Elly's Brunch & Cafe (Mundelein) — Restaurant in Mundelein

I love Elly’s. If you want to enjoy a quality breakfast and also care about how a place treats its staff, this place should be your next stop. If you tire of trendy eateries that are more about ambience than great food, come here for a classic breakfast eatery that your grandparents would approve of.

Walk in and you will be quickly greeted by Pete, an amazing guy who truly takes care of his customers and staff. He will do right by you. Regulars learn to quickly look forward to his enthusiastic “How you doing?” If Gordon Ramsey decided to run a breakfast restaurant full-time, I imagine it would look like this: spotlessly clean, well-trained staff, and most importantly, consistently great quality food that comes out quickly. Everything here is done right.

The interior was redone last year and has a great friendly feel, with warm colors and wood accents. In classic Midwest fashion there is an enclosed vestibule to protect customers from temperamental Chicago weather drafts. The vestibule has seating and there is bench seating on both sides of the entrance area in front of the host stand.

The pastry and coffee stand is right in front, with some amazing looking options like glazed pistachio croissants, fresh baked daily; fresh-squeezed orange and grapefruit juice; espresso drinks and smoothies. There is the option of oat, soy, coconut or almond milk and smoothie upgrades of whey, chia, and matcha. If you have a sweet tooth, Elly’s serves milkshakes made with Homer’s ice cream. My son will attest to the quality of the Oreo milkshake, spun the old-fashioned way.

There are plenty of booths lining the main dining room along with tables and chairs. There is an additional second dining room up two steps to the right of the coffee stand.

The food portions are generous and the prices may make you may doubt your eyes at first. $3.99 for a grab-and-go coffee + pastry? In 2024? Yes, it’s not just great sit-down service! I watch many to-go bags picked up during breakfast here as well.

My usual item is the Southwest Omelet, with cherrywood bacon, jalapeño, avocado, spring onion, tomato, American and sharp white cheddar, served with crispy griddle-cooked hash browns and your choice of toast or pancakes. The kids’ menu includes a great chicken tenders and fries option for under $10, which would be filling for most adults.

This is a great food establishment that succeeds in retaining great staff. The waiters are attentive and tables are bussed very quickly. My former favorite breakfast place was Walker Brothers in Winnetka. In recent years, the service there has been hurried and lackluster, especially when dining in with kids. In marked contrast, Elly’s staff are personable and are very kind to their child and elderly customers.

Regulars make the trip from all over, as evident from the couple next to us from Highland Park and the elderly gentleman picking up his to-go with Wisconsin tags on his Lincoln Navigator.

Overall, Elly’s is the rare food establishment where the management is truly involved and the focus is on delivering the best food and service. Hands down the premier breakfast place in Lake County for value and...

You can tell this place is poorly managed now. The servers are the bright spot, especially the ones that have worked here for years. The kitchen is nowhere near how it used to be before the new owners/management took over. You see this in other reviews too, the food quality has dropped. We've had lots of problems with takeout orders. In 2 months, we had 5 takeout orders and ALL of them had issues. When I called the store to talk to the stoic brick house manager, he moved the phone away from his face so he could yell at the employees about the incorrect orders, and the kitchen mistakes, and then came back on the line and asked me what I wanted him to do. Pretty poor customer service if you ask me. It's like this guy used to work for a trucking company and now runs a daycare. He's clearly totally out of his element. I emailed the corporate office/owners and received no response. They really had an opportunity here to correct for this but seem to have chosen not to. It's a shame, they're slowly devolving into a place no one will want to go for breakfast. It's September 2025 and the reviews are currently at 4.4. Watch that number drop, you'll see. It's also unfortunate that the issues here aren't going to be addressed as evidenced by the following:

There's at least 50 1-star reviews, and they just keep saying, "[Guest name], thanks for your feedback. We are sorry to hear your disappointment over your meal. We work hard to make sure every guest is happy and satisfied. When that doesn't happen, we want to know about it! Your concerns will be addressed. We hope to see you soon." Now, I wonder if they're using an AI service to respond to these reviews, or if they're actually paying someone to copy and paste canned responses. What a waste- if they actually have a human doing it and they're not typing a response tailored to actually providing empathy, and addressing the specific customer, then what are they actually doing? They should be asking them to reach out via email, to better understand the issue, and then conveying that to the restaurant, or the higher ups at the location. They're busy enough most days to afford an experienced GM who can make the restaurant deliver...

My kids and I love coming here on the weekends. It’s a regular thing for us and our default choice. Sometimes I suggest going elsewhere but they always just want Elly’s because they say Elly’s pancakes can’t be beat. We just like it there. And it’s amazing how efficient they ALWAYS are with getting you seated and your food arriving super fast EVERY TIME! The food is consistently tasty and just as you’d expect EVERY TIME. Always great, friendly and attentive wait staff. Today I asked the super kind waitress, Christina, to take this picture of us.

I circle between getting omelettes, Benedicts or a breakfast burrito. My child always must have the buttermilk pancakes.

In all the time we have come, if there has ever been a mistake or any issues with food or service it was so minor I can’t remember there ever being any issues.

I’ve brought along friends and extended family sometimes, too, and told them about how efficient they are, and when we are quickly served the guests always say “wow you were right! That was super efficient!” And it always tastes likes it’s supposed to, and the people are nice and competent.

Once I asked a server what it’s like to work there, since everything is always so fast I wondered about the people behind the curtain. I was told that yes, things are fast and efficient in the kitchen and everywhere else but basically it sounded like it was well-run and people had a decent work...