Honeybear Cafe — Restaurant in Rogers Park Township

This place has been on the list for a while but they book well ahead of time for weekends, so we took my mom while she was in town, and it was a great experience. The place was decorated a bit for mother's day but overall the decor is cute, diner-y, very welcoming. The staff were incredibly friendly and our waiter, who I think might have been named Ivan?, was excellent. We asked him for recommendations and two out of three of us got things he recommended. He was funny, pleasant, and he kept us topped up on water and coffee through the whole meal in a VERY busy restaurant.

As far as food, the menu is HUGE, and some, no, most of the plates of food are humongous. If you get a flight of anything (we did not) be aware that it comes on a foot-long rectangular plate and has enough food to make you abandon all hope piled on it. Also be aware that things you might expect to have a little kick are going to have more of a roundhouse. Not bad if you like spicy stuff, but if you're not sure you're probably better off avoiding it here!

I got the Poblano Pepper & Portobello omelet - quite spicy and maybe more of a folded scramble than a traditional omelet, but it was incredibly delicious and it had to be four eggs. The hashbrowns on the side were a more than generous serving, although even well-done I might have liked them a little crispier. I got a English muffin on the side which I asked to have griddled, which seemed to confuse the waiter and wasn't quite what I expected, but they tried and it was good enough.

My mom got the roasted veggie & Havarti cheese omelet with hashbrowns (well done) and rye toast. She ate almost the whole thing which is a testament to how delicious it is, and the toast was especially good, wherever they get their bread from they pick good options!

My wife got the carnitas skillet, which is where the real surprise heat was. Although the menu mentions the jalapeno, the salsa Verde was also spicy and delicious. She got pancakes on the side and the sheer amount of food defeated her. It would be fair to say that any of our three meals could easily have been breakfast plus leftovers for the next day, which is very generous portions given the prices are pretty reasonable for what you get.

All in all, it makes sense why this place is always booked ahead of time and packed to the gills. We'll be back, it's definitely worth a try if you live in the neighborhood(s) and if you're looking for a really hearty breakfast I'd say it's worth...

Food 4.5/5. Service subpar. Atmosphere was extremely loud. Portion sizes = gigantic.

The food is quite good, hashbrowns were 8.5/10 and the breakfast potatoes were 7/10. The breakfast potatoes were not fresh, but were still good (a little under seasoned) and were crispy, quite similar to Annie's Pancake House. The churro French toast was good, but not quite as good as Alexander's Cafe as it was a bit more chewy and dense. Still tasty, but if Alexander's is a 10/10, then Honeybears is 8/10. The fried chicken was excellent and so was the chorizo gravy and normal gravy sauce. Service appears to be hit or miss dependent on your wait staff. Our waitress disappeared for 30 minutes and with no one checking up on us we had to beg for coffee refills or for folks to take the massive dishes off our table so we had some breathing room. The dishes have to be huge because the food portions are gigantic. If you eat a lot you will find yourself very full with a single entree. If you don't eat a lot, you might be able to split a dish. While the average price is $19 an entree, it is still excellent value because you easily are buying 1.5 entrees worth of food. Atmosphere is fine (very busy & tightly packed with people), but the acoustics along with all the customers yelling for some reason it is very loud inside. Too loud. It is almost loud enough to where one might consider bringing ear plugs.

I was disappointed that the menu prices don't reflect the actual cost they charge you. For example, on their menu it says $3.99 to upgrade to a French toast option, but when receiving the bill (prior to paying) the actual charge was $4.32. Same with chicken skillet which was on the menu for $20.59 but was on the bill for $21.41. While these are small differences, the fact that they do not match feels deceitful. Subtracting a star for this. Bathrooms need to be cleaned.

If service and menu prices could be fixed, this place could be bumped up to 4.6/5 which is equivalent to a 5 star...

What a wild brunch. We ended up arriving late since we took the train the wrong direction. By the time we arrived, the host had said someone stole our reservation. Even with all the confusion, we were able to get seated shortly after.

We were immediately greeted with a raspberry cheesecake cube which was tasty. I ended up going with the pancake flight which consisted of granny's apple butter, Nick's more s'mores, banana crunch, and strawberry shortcake short stacks. That came out to 12 reasonably sized pancakes. The s'mores was my favorite as it was super rich with a perfectly charred marshmallow on top. The grannys apple butter had cinnamon apples reminding me of an apple pie, the granola with the banana was good, and the sweet cream with the strawberries was great. I could get any of these four by themselves and be happy but being able to get all four was amazing.

This place is definitely outside of Chicago but worth the trip. Very good vibes inside, a friendly staff, and delicious food that is relatively cheap.

Update: Came back for the 2nd time and I didn’t think it could get better but it did. The baja quesadilla was filled to the brim with eggs, bacon, and more. So tasty and the side of chorizo sausage gravy added even more savory flavor. Hash browns were super crispy.

The other new thing I tried was the stuffed churro French toast flight. I can’t think of anything better I have had than the cookie butter one. The first bite brought me to an euphoric state of mind. Challah was so soft but had a perfect crispy churro exterior. As we cut into them they oozed out with the various fillings. I personally don’t like churros or French toast that much and this was amazing. While the cookie butter was perfect, the chocolate followed closely behind (nutella may have made it better) and the strawberry was still very good. I can only hope they make this a permanent menu item.

This place never ceases to amaze me and I am super curious to see what the chef comes...