Mary's Market Cafe & Bakery — Restaurant in Rockford Township

I was visiting the Rockford area and stopped in at Mary's Market Cafe & Bakery unplanned. I bought a vegan raspberry bar, thinking it looked pretty good. Turned out the raspberry bar was delicious! I subsequently decided to stop in for a light dinner the next two evenings. My create-your-own sandwiches were delicious, with fresh bread, and very generous portions of tuna! The triple berry salad was also very good, with fresh greens, berries, and a delicious poppyseed dressing! The corn and black bean salad was also a win! As far as desserts, the chocolate chunk cookie I tried was decent, as was the pumpkin pie square (though it was far too rich due to the frosting). The vegan raspberry square was definitely the winner among the desserts (I treated myself to another). As far as coffee, I only tried the decaf. But, it was excellent! The atmosphere here is quite nice, as far as coffee houses go. And there's plenty of seating. Even though one orders at the counter, like fast food, the staff clean off the dishes and waste from the tables. I imagine this might be why there were some negative reviews. If it's busy, it might be difficult to get to clearing all the tables in a timely fashion. Perhaps adding dish bins near the garbage cans would be a good idea? If customers cleared their own plates, then the staff would only need to wipe down tables, which could be a time saver. Speaking of the staff, they were all very friendly and helpful. As far as prices, I thought a few items may have been a bit overpriced. But, it was mostly a good value, especially the Market Sampler deal. Thumbs-up to Mary's Market...

I love Mary's Market! But there has been not once, but multiple times that it has disappointed me, in many ways—if you have a Yelp, I said the same thing there.

Well, first you'd have to think coffee is one of the most on demand beverages in the states, sadly to say—well why don't you have hot coffee always on standby? It's almost always cold or at a decent temp. Second, dust...yes dust, on the lamps and what not, we are eating, I don't want to see dust coming down and Blah on my food. Third, tables...I usually can NEVER find a clean table, NEVER—and when I say never, I mean, there is ether plates all over, or the plates are gone, but it's a filth. I can see you have two-three cashier girls, and one that is a "floater" can't one just go and get the plates asap, and clean the tables asap? I don't want to walk up to you and tell you, "My table is dirty". Fourth, the bathrooms—it's always a 50/50 either it's the inside of a carcass, or spotless as a house when company is coming and mom just cleaned it.

Last—food, it's never a fail, food is always delicious here, and is the reason why I keep coming.

So I recently came back, and they are doing a great job (about time) in keeping the tables clean and ready to go for us customers. But...the bathrooms are still eh. I love Mary's Market and always will even when it's a 5star or 1star. I just want to see one of my favourite places strive in...

I’m only rating a 2 because of the poor service I had today. It wasn’t busy, and the girls behind the counter were all grouped and just “hanging out.” I asked if they had any sourdough bread, I was given a flat “we are all out” yet when I went to go check what other breads they had, I saw a sourdough bread. I asked her if that leftover one was sourdough, her response “if it’s in the sourdough bread section, then yes.” Rather than offer an apology for being LAZY and refusing to check if they had any bread left. If this is how they treat customers, then it’s no wonder why they barely had any customers in the first place. She could up sell more during her shift just by making a small effort.

UPDATE: The GM reached out and apologized on behalf of the worker’s behavior. I really appreciate the fact she took the time to reach out and resolve the issue. It shows that despite one bad experience, it does not reflect the culture and integrity of Mary’s Market. I will be...