VERY limited menu. Not the restaurant it used to be . Hardly anyone there at 7:30 yet it took too long to get a drink.My husband had the salad with chicken and the chicken breast was dry, overcooked and rubbery. When we told the waitress she really had nothing to say. Poor for an $18 salad.My quesadilla was good. But not something I would usually order.
hawkeyemomkaye
We went to White Star on Sunday night. There was a comedian in town and every place was packed but White Star. We walked in and had to ask someone to seat us as no one noticed us, We were seated and our waiter came over fairly quickly. We actually put in our order at the same time he offered to take our drink order. There was a limited menu so we ordered off that.We knew we only had about an hour and 15 minutes to eat before we had to go to the comedian. We ordered our food at 5:50pm. By 6:30 we still did not have our food, okay fine- we assumed we would get our food soon, scarf it down and go. Our waiter checked in a few times, got my husband another beer and then he was running around with his other tables. I only saw one other waiter and the place was getting more and more busy as we waited. By 6:55, over an hour after ordering our food, we flagged the waiter down and told him we needed to leave and how much longer would our food be. He checked with the kitchen and it would be 15 more minutes, making our wait for food almost an hour and 30 minutes. We ended up asking for our check and leaving, haven't eaten anything at all. I know every place is understaffed but waiting almost an hour and a half for food, then never getting it to eat because it took so long, is totally unacceptable. We felt awful for our waiter, so we left him a big tip after paying for our beers and then went to the show and at nachos at the show since we were starving. Again, I understand there are staffing issues, but this is completely ridiculous. We love White Star and their food but it's just not the same, as I know this never would have been acceptable last year or the year before.
Kishor Prasad
The restaurant is located in an old nostalgic building. Our server Hannah was excellent. The on tap beer selection is wonderful! We dined on the calamari, Lamb shank, chicken and Monterey burger. The food was really good and the price was about half of what we would have paid in the Chicago area. I was happy. We both ordered the steak under restaurant week. Was a beautiful blue cheese potato side along with the perfectly cooked steak. Stick to the beer, cocktails were a little unbalanced. Service was awesome. Environment was relaxed and styled.
Celestine Karmbor
The restaurant is located in an old nostalgic building. Our server Hannah was excellent. The on tap beer selection is wonderful! We dined on the calamari, Lamb shank, chicken and Monterey burger. The food was really good and the price was about half of what we would have paid in the Chicago area. I was happy.
Teresa Fettkether
Horrible experience! We went for their happy hour and bought two drinks and a pint of beer. We were told it was happy hour and drinks were half off but our bill came to $28. When we questioned our server she said the drinks we ordered weren't included in happy hour prices!
Austin S.
We never leave ratings, since my wife and I are very easy to please. We never have that bad of experiences at restaurants in Cedar Rapids, since everything is usually about the same, which is average. Well White Star is below that average, especially when you factor in prices. We had reservations for a Friday night around 6pm. Only a couple other people were there. More surprising was that they sat us in the bar area with wicker seats. Didn't think to say anything, since assumed it was for a staffing issue, but after we saw people were sat in the dining area. Drinks were too strong for us to drink. Maybe more due to ordering one from the happy hour menu, which maybe uses cheaper liquor or mixes. Cheaper, so didn't care to say anything, and waitress was very nice. Pasta was actually pretty good, but the grilled chicken was a little on the burnt side and took away from the pasta. Maybe wouldn't care as much if it wasn't for the prices. White Star used to be my families favorite place. Family birthdays, special occasions and more. Won't return. Too many other good places even just downtown CR to risk it again. Too bad, since desperately wanted to ignore other reviews and comments by friends and family. Follow-up: Didn't realize the restaurant is now up for sale for cheap. Makes sense now. Wish I knew before eating here.
Rebecca Smith
Just ordered the burger. Left items off. The side of mac and cheese was cold. The fries were cold. Best part were the sautéed onions, nothing else good to say. I did return the burger to get the extras put on. When we received our food, we ordered a second round of drinks. They didn't come until we were done eating. And it was wrong. We just wanted to leave after the disappointing food and drink service.
