Big Y Cafe — Restaurant in Leavenworth

I made a special effort to come here during a roadtrip because of customer reviews and food photos. I had high expectations but ended up being underwhelmed both by the service and the food.

I arrived late morning and was surprised that only one booth had customers, not the early lunch crowd I’d anticipated. There were two servers in conversation behind the counter, and after I stood at the entrance for a bit, I finally asked if I could seat myself. Once seated, it took several minutes before one of them brought me a menu.

I ordered an egg, 2 strips of bacon, and a pancake. Since there were no other customers whose food hadn’t been served, I expected my simple order to come out soon, but even the kitchen was operating on slow speed.

I love pancakes. The fact that the place seems proud of its pancakes was the main reason I came. I knew the pancake would be large, but I didn’t know that wasn’t actually ideal. It was so big it didn’t fit on the platter, with my egg and bacon huddled over on one side. While it tasted fine, if a little tough, it had issues. The problems: #1 - Its size means it cools much more quickly than if it were a stack of two smaller ones. #2 - By hanging off the plate, it’s impossible to pour syrup on it without it spilling onto the table. #3 - There’s not enough butter to spread over the whole pancake, yet if they give you more, buttering the whole thing would mean butter dripping onto the table. I’d much prefer to have two smaller ones made from the same amount of batter, sitting inside the plate. They would have stayed hot and therefore more tender, and I could have poured syrup on the stack and on the plate for dipping each bite.

As it was, I ate my egg, bacon, and part of the pancake, paid my tab, and got back on the road. I don’t live in this part of the country, but even if I did, I’d drive on by and look for a cafe with more...

Edit: I'm updating this from 3 stars to 5 stars. Don't get dinner - get breakfast.

I had two eggs, four bacons, french toast, and biscuits and gravy. Excellent food for a great price. This is what I was hoping for, glad I came back.

Dinner review:

We came here from Leavenworth (which we came to for the tree lighting). First the good: service was great, friendly, and the place was clean. The prices are also not bad. However, the food was kind of just meh. It is basically a diner in the middle of nowhere, so I wasn't really expecting a ton. I had the burger dip, which is like a roast beef dip but with hamburger instead of roast beef. For the side I had potato salad. (I did like that you could choose from many different sides.) I was expecting the burger dip to be basically ground beef inside the sandwich, but instead it was a pressed patty, kind of like what you might get at the store, and then cooked on a stove top. Very thin, pretty disappointing. The potato salad I think had a lot of dill in it, and was very mushy. Okay but not my thing. My SO had the chili burger and fries. The burger was the same kind of patty like my sandwich, and the chili had garbanzo beans - idk if that is common but I've never seen it. I had a bite and the beans gave it a different taste for sure, it wasn't bad but just sort of mediocre.

The fries were really good. They seemed breaded and fried, and we both loved them. Get the fries if you get nothing else at all!

Overall, Big Y is very close to the diner experience I was expecting. If they up the quality of their food I think they could be a 4 star diner. As it is, pretty average, but at least it was...

Should have known better when table next to me ordered a side of bacon with his omelet and they put the bacon In his omelet, instead of on the side… I was a table away and heard his order clearly ! Should have been my warning but they proceeded to Mess up my order twice in a row, first time put wrong toppings on my waffle, then undercooked the second waffle so the waffle was soggy And still didn’t have the topping I asked for. I was told I wouldn’t be charged for the waffle but of course, because we used a credit card , they they charged me for the waffle anyway ! I didn’t ask to have the waffle taken off, they said they wouldn’t put it on the bill. Attached is a picture of the receipt showing the charge without the waffle and also a picture of my credit card showing an extra, second, separate charge for $11.37 ??????????????? Charged me for the waffle or tipped themselves out after checkout ! I managed a restaurant and was sued and audited by the IRS for a waitress changing the tip amount so I hope that isn’t the case ! In any case, this is unacceptable to just let it ride, everyone needs to double check their charges compared to their receipt anywhere you go ! P.s. my receipt shows no tip or total written in but the receipt they kept had a ZERO TIP WITH A LINE THROUGH THE ZERO AND THE $23.79 in the total line so you be the judge ! And the credit card receipt shows duplicate at the bottom… most credit card receipts for customer say customer receipt, and the receipt kept by the business should say merchant receipt. When you reprint a receipt, it shows duplicate receipt on the bottom of both...