Cozy Corner Cafe — Restaurant in Florida

Cozy Corner Cafe-Merritt Island- 3.5-Stars

While admitting I have slowed the pace down a bit, I am still out here for you loyal BBDO followers (you truly are why I continue to do this). As such, I was looking forward to my next review with a deeper sense of responsibility of the Cozy Corner Cafe in Merritt Island. The drive up was, as always, gorgeous and I languidly pulled into their parking lot and moseyed on in. I was greeted cheerfully, warmly and sincerely by the owner of the place, Rob. Looking around one of the first things that caught my eye was the ample quality seating available.

Grabbing a table and perusing the menu I have to say it was your traditional breakfast/brunch menu with all you would expect to find including eggs, bacon, sandwiches, pancakes, etc. Taking my time and enjoying the, dare I say, "coziness" of the place, I took a few minutes with the menu and as I wanted to get a fair sampling of their offerings and just as I was about ready to order, Jamie introduced herself as my server and asked if I was ready. Settling on lunch and some breakfast food, I ordered a Turkey Club Sandwich, two eggs with Kielbasa and a hash brown patty, a country fried steak and some blueberry pancakes. Jamie was cheerful, polite, professional, answered all my questions “honestly” (telling me what was frozen and what was fresh) and placed my meal ticket post haste.

I didn't have too long of a wait before I spied Jaime returning laden with victuals fresh off the grill/toaster/griddle. Sadly, the first thing I noticed about my meal was that the turkey in the club sandwich was obviously a roll and not freshly sliced turkey. However, it was piled high and prepared perfectly so wasn't all that bad considering it was sliced/chopped/pressed and processed turkey. The chips were fresh out of the bag and while fries might have been better, was a nice compliment to the club sandwich.

Next up on the eating frenzy was my order of two eggs over medium with accompanying kielbasa and hash brown patty. The chef nailed the eggs as they were the vade mecum definition of over medium, the kielbasa was huge, meaty and also cooked to perfection. Foregoing my usual preference for home fries, I instead went with their hash brown patty (ala fast food place) just to mix things up a bit. I have to say that it was cooked to a delightful outside crunchiness while retaining just the right amount of soft potato goodness on the inside. Again, this was making it obvious that whoever was operating back there knew how to execute at this level.

Just looking at the country fried steak on the plate I knew it was your typical Sysco from frozen puck meat. Proving that what I've said all along is true, the human in the back smothered this affront to steaks with some of the tastiest gravy I have yet had. This was complex, rich, and hid the crappiness of the meat wonderfully. Like I've said ad nauseum, execution. It's all about execution.

Refocusing my attention on the task at hand, and so as not to lick the gravy off the plate, I shifted my gaze towards the final item to be reviewed this morning, the blueberry pancakes. These were fresh, chock full of real blueberries and served with real, honest to mother nature butter. The pancakes were fluffy, light and a delight during the chewing phase. The stack was, once again, executed flawlessly. Someone(s) in the back certainly had their A-game going this day!

From the initial heartfelt greeting by the owner to the warm, honest server and right down to the gravy this place has it going on. They are on the ball and prove over and over that you can do wonders with standard ingredients if you know your way around a kitchen. Kudos to the staff, the chef and to the owner, Rob for, I will say it all day, flawless execution.

The Big Boy says, if you're in the area between 7 am and 12:50 pm (last seating) and are craving a good breakfast or lunch you won't regret making a stop to see Rob at the Cozy Corner Cafe. #iamthebigboy...

This place used to be great. For the past three years it has gone to hell. The food is frozen, full of preservatives junk off of a Sysco truck. The reason I am reviewing now is because I went there for breakfast to give it another try. To be fair, I had not been in a year or two, so I went to try it again. All of our food was horrible. The sweet tea was good, which is hard to come by. We ate it because we were starving. The biscuits and gravy were inedible. I decided that I was going to tell the server to please take it off of the bill, (there were two bites missing from it). The server came back over and informed us that she cannot take it off of the bill but she can put it in a box for us to take home. She asked if there was anything wrong with it, and I told her no, it is horrible and inedible, (my personal opinion). I was very disappointed with the whole meal. The owner of the place actually sent the server back to tell us that it would not be taken off of the bill, instead of coming over to handle it herself and make sure that her customers are happy. After I informed the waitress that I would not be taking the biscuits and gravy home, nor am I paying for it, she sent the owner over. This woman (owner) was extremely exasperated that she even had to come to our table. She was rude and had absolutely no customer service skills. I am in the hospitality business, so I know what the right thing to do is. She also suggested that we take it to go. She finally took it off of the bill, and went up to the cashier and whispered comments about me and my husband right in front of me. The cashier happened to be her husband (they must be short on help). So he was also not happy with us either. It is unbelievable to me that a business is willing to lose customers over $5.00. I wasn't going to go there ever again anyway, but now I am going to tell everyone to avoid this place. I work with the public and recommend restaurants daily. The only reason that this place is busy is because there is nowhere else to eat in Merritt Island. Good food choices there are scarce. I'm sure they don't care if they lose us, or any other customers, because they are busy. I mean people are willing to pay for McDonald's. Mitchell's diner in Cocoa is wayyyyy better than Cozy Corner Cafe and a lot cheaper, go there instead. The fact that the owners response to me is argumentative and totally unprofessional speaks volumes lol. No offer to make it better, or keep customers, just arguing, lies and no clue how to run a business, let alone a restaurant. Everybody knows it, they will be closed soon....

Went here to try some place different for breakfast. It was a 20 min wait on a late Sunday morning my wife and I. Very friendly service and it seemed like the locals knew everyone there. We tried some fairly traditional items being our first time. I had over easy eggs with sausage links, bacon and ham (one of their combos) and it it came with choice of potatoes and either toast or a pancake. I had the pancake which was OK, a bit rubbery but tasted fine. Chef over beat the mix which is typical when going out, but I enjoyed the flavor. My eggs where cooked perfectly. The meat was well done with some burnt grill edges. So that depends on your preference. I ordered the hash browns which gives you two triangles of potatoe, similar to the oval frozen McDonald's type. Over all it was fine. Nothing outstanding, nothing bad. I was a bit upset they did not let me substitute anything such as my ham for extra bacon. "No substitutions allowed" we were clearly told. My wife got a vegetable omelet. It was quite large with three eggs and loaded with veggies. But she disliked the canned mushrooms they used that were quite soggy and pale gray and the overall texture of the omelet was wet inside making it unappealing to her. Her home fried potatoes where good and her upcharged (.50 extra) bagel was actually quite good and worth the extra to get it. The coffee was OK as well, nothing special and it was filled frequently which is always a plus for me. Overall we rated Cozy Corner OK based on the quality and quantity of food. Would I come back, maybe, but only to try other items on the menu. Maybe not go on a busy Sunday when only open until 12:50 in the afternoon. Since my original review, I have been back several times and the place has grown on me. I do prefer the specials for a more home cooked and different taste than the usual menus items. Moving this rating up a star now. My son actually prefers the flat chocolate ship pancakes and enjoys...