3rd Coast Cafe — Restaurant in Chicago

Been going here every weekend for over 4 years now as apart of my routine. Pretty much zero complaints for the most part, the only thing that holds this place back from 5 stars for me is that their weekday morning servers consistently don’t care about fast or good service. I’ve only been there a handful of times on a weekday morning hour but consistently, my coffee almost never gets refilled unless I ask for it (I generally wait 5-10 mins to give the servers some time before I ask), it generally takes over 5-10 mins just for a server to initially drop off a menu to me and ask me what I want to start, and then when I’ve been done all food and drink I’m waiting probably over 10 minutes before the server will even drop me my check or check in at all. So all in all, as of my last visit which was today (Monday 8/12/2024), I probably spent 20-30 mins just waiting on service to happen, which the bringing of my check never happened at all and I decided not to waste my own time anymore and pay it at the front. And these are times when there were maybe like 5-7 tables only, split among like 3 or so servers…Most of the time I ended up going to the front and paying because the servers never come around. I’m talking about times where there are literally between 5-6 servers/bussers standing behind the coffee bar just TALKING. It’s a disappointment because this is my go to spot, but I think I’ll just avoid coming here on the weekday mornings for now on as the servers generally don’t care about their service at all.

Can’t say enough good things about the food though and the weekends serving team. Shoutout to Dylan especially who I think Janet should consider promoting her to a lead position of some sort, she takes a lot of pride in her work, keeps people in check, and always takes care of me well there. Shoutout to Sylvia as well, friendly, fast service, and clearly puts a lot...

I usually don't leave a review like this but I feel like I have to just to prevent other people to be treated like us. 4 of us came for a brunch today for the first time and got the worst experience ever. Our waitress was quick to come taking our order but one of us was vegan and when we asked her what vegan options do they have, she didn't know or not trying to help us at all. Ok that's fine so we just picked something from the menu. When the orders came out, 1 order was missing and because the waitress never came check on us, we had to let a kitchen guy know that we only got 3 orders instead of 4. He went to tell her that our order was missing but the waitress never came and apologized or let us know what happened when clearly it was her fault she forgot to put 1 of our orders in. She never once came and check on us or refill our drink but she did to other tables around us. The food came out when we almost finished our food. When it's time to pay, she never came and asked us if we want to pay together or separate. She gave us 1 check and when we asked for separate bill, she was mad and threw the checks on the table right in front of us. I want to say this so it won't happened again to other people but I'm sure this will my first and also last time coming here. The waitress had no respect to other people. It doesn't matter who we are, it was her job and she just...

While the 3rd Coast Cafe is still my favorite neighborhood eatery, I was very disappointed to find that when I ordered a Cobb salad they automatically default to "chopped", unless you specifically state otherwise. The policy should be exactly opposite! What distinguishes a Cobb salad from others is that the ingredients are separated, allowing you to mix-and-match as you wish, isolating flavors to your taste. Instead, I just got a pile of lettuce, bacon, cheese, croutons ... chopped into tiny pieces, everything all mixed together. It was horrible. I tasted it, then tossed it into the garge! $19 plus tax WASTED. If you ever order this particular item, specify that it not be chopped! (this is an update to my original review from a couple months back, which follows)

The 3rd Coast Café is a staple in our neighborhood, easily the very best restaurant for breakfast, lunch or an informal dinner! The menu is varied, though their big bowl chicken soup and smoked turkey with brie on baguette are both to die for! And the 3rd Coast burger is absolutely the best burger around … and so big you can hardly bite into it!

The staff before Covid was terrific, and they have managed to preserve the same excellence among new hires since then. I can offer no criticism except, perhaps, that it would be nice if they would move a block or so closer to...