Carey Daniel
One of the best burgers I've had in long time. And the bread pudding was very good. Ask for the server Ella. She was delightful!
Brook Sternberg
We visited on 7/29/22. We arrived about 7pm for dinner, the place was dead. Should have been our sign to leave. The kitchen was SLOW. Took just about 60 minutes to get my tacos and my husbands salmon wrap. Tacos were meh, my husband liked his salmon wrap. Waiter was friendly but not around much. We were super disappointed overall and its pretty pricey. We left about 8:15pm and not one person was at the bar…on a Friday night!It’s a hard pass for me, I would not recommend to anyone. We have too many great restaurants in Cedar Rapids to ever go back to White Star. Too bad, since we really enjoyed the place pre-COVID 2020.
Shambavi K.
Nope. Service was very slow, food was unimpressive. 5 of us came here for a dinner about 1.5hrs before heading to a musical show near by. We even gave the staff notice that we had a show to catch. We kept turning our heads as every order came out expect ours since other tables where getting their food. Wait staff didn't provide any reason and only mentioned that it will out soon (but it didn't). The place was maybe a 1/3 full at most. When our order arrived, we asked for check right away and had to rush to eat everything in 15 min. The ribeye which was supposed be medium rare was very raw still. The sides were meh. smashed potatoes were lacking flavor (or just salt). My salmon was over cooked and burnt/chewy. We had to remind the waitstaff about the soup that was ordered. 3 of us ordered poached pear salad which was meh. I liked the quinoa in it but nothing impressive. When we got the check, the prices were higher than the menu prices. The space is classy and dimly lit but management needs a wake up call.
Very pleasing atmosphere. Sound dampening makes the restaurant and bar quieter than in the past.I had the baked salmon over mango rice. Exceptional flavor. This beer list is extensive. I would definitely recommend. I look forward to return visits
Brita R.
I went to dinner with family at White Star Ale House. There were 6 of us and 2 of us got the Poached Pear Salad with chicken. I got my Poached Pear Salad with a side of Baked Beans. My boyfriend ordered the Wedge Chicken Caesar Salad and did not like the way his salad was served on such a large wedge, rather than other wedge salads that he's had in the past. Another ordered the Char Siu Pork Chops and another ordered the Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwich and another ordered the Baked Salmon (which I was told was overdone). Half of us ordered wine and the other half ordered from their craft beer list and all of us were content with the drinks we ordered. The only thing was that when we ordered our second round of drinks, our waiter seemed to forget about our order, so we ended up having to ask another waiter about our drink order. Mostly everyone enjoyed their meals. The waiter was very friendly along with being funny and personable, which was nice to see. It was prom night for some schools when we went and our waiter was nice enough to get our orders in before the big groups of teenagers ordered. The decor was nice and the atmosphere was calm and serene. Overall, pretty decent average experience.
katebA5003EU
Average. First time coming back since reopening. Limited menu. Burger was good, but the options that used to be delicious were not great. Could have been an off night, but we were 1 of only ~3 tables. White star used to be a favorite of ours - disappointing this time around. Will give it some time before we return.
egkosek
A made reservations for Easter Brunch. We some us arrived early and we were seated promptly and were told that they were still setting up which was fine because part of our party didn’t arrive Until the actual reservation time. We had already ordered drinks before the others arrived and they ordered drinks also and the meal service was announced at that time. We all visited a short time before proceeding to the buffet. When we got our food it was lukewarm the buffet was setup in random order Cole slaw and potato salad by the deserts etc. To top it off we were asked to vacate our table less than 1/2 hour after our scheduled reservation. I would not recommend this restaurant for holiday brunches as the planning and execution were very poor.
Fay Nihart
This restaurant does not even deserve a 1-star rating. It took an hour to get our food and it was terrible! The Mac and Cheese had tons of chunks of pork fat in it. The “Egg Roles” were cold. Our server disappeared 10 minutes before our food came out and we never saw him again. We had to ask another server for our bill after waiting a long time when we were finished.
