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

I’m a big fan of Mary’s Market—the staff is generally great, and the food is excellent. However, the benches definitely need replacing. The atmosphere is pleasant, but I recently had a frustrating experience. I was standing by the bakery for 10-15 minutes, waiting for help, while others were served at the café. Eventually, a staff member told me I needed to order at the café, but this wasn’t communicated earlier, even though employees saw me waiting. Clear signage or a simple greeting would have saved a lot of confusion.

Also, during another visit, I had an issue with an iced coffee order. After paying, the barista forgot my drink, and once reminded, she gave me a vanilla iced milk instead of the black iced coffee I requested. When I clarified that I wanted just plain iced coffee, she responded condescendingly, insisting I meant cold brew. As someone with over six years of barista experience, I know the difference between the two. If Mary’s Market only offers cold brew, that should be communicated upfront, not blamed on the customer.

While I really enjoy the food and general atmosphere at Mary’s Market, I believe there’s room for improvement in staff training, particularly in soft skills. Better communication and customer service would help prevent situations like the ones I’ve experienced. Proper training could ensure that customers feel welcomed, informed, and properly served, which would enhance the overall experience. Some of the staff are absolutely wonderful and understand how to provide great...

We went Mary's Market for the first time, it is a bit confusing when you go in, the door on the side closest to State St takes you into a sit down restaurant with full table service, the entrance on the other side takes you into a counter service type restaurant. We entered the counter service door and walked through to the table service area. They share the same menu it's just one side you have a waitress who delivers everything to you the other side you order at the counter and get your own drinks, silverware and such. There were several things on the menu that looked good so we tried several things. One ordered a Cubano sandwich which came with 1 side, so caprese pasta salad was chosen. The Cubano was not like any I have had which is fine however the pork was not a slice of pork it was a pile of meat that tasted like dark meat turkey, it was supposed to have stone ground mustard which i had one little tiny dot on one side so it seemed rather dry. The caprese salad was very good and really unique. We ordered a cup of chicken soup, which I would not do again as it cost $6.29 and had 2 noodles, 1 little piece of chicken the rest was celery carrots and a very spicy broth. The other meal ordered was a tuna melt. The tuna melt was very good, made well with a perfect ratio of tuna to bread, that sandwich also came with your choice of 1 side so steak fries...

Not good service at all walked in today w my daughter for lunch , to start with it took them more than 5 mins to acknowledge us standing waiting , there’s one waitress and one at the cafe counter side and about 3 tables with only 2 or 3 ppl at them , anyhow finally she comes and says take a seat wherever you like we do there’s no silverware on the table she comes takes orders doesn’t bring water , brings my coffee but no spoon no sugar no creamer , she brings them but not any spoons she goes about attending other tables it’s not hectic not busy she keeps walking by sees I placed my cup at the end of table doesn’t acknowledge it she doesn’t come until my daughter calls to her and she says oh absolutely! lol Thais not a sorry . So she leaves doesn’t come back until our food is ready she brings it and then she brings silverware, my coffee is cold by then she sees it doesn’t acknowledge that it could be cold because I couldn’t stir it with my fingers right ?! Doesn’t say sorry I’ll bring you a fresh one ! I suppose I was not the right COLOURED person or I had too much COLOURED skin ! To have gotten better treatment as a customer ! Other than the Kitchen workers who were melanin skinned and spoke Spanish were the only acceptable people of colour in the place ! Never ever setting foot in there again ! TERRIBLE...