Yola's Cafe and Coffee Shop of Madison — Restaurant in Madison

Decided to stop here to pick up a quick breakfast for my partner and I recently and was reminded why, despite living only a block away for seven years, we hadn't returned after our only prior visit years ago...until now. Yes, the atmosphere is nice, and I think it's probably a very nice place if you're working and not in a rush. The food was also okay and not pre-made, which I appreciate, but the breakfast burrito was mostly egg.

It was not particularly busy during my visit, but it took 20 minutes to get the entirety of my order (two drinks and two breakfast items from the menu). The coffee itself took 15 minutes and came out before the food, so it's not as if you can just grab a quick drink, either. It seems like they may have been understaffed, which may have contributed to the long wait, and I'm unsure if this is a chronic issue or a one-off. However, after waiting that long for the drinks it would have been nice if they had gotten the order right. Only one of two was correct, and I had already corrected an error in the drinks during the ordering process, so I was surprised to get a mocha and not a latte. I didn't bother correcting the issue because I had waited so long in the first place. The drinks tasted fine, though.

Lastly, I can't not mention the blueberry muffins...they look chock-full of blueberries! However, as you eat the muffin you realize that they only placed blueberries on the top of the muffin and there are literally zero blueberries in the batter itself. So odd, I've never eaten a blueberry muffin like that in my life, and I can't say that I want to again.

I think you may enjoy your experience here more if you have time to spare and expect more of a traditional sit-down restaurant/cafe...

*UPDATE

The owner responded to this post. Sounds like someone else had the similar problem. However, we never complained about our food during the time nor asked for a refund. We kindly got up and just left our food on the table without saying anything to anyone. Our original price for the food was around $35 and with tip it was around $43. I apologize for the ‘over exaggerating’ price of $50.

My boyfriend and I don’t eat out much. If we do, it’s a pretty special occurrence. We decided to branch out to something new and tried Yola’s cafe. I’m vegan, so it’s hard to find a place to accommodate to my needs. After reading a review of their vegan waffle, we decided to go here. My boyfriend ordered a fall signature drink and a breakfast burrito. I ordered a fall drink iced and a vegan waffle. His fall drink was so horrible that he couldn’t finish it. His breakfast burrito composed of only eggs and cheese with one small sliver of a piece of sausage. Definitely had nothing to it. My iced drink came out hot on a 79 degree day but I decided to drink it as I don’t like to complain and deal with it. Especially during Covid, I give places a little room for error as I worked in the customer service industry for years. My first bite of the waffle tasted good until I kept chewing. I’m not sure if something was accidentally spilt in their batter or what but my waffle tasted like chemicals. I had him try it and he said the same thing. I couldn’t even finish it so I left it on the table. Everything that could go wrong, went wrong. Spending 50$ wasnt the problem for us but the experience was. Unfortunately, we will never...

What a disappointing experience! We will not be returning.

First, the positives. The staff were friendly. Waiting times were reasonable. The honey lavender latte was pretty average with a below average price. The cafe was clean, if not generic and uninspired. My daughter said her waffle was good. To be fair, she says the same thing about Eggo waffles.

Now, the negatives. I ordered a bowl of granola with milk. They brought it out and asked if I’d be okay with yogurt to which I said I’d prefer milk. To their credit they did take it back without complaint. However, they simply brought it to the back scraped most of the yogurt off, and returned with the same plate and a shot glass of milk. The fruit still had quite a bit of yogurt on it (gross). The milk was warm. I suspect had the order been plated as ordered, it would have come in a bowl. At least I hope that’d the case. The paltry ounce and a half of milk barely covered the bottom of plate leaving almost entirely dry granola. This was compounded by another problem: about a quarter of the granola was visibly burnt and tasted as such, too. Oh, and they forgot to put strawberries on my daughter’s waffle, which was, of course, and upcharge that we paid for. Also, they served the latte in a paper cup, even though we were dining in. How wasteful!

We’ll be avoiding this place and strongly recommend you do the same. There are SO many great breakfast spots and coffee shops in the area, many of which are leagues better than this place, which is at...