty.
*Everything is crazy fast.
But let’s be real: I won’t be going to MCL on the weekly — it might be more like a monthly treat. I wouldn’t want the nostalgia to wear off.

I go for the quick, easy, healthy, but tasty eating. In the several years I’ve been going, I’ve only picked up one item that didn’t taste how I hoped it would. Their Fish Fry (Lent until a few weeks after Easter) on Fridays is great. Haddock and Catfish. Great fish like it was made in the back yard by your father. Awesome!

Excellent alternative to fast food. The tenderloin (such as at the fair) is outstanding — meaty and tasty. The beef and turkey manhattans are skimpy on the meat… but where else can you get one? Salads are always fresh. A full meal (meat, two vegetable sides and bread) will easily run you $ 10+ but it’s worth it. Cornbread is excellent. Large dessert selection — all good. Great for take-​out. I love it.

Book their meeting room for business! Great setup, free parking, easy separation of lunches.
Surprisingly good meat. Whole roasted turkey and beef is the number one pick, then stroll along the line to eyeball the side dishes and choose any combination. Cheesy broccoli casserole, deep fried cauliflower, green beans, pea salad, assorted garden salads, dressing, gravy, mashed taters, so many more… An assortment of fried chicken, baked fish, and sometimes a reuben is also available. Then tons of cookies and pies, usually very good. Also rolls, fresh lemonade, sweet or unsweet Irani tea.
Good fast service, lots of tables, 2 servers help keep drinks full for the house. Many seniors visit for a balanced meal, some stay to play cards for hours. They have two nice meeting rooms, free of charge when you eat there. We often have business meetings, people can park for free and separate the lunch bill easily. Then we carry our food back in and continue the meeting.

If I hadn’t read Nijole’s review, I proably wouldn”t have known this existed. It’s way back at the end of the center. But when you get there it turns out to be a pretty nice restaurant. And the food is pretty good, especially for what you pay. I had a roast beef dinner, which included two sides and a plate of jello, and a roll and dessert for the lowly total of $ 12.50. And really, I didn’t need all that food. It just looked so good that I gave into temptation.

I have driven past the MCL in Whitehall many times and there was no way I would have ever gone there.
Then we walked through the very nice one in Upper Arlington one day to see what it is about.
Not hungry that day we went to the one in Westerville for dinner a few weeks later.
Not as nice as the one in UA, but clean and with a nice staff and decent food.
I hate canteen style food under heat lamps but we were hungry and had coupons so we figured gve it a try.
Sure beats Ponderosa or any of the all you can eats loaded with the worst food you’ve ever eaten.
The prices at MCL are great, nothing over $ 5 but the portions are TINY!
You need at least 2 entrees plus sides to have even a decent not large meal and by that time you are at about $ 15 so better off elsewhere.
They have a salad bar, several entrée and side options as well as desserts.
I got a salad and both the itatain and honey dijon dressings are good and fresh.
For entrees we got the pecan crusted talapia and the ham, both good but especially the ham was 4 papaer thin slices and that for 2 entrees!
Sides we had the mac n cheese, actually homemade with lots of cheese and brown crunchy bits (the best part) as well as several of the veggies and all were good.
Not the best meal, but decent, the staff extreamly friendly and we felt welcome.
If you want some homestyle food fast with no hassle, this is the way to go, for a nice dinner or date maybe not… unless you are over 60 which was everyone else in the restaurant.