VERY limited menu. Not the restaurant it used to be . Hardly anyone there at 7:30 yet it took too long to get a drink.My husband had the salad with chicken and the chicken breast was dry, overcooked and rubbery. When we told the waitress she really had nothing to say. Poor for an $18 salad.My quesadilla was good. But not something I would usually order.
We went to White Star on Sunday night. There was a comedian in town and every place was packed but White Star. We walked in and had to ask someone to seat us as no one noticed us, We were seated and our waiter came over fairly quickly. We actually put in our order at the same time he offered to take our drink order. There was a limited menu so we ordered off that.We knew we only had about an hour and 15 minutes to eat before we had to go to the comedian. We ordered our food at 5:50pm. By 6:30 we still did not have our food, okay fine- we assumed we would get our food soon, scarf it down and go. Our waiter checked in a few times, got my husband another beer and then he was running around with his other tables. I only saw one other waiter and the place was getting more and more busy as we waited. By 6:55, over an hour after ordering our food, we flagged the waiter down and told him we needed to leave and how much longer would our food be. He checked with the kitchen and it would be 15 more minutes, making our wait for food almost an hour and 30 minutes. We ended up asking for our check and leaving, haven't eaten anything at all. I know every place is understaffed but waiting almost an hour and a half for food, then never getting it to eat because it took so long, is totally unacceptable. We felt awful for our waiter, so we left him a big tip after paying for our beers and then went to the show and at nachos at the show since we were starving. Again, I understand there are staffing issues, but this is completely ridiculous. We love White Star and their food but it's just not the same, as I know this never would have been acceptable last year or the year before.
The restaurant is located in an old nostalgic building. Our server Hannah was excellent. The on tap beer selection is wonderful! We dined on the calamari, Lamb shank, chicken and Monterey burger. The food was really good and the price was about half of what we would have paid in the Chicago area. I was happy. We both ordered the steak under restaurant week. Was a beautiful blue cheese potato side along with the perfectly cooked steak. Stick to the beer, cocktails were a little unbalanced. Service was awesome. Environment was relaxed and styled.
The restaurant is located in an old nostalgic building. Our server Hannah was excellent. The on tap beer selection is wonderful! We dined on the calamari, Lamb shank, chicken and Monterey burger. The food was really good and the price was about half of what we would have paid in the Chicago area. I was happy.
Horrible experience! We went for their happy hour and bought two drinks and a pint of beer. We were told it was happy hour and drinks were half off but our bill came to $28. When we questioned our server she said the drinks we ordered weren't included in happy hour prices!
We never leave ratings, since my wife and I are very easy to please. We never have that bad of experiences at restaurants in Cedar Rapids, since everything is usually about the same, which is average. Well White Star is below that average, especially when you factor in prices. We had reservations for a Friday night around 6pm. Only a couple other people were there. More surprising was that they sat us in the bar area with wicker seats. Didn't think to say anything, since assumed it was for a staffing issue, but after we saw people were sat in the dining area. Drinks were too strong for us to drink. Maybe more due to ordering one from the happy hour menu, which maybe uses cheaper liquor or mixes. Cheaper, so didn't care to say anything, and waitress was very nice. Pasta was actually pretty good, but the grilled chicken was a little on the burnt side and took away from the pasta. Maybe wouldn't care as much if it wasn't for the prices. White Star used to be my families favorite place. Family birthdays, special occasions and more. Won't return. Too many other good places even just downtown CR to risk it again. Too bad, since desperately wanted to ignore other reviews and comments by friends and family. Follow-up: Didn't realize the restaurant is now up for sale for cheap. Makes sense now. Wish I knew before eating here.
Just ordered the burger. Left items off. The side of mac and cheese was cold. The fries were cold. Best part were the sautéed onions, nothing else good to say. I did return the burger to get the extras put on. When we received our food, we ordered a second round of drinks. They didn't come until we were done eating. And it was wrong. We just wanted to leave after the disappointing food and drink service.
