Nicolette Cafe — Restaurant in Palatine Township

This morning was my first visit to the Nelikona Café on 45 N Bothwell St in Palatine. So here goes:

The Excellent: Their Italian sandwich and the spinach side salad tasted excellent and were nicely presented.

The Neutral: The décor is what I’d call “Female Chic”, lots of plants, white and pink colors. Not something a guy would feel entirely comfortable in. I’d prefer to have some comfy high-back beige or brown upholstered chairs and a fireplace of some kind, maybe an electric one or a TV playing a fireplace video.

The Not Good: The cashier couldn’t make change for a $20 bill on a $17 tab. I had to rummage around in my wallet to give them exact change. I won’t use plastic if I intend to write a review.

The regular brewed coffee was lukewarm. I asked the cashier to microwave my coffee, but she refused and gave me a new cup of lukewarm coffee which I had to go and re-sweeten. They seem to have a problem granting a minor customer request.

The coffee was presented in a glass mug filled right up to the top. I asked the cashier to pour a little out in case I spilled some walking to the sweetener station. She refused to pour some out and I did spill some on the floor creating a slipping hazard for other customers. They seem to have a problem granting a minor customer request.

They didn’t have a full range of sweeteners at the sweetener station. All they had was sugar and Stevia. I like the sucralose (yellow package) artificial sweetener. By this time I was too exhausted dealing with the recalcitrant cashier and just used the Stevia instead of asking for sucralose.

The Italian sandwich took a long time to be prepared (about 15 minutes) even though I was the only customer in the store. The sandwich was delivered to me just a moment away from my having to ask the recalcitrant cashier if they forgot about my sandwich order.

Bottom line: I know Nelikona is a relatively new coffee shop, but they only get one chance to make a good first impression. Would I go back or recommend this place to my friends? Probably not. The Italian sandwich tasted excellent but was not enough in itself to lure me back knowing it would take a long time to make, that I’d get a lukewarm cup of coffee and none of the sweetener that I like. To run a successful business one needs to be “on top of their game”, to be detail orientated and to cheerfully grant minor...

We visited Nelikona when we noticed it opened in downtown Palatine. We read some reviews prior and decided to check it out on a Sunday as we love coffee (travelled for it; Hawaii, Peru, S. Korea, etc) and always looking for exceptional local coffee shops.

When we visited Nelikona on a Sunday, they were having a special bake sale that day. We walked in and no one greeted us so we walked around to get the vibe of the place and to take in the decor. There were many baked goods laid out for sale in the middle of the cafe, and the dining area was near the window. Also, I noticed there wasn't any live music like they advertised. After a few minutes, we finally headed toward the cashier and waited for a few minutes more while many workers saw us, and totally ignored us. Everyone had this look on their face like they didn't want to be there. I finally said something to an older blonde lady who seemed to be the manager or someone in charge as she was having others perform tasks for her, and asked if we could be pointed to where we could order. She gave me an irritated look as if I was bothering her, then looked back down at the cash register and said "someone will be with you," then walked away. It was a truly awkward exchange and I just wanted leave, but we were there and I just wanted a cup of coffee at this point lol. So we waited for another few minutes and the same older blonde lady came back, and took our order, I paid and she said they'd bring our food out and to have a seat. I put some money in the tip jar assuming it would be for the servers/team and we headed to the seating area to get a table (self-seating). The server brought our coffee and food and she was nicer which was in contrast to the experience at the cash register. The coffee was ok, could have been hotter. My wife had an Italian sandwich which she enjoyed and I had a pastry which was ok. In summary, maybe we caught the cashier/owner in a bad mood, or perhaps we don't "fit" the demographic according to their brand-positioning, but it doesn't take much to politely acknowledge waiting customers and making them feel welcome (if you want them to feel welcome and we did not feel welcome here). First impressions are everything. While we were disappointed during our visit and will not be returning to Nelikona Cafe, the experience hasn't diminished our desire to...

Terrible. A waste of time and money. Seriously.

I'd give zero stars if it was an option. I also very rarely give negative reviews... but this place deserves one.

We went in and asked if they had golden tea. The girl behind the counter said yes. So I ordered two large, a slice of apricot oatmeal cake, and a passion fruit Boba. The place was empty but two people who had obviously been there for a while.

Three high school girls came in right behind my daughter and I... like us, they hadn't been there before.

We waited 15 minutes for our complete ticket because the girl behind the counter was too busy talking to the three other girls. Who each ordered after taking time to decide what drink, and then received their lattes and such before we got our two teas and cake order.

Once we actually received our order, we were missing one tea, so we waited again for the second... Only to walk out with two, what would be best described as small hot waters with single tea bags that are peach flavor and happen to make the water a yellow/orange. They aren't even ginger or turmeric?!

The apricot oatmeal cake tastes like a C- grade home economics baking project. It's gross... under cooled on the top and somehow over cooked on the bottom. It's all tragic. (The Boba was meh)

There were at least three people working there, a woman and 2 girls. So it wasn't that they were understaffed.

The tea is the thing that upsets me most. It's appalling.

I wasted $21 (and stupidly gave a tip) to wait 15 mins for nothing more than regret. Dumb. Note... the tea was so hot we couldn't drink them for 15 minutes. Rediculous. So when I finally got to taste it, I was already at home. Otherwise, I'd have asked for my money back.

Keep your money and go to Blu Fig in Long Grove or CoCo & Blu in Arlington Heights. Those are...