Yellow Cat Cafe — Restaurant in South Bend

After hearing about the Yellow Cat Cafe through friends we decided to make the trip from Mishawaka to South Bend to try out this restaurant.

We arrived about 11:30 am on Sunday July 2nd before they closed for the 3 day holiday. First impressions were a small but popular local diner with an eclectic interior design. After waiting awhile we were seated in the front of the restaurant in a very noisy area surrounded by loud young people who were probably in their 20’s.

Anyway we decided to pass on the breakfast entrees because we knew it would be a long wait time & we had other places to go. We settled on the hot beef manhattan & waited in anticipation.

Once the food was delivered we found ourselves in frustration. Not the usual tender slow roasted roast beef with home made gravy we have become accustomed to at our favorite restaurants in Mishawaka but deli style thin sliced roast beef between 2 pieces of white bread with mashed potatoes & buried in canned gravy like you get @ every truck stop in America.

Our server was excellent, kept our water glasses full but didn’t tell us we had to go up to the counter in the middle of the restaurant to pay so we sat for awhile until we saw other people take their ticket to the counter.

$20.00 for 2 deli style hot beef manhattans plus tip might satisfy some people but it definitely didn’t for us.

We might give them a second try some time for breakfast but we didn’t see anything going by our table that made us say that smells so good we want to come back again.

If you like waiting a long time to say you ate @ a local favorite in South Bend that’s noisy & average food for the money invested this might be that place for you.

I’ll stick with my local favorites like the Curve Cafe, & Macadoos We’ll be glad we...

I normally like to give local places a good review, and I usually find some good, but I had a hard time with this place. The thing is, this place has a LOT of potential to it! I'll get to that in a minute, but let me point out a few things first:

The food was bland, and kind of generic diner food, nothing about it stood out. Though it was a little overcooked. The coffee was nasty, cheap coffee. Definitely not something I would ever order again. The service was okay, but I didn't feel like I was WELCOME. The weren't rude or anything, but I also felt ignored. The decor, the dishes and silverware, the table cloths (I mean who uses those anymore except for upscale expensive restaurants?), none of it matched. There's eclectic, and then there's "I feel like they got all this from goodwill..." plus, the place looked a little dirty. Not disgusting, just didn't look like it had been deep cleaned in awhile.

So, now that I have all that out of the way, I'm serious about this place having potential!

The staff are friendly... with their regulars and each other! The place feels like it has a historical vibe to it! IT HAS AN ICE CREAM DISPLAY CASE! (Or at least that's what I thought it used to be at some point.) It has bar stool seating! It's in a GREAT location! Not quite downtown, but close enough to walk there from downtown! There are a LOT of little things that I can't place my finger on, but feel like, "you almost had this..."

So, all that being said, I hope this place survives, and even more so, I hope it's revived at some point.

To the owners: I'm rooting for you! I honestly think yours is the type of eating establishment that could go from good, to truly being a great little place! Not my favorite, but I'm hoping...

My first time here. My wife and daughter ate lunch here previously and suggested I give them a try.

I usually have a heavy breakfast so I decided that we go in the morning. (You will want to get here early for seating as there was a long line waiting as we left around 9:30.)

My normal go-to breakfast place is The Original Pancake House on Ironwood and the menus are fairly similar so I was able to order what I would normally order (which is nice).

The prices were also reasonable and about the same as TOPH. The portions here seem to be a little bit more generous (I couldn’t finish).

Staff is friendly and our server was constantly topping off our coffee.

Our bill came to $28 and change which isn’t bad for feeding three people.

My only complaint was watching water drip from the ceiling vents and tiles. There is an area of ceiling tiles that are warped and showing signs of water damage which indicate this has been an issue for awhile but hasn’t been fixed. Restaurants should be on top of issues like this because leaking water pipes, leaky roofs, etc. equate to potential mold that could lead to health problems for its staff and customers. This is the reason why I gave them 4/5 stars. If I go back and see the problem is resolved, I may change my rating to a 5.

Overall, it was a nice dining experience. The food was delicious and the decor was...