Mary’s Market Café & Bakery — Restaurant in Roscoe Township

Let me start by saying how big of a fan I've been of Mary's Market for over a decade. I no longer live in the area and the updates I get from friends and family are "A new Mary's Market is opening in Roscoe!" To my delight I am in town the first week of this new location opening.

I can't help myself and I take my Father out for Mary's on a Saturday morning for a quick bite. Upon entering the new location, it didn't seem overly busy. There were a few other folks in line and most of the tables were empty in the main area. Ordering didn't go well, they were out of their best cookies so I settled for the fruit cup side & despite the menu saying breakfast is serveed til 12pm on Saturdays we were told breakfast ended at 11am so we had to settle on different menu items.

We put in our order at exactly 11:30am according to my receipt. Twenty minutes later and we're wondering where our food is. I'm doing my best to be patient as I realize this is a new location and they must be getting settled. Looking around it looks like there is a lot of standing around by the staff and not a lot of movement near the kitchen.

I see what looks like my order (Chicken Wrap) waiting at the kitchen counter after 30 some odd minutes have passed. Ten minutes later a helpful young lady on staff came by to check on us. She looks into our order and says they are still waiting on the Reuben my dad had ordered. Having already been there for 40 minutes we decided to just get the Reuben to go and I'll just eat my Wrap.

The Spicy Buffalo Chicken Wrap arrived 43 minutes after I ordered, it was lower quality than what I was acustomed to at the other Mary's locations, having sat there waiting for so long. The fruit cup side seems to be laughably small compared to the side dish size I remembered from the Rockford locations but perhaps I was the one who got bigger.

The Reuben ended up coming out a few minutes later and they foregoed the take out tray since it came out quicker than expected. The Reuben definitely looked lesser than the other Reubens I've had from Mary's in the past. Despite this dish being the hold up for our order, my dad informed me that it was cold to the touch.

The time had come to go after our hour long endeavor at Mary's for what I had hoped would be an in and out experience. On our way out we conversed with the staff and they asked us how things were, we told them we weren't satisfied with basically any part of our experience and they were apologetic and asked us to forgive them since they were so new.

I've been on staff for an established restaurant that was opening a new location and they knew they needed all hands on deck for their early weeks until things were established. They had staff from the other locations come in and train the new staff and help out until things were stable and working correctly. My father who had worked in the food industry for 35 years echoed this same thing. My understanding is that Mary's Market had changed ownership in the past years but my understanding was that the new owners had lots of experience in the restaurant industry (local Culver's), how could they launch this new location like this?

It's clear based on other reviews that other people are unhappy with their experience, I've even been told that the Mary's Market social media is apologizing and starting some type of Customer Appreciation day to make up for the mistakes.

I've always cared for the Mary's Market brand. I love telling people why Panera sucks and explaining the gem I had back home that spoiled me with far greater quality food and baked goods than Panera could ever dream of. It saddens me as a Roscoe native that this new location is a total dud. I hope they are able to turn this around otherwise it will be the second time a Roscoe Mary's Market didn't last.

TLDR; food took forever (43 minutes), quality below par, out of their popular items, steer clear for now and simply drive down to your closest Rockford location.

Shout-out to the young lady that helped us get our...

DESTINED TO FAIL Don't know were to start. We love the food here. It ends there. They don't know what they are doing and have not since they opened. 90% of all our dine-in orders have either "Taken for Ever" or "Wrong".

RECENT EXAMPLE: Thursday at 2:00 Ordered and paid for 2 orders of soup to dine in. One other person sitting at table waiting for take out order. No other customers in establishment.

Sat at table 20 feet from food staging area facing Soup Station. 28 minutes later received our soup. The woman that was waiting for carryout ran up to plates of food on kitchen serving counter and said "No, this is for take out!".

There were 6 Employees present. 2 behind the cash register area. 2 in the kitchen and 2 Manager looking guys walking in and out of dining area.

The downside here is that this is standard operating procedure since they have opened. They apologized as they normally do, but never offer anything for late food or missing food on an order.

At some point they should pass out Discount Coupons, a Reduced Bill or at least a free Bakery Item.

It's a shame, they are doomed. We continue to go because we don't want them ro close! R.I.P.

UPDATE ONE YEAR LATER The Service here is unbelievably poor with long waits for simple things. We love the food, but long waits even when ordering ahead are unacceptable, not to mention the OUT-OF-STOCKS even before the pandemic. The Staff is poorly trained and unaware of what they have in stock when calling. Unfortunately this establishment has a death wish which will most likely happen sometime in the near future.

VERY DISAPPOINTING We've been waiting and waiting for the Old Vito's to reopen as Mary's Market. Walked in at 4:00 and ordered 2 sandwiches to dine in and 3 bakery items to go and sat down. There were 3 tables with customers present. My comments are:

1-Thought we would be greeted and welcomed to the New Mary's Market...nope, had to stand in front of a register to get the attention of one of the two employees off to the side.

2-there were many crumbs, 2 napkins and paper from a straw on the floor throughout the dining area. In the 30 minutes we were there multiple employees walked over and passed by and never picked anything up and it wasn't dirty. The place looked dirty.

3-One of the 2 sandwiches we ordered had brown mustard on it instead of mayo...no big deal, we didn't send it back, but thought it was odd since they were not busy.

4-when we were finished we realized that the 3 bakery items we ordered and paid for that were to-go were not given to us at the register or delivered to the table. We had to ask, which was fine.

The food, like the other Mary's Markets was great! We'll be back, but it was apparent that the staff doesn't have their act together even though a young lady came to our table several times.

My final comment has to do with the overall feel of the eating area - boring, sterile, uninviting and drab. No color, no music. Felt like a cafeteria. Would not bring my laptop in to drink coffee and hang out. Would rather go to Schnucks Grocery, or Beef-A-Roo which I would prefer not to do either.

When you get your act together, spice up the dining area with pictures of murals or something to represent what you sell. There are unlimited opportunities to make your customers feel comfortable and at home. We want your Mary's Market to be a destination location that we will...

I normally don't complain or post bad reviews, but this place was ridiculous. I literally waited for almost an hour to get 2 cold HALF sandwiches, a cup of soup, and a half salad. I paid at 12:07 pm according to my receipt. The food came at around 1 pm. I last looked at the clock at 12:55, and the food wasn't out yet. It came a few mins later. I'm pretty sure that's the longest I've had to wait on food. It was definitely the longest I've had to wait for a couple sandwiches. There was no reason for that long of a wait. There were at least 3 people working in the kitchen that I could see, and probably 7 or 8 people in the staff. There were maybe 20 to 25 customers there. They didn't even offer anything for the ridiculous wait time. The people at the table next to us went up and asked for a refund because they couldn't wait any longer. We should've done the same. I should also mention, I thought the food was overpriced for basic sandwiches, salads, and soups. My bill was almost $30 for 2 half sandwiches, a cup of soup, side salad, and 2 small drinks. I wasn't impressed with the food either. I've had better for less....