All reviews

RIT Dining Commons by Vivian

RIT Crossroads "Roadie Plate."

Mark's Texas Hots by Jared

Went with a friend - you wouldn't know her, she goes to another school. We both got the standard two burger plate, loaded up with fries, mac salad, meat sauce, onions, mustard. The meat sauce was definitely on the light side, it blended in with the burger and I really didn't know it was there. The fries were hot and crunchy, and provided a delicious contrast to the soft coolness of the mac salad. They could have used a bit more salt however. The burgers were excellent. They tasted great and like they were made with love. What meat sauce was there was flavorful and zesty, giving a much appreciated "oomph" to the plate that could be relieved with a bite of the mac. The side of bread was a nice touch. The atmosphere of the establishment was quaint - similar to an old style diner. It definitely added to the experience. The waitstaff were very friendly and prompt. We had leftovers and couldn't finish. When reheated, they stood the test of time and were still delicious some days later. Would go again.

Chef's Catering by GB

http://www.chefscater.com/

Cub Room by RalphBean

A classy, balanced plate. The meat sauce assists in all elements. This three-side plate is a blend of pleasures. The mac salad is al dente, yielding needed bite and texture. The home fries are delicately seasoned. The crispy pancetta in the baked beans is a kingly surprise. The burger comes smothered under a luscious, jammy duck egg. My favorite in Rochester; I am surprised at my surprise.

Ken's Pizza Corner Brighton by Ray of Sunshine

I ordered delivery and therefore did not have the in-restaurant experience. Hopefully this did not ruin what could have been a perfectly good plate. When I got the plate, I found a deceptively nice top layer of meat. Beneath this, however, was absolutely drenched by the mac salad. The quality of meat simply could not make up for the sheer wetness that the plate had in store. For the already high base price of $11, I expected to get something more cohesive than what arrived.

Atlas Kitchen and Lounge by Chris Lockfort

I loved this plate, but I recognize it might be divisive among plate-goers. It's a lovely plate, available in small and large sizes. I imagine the sticking point for some people is going to be that the hot sauce definitely veers from "tradition". Forgoing a meat-and-spice heavy "hot" sauce, the default drenching material here is an Italian-y tomato sauce with I think shredded parmesan cheese. It's more like a plate and a primary school pasta lunch had babies. I consider this a good thing; it was a delicious combo and still remained true to the essential lower-class garbage plate feel in every way. Other pros include being fairly cheap and having an okay draught selection.

Buffalo's Famous by Chris Lockfort

Tiny place, mostly just for people to get takeout from. Good plate! - Slightly spicier hot sauce than normal - Darker, crunchier fries - Mac salad had somewhat more veggie bits included than most plate places. - Red Hot on the table was pretty watery

585 Rockin Burger Bar by Remy D

Usually, I like to pick and choose my plate experience. Alternating between Mac and fry and burger, periodically cleansing the palate with bread, you know, choosing my own plateventure. The breading ofcourse was phenomenal, but the onions were kept in longer, thicker cuts to buttress the internal structure--an architectural necessity you see, so I don't fault them for that. Same goes for the homogeneity of the plate internals, rising to the challenge of delivering a spherical plate requires some compromises be made in the name of science. The overall taste and delivery is a must try, but be warned, the ball is *massive* If you're planning on going solo, it may get a bit monotonous. For the faint of heart, perhaps the smaller variety would be for you, though most of the hardcore fans reading here would likely opt for the real McCoy ;) I'd give it a solid 9.5/10, with the extra bonus .5 point for the breading. Their meat sauce had that familiar sweet aroma you'd expect from a proper Nick's or Mark's plate, so they really nailed that quintessential element that can easily be botched. My test for how well made a plate is, is how long I can eat it before I go for the ketchup. This one made it nearly to the end before I needed to add anything. Would plate again 💯

Daddy-O by Chris Lockfort

Excellent plate, especially given the Manhattan location! A little too fancy ingredients at times, and somewhat expensive, but this place definitely must be run by a Rochester ex-pat or something; walk in to the bar, hockey on the TV, you can get a plate, you can get Zweigel white and red hots, and they put out a bottle of Franks when you order a plate.

Dogtown by Gus Spiegelman

I went for the Triple Threat, and it was fantastic. My only complaint is that the hot sauce isn't actually hot sauce. It's Cincinnati Chili. Though the chili is good, it lacks heat and the signature Rochester Hot Sauce taste.

