Steamy Joe Cafe — Restaurant in Branson

I have lived in Branson a decade and live very close to this place but I have never been until today! I have a dear friend I meet with monthly for coffee, a meal, and a 3 hour visit - this month my friend chose the place and she chose Steamy Joe Cafe which was a first for me! It was quite chilly outside today and very busy as today is a Saturday and we have a lot of visitors in town this weekend - I arrived early to get a close parking spot by the door as I cannot walk very far due to breathing problems - the parking lot was packed but God was so good to me - as I was pulling in a car was backing out and I got that spot - it was right at the front door!! I arrived 35 minutes before my meeting time with my friend and checked us in at 10:25 this morning - I was told we had about a 30 minute wait which was not bad considering how busy they were - they have tables and chairs to sit in on the front porch while waiting on your table to open up - but I opted to sit in my car because it was so chilly outside. They have 3 levels - the main floor, downstairs, and upstairs - I cannot physically climb stairs due to heart and lung disease and being on oxygen so my only option was the main floor which they gladly accommodated for me! My friend and I were not seated long when a sweet lady (didn’t catch her name - young lady, medium length straight dark hair) came to the table and took our drink and food order and payment so we didn’t have to stand in the very long line to order our food and drinks - that was a big first impression to me that they would care enough to do that as I was dreading having to stand in that line. I started off with coffee - it was piping hot, in a traditional yellow coffee mug, and very delicious - I’m a coffee critic - it takes a good coffee to impress me and only 2 places come to mind where I can get that fix in Branson and Steamy Joe’s regular drip coffee exceeded my expectations - I also love the fact that their refills are complimentary and for a 3 hour visit with a friend I had a couple of cups and the wait staff kept coming to the table to offer more refills! I am not a big breakfast person but decided to order breakfast today and ordered the sausage omelet, with grits, hash browns, a biscuit, and a cold glass of milk - it was all exceptional - the grits were seasoned perfectly!! We were in the back room and had a beautiful view of our town thru the big glass windows! Kelly Cooper, a waitress - came to our table to see if we needed anything and ended up visiting with us for quite some time - we both adopted a Labradoodle and we had to talk about our babies and show each other photos!! She was so sweet and personable - so down to earth felt like we had known her for years but first time meeting her!! During our 3 hour visit Kelly kept coming over to see if we needed coffee refills or anything else! If wait staff were ever assigned to a specific table I would request Kelly every time but all the wait staff we met were nice but Kelly went above and beyond for us today!! I will most definitely be back! I have a feeling their coffee will be calling...

I’ll start this off by saying we did go on a Saturday mid-morning, so that may have impacted our overall experience. However, I was wildly disappointed with our brunch, based on the reviews we’d read prior to coming here. The only truth in the reviews we experienced was the service - they were very attentive and as friendly as they could be despite the chaos.

The food was mediocre at best, the space was very small for the number of tables they have, especially without anyone offering the outside space or letting us know it was free to roam or free seating even after being assigned a table… it was extremely loud, the service staff has to walk through and over customers constantly, they have a table by the only visible exit door, so the person sitting there constantly feels in the way if people are trying to come in and out because the door doesn’t open all the way in the space it’s given so it literally bumps the person in the chair…

The Spicy Turkey Panini was made dry, served with a side of strange mustard and glued together with plastic cheese. It was so sticky and strange that it stuck to my fingers when trying to pull apart the sandwich. I ended up putting all toppings on the dry sides of the sandwich and eating a half instead of a whole, and coming home my stomach wasn’t happy. The cinnamon roll was dry, the eggs were overcooked and strange texture, and the meat on both our dishes was very dry. The potato salad tasted like a ranch packet mixed into mayo, and had so much mayo you could barely find the potatoes… they were nice enough to offer to replace it, but unfortunately the coleslaw was no better quality. The biscuit and gravy was decent though and you can’t really go wrong with a berry compote lol

We did enjoy the view, so I included a video of that, which also shows the back of the restaurant and access via the hotel driveway for any accessibility issues. We may have come on an ‘off day’ for this place, but unfortunately this was our one and only impression and we had to rush back to the hotel with our...

“Cafe with a view” is not so true. OK, so let me start with the food was good and overall the experience wasn’t a bad one. I do think there are a few things you should know if you choose this spot while in Branson. They are VERY busy! They quoted us a 35 minute wait which we thought was fair for a Sunday morning at 10:25, and our name was called right at 35 minutes. For those who haven’t been all that means is that you’re now going to go stand inside and wait in line to order your food which will then be delivered to your table. We waited in line for one cashier for over 20 minutes to order and then make our way upstairs. While you wait, you can’t help but notice how loud it is and look at all the empty tables waiting for customers who presumably are in line waiting to order. It feels like an unnecessary bottle neck when you could seat your guests and then just take their orders. Or, have multiple staff taking orders to help with the line. Once seated upstairs we enjoyed a view of closed blinds with signage that clearly tells guests not to touch the blinds to open or close them. To be fair, maybe they’re protecting you from a ton of sunlight beating on you, but seeing that the floor beneath, called the atrium, had wide open views coming in from the same direction, I have to believe that not to be true. All of the food was good and came out very quickly, but I would offer that it was fairly standard breakfast food. I think the other thing that bothered us is that after waiting for 55 minutes and finally ordering our food, we had to tip right then and there at the register without having any idea what kind of service we would receive. Having been a bartender and server, I feel very strongly about tipping appropriately so we did, and much to my delight, all of the employees were courteous, attentive, and very much deserved every last penny of our tip. We are foodies, so we got all sorts of things for the table to try, including: Randy’s breakfast, Denver omelet, avocado toast, French toast, pancake, and...