ClockTower Cafe — Restaurant in Springfield

We recently moved into the neighborhood and thought we’d check this place out. It takes a lot to write a negative review but this place - wow. We walked in and waited to be seated without even a greeting or a hello from any of the staff or any indication that they acknowledged they’d taken us into account for a table. That alone set the vibe up and we should have left but regrettably did not. The food we ordered was so surprisingly tasteless I can’t help but think back at how bad it was as I write this review. Now, I knew going in, that this is just a basic grease spoon diner so I didn’t have high expectations but man, basic seasoning would have been nice for a $12 omelette. When the dishes were brought out, the runner didn’t even know what the dishes were or who’s belonged to who leaving us to guess and dig through our own food to try to understand what was what. A total mess. My hash browns were undercooked and my boyfriends hash browns were actually entirely burnt but were actually room temperature to taste. Mine were undercooked and didn’t even have a spit of salt on them. We both were stunned and almost amused at how bad the food was. One for the books. To make the meal even less appealing, our order of pancakes that came with the meal came out 20 minutes late and cold. We had to remind the waitress about them when she walked by. I had to smother the sad flap jacks with jam and butter to image any sort of flavor to them. The experience that sent me over the edge however, was when one of the waitresses who was not our waitress, came by to refill my boyfriends cup of coffee. Not only did she spill the coffee and verbally acknowledge she spilled the coffee onto the table but instead of apologizing she simply just proceeded to walk away. That’s it - she didn’t even offer to bring napkins or bother to apologize she just left a wet mess on the table. Like, what?? We were literally speechless. It was seriously unbelievable and over all such a bad experience it was almost comical. The only reason we didn’t walk out was because the main server was actually really positive and sweet but when we mentioned that the experience was not positive you could tell she didn’t really care enough to bother asking why and just kept trying to run the card in her portable card machine which to no surprise, didn’t work. I’ve had tons of sub par dining experiences at small hole in the wall joints but this one seriously takes the cake. I’m adding a photo of the burnt and undercooked hash browns for reference. Not good vibes. Still left a tip and paid obviously. Hope they can get it together or at least pay their staff enough to pretend to care about...

4/12/2025: Since I wrote my original review, we've gone back several times, usually for breakfast. Everything has really improved. The servers are always welcoming, pleasant, and attentive. The food is much better. My wife had scrambled eggs (dry) with roasted potatoes, fruit, and a toasted biscuit. I had cinnamon French toast with bacon. It was all delicious. They also seem to have changed their bacon supplier, because the bacon is slightly thicker and tastier. ClockTower Cafe has become one of our two favorite breakfast places. On the way in, I noticed that they have a variety of fish dishes for Lent, and we'll go back to try them.

Went for breakfast at Brunchfield Cafe and found that it had recently become ClockTower Cafe. Once seated, we noted that the menu had changed, with some of the New Orleans dishes such as shrimp and grits with andouille sausage no longer offered.

When the server finally took our order, my wife ordered pancakes, a dish of fruit, and hot tea. I ordered eggs over easy, corned beef hash, fruit, and toast, but received hash browns instead of fruit. I don't know if the server didn't hear me correctly or hit a wrong key on her hand held order device. I didn't send it back because I won't waste food, and the hash browns were good. The eggs were fine, but the hash didn't have much flavor: better than Charlie Parker's but not even close to Sweet Basil's. The price was reasonable, especially with the 4%...

Stay home and heat up something from the freezer, and a can of veggies. It'll be cheaper, and it'll taste the same.

I had "creamy chicken soup with rice" [cream of mushroom, with 3 grains of rice and a single chicken bit] Cole slaw [Thick mayo on veggies] Chicken fried steak with gravy [it didn't appear to be fried, or "chicken fried", and it tasted like a frozen Salisbury steak, perhaps for dogs, but with bland gravy]. The portion was big, but after a single bite, I was done. The green beans were from the freezer. The corn, too, I believe. The only pleasant thing I had was the lemon pudding. Sure, it's neon yellow, but it tasted good, and you can't really do pudding wrong.

The waitress was lovely, and apologetic with each bit of the unpleasant meal I didn't eat; her service was exceptional.

I'll never be...