The Downtown Exchange

My favorite place to hang out and eat, talk, and draw. The people here are friendly, and I'm so glad it exists for our community.

Awesome place. Multiple food vendors to chose from.

Was so excited to check this place out and left so disappointed! We should have known this place wasn’t good when it was almost empty at noon on a Saturday. The place looked like a ghost town. Oddly enough for being empty, it was hard to find a clean table. We are “foodies” and we tried a little bit of everything from each booth. Quality of food was downright awful. I think I could’ve better found food out of a dumpster. In fact, that’s just what we did, threw it in the trash and walked out. Spent more money there than I would have at a nice restaurant. I’ll never recommend and never be back.

😋 Yummy

My husband and I finally visited the Downtown Exchange today. We were greeted as soon as we walked in, which was really nice. We first ordered from the Taste of Greek vendor. I got a philly cheesesteak and my husband got a traditional lamb gyro which came with garlic parmesan fries. The total cost for both of our selections was $32. The man who took our order was very friendly. He was very hard to understand with his accent, but super nice, helpful and even brought our tray of food out to us. The fries were fresh, crispy and delicious! I only took two bites of my philly cheesesteak because I didn't like the spices nor texture of the meat. I understand that this is a Greek restaurant, but the cheesesteak was so different from any other one I've ever had. I'm guessing the meat was made with Greek spices, so obviously I must not prefer them. The meat was also more like the texture of ground beef instead of strips of steak. The bun also had grill marks on it so that probably didn't help the taste for me as I don't like grilled or charred items. I gave my sandwich to my husband, but he didn't like it either. My husband loves traditional gyros, so he was excited to taste his. It looked delicious with everything looking bright and fresh. After the first bite he said that the meat was dry and basically ruined the whole gyro. I took a bite and he was correct, the meat was dry so it was a bit tough. The sauce was very good though. I suggested that we select something sweet from the first vendor on the right, Bees Sweets & Treats which sells ice cream and sweets. I chose a blueberry cheesecake waffle cone and my husband chose a triple layer strawberry piece of cake. It was $10 for both. My blueberry cheesecake waffle cone was absolutely to die for! My husband agreed. They had several cones on display that were fancy because they were coated in chocolate or some other sweetness and sprinkled with sprinkles, etc. I was really looking forward to trying one of those fancy ones, but the girl never asked if I wanted anything extra. My husband's triple layer strawberry cake was very tasty but stale. He only took three bites saying that he'd heat it up at home in the microwave for 10 seconds and that might help it be more "moist" or at least soften it up. Both the younger girl and lady were extremely friendly and helpful, telling us that they offer tasting spoons. So, to sum up our visit; we will not be going back to the Greek vendor. Hopefully it was just a fluke of the cook to overcook the lamb for the gyro. If the meat had been tender and juicy, the gyro would've been awesome! The philly cheesesteak is probably great for anyone who likes Greek seasoning, so I'm definitely not saying it was a bad sandwich, I'm saying that I learned that I don't prefer Greek cheesesteak. But our meal was a little on the expensive side. The philly cheesesteaks at the mall food court are less expensive and more in line of what I'm used to. I would go back to the sweets vendor and try them again. Most people are not salespeople and feel uncomfortable when upselling as they don't want to come across as pushy. If I hadn't been distracted, I would've asked about the fancy cones myself, so next time I will! I believe next time I'll try the Hibachi vendor. I would've selected them this visit, but they must've been taking a short break when we first got there. The atmosphere was very casual and peaceful. I appreciated that it was quiet instead of having loud or distracting music. There are regular tables at the entrance area and in the outside area at the back. All of the tables in the middle are the high kind with tall chairs. I can't sit in the high chairs due to a temporary physical handicap, but my husband easily found a folding chair for me while we waited on our food. A very lovely lady told us goodbye, thanks for coming and have a wonderful day as we left.