Lazy Daisy Diner & Cafe — Restaurant in Urbana

I came by the Lazy Daisy Diner for breakfast this morning. If you have trouble finding it, it is in the shopping mall. It has an entrance outside too.

The hostess greeted me immediately and was very kind. She brought me to this long shared booth and tried to seat me between two parties. I am 100% not cool with this so I kindly asked if I could be seated somewhere more private (my own booth, table) she brought me to the other side of the resturaunt to another long but empty booth/table combo. This worked.

The resturant is nice and clean and seems to have ample seating, regardless of weird shared dining spaces. Id say half or a little more were empty. It had a calm atmosphere. Not to busy on my visit.

After a few minutes a man was seated like 2 feet from me in the same booth thing. I didnt say anything but im sure they would let me move had i asked. I know not everyone is anxiety ridden, antisocial things... and had it been a different day for me perhaps this wouldn't be a bother... but not being accustomed or aware of this type of seating was just off putting to me.

I ordered the biscuits and gravy with 2 over medium eggs on top and a decaf coffee. The food was amazing. I wish i had maybe 1-2 tablespoons more of their delicious gravy to balance out the drryness of the biscuits but wasnt bad. You can taste the sage in the gravy, it was very yummy. I usually pair this item with hot sauce when I order other places but there was so much flavor in this dish I didn't even think to.

All in all I would recommend visiting. 100% just be aware of potential seating if that isn't...

The atmosphere is super cool, love the cafe/diner sides. The staff was friendly. The place was pretty busy, it was a Saturday during the outdoor Market at the Square so there was a little bit of a wait, but we didn't feel it was too long. Our server was good. She got our order correct, was nice and polite and slightly conversational, which were all great. The menu is small, and will hopefully grow over time. The only questionable thing was the food. One of our group is gluten free so had to order ala carte scrambled eggs and hashbrowns. All of that was fine, though we would've really liked a gluten free bread option for toast. The issue was with the hashbrowns, which were dry and slightly burnt. Not that tasty. Also, I got some very tasty sourdough with my Corned Beef Hash, but no offer of butter or jam for the bread. It was just dry bread on top of my bowl of hash. Luckily the bread was very good, but it would've been nice to get some butter and jam for it. The hash itself was moist and tasty, with just corned beef, potatoes, some onion, and a fried egg on top. The coffee was excellent. All in all a mostly favorable experience with just a few faux pas. They are just recently opened and getting their groove worked out, so we will probably give them another try...

I would say this place is more suited for older folks that have more money; not as U of I student-friendly in terms of pricing. My partner and I got the liège waffles. For $16 each I was not pleased with the portion. The waffles themselves were not large though they were quite delicious. The cream was nice as well. The menu says that it comes with fruit but as you can see in a photo posted within the reviews for this place, the fruit serving in question was three paper-thin slices of white peach and 4 blueberries… one of which was very mushy and inedible and one of which was mushy but edible. I was not happy that not only there was so little fruit given overall, but that half of my blueberries were unappetizing. I would not recommend this place unless you have lots of dispensable income or you have a very small appetite. The amount of fruit we got with our waffles was laughable, I am really not happy about that.

Some positives: friendly waitstaff, nice decor, and the place...