One of the best burgers I've had in long time. And the bread pudding was very good. Ask for the server Ella. She was delightful!
We visited on 7/29/22. We arrived about 7pm for dinner, the place was dead. Should have been our sign to leave. The kitchen was SLOW. Took just about 60 minutes to get my tacos and my husbands salmon wrap. Tacos were meh, my husband liked his salmon wrap. Waiter was friendly but not around much. We were super disappointed overall and its pretty pricey. We left about 8:15pm and not one person was at the bar…on a Friday night!It’s a hard pass for me, I would not recommend to anyone. We have too many great restaurants in Cedar Rapids to ever go back to White Star. Too bad, since we really enjoyed the place pre-COVID 2020.
Nope. Service was very slow, food was unimpressive. 5 of us came here for a dinner about 1.5hrs before heading to a musical show near by. We even gave the staff notice that we had a show to catch. We kept turning our heads as every order came out expect ours since other tables where getting their food. Wait staff didn't provide any reason and only mentioned that it will out soon (but it didn't). The place was maybe a 1/3 full at most. When our order arrived, we asked for check right away and had to rush to eat everything in 15 min. The ribeye which was supposed be medium rare was very raw still. The sides were meh. smashed potatoes were lacking flavor (or just salt). My salmon was over cooked and burnt/chewy. We had to remind the waitstaff about the soup that was ordered. 3 of us ordered poached pear salad which was meh. I liked the quinoa in it but nothing impressive. When we got the check, the prices were higher than the menu prices. The space is classy and dimly lit but management needs a wake up call.
Restaurantji Recommends
Very pleasing atmosphere. Sound dampening makes the restaurant and bar quieter than in the past.I had the baked salmon over mango rice. Exceptional flavor. This beer list is extensive. I would definitely recommend. I look forward to return visits
I went to dinner with family at White Star Ale House. There were 6 of us and 2 of us got the Poached Pear Salad with chicken. I got my Poached Pear Salad with a side of Baked Beans. My boyfriend ordered the Wedge Chicken Caesar Salad and did not like the way his salad was served on such a large wedge, rather than other wedge salads that he's had in the past. Another ordered the Char Siu Pork Chops and another ordered the Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwich and another ordered the Baked Salmon (which I was told was overdone). Half of us ordered wine and the other half ordered from their craft beer list and all of us were content with the drinks we ordered. The only thing was that when we ordered our second round of drinks, our waiter seemed to forget about our order, so we ended up having to ask another waiter about our drink order. Mostly everyone enjoyed their meals. The waiter was very friendly along with being funny and personable, which was nice to see. It was prom night for some schools when we went and our waiter was nice enough to get our orders in before the big groups of teenagers ordered. The decor was nice and the atmosphere was calm and serene. Overall, pretty decent average experience.
Average. First time coming back since reopening. Limited menu. Burger was good, but the options that used to be delicious were not great. Could have been an off night, but we were 1 of only ~3 tables. White star used to be a favorite of ours - disappointing this time around. Will give it some time before we return.
A made reservations for Easter Brunch. We some us arrived early and we were seated promptly and were told that they were still setting up which was fine because part of our party didn’t arrive Until the actual reservation time. We had already ordered drinks before the others arrived and they ordered drinks also and the meal service was announced at that time. We all visited a short time before proceeding to the buffet. When we got our food it was lukewarm the buffet was setup in random order Cole slaw and potato salad by the deserts etc. To top it off we were asked to vacate our table less than 1/2 hour after our scheduled reservation. I would not recommend this restaurant for holiday brunches as the planning and execution were very poor.
This restaurant does not even deserve a 1-star rating. It took an hour to get our food and it was terrible! The Mac and Cheese had tons of chunks of pork fat in it. The “Egg Roles” were cold. Our server disappeared 10 minutes before our food came out and we never saw him again. We had to ask another server for our bill after waiting a long time when we were finished.