Lou Mitchell’s Restaurant & Bakery

I was told that Lou Mitchell’s was the beginning of the original starting point of Route 66 (Jackson Blvd). This place has been around since 1923. It’s got a lot history. Breakfast was good and came out fast. I requested my special omelette that came with spinach and corn beef hash. I also got free donut balls on my way in before getting seated. Pretty cool treat! It was so good, I grabbed a few more. Staff was very upbeat. If it wasn’t for the 8 degree weather and snow, I would’ve sat outside and enjoyed the windy city Chicago. What a great landmark for Chicago.
Until then, be kind to one another and Cheers! ~ :p

Maybe I am old and remember things from my late 20’s and early 30’s with too much fondness, but I do remember the breakfast as being better.
Now that is not to say it wasn’t good, it was a fine breakfast. I LOVE the donut hole while you are waiting in line, and the whole Milk Duds, prune and orange before your meal remain as quaint always, (though my daughter refused to eat her prune). The service also remains super friendly, and Faye our hostess was fantastic and very responsive.
I took the kids on President’s Day and raved about the place ahead of our visit. They were excited to try it. We are trying to eat our way through DNA Info’s article of 10 oldest restaurants (
), and Lou Mitchell’s is #8 on the list, having opened in 1923. Lou’s probably HAS thrived by remaining mostly the same over all these years. Consistently fluffy omelets, waffles that look like they will melt in your mouth, and all the little touches that make you feel like you belong here. A great breakfast place should make you feel this welcome no matter your first visit or your 100^th.
BUT, you knew it was coming, the omelet, though fluffy, was sort of bland. The kids thought they had had better waffles, and though the little touches, atmosphere and history at Lou’s, here at the beginning of Route 66, are awfully interesting, maybe these only okay breakfast servings at a sort of rich price are the reason I haven’t returned here for breakfast in 20 years.
Will we come back one more time with our forth family member? Maybe. Maybe not. There are lots of great breakfast places closer to home. Yes, this place has nostalgia, great service and all the little touches, yet in the end the breakfast itself is just as I rated it, A-​OK. If you look though, you can find better, MUCH better, in this town. And I would probably tell you to do that after you have visited this place once, just to say you’ve been here.

Lou Mitchell’s is legit. A breakfast I won’t forget. You walk in and are immediately served a fried doughnut hole with powdered sugar. What a great first impression! This place is a popular breakfast choice in the area and they treat the customers right. I ordered the zucchini omelette. The eggs were incredibly moist and served hot in a skillet with home fries, perfectly cooked! The onion sauce was really good. I’d love to have that recipe. It came together really nice with the fresh zucchini slices which were tender just to my liking. Potatoes were good too, not overly greasy or anything, Just right. Great portions sizes too.
Stop in for a great start to any morning.

This is dreadful slop. Just spent $ 15 on a lunch that was hideous. Their breakfast is only slightly less dreadful.
If you like flavorless, congealed blobs of protein and/​or mystery edibles, by all means, you do you, but I gave it a few tries (it’s near my office) and it wasn’t just a bad day… it’s always like this.
Many people seem to love it, and I normally love a greasy spoon type joint, but this is five rungs below a cafeteria. Skip it.

THEE standard in a Chicagoan breakfast. Ladies waiting in line gets milk duds, while guys get donuts. It used to be the start to route 66 hence the tradition of fueling up and hitting the great wide open! Charlie Trotter’s favorite place to eat breakfast was here – the double yolk eggs used in every dish might have done him in! They are super delicious – I can’t *not* order the Michigan Apples and Cheddar Omelette, the combination of sweet and salty is just too delicious. Also don’t underestimate the yummy little prune and orange slice they give you before the meal! It tastes so much better than those dried fruit ones from the grocery. Amazing coffee with cream that floats on top and the sweetest waitresses – come sporadically and they’ll know your name. And do get the dollop of soft serve that comes at the end