Zakes Cafe — Restaurant in Whitemarsh Township

Was greeted by 2 different waitresses after we got seated, asking us different questions and if we wanted drinks when I already ordered them. Then another lady came to ask for our order. Then a different guy refilled my water glass with warm water. I got a small cup of coffee to drink and my boyfriend got a small cup of hot chocolate (plain, no whipped cream or anything). They charged us $3 for each cup, and only refilled mine once the whole meal. And I had to ask for ice water since my refill on my water was warm. It took forever to get a refill and it wasn’t busy at all. I was thirsty too, ended up eating all the ice while waiting for a refill. We ordered chocolate chip pancakes, which literally had like 5 chocolate chips inside each pancake and a few on top- very disappointing they didn’t taste choclately at all, tasted like regular plain pancakes. The Carmel syrup stuff they give you taste like melted butter. He ordered French toast and an omelette which they made into 2 separate meals when he just wanted the omelette as an add on, so he was charged $12 for the omelette meal with black toast that was burnt and hard as a rock and over cooked home fries. Then the French toast was $8 with a small cup of warm fruit. All together, the food was a major disappointment especially after driving 30 mins to get here and reading good reviews and looking at the pictures people posted, experience was much less then what I expected from an upper scale brunch restaurant. Nobody asked us before we left if we enjoyed our meal, which clearly we didn’t. And the lady who kept coming back to ask if we were done to take our plates came back and bothered us at least 3 different times to take plates when we were just trying to eat in peace, 1 time at the end would’ve been sufficient or could’ve waited until we left. We ended up spending over $40 for what was supposed to be 2 breakfast entrees with 2 small drinks, but they made it into 3 separate meals. I will definitely not be coming back here again and would...

Zakes Cakes and Cafe opened as an outpost in the suburbs to serve "light fare" and continues to satisfy the community's collective sweet tooth today. Located in Fort Washington, Zakes (sometimes listed with an apostrophe) resides on the lower floor of a house at the bottom of a hill.

To quote directly from another review: "Zakes' salads, sandwiches and soups are all outstanding, but save room for dessert! Many delicious specials to choose from, in addition to a great menu. The only problem here is making a decision. Be prepared to wait for a table around lunchtime..." Unless you arrive early, you'll have to wait at least 15 minutes to get a table. After noon, the place fills up! You'll get to wait on the patio's couch (!) and appreciate the garden outside at least. The main room can seat a reasonably large party. Look around and you'll see regulars from the surrounding area: residents of Ambler and Fort Washington and droves of worker bees from the nearby industrial parks. On a sunny day the place is cheery and well-lit. On cloudy days, the ceiling lighting is well-arranged and doesn't overwhelm. The walls are decorated with framed photographs thrown about. I can't remember any music playing in the background.

The menu has Italian, Vietnamese, French, Chinese, and English highlights. Daily specials are available at Zakes. I had a bowl of Mediterranean tomato soup with orzo. It was lightly flavored with tomato and herbs and had a light, pleasing taste. Chunky bits of orzo added substance to the dish. The portabello sandwich tasted like pizza and had the consistency of a tomato pie. It was topped with brussel sprouts... I looked forward to taking another bite as soon as I took the first!

Zakes is a comfortable place to go for lunch and a cup of coffee. Next time I go I think I'll get the Saigon salad, summer rolls (with chicken, shrimp) or the bourbon glazed salmon... so...

I’ve been to a lot of places for breakfast/brunch. I had high hopes for Zakes due to how busy this place can get. Honestly it fell short of my expectations. It was packed with people on a rainy Sunday. Not too long of a wait. We soon found out why. Don’t expect to relax and take your time. They don’t want you to stay long. The breakfast food was just okay for the price. My build your own omelette was pretty decent but not spectacular. The incorrect cheese was put in there. We never saw our original waitress again after our order was placed. Also a painstaking experience. I definitely felt rushed. Which by the way I REALLY don’t like. We ordered soup to go with the rest of our order. The Square came and went for me to pay and the soup never arrived. So we sat and waited. It still was never brought. The host, looking to fill our spot asked “do you need help with something?” Kind of rude after what I just spent. I explained that we hadn’t received our soup that we ordered. The bag was brought after a few minutes and we left with what I thought was two soups. I did not check it until we arrived home later after shopping. To my surprise we only received one of the two ordered and paid for. All in all, I...