Meli Cafe — Restaurant in Chicago

I’m currently on a very strict diet for religious purposes. As a result, I have to call in advance to ask places if they carry certain items. I called in advance and asked if this specific restaurant had multi grain pancakes, they said with no hesitation, “yes, we do.” I was excited to order these pancakes. After getting there, sitting down and asking the waitress the same question in which she responded “yes”, I was brought regular pancakes. She was very kind and meant no harm when I asked her about it. She redirected me to other options but that unfortunately wasn’t going to fix the issue. I was very disappointed. I went to the host to ask about what happened when I called and she just said with no acknowledgment, we don’t have those. A sincere apology would have been nice but instead, it was just a dry “no”. I’ve worked in hospitality/food and beverage for 8 years. As a host, it was absolutely unacceptable to make those types of mistakes and we would do anything necessary to accommodate our guests/patrons. I also ordered the “Tofu Scrambler” which was supposed to come with zucchini in addition to the broccoli, asparagus, red peppers and tofu but it did not. It’s $16. I would have liked to have gotten all the ingredients it comes with or at least some acknowledgment or forewarning. Attention to all these little details are very important. As a result of these disappointments, I doubt I’ll...

Great place for generous breakfast portions and special diet requirements such as gluten free, vegan, dairy free, etc. The first breakfast I had gluten free crepes. They were light and fluffy and covered in a lot of beautiful berries, a full banana, house made granola and drizzled in honey. Delicious!!

My daughter had chocolate crepes with Nutella. They were super sweet and a little too rich but she laughed at herself saying, What did I expect!? She enjoyed the leftovers after a night of seeing the sights.

The second morning I had the pictured gluten free French toast, well the picture shows less than half of the meal. Again covered in berries and a banana. I asked for maple syrup instead of agave and it was real maple syrup. They used three large hearty multi grain pieces of bread and the soy custard it was dipped in was delicious.

My daughter got the Greek yogurt which was generously covered in granola and almonds with a very tasty honey. The portion was quite large! She added sides of potatoes and the chicken cherry sausage thinking yogurt wouldn't be enough. Again all the servings were huge and delicious and she really didn't need the much food. A good problem to have I guess.

The lunches offered sounded wonderful as well but we didn't get to eat...

The food was actually great but man the service was so weird.

Our waitress looked at us 4 times, served 2 tables that were sat after us, before she finally came around to take our drink order, much less our food order. She then continued to keep her interactions with us to the absolute minimum.

I do not recommend the smoothies. I ordered the mango blast and it was the most sour. Like all the fruits used (mango, banana, oj) were unripened. I told the waitress and she tried to brush it off that they simply don't use sugar but that's not the issue. The fruits they used weren't ripe, it was just sour. I have had many smoothies and juices with fresh fruit, no sugar added, that tasted great. This was not it. So don't recommend.

I got blueberry compote on a waffle, delicious! Would recommend putting the blueberry compote on the side though so the waffle doesn't get super soggy. The corned beef hash was unusually shaped (served like a hockey puck) but tasted great with one fried egg!! A friend got the chicken and waffles and the herb infusion they do on the waffle is amazing!

I hope to try this place one more time to see if I can get a better experience service wise. I will be happy to try again because the good was genuninely really good! Just the service...