Café Melissa — Restaurant in Avon Lake

We had never been here before and we're always looking for new places to try, so we gave Cafe Melissa a shot.

First impression: We walked in to no one greeting us (after standing around for several minutes).. No sign stating "wait to be seated", so we assumed it was a 'seat yourself' establishment, so that's what we did... The confused look on the waitresses faces and quick huddle while glancing over at us confirmed we had assumed wrong. Certainly not off to a good start.

Waitress: Our waitress was very nice and we liked her very much. I only wish I could remember her name to give her proper accolades here.

Food: I ordered the Belgian Pearl Sugar Waffles w/ crispy potatoes and peppercorn dressing. My wife had the Avacado Toast, which came with the same potatoes and dressing. I was extremely disappointed with mine. First, the small, individually wrapped butter 'cups' were still frozen and hard as a rock - and the waffles were nowhere near hot enough to even start to melt them. The waffles themselves were extremely dry (I didn't know waffles could be made that dry, but behold!). Every now and then I'd crunch down into a ball of raw sugar - ah, these must be the described 'pearls' in the dish's name. Not appealing or appetizing at all. I moved onto the potatoes - they were indeed crispy, and the parmesan cheese would have given it a delightful flavor, IF the potatoes had been fresh. They tasted like they'd been sitting around for several days and had an odd, unappealing flavor. The peppercorn dressing drizzled over the potatoes, on the other hand, was the best part of the meal! These had real potential to be fantastic - too bad.

I can't really speak to my wife's meal, aside from the "Eh" response she gave when I asked her how it was.

All in all, we 'may' give it another try and order from their lunch menu. Until then, I have no choice but to rate it 3 stars (our waitress is the reason for not...

I can't say enough about the food at Café Melissa... I met my husband there for a late birthday lunch and had as my appetizer the deep fried brussel sprouts in ponzu sauce! Let me tell you about these real quick Even if you don't like brussel sprouts you're going to love these! So delicious and it's something that I get every single time I go there I just can't get past how delicious they are! For my entree I had the pistachio encrusted grouper that was out of this world served on a bed of roasted sweet potatoes or maybe it was roasted butternut squash I can't tell it was delicious though with jicama slaw and peppers the sauce on it was phenomenal. Chef Matthew cooked to perfection as always!!! My husband had the southwestern Cobb salad which can be served with a protein He chose the crab cakes which he said were very good. All in all this was a fabulous birthday luncheon. Are waitress was on point always ready to come by and fill our water glasses and was very friendly and knowledgeable. The only downside was they used to serve this cake It was called birthday cake It was the best cake I've ever had in my life. I'm not sure if it was when they had sweet Melissa's bakery or if it was from an outside source but I wish somehow they could get it back because I would really love to taste that cake again. If you found my review helpful give it a thumbs up and go check out Cafe Melissa for yourself You will love it! P.S. honorable mention goes to another meal that you can get there which is the brick chicken but it does take 20 minutes or so extra it's so worth it it's deliciously juicy tasting amazing chicken that they literally hold down with a wrapped brick. It comes with macaroni and cheese and lemony...

Went in as a family group of about 9 people. A call in advance to let them know would really help the staff. Apparently that's what's preferred anyway. We were accepted in. Very busy today which from what we were told it's normally steady. Put our drink orders in and it took a while to get them out and to order due to the amount of customers. A person in our party said their order and then it was never made. Orders from other people in the party were made wrong. Sent back a few times. Orders still were coming out wrong. Other customers food that came in after our party were on their table before ours. Waitress is newer so it took her some time to try and figure everything out. We waited for food for an hour and we were there for 2 hours had to wait almost half an hour for all the bills to be given. Kids food came out first. My meal was fine but everyone else in the party had something wrong each time. Called the owner over because of the issues and instead of talking to everyone about the situation he talked over us and wasn't listening or wanting to understand. I, myself, am going back at some point but everyone else in the party said they will not be due to service and the issues. The wait wasn't really the problem but a warning would've been nice. The food I ordered was great! Definitely a restaurant to call in advance if you have more than 4 people. If it's 4 to less people I'm sure the experience would've...