The Scotch House Pub by Tera Reynolds

Their garbage plate has french fries, mac & cheese, a half pound burger, bacon and Scotch House sauce

Galleria Pizza by John Merideth

Saddest Plate I have ever tried. Over spiced with non-complimentary flavors. The meat was tough and overdone, weird, as Galleria tends to have a good burger. The hot sauce tastes like it was pour from a can, with maybe some hot pepper added, resulting in some flavors that did not agree. Fries were cold. The worst offender in this plate has to be the mac salad, which was just a mishmash of competing flavors that did not mix well with both each other and the rest of the plate.

Penfield Hots by Dad & Sonya

Went here randomly on a Tuesday at about 2:00 pm, after seeing the review here and have to agree. We were both pleasantly surprised. Burger while thin still had good flavor. Not our favorite burger (which is MacGregor's), but good enough and satisfying. Most important the Hot Sauce (while a little salty alone) was quite good, not real spicy but just enough and the saltiness matched the nice crisp home fries which were appropriately un-salted. Mac salad slightly moister than others but blended well with the rest of the plate. Definitely liked it. They don't take credit cards, but have a ATM. Our server was very own cool and gave us a free fountain drink $2 value), for using the ATM, which required a $2.50 fee. Very smart way to handle that and it kept us from walking out as I had no cash on me! Down to earth decour nice but not fancy but clean and neat. Definitely will return again!

Vintage Drive-In by Cliff

Note: This is actually in Avon, NY, not Rochester proper. The drive in food experience here was very lackluster, with a new staff with little guidance, and the food itself being underwhelming. Stay away from the donuts. As for the plate itself, it completely lacked any amount of hots sauce whatsoever. Small, overdone burger patties with a small smattering of onions and peppers thrown haphazardly on top.

Mise en Place by Fernando

Delicious Garbage plate! Gourmet ingredients + grilling the burgers right then + freshly fried fries = WIN!!!!!

Penfield Hots by Matt Dana

Moved to Penfield two years ago and immediately assessed my plate options. Penfield Hots is the best of the nearby plate joints. It's a tiny place; usually (in my experience) there's just one employee there. They make a good honest plate that sticks to the classic Tahou's style. Portion size is good, burgers and mac/HF are good, and most critically the sauce is excellent.

Mark's Texas Hots by Chris

The Char Plate is so far my favorite of all plates. I moved here just a few years ago, and have tried many plates. This one is fantastic. Both the mac salad and the home fries are incredibly moist and seasoned well. The cheeseburger is fantastic, as is the hot sauce. The plate is loaded - a ton of food.

Sticky Lips BBQ by Chase

I asked for an all fry, hamburger plate with no onions or mustard. I got back a cheeseburger plate with onions. The fries were bland and there weren't a lot of them. The only redeeming part of the meal was the cornbread.

MacGregor's Grill and Tap Room by fuhry

A well-assembled plate reflective of the quality nature of the restaurant it is served in. Unfortunately I'm not a fan of the single patty on a plate. It was a delicious burger, but I think for a plate, the thinner patties ala Mark's work best, because it allows for easier assembly of mouthfuls that include all three of fries, mac salad and burger. But I digress. The mac salad seemed a little oily but was full of flavor. Fries were similarly impressive: well-seasoned steak fries if a tad on the undercooked side. Hot sauce... I don't remember much. It was good. A little soupier which I like - it's supposed to be more than just ground beef. (I was a little inebriated from the Founder's Dirty Bastard Scotch Ale I had with the meal, or really before the meal because it took a while for the plate to get there. Since I had a very empty stomach, it hit pretty quickly.) No French bread, so cleaning your plate (or "taking out the garbage") isn't possible. Considering the quality of the ingredients I'd consider this plate a great value, though the portion is a bit big if you're going to MacGregor's for their amazing beer selection and hope to finish a pint or two alongside the plate. I probably could have finished it if I had not ordered a beer first. Response time: It took a while (maybe 20-30 minutes) but they were pretty busy that night. Served on a ceramic plate with proper silverware as you would expect from a sit-down restaurant.

