Breakfast House & Coffee Bar — Restaurant in Jefferson Township

Breakfast House & Coffee Bar is a hidden gem in the Irving Park neighborhood. My wife and I stumbled upon this place by chance, as it is not on any breakfast top ten lists that we have perused but belongs in them. Our sensational morning began as soon as we walked in the door. At the door was the manager or owner, so I assume, greeting patrons as they came in. He ushered us to a quaint table for two, inspecting it before my wife and I sat down. Upon inspection, he noticed a slight wobble with the table and immediately went to get a wedge to stabilize it. During this, a waiter was behind aiding him and waiting to take our beverage order for coffee or juice. We have been to other more lauded restaurants where we've sat at worse tables, and not once did we get this treatment. A+ service.

We put in our drink order of coffee for my wife and freshly-squeezed orange juice for me. She enjoyed her cup of Intelligentsia coffee, as you cannot go wrong with Intelligentsia. My juice tasted as if someone picked the orange from an orange tree moments before it ended up in front of me; it lived up to its namesake. Food-wise, I ordered the Breakfast Burrito and my wife chose the Supreme Chorizo Hash. Our order appeared in front of us before we could blink! The food had no-frills and did not need any.

When it comes to breakfast potatoes, I am in the camp that eats them, yet, I do not enjoy them; the flavor is typically mundane. Such was not the case with Breakfast House. The side of potatoes that came with my dish was as savory as the main course. Their seasoning impressed me as it uplifted the taste of the potato. Not outshone, the burrito was first-class, with the Guajillo sauce adding an adequate amount of spice. My wife shared some of her hash, and that tasted great too! The pancake that came with it was airy and drenched with the in-house syrup led to a mouthwatering pancake. Both plates were straightforward as we knew what to expect but delivered high-quality flavor.

Breakfast House knows what it wants to be and executes this very well. This place offers familiar, delicious breakfast plates minus the pretentiousness with fantastic service, packaged at a steal of a price. It's one of those spots that I could see becoming a neighborhood staple. We will be revisiting with my parents as they love breakfast, and I know Breakfast House will...

This place is our neighborhood brunch spot and we at least go there twice a month either ourselves or with friends and family, unfortunately not anymore. We alwasy loved the atmosphere and the food here. However during our past Sunday visit, upon arrival we ordered our cafe mocha and latte and after 10 minutes of us sitting down, the manager, I’m guessing that’s who he was with a brown jacket, came in and I thought how nice he is here to check on us, unfortunately that wasn’t the case. He asked us if we are going to order and I mentioned of course, maybe after a few sips of coffee we will order. He then went on saying you have only 1 hour and 15 minutes to sit and after that you need to leave!! Shocking… I tried to stay calm and told him this is our neighborhood place and we just sat down, but we feel like we are being rushed, at that point he had said; you can come in Monday when it’s not busy. I told him thank you for your input but we just sat down but he didn’t seem to care at all that at this point we were upset. He left the table without anything else and ruined our morning with his unprofessional and unnecessary comment. We decided to not even finish our coffees and left the restaurant. He saw us on the way and turned his head to the other side. I was shocked and very upset with this behavior. As a manager in hospitality business, I know we always try to make memorable experiences for our guest because usually it’s the both experience/service and the food that brings people back. We try to keep our loyal guests and make them happy while dining. This is a long term thinking which it was lacking in his approach. I know there are times when you have to step in and mention something to the guests but there’s alwasy a time and way of saying things. Which in our case none of them was plausible.

We would not be back and that’s unfortunate but I believe if our business is not appericiate in there, there are other places close by where it is. I would make sure the word gets around and other relatives/ friends also know that at some point they will have the same disappointing encounter in there since professionalism seems...

Understandably they are busy, and they have probably not really ironed out the kinks with their service & wait times.

I have ordered food here a few times for carryout with mixed results. The food is good, that's not really the concern in this review. I was once quoted a 25 minute time frame to come pick up an order and it was close to 45 minutes by the time I left. Again, these things happen and generally this food is pretty good so I didn't write them off.

However, today was perhaps the last straw. We were seated on the patio upon arriving because the inside was full. It felt warm enough in the sun so we went for it. The server left a drink list and we literally didn't see her again for 30 minutes. There were 4 other tables of people there, 2 of the others hadn't ordered yet. One guy had to get up to tell them to please collect payment.

More time passed after that table settled their bill. A different waitress then came out and started tending to the table next to us, who were there longer and also hadn't ordered food. She said something like "sorry, they just told me I had ONE table out here". Generally I'd have flagged her down and tried to order but we decided to leave instead.

Cafe gastronomo is right around the corner and serves breakfast food (and other Mexican fare and pizza) that is most likely the best in the whole area out of a walk up window. We ended up getting carry out there instead so it worked out.

A word of advise for breakfast house- instead of expanding to more locations, maybe try to dial in the locations you are currently operating. I think you need more wait staff, or you need to seat fewer tables. This is a good neighborhood for a restaurant to do well in (look at Eris next door), but word will travel quickly if you guys can't iron out some of the service issues. I do look forward to coming back someday, but am not in any hurry after...