Mac’s Cafe & Restaurant

Rochester, United States

2.9

Closed now

20 reviews

Accepts Credit Cards
Free Wi-Fi

Contacts

QR code, vCard

Telephone:
+1 507-289-4219
Website:
www.eatmacs.com
Address:
20 1st St SW, Rochester, MN, 55902
Nearby public transportation stops & stations:
810 ftDowntown Transit Center
0.3 miN Broadway Ave & 5th St NW
0.4 miN Broadway Ave & 6th St NW
Categories:
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Bussiness info

Takes Reservations
Yes
Delivery
No
Take-out
Yes
Accepts Credit Cards
Yes
Good For
Lunch
Parking
Garage, Street
Bike Parking
Yes
Wheelchair Accessible
Yes
Good for Kids
Yes
Good for Groups
Yes
Attire
Casual
Ambience
Casual
Noise Level
Average
Alcohol
Beer & Wine Only
Outdoor Seating
Yes
Wi-Fi
Free
Has TV
No
Waiter Service
Yes
Caters
Yes

Today

Today 6:00 am – 10:00 pm
Closed now
Local time (Rochester) 5:35 AM Tuesday, June 24, 2025

Business hours

Monday 6:00 am – 10:00 pm
Tuesday 6:00 am – 10:00 pm
Wednesday 6:00 am – 10:00 pm
Thursday 6:00 am – 10:00 pm
Friday 6:00 am – 10:00 pm
Saturday 7:00 am – 10:00 pm
Sunday 7:00 am – 10:00 pm

Description

Specialties

Mac’s Café and Restaurant is retro and modern entwined. Mac’s has been and still is a food staple in Rochester’s’ center landscape.

Our downtown restaurant has over 60 years experience, mastering the balance of beneficial local clean foods, culinary art and fast friendly service for all customers. We make the basics taste beautiful.

History

Established in 1949.

Mac’s Café and Restaurant in downtown Rochester has been serving remarkably natural foods at an affordable price for over 60 years. We service innovative and traditional American meals and authentic Mediterranean cuisines.

Mac’s is owned and managed by a local family. Most of the employees have worked at the restaurant for over 10 years. George Psomas is third generation owner. Mr. Psomas frequently travels through America and to Europe for food training and brings back new ideas to his customers. So, you don’t have to travel far to enjoy authentic food. Although George has been corporate trained, he prefers to personalize the atmosphere as casual and inviting.

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20 reviews of Mac’s Cafe & Restaurant

