Macy's Cafe

Update: Macy's Cafe is closed.

In a word: No one goes to Macy's for lunch.

The specs: #0355
Address, hours & details via Isthmus; review at Isthmus.

JM ate the ham and cheese sandwich with some potato salad and a peanut butter cookie and a Mello Yello.
Nichole ate the quiche and chicken noodle soup with a coffee.
We got some extra potato salad as well.
The bill was $22, or $11/person (with no tip jar).
JM gave Macy's Cafe a C+; Nichole gave Macy's Cafe a B- (see our grading rubric).

Latest Macy's Cafe news and reviews

This is the cafe in the basement of Macy's in Hilldale Mall. Not a cafe belonging to someone named Macy. The latter might have proved more exciting.

Don't get us wrong, this is a pleasant place to grab a bite between housewares and bedding (which sounds dirtier than it is). And Nichole took the time we spent eating to decide whether to buy that fancy frying pan at 50% off - always a good test of impulse buys. But we can't really see making a special trip for the fare served here, pleasant as it was.

The well-lit deli case had some lovely salads on offer, as well as individual quiches, sandwiches and cookies. We assembled a tray and took a seat among the ladies who were lunching.

A fork came in eminently handy for managing the thick, homestyle noodles in Nichole's chicken soup, which were cooked a smidge beyond al dente. The broth was flavorful, undersalted (better than the alternative), and chock full of white meat chicken. This extravagance must be a Hilldale thing.

The filling of the personal-sized quiche was creamy, but the crust was too soggy to be worth eating. The best part about this recipe was the sprinkle of nutmeg on top, which played off the sharpness of the feta and complemented the red peppers and artichoke hearts.

The potato salad was bland-level IV (warning: not even salt helps), and the leftovers were vastly improved back at the ranch with a little basic doctoring (salt and pepper, mustard, dill, an extra hardboiled egg).

JM's 37th ham and cheese was pretty average and you'd guess that he knows what he's talking about.  The bread was a little too crusty and small and the need to apply mustard and mayo implies that these cooks are simply serving their time - or have been instructed to underseason everything, lest the customers be shocked.

The peanut butter cookie was of average flavor. It was so moist as to be almost undercooked in the middle. Savvy observers will notice the cause of this as we did - the fact that someone on the line got a little too liberal with the cookie dough scoop, leaving a half-moon of extra dough on one side. Call it generosity or portion distortion, either way, the super size of the cookie made it even easier to share.

It'd be a stretch for us to come back to Macy's to eat. By the time you reach the perfume counter, you're nearer better restaurants.

Comments

[Dave]

Macy's cafe closed within the last two weeks. I stopped down there on lunch to grab an egg salad sandwich and the whole place was boarded off.

[nichole]

I'm *SO* glad we got to go before it closed.

[Lo]

Oh, Gosh -- I haven't eaten at Macy's since I was a kid. My aunt took me there as a treat during a shopping excursion, and I thought it felt so grown up.

I have to laugh now, as I've often walked past the Macy's lunch counter and wondered what seemed so special at the time...

[Heather]

It's about time they shut that thing down. When it was Marshall Fields there was at least an attempt to provide gourmet cafe food but, like everything Macy's touches, the cafe turned to crap when they took over.

And with the addition of so many good restaurants in the area - there's no reason to go to the basement of Macy's for less than great snacks.

[Samantha]

It's a shame so many Macys tuck below average cafes in their stores. We're lucky here in Honolulu...Macy's at Ala Moana hosts a full restaurant...the Pineapple Room by Alan Wong. It's a bit pricey, but that's to be expected at this department store. But the food is an excellent fusion of local Hawaiian and southeast Asian.