Colonial Cafe — Restaurant in Elizabeth City

In North Carolina, the most important document a restaurant must display is its Health Department Sanitation Rating, and an “A” rating is almost a necessity for staying in business. The first thing I saw as I sat down to my spotless table on the magical morning of 2/22/2022 was that Colonial Cafe has earned an “A 100%” rating. Sheila says I have seen these before, but it has been a long time ago I think. If you have not lived in North Carolina, you may not realize how seriously the State takes these evaluations, so I felt I should mention how impressive that rating is and should be for the diner.

The atmosphere was very friendly and welcoming, and I felt “at home” again in North Carolina, although I had never been to Colonial Cafe before, or for that matter never had breakfast in Elizabeth City. Another reviewer had identified Colonial Cafe as”probably the best breakfast in Elizabeth City,” and I think that is very likely to be true after my breakfast yesterday. I chose the Country Ham Breakfast, and the North Carolina Country Ham was excellent, the eggs were perfectly prepared, the hash browns were NOT greasy, even the coffee was served in a large and attractive cup that was never allowed to get cold or empty!

Evidently this was a relatively quiet morning at the Colonial Cafe, although the takeout business seemed to continue very briskly. I lingered over this breakfast, as all of it was delicious and the ambient conversation was interesting to me this morning, discussing North Carolina breakfast cuisine and family recipes over the years. Times have certainly changed, but the food, thank heaven, is still fresh and delicious!

It may dismay some prospective customers, but Colonial Cafe does not offer Waffles. Even some of the waitresses wish they were on the menu. But anything else you could want for breakfast is on the menu, the execution of each dish is flawless, and the food...

Casual atmosphere. We had on shorts and t-shirts. Friendly service from our waitress. Reasonable prices but the food was basically only as good as the price. It was just OK / average food. The she crab soup was just as good as we can make at home. It had good flavor - creamy and thick. We would get it again but prefer to go somewhere else and try a different one. Also, there were little shells in the soup. Make sure you ask for crackers, if you want them. The meatloaf special was just alright, nothing special. It needed ketchup to make it better to eat. The butter (Lima) beans weren't bad. The mashed potatoes were more like a baked mashed potato. They were OK. They had the potato skins in them which we do not really care for. The bacon cheeseburger wasn't bad but prefer Wendy's baconator. The bun was toasted. I was asked how I wanted my burger cooked and that is rare to be asked that. It was cooked like I asked for. The french fries with my burger had like a rally's seasoning on them. They were average - crispy and mushy inside. The mozzarella sticks were good. They had a crispy outside, decent seasoning and breading. FYI - It was busy on a Saturday around 11am. We went in for lunch since lunch starts at 11 and had to wait at least 20 minutes to order our lunch so they could switch over to the lunch menu in the kitchen. I would recommend you go in a bit later than 11 if you want to get lunch so you do not have to wait as long as we did...

Sunday at 11:07 a.m. 6.25.2023 If I could give negative stars I would! My daughters and I received the worst customer service ever and I would like to hope it wasn't because we were the only persons of color in the restaurant but....we were told it would be a 5 to 10 minute wait to order a carry out order. The lady seated one family that was waiting before wr entered and four families that entered the restaurant after we were already their waiting to place a carry out order. 27 mintues 14 seconds and still nothing!! Noone took our to go order!! We exited the restaurant very troubled by the lack of customer service and lack of acknowledgement of the extremely long wait time to place a order and the serving of others (sitting of incoming families) all not of color. We had a kind customer that was dining inside come out to our car parked directly out front to extend an as she noticed us waiting and waiting patiently only to still not be serviced. She also said that she's been coming to this restaurant for years but has noticed a tremendous decline in the customer service yet she believes the owner is the same. After speaking to the owner to voice my dissatisfied with the total lack of customer service we still left feeling...