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Place rating: 3
Rochester, MN
If you have some time to kill and you’re looking for some good family style cooking, Mac’s is the place to go. They have a great selection of food on their menu. I love their meat loaf and mac’n’cheese. However, if you are planning on getting anything beyond what you would normally have to eat at home, you’re better off choosing another restaurant. They fall extremely short on anything over the basics. Plus their wait staff is slow, unresponsive, and often rude. However, once you get your food, as long as you don’t need anything else brought to you, you can expect a great dinner.
Place rating: 1
Hornell, NY
Due to favorable reviews I was looking forward to a quality breakfast. This was not the case. Although my husband said his pancakes were very good, my fruit cup consisted of only of sliced strawberries and blueberries that resembled raisins, one had mold growing on it. The menu lists a selection of teas, however the server offered only 3 types, none were decaffeinated or herbal. The restrooms were filthy, out of toilet tissue and require taking an elevator to the basement and meandering along a dirty hallway.
Place rating: 4
Rochester, MN
Nice quaint café. I had the veggie omelet which I would recommend. It was very good but the toast was soggy. This is a nice location for mayo guests and employees, right on the peace plaza and its affordable.
Place rating: 2
Rochester, MN
Went there with a group of eight friends.
My main problem with the place on that specific night was the server, she had no idea what the menu has and couldn’t answer most of our questions and sometimes gave us wrong answers and when she brought our meals she was naming different meals so she distributed our meals all wrong among our table. Not to mention the extremely long time we had to wait for our meals to arrive.
And after all the mistakes she made they automatically added 18 or 20% tip since it was a big group! Seriously you mess up all the way and don’t even apologize then you get a huge tip just for serving a big group! Good strategy!!!
Also the food was nothing to write home about! Bland and tasteless.
I would stay away from dining here but might only buy the gyro wrap when the Thursdays on first are back.
Place rating: 1
Arlington, VA
Went twice, on both occasions the service was slow and clueless. First lunch, brown wilted lettuce in my «greek» salad; minimum feta, flavorless olives, weak dressing, and gyro meat bland. Only saving feature was the tadziki sauce. Next breakfast; after repeating my order back to me the waiter still got it wrong. Rather than jumping to correct the error he made excuses. Never got it right and we left. The manger did comp breakfast after we complained.
Place rating: 2
Rochester, MN
Service was painfully slow for breakfast, and there was a large chunk of flour or other powdery substance in my lemon ricotta pancakes, which were nowhere close to the fluffy ones sold at Hells Kitchen in MPLS. $ 7 for a glass of orange juice? Total breakfast for one person came to $ 24. Unimpressed and the only time I will dine at macs.
Place rating: 3
El Paso, TX
Good food for breakfast had the short stack with ham. Was tasty. My wife had the veggie omelette. Also very good. Good portions
Place rating: 4
Rochester, MN
My favorite dish at Mac’s is the fig and honey chicken salad — it has warm roasted chicken, greens, onions, feta, and comes with a scrumptious fig/​honey vinaigrette dressing and warm pita bread. I’ve had it at least three times already and it is excellent each time.
Place rating: 2
Turtle Lake, WI
Nice location, the Gyros were average (on the dry side as they were underdressed with onions, tomatoes and tzatziki) friendly but slow service. Meh…
Place rating: 1
Minneapolis, MN
This resturant has a great location but food that is below average served by untrained staff. About every five years I give them another try and they fail!
Place rating: 3
Minneapolis, MN
This is a rating for my overall experience. My gyro deserved a 4.5 stars.
We ordered a gyro and burger to go. We kept busy for 10 minutes then came back in. The place was not busy at all. We were ignored for another 10 minutes. The one guy that was helping us was at the register ringing up some people. Our food was sitting there while 4 other servers who knew exactly what we ordered were just walking in back and forth, one of them even passed by our food twice and didn’t bother giving it to us. We finally took it and left.
The gyro was delicious but lacked veggies, only a little bit of tomato which isn’t enough. I didn’t like the service, so won’t go out of my way to come here.
Place rating: 4
Prior Lake, MN
Pleasant staff and I was able to order a gyro to go at 6 pm. The gyro was delicious. The tomato was a tad on the grody side — but the gryo meat more than made up for that. I wish I had enough time to eat there because the sidewalk seating looked comfy and neat as a pin; itwould have been great to people watch while dining.
Place rating: 3
Lake Bluff, IL
How does a greek restaurant not have greek dressing for a greek salad? So I settled for a turkey club. I must admit the sandwich was enjoyable, thick sliced turkey, ample bacon, so much so that I only ate half the sandwich. Thus, a togo box was in order. Asked the waiter if i could please have two fresh pieces of bread so I could toast and recreate the sandwich. Much to my dismay, I was in disbelieve when I saw a $ 3.50 charge for 2pieces of toast and jelly, I need to note that I did not even get the jelly, just two pieces of bread. Yes, $ 3.50 for two pieces of bread to go. When asked about the charge the best the waiter could do was say «yes thats correct, sorry,» and then swiped my card. I shall leave it up to you, the food was good. However, attitude and…
Place rating: 3
Midtown, Detroit, MI
Average diner with a standard American menu. If it is repaired very quickly in the waitstaff was very polite as is everyone in the state
Place rating: 4
Selma, IN
For breakfast we had Greek omelettes and they were fantastic. The coffee was good too.
Place rating: 5
Lake Linden, MI
The service was excellent, i recommend going there for breakfast and getting the quiche and rice best breakfast I’ve had in awhile!
Place rating: 1
Rochester, MN
I wish I could give it zero stars, if that was an option. We went there for lunch on a Friday and it was not crowded at all.
Placed orders for 2 simple things from the menu, a veggie omelette and a chicken breast with a side greek salad. The salad was out in a couple minutes, and then the wait began. We waited for over 35 minutes for our order, and it did not show up. Adjacent tables who ordered in front of us, finished their meals, paid and left and our meals did not arrive. We asked our servers a few times and we got the answer that it was going to be 5 more minutes every time.
Unfortunately, we had to leave as it was time to get back to work. As we were leaving, they said, Its by the window now, you can have it on the house. We left.
I would highly recommend to avoid this place, unless you want you breakfast orders to arrive for lunch and lunch orders to arrive for dinner.
Place rating: 4
Santa Fe, NM
Enjoyed the fresh Greek salads and hummus cake with pita bread. Having traveled to Greece we really liked the freshness in their salads and Mac’s did not disappoint. They also make a nice gyro lamb sandwich with great tasting french fries. They served Hess wines which were fine.
They have a variety of American comfort dishes too including open face turkey sandwiches, burgers, etc. I only tried one American entrée and I did not care for it — Texas style chili.
I liked the quiet, unhurried atmosphere for lunch. Their breakfasts were rated best in Rochester so I look forward to trying them. I recommend them for lunch.
Place rating: 4
Chatham, IL
Classic diner food meets Thessaloniki at Mac’s Restaurant in downtown Rochester. What else can you do but to order the Greek omelet? Filled with yummy Gyro meet, topped with a portion of Tzatziki sauce, this lunch order hit the mark! Plated with hash browns and toast to make it complete.
Great views of the Peace Plaza and the Barnes and Noble /​Château Theater. Stop in to the Barnes and Noble and look around this historic building. Make sure to ask for a handout on the history of the building to get a full appreciation of this unique theater which premiered the movie classic «Gone With the Wind» in 1940.
Place rating: 4
Austin, TX
I’m going to retract my initial so-​so review because we have made Mac’s a regular weekend breakfast deal. My usual is the lemon ricotta pancakes and hashbrowns (fruit if I’m being strong), and my husband gets eggs, toast, and bacon or sausage. Their food is dependably good and quick. The atmosphere is nice and relaxing, and the staff is super friendly.
The only other thing I’ve gotten besides my usual breakfast meal was the Salmon Cranberry Walnut Salad, and it was sooooooo good. The dressing could be poured on ice cream and eaten as dessert.
Love Mac’s! Looking forward to this weekend for breakfast =)