Le Peep Evanston — Restaurant in Evanston Township

It had been years since I had been to this lively (think crowded) breakfast/brunch/lunch space in downtown Evanston. Why? Again with the Yogi Berra quote: "Nobody goes there...'cause it's too crowded". And it was a pain in the patootie to park, but after that...was it worth it? I'm going to say that it pretty much was. Big menu plus some non-alcoholic seasonal beverage specials, such as deluxe hot chocolate drinks. Anyway, I had a wonderful egg white omelet called The Spinnaker with spinach, mushrooms, bacon and cheese. It came with a side of their "Peasant Potatoes" and then I ordered a side of the "Two dollar size pancakes" to share. The omelet was excellent, and I took half home for lunch on Monday. The potatoes were fine, but morning potatoes are just not my thing, so my lack of enthusiasm has nothing to do with the potatoes, and everything to do with my own preference. The pancakes were beyond awesome. First, the two dollar size pancakes covered a standard bread-and-butter plate rim to rim, so you had to be judicious about adding syrup or it would have been overflowing on to the table. This was not a problem, because the pancakes are delicious in their own right. The waiter and I had a conversation about the size relative to the size of the REGULAR pancakes, etc. So speaking of the service, it was beyond great. Fast-paced, friendly, knowledgeable, and clear on the mission to keep the folks in the seats happy while turning over the tables as fast as possible because of the lobby full of people waiting for tables. Not easy, but they do it. Anyway, we won't wait so long to get back...

I truly believe that everyone here is earnest in trying to serve every patron here with kindness, but the processes here leave a lot to be desired.

I came in on a Friday morning for breakfast. I was seated quickly, but service started to slow down from there. I looked around for the waitress until she was able to bring coffee, and then take our orders. We then waited for our food (which were pretty basic breakfast platters) while we saw tables around us get seated, have orders taken (after they had repeatedly flagged the waitress down), and get their food before we did.

When the waitress finally brought out the food, it wasn't ours, and after 2 attempts, we finally got the right plates (after about 30 minutes of waiting) The food overall was good -- with the exception of the pork sausage, which tasted like it came out of a can -- nothing special, but the slow service really did it in for me. To clarify, the restaurant had a pretty good crowd in it but was not overly busy.

Overall, I don't blame the waitress or the hostess, who were very nice, but what I do blame is the process that the restaurant trains the staff on. I think it's not geared towards efficiency, which leaves diners waiting for basic services and in turn becoming angry when they feel they're...

I have eaten at Le Peep in Evanston a number of times before and have been generally happy with my experience.

During my visit there yesterday, hash browns with my meal came almost totally uncooked. When I complained to the senior worker there she asked, “When you placed your order did you tell the waiter you wanted your potatoes crispy?” No I did not, I admitted. Now how was I to know I needed to do that? Besides, I did not want my potatoes crispy. I just expected that they come cooked, as they have on all previous occasions.

Taken aback by what was now being made my fault for not placing a proper order, I asked her if I also needed to tell the waiter that I wanted my coffee hot, or my Coke cold, she said I was being unreasonable.

Besides, I HAD asked that I wanted my burger medium rare and the eggs over easy but the burger came well done and the eggs were not exactly easy. I did not even complain about that because I could still eat both. Unlike potatoes which I could not eat even as I tried. Ever try eating...