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Charley Brown's Restaurant - Steakhouse in Rochester, New York

Charley Brown's Restaurant

4.5 (491 reviews)

1675 Penfield Rd, Rochester, NY 14625

Italian restaurant
Restaurant

About Charley Brown's Restaurant - steak house in Rochester, New York

Intimate, old-fashioned locale with traditional American & Italian comfort fare, plus a full bar.

Customer Review Summary

Charley Brown's Restaurant receives high praise for its great food and fantastic service. Many reviews highlight the delicious calamari and steaks, with a well-executed menu and timely service. The atmosphere is pleasant, though some noted it could be too dim for reading menus. While some guests recommend specific dishes like chicken French and veal liver, others were disappointed by bland flavors and overpriced options. Overall, the restaurant is recommended for its service and certain menu items but could improve on seasoning to cater to all tastes.

Key Features

Service options

  • Takeout
  • Dine-in

Highlights

  • Great beer selection
  • Great cocktails
  • Great coffee
  • Great dessert
  • Great tea selection
  • Great wine list

Popular for

  • Lunch
  • Dinner
  • Solo dining

Accessibility

  • Wheelchair accessible entrance
  • Wheelchair accessible parking lot
  • Wheelchair accessible restroom
  • Wheelchair accessible seating

Offerings

  • Alcohol
  • Beer
  • Cocktails
  • Coffee
  • Comfort food
  • Food
  • Happy hour drinks
  • Happy hour food
  • Hard liquor
  • Healthy options
  • Wine

Dining options

  • Lunch
  • Dinner
  • Catering
  • Dessert
  • Seating

Amenities

  • Bar onsite
  • Restroom

Atmosphere

  • Casual
  • Cozy
  • Romantic
  • Upscale

Crowd

  • Groups

Planning

  • Dinner reservations recommended
  • Accepts reservations

Payments

  • Credit cards
  • Debit cards
  • NFC mobile payments

Children

  • High chairs

Parking

  • Free parking lot
  • Free street parking

Customer Reviews

Rating Distribution

4.5 out of 5
5
330
4
95
3
39
2
11
1
16
Based on 491 reviews

Dave “Doodles” Newman

9 months ago

5 stars all around! I forgot how good this place really is! Party of 4. Drinks, steaks, and King crab legs. The calamari was the best I've had in a while. All awesome, tender, done as ordered. My filet, done perfect, the knife sliced thru it almost as if it were butter. The crab legs, moist and delicious. Side of rice, not dry, very good to. Our waitress, sorry, I forgot your name, made rounds in a timely fashion, did not have to wait for waters or drinks. The perfect dinner, the perfect night. Don't stop... we'll be back! 30-50 per. Much more with crab legs, of course.

Andy Litzinger

Was in tonight with a large party and a toddler. Our waitress was fantastic. Great food recommendations. It's been years since I have been and man I wish I had come back sooner. Food and staff are fabulous. Highly recommend. Highly recommend the veal liver

Disa Baylis

Good food, fantastic service. Dining room is a little dark to read the menu or bilk for those with aging eyesight. Great early bird specials. Fantastic chicken French. Fills up nightly, so recommend reservations.

Brent Null

1 year ago

First time in Rochester and decided to hit up a local place. This was the closest one that popped up in my search. Read the reviews and thought I'd give it a shot. Happy I did. Nice selection of wines by the glass. Mostly Italian cuisine. Settled on the Calamari appetizer and Spaghetti Carbonara for dinner. Both were delicious! The Calamari was crispy on the outside with nice, tender rings. The Carbonara was rich and creamy. Been in business 55 years. Good reason why they've been around that long.

Karena Witherow

My fiancée and I had randomly stumbled cross this restaurant a couple years ago. He had ordered the fried chicken, and was so impressed with it he's been talking about it since. Well we decided to come here for his birthday. Unfortunately they don't have the chicken anymore, so ended up getting something else. While service was great, everything was very bland and have very little flavor. The salad is just a spring mix with one tomato and nothing else. I got chicken parm and he got baked ziti and both were bland and disappointing. Not that the food was awful, but definitely overpriced for very little seasoning.

Jennifer D

5 years ago

First time coming here. The food was delicious! I ordered the burger with a side of french fries and my sister ordered pasta with red sauce which came with a side salad. The atmosphere was very nice and so was the service. I would definitely come here again. If you have a large party, I'd suggest calling ahead and making a reservation as the restaurant is small and fills up fast!

Joanne G Bauman

1 year ago

Wonderful service... Phyllis was great... very pleasant, friendly and professional. The special chicken and Biscuits was best I've ever had anywhere.... 2st time having here. He had the turkey dinner and perfect & delicious as always. Highly recommended

Brian Wlazlak

While the location isn't the most upscale from the outside, Charley Brown's has done a very impressive job making the interior feel very upscale. The service is solid and waitstaff are courteous. Unfortunately though, the food seems to be aimed exclusively at the aged clientele with offensively bland, unseasoned food. For the prices charged, I was appalled by how tasteless my steak, potatoes, and soup were. The same can be said for my wife's food, also incredibly bland. Neither of our steaks had any semblance of a crust, and it was clear, the usage of salt, pepper, or any other seasoning was heavily rationed in the kitchen. All in all, this place would be absolutely lovely if they made food with actual flavor, instead of charging over $100 for a couples' dinner's worth of unseasoned ingredients.

Location

Contact Information

Hours of Operation

Friday 4–9 PM
Monday 4–8 PM
Saturday 4–9 PM
Sunday 4–8 PM
Thursday 4–8 PM
Tuesday 4–8 PM
Wednesday 4–8 PM

Price Range

$$