Henrietta Hots by fuhry

In the past I've heard of Henny Hots, "avoid at all costs." With this expectation going in, I was not anticipating much, but was pleasantly surprised. Mac salad was not particularly flavorful but had the right texture and right ratio of veggie flecks and sauce to noodles. Fries were comparable to those of Five Guys without the spices - bigger cut than McDonald's, but again not much flavor. Burgers were thinner beef patties with white American cheese. No complaints. The hot sauce didn't have the heat of other Rochester hot sauces and didn't have much liquid to it. It was mostly just more beef. The in-house cayenne pepper sauce was comparable to Frank's, but was obviously a knock-off. This is a detractor for me since I usually eat all my plates with Frank's. Unlike previous accounts, I did not find Henrietta Hots' plate to be gross, or swimming in grease. There was the usual expected mayo/grease to mop up with the French bread, but it was no more than an average amount. Overall, while not too special, it was certainly a plate in every respect. Despite ordering it "for here", it was served in a styrofoam to-go container with plastic utensils.

MacGregor's Grill and Tap Room by Christian B.

Plate quality on par with the rest of MacGregor's excellent pub menu. Plate is smaller than your standard plate, (one burger only) but massive steak fries fill the gap. Mac salad had an unexpected but surprisingly good pepper kick. Service was slower than usually, but that was likely due to new wait staff. And of course, with MacGregor's excellent beer selection, you can a enjoy cold brew with a fresh plate.

Tom Wahl's by

Shockingly good plate with just the right amount of heat. Had with two cheeseburger patties, french fries, mac salad, everything on it.

Mark's Texas Hots by Reed

Absolutely great. Going with friends is awesome. Wait staff is on point and the food is quick to arrive. Not in the best part of town, but one or two trips later and its fine. Definitely will fill ya up!

Nick Tahou Hots - Main Street Location by Cliff Chapman

The one original and true claimant to the name "Garbage Plate". Picked up an Amazon Local coupon for here and decided to give it a shot with my girlfriend. I had not eaten anything before heading out for lunch, and thanks to a wonky sleep schedule this meant I had not eaten since around 5:00. We arrived at noon to the factory district right around noon with the expectation of a lunch rush, however parking behind the building showed just a few parked cars. The drive from the freeway was pleasant without much traffic. Entering through the rear door we were greeted with a very obviously old lunchroom with a jutting out counter, with a lunch bar and Subway-style booths about the room. The temperature was noticeably chilly even inside the restaurant, I never removed my jacket while I was in the building. Stepping up to the counter we perused the menu to find very simple diner food dishes, likely the menu had not changed since the last century. Not a wink of 'health food' about the place. The single microwave hidden along the back wall (next to the obviously well maintained fire suppression system) screamed 1990s style. Two plates, cheeseburger all fries, one without mustard, the other without onions, yes hots sauce. Processed the Amazon Local coupon and the total came out close to $20.50 for both of the plates and two small drinks. The plates arrived on cafeteria trays, sitting upon a simple paper plate. Plastic knives and forks laid next to the dish, along with french bread sitting on a second smaller plate. Two packets of butter and a napkin finished the arrangement. Moments later along came both drinks in simple plastic cups and ice up to the brim, some soda slinking between the crevices. We adjourned to a table in the middle of the room, hoping for some semblance of warmth leaking in from unseen heater vents. There were a handful of others about the room, keeping to their conversations or, when alone, to their lunch. A few regulars appeared, and struck up conversation with the 3-4 kitchen personnel always present. Ketchup was acquired from the same order counter when it was missed. Tom's hot sauce was not present where I could locate it. My plate was divided in the usual speed-consume fashion: the knife was applied liberally to all surfaces larger than a bite. During this operation the texture and cooking quality of the two patties was noted in detail. Though cooked fine, there was no pink nor life left in either one. It was clear that they had not been cooked to order, instead prepared and left to slowly leak it's juicy deliciousness into the air. This in no way meant it was inedible, but it certainly was not the best it could have been. The cheese appeared to be a simple American cheese, the obvious choice for a 'cheeseburger'. The onions were fresh if not plentiful, and on top sat the hots sauce. Normally, one would expect such sauce to be dripping about the food. When well prepared a good hots sauce eschews water for grease in its moisture content. This appeared to not be the case with the plate before me. Instead, I was left with chunks of meat slowly getting drier upon my cheeseburger. It was not readily apparent that the hots sauce was going to be a let down until my girlfriend spoke up first with her note of disappointment towards quality. It was then that I peered at her plate, as her method of consuming a plate is radically different than mine. Rather than pre-prepare the meal for consumption, she chooses each bite carefully, to optimize the deliciousness of the plate. Here halfway through the meal I could note the hots sauce sitting upon her burger and fries. There it had begun to dry into a light paste; barely could it be considered a sauce. The taste was something immediately noticeable as well. Though the grease could be noticed well it was missing the usual blast of taste that accompanies a meat-grease mixture such as hots sauce. Here we could taste only bland old meat and grease, there was no other spice or kick to be found. By no means should this be considered a deal breaker. Rather a critical lens through which the plate was viewed. In comparison to a Mark's plate, or a Greece Hots plate, the original Garbage Plate should have been much more to behold. Entering during lunch on a Wednesday we were expecting a bit of a rush that was semi-present, coupled with enough churning of ingredients to have a delicious plate prepared hot and recent. Instead the lunch rush was well prepared for, and the dearth of ingredient churn meant that we did not have a particularly hot nor prepared meal. We were left with the warmed remnants of dreams. Overall a bit of a letdown.

