Wake Up Café — Restaurant in New Smyrna Beach

All the recent bad reviews around service and food lately are true. We’ve been going here off and on for about 4 years and today is going to be my last visit. We took our daughter who turned 3 today out for breakfast and we didn’t wait long to sit so that was cool.

After we sat, it took probably a good 20-30 minutes for the waitress to get our food order. Keep in mind it wasn’t super busy and she was more concerned with refilling up everyone’s coffee for people who have long finished their meals, and meanwhile me, my girlfriend, and our 3 year old was just sitting there.

Our waitress was also apparently the manager, she has black hair up in a ponytail.

My girlfriend tried to order her normal chorizo breakfast with no onions, however for the first time ever she was told they can’t do it without the onions…????…so she didn’t order anything, I ordered a BLT with fries and we ordered our daughter a pancake with scrambled eggs.

The bacon on my blt was severely burnt, I should have taken a picture but it was black. A little frustrated with the wait, not able to customize our orders like usual, and now with the bad food ontop of it which is weird because their food used to be pretty good.

I told our waitress that I didn’t want my food, she didn’t say anything or didn’t look concerned at all just took it away. She came back very shortly after, which is why I’m writing this review, and said “you don’t have to pay for anything you guys can go” and walked away. Keep in mind we are there with our 3 year old on her birthday trying to give her the best experience.

After I flagged down another waitress, curly hair and glasses, and asked who the manager was she said it was her (our waitress) and then said is something wrong? We told the waitress what she said to us and this other waitress is obviously her friend she defended everything she did and didn’t think she was out of line.

You guys have lost all business from me and my family. We typically take them to your establishment when they come down because they like it, but after this, we won’t be back.

Fire the manager and her waitress friend, they are...

The sole redeeming factor of our visit to Wake Up Cafe was the waitress who was kind, courteous, and went out of her way to try and accommodate us. Otherwise, Wake Up Cafe was not a good experience at all.

First off, it should be noted that I'm violently lactose-intolerant which makes going out to eat rather difficult for me, but most places we go I can find something on the menu that I can eat, and most kitchens are usually happy to work around that little detail. At Wake Up Café I ordered the veggie omelette making sure that the eggs weren't cut with milk or fried with butter. Check. For a side I asked for their potatoes, but when I found out they were fried in butter, I asked if they'd be willing to make a batch without butter. No dice. No problem. I asked if they'd be willing to allow me to sub in another side (a second English muffin or fruit cup). They were completely unwilling to do so. Instead they offered to send me the potatoes anyway and told me I'd have to pay for another side. Shoddy business practice.

So I got the potatoes anyway, which I gave to my wife, and missed out on one of my two sides. The story doesn't end there, though. The three-egg omelette was more like a three-cup omelette wherein the outside was beautifully finished and the inside was runny and foul. The English muffin was basically raw - completely untoasted, and the potatoes which my wife was unable to finish were covered in garlic to mask their mushy, two-day-oldness. The side I was unable to eat ended up in the trash. My wife's meal, the spinach Florentine, was okay, but the eggs were entirely too runny and rendered inedible.

We were really hoping that this place would live up to the hype so we could make it a regular breakfast visit, but we will not be returning. Being a chef, I tend to be a pickier eater, but neither of us was at all impressed by anything we saw or ate at Wake Up Café - other than the waitress, that is. Thank you again for being a great person, waitress! That second...

Wake-Up Café – A Hidden Gem Near Publix!

Don’t let the strip mall location near Publix fool you—Wake-Up Café is truly a hidden gem in New Smyrna Beach! The food here is consistently good and the portion sizes are overly generous. Whether you're coming in for breakfast or lunch, you're likely to leave with a to-go box because most dishes could easily feed two people.

The Irish Benedict is hands-down my favorite. It features two perfectly poached eggs, rich hollandaise sauce, and savory corned beef hash over your choice of a biscuit or English muffin. It's everything a comfort breakfast should be. The other dishes are just as impressive—from omelets to pancakes, everything is flavorful and satisfying. The coffee is solid (I'd give it a 4 out of 5), and it pairs perfectly with any meal.

The café is always relatively clean and the staff truly sets this place apart. The waitresses and wait staff are professional, friendly, quick to greet you, and always attentive. Even when it gets crowded, the turnaround time is surprisingly fast. That said, if you want a quieter experience, early in the week is your best bet—much less crowded and just as delicious.

The parking is more than adequate, plenty of handicap spaces or regular with an entire parking lot behind the primary front row parking area. Never have had a problem.

There's 2 wake ups in NSB, so be sure to go to the one over the bridge! If you're in New Smyrna Beach and haven't tried Wake-Up Café yet, you're missing out. This place is a local treasure with big flavor, big portions, and...