Sweet Berry Cafe — Restaurant in South Elgin

$19 for the savory crepe (spinach, cheese, bacon, cheese egg white & hollandaise sauce). I deducted the bacon.

For a $19 breakfast entree, the cheese wasn't melted and it came with barely any hollandaise sauce, see photo as proof. Pointing at the plate, I asked waiter if I could have a little more hollandaise to which he informed it would be a charge for a complete side, $4. He didn't care the kitchen failed to dress the plate correctly.

To clarify; if the food description had been written 'with a drizzle of hollandaise' I would accept my responsibility in ordering the food item. Restaurant owners should take more care in their food descriptions in order to avoid problems with customers.

$48 bill for two people. Automatically assume everything you ask for will be an upcharge, even if they ask you what type of toast you'd like. Example, waiter never informed english muffin was more money. We waited 15 minutes for water to be brought to table. No refills ever came. Coffee was delivered 15 minutes after being seated. Check out? They say you pay the waitstaff but then I watched the waitstaff bring the credit card to the host stand. Also watched the waiter go service 3 other tables while walking around with our credit card. Ridiculous. I would've preferred to go directly to host stand so we could leave the building rather than watching waiter provide the type of service to other tables we never received for our meal.

There's room for much improvement. I'm willing to try one more time, perhaps on a quieter day.

EDIT: I appreciate restaurant taking the time to respond but the response is not ideal. I have ZERO issue paying for my fair share of the food costs restaurants are suffering from in 2024/2025 but the photo is my proof there was barely any hollandaise and the cheese wasn't melted. If that's how you serve it, then just own it.

Secondly, this restaurant location is new and has NOT been here for 12 years. My review is specifically for THIS...

Updated review- see very bottom for my original review from 7 years ago.

August 2025. We went after church today and they weren't too busy. Positives: We didnt have to wait to be seated. Enjoyed that there was coloring pages and crayons for the kids. The food was tasty.

Negatives: Our order took longer than expected and kids were getting hangry. I ordered my usual Louisiana grits bowl. I will attach a photo of the description that states "Tiger shrimp." I had an idea of what to expect since it wasn't my first time ordering. The dish is now served in a bowl that I could hardly eat out of without spilling because it's a slanted bowl. I scooped everything out onto the serving plate. But my real issue was: the shrimp were just regular small shrimp, and there were only 4 in the entire dish. I mentioned this to the waitress right away and asked if there was any way to get a few more. She came back from talking to the manager and said that's how many are supposed to be in the dish and if I wanted more I would need to pay. I reminded her that the menu states they are Tiger shrimp and then ones in the bowl are much smaller than normal and just didn't seem like an appropriate amount. She proceeded to say, "Sorry I guess that's just a typo on the menu, there's nothing we can do." I wasn't very happy with how my kind and valid complaint with reasonable request was handled- especially since we ordered a lof of food for the table and had no other complaints or needs. I just let it go. However, I still feel bothered, because it seemed like such a small thing. If I had never ordered the dish before I wouldn't have known any different and would've just thought, that doesn't seem like an adequate amount of shrimp for the price.

Here is my review from 7 years ago:

Always yummy. And always busy. Good service, orders are ready fairly quick. Reasonable prices. Wish they did a military discount like IHOP, but at least they have a coupon in the valpak for...

Great Food but...

The waiter was beyond bad! We waited a bit before someone came over and when he did he was fairly rude. We had the impression that he thought we had been there before and were not good customers. I have no other way to explain his behavior. He was snippy with us, he helped other tables, seated long after us, before helping us, he came back to the table only after once after dropping our food, with attitude, and finally, even dropping off the check he seemed annoyed with us! Since we have never been here prior to this visit I’m at a loss.

However, I had the sweet berry crepes and the were out of this world! I mean really, really good! I’m just not sure they are good enough to deal with waiter!!!

Edit - 10.08.19 - The owner requested an email description of the events and so, after taking the time to do so, the owner was fantastic. He didn't blame us for some imagined slight, he simply apologized and stated he would speak with the waiter. He also offered a gift card if we would be kind enough to give them a 2nd chance. While I declined the gift card, his personal attention won me over. I will assume that the waiter was having a bad day (we've all been there) and give Sweet Berry Cafe another try - after all, I get to eat the Sweet Berry Crepes again, Bonus!!

Edit again, well, we went back, before Covid took hold of the state.

At the desk we asked for a section other than the one with “that guy” and they provided it - we were in the far room along the Windows with a very nice waitress.

However, at least 3 people ‘poked’ their heads around the corner to see who we were, including the ‘guy’.

By the time ‘the guy’ looked, we were pretty uncomfortable and just wanted to leave. We ate our breakfast and left as fast as possible. Can’t even remember if the food was as good as it was the first time but, it’s irrelevant because we won’t...