Fairport Hots by Bryson

Awesome place to get a plate on the east side of Rochester. They got a huge selection on choices plus a multitude of sizes that no other hots to my knowledge does such as Varsity 3 burgers/hots or the Godfather 4 burgers/hots. Food is serviced good even with lots of people in the place. Not a huge venue 30 people is definitely the most you could fit inside the place.

Dogtown by Dylan

Delicious plate. I've had the vegetarian and standard variety, and they always impress. Hands down favorite in Rochester.

Empire Hots by Hannah

Horizons at the Lodge at Woodcliff by fuhry

Good food, bad portioning. Price is about what you should expect for a venue like this. I answered "yes" to "French bread included" because, while French bread was not served with the plate itself, some pretty good dinner rolls were passed around with the salad before the main course came out.

Empire Hots by Jay

Their was a time I would have told you empire hots had the best plate, I grew up. The plates are okay but way to greasy the home fries get soggy. The mac salad is horrible. But not a bad place if your in the neighborhood and had a few adult beverages.

Bill Gray's Sea Breeze by Robert Glossop

Good beef, nice hot sauce; macaroni wasn't so good. Beef patties didn't fall apart as much as would be nice. Not half bad overall.

Irondequoit Hots by Sean

Crispy Home Fries, Perfect mac salad. Burgers are alright, kind of tough. Hot dogs are always very good. Always loaded up on the best hot sauce and onions!!

Hungry's by Jack

Frontier Field by Andy Fox

Home of the Rochester Red Wings AAA baseball team. Plates are offered at the Home Plate concessions on the third base side.

Jimmy Z's by Andy Fox

Bill Gray's Sea Breeze by Grant

A great place up on the lake with an Abbotts for desert!

Mikes New York Diner by Grant

Mikes was a nice place, but not for plates. Non-standard options were a surprise but were not to my liking. Heard good things about their breakfast foods though...

Jays Diner by Grant

Jays is a great place for breakfast foods 24x7. Unfortunately their plates are somewhat lacking.

Mark's Texas Hots by Grant

It's Marks.

Dogtown by Scot R

Fantastic selection, amazing quality.

Wimpys Burger basket by Kyle

Wimpys burger basket is a GREAT place for a plate. They have a great meat sauce as well as good mac salad. Unlimited fountain drinks if you eat inside as well as a magnitude of seasonings. The menu is also very vast so you can bring people who for some reason do not want or enjoy plates. My personal favorite is that they have the 3x2 and 4x2 plates which allow you to add more burger patties. Very filling but just as delicious. The only Con is the location, since it is right next to the middle and high school many teenagers are in there being loud in the evenings. Either way a very good option.

Steve T.'s Hots and Potatoes by Leeroy Jenkins

I've been going here since 1999, back before the Tahou family was feuding. The food quality seems to have gone downhill slightly since they renovated and cleaned up the place a few years ago. My plate is a "hamburg plate, mac homfries, everything". The mac salad today was a little sweeter than usual. Noticeably so. The home fries weren't super hot and crispy, but I did take it to go and I live about 3 miles away. All in all, it was a good plate. Kind of like old faithful. Steve T.'s will never let you down for a quality plate, although Nick's still does it better.

Empire Hots by Bob

The best plate in town IMO. Everything is top-notch. I always make a point whenever I am home to stop by and grab a plate.

RIT Dining Commons by fuhry

There are 3 places at RIT to get a plate: Commons, Crossroads and Brick City. Of the three, Commons is probably the best (although I've only had a Brick City plate once). Commons refers to it as the "Garbage Bowl" or "Commons Bowl."

Mark's Texas Hots by fuhry

What can I say? Mark's is where CSH celebrates everything. Best plates in town, hands down. They're friendly, open 24 hours, and always serve good portions. Sketchy part of town, but that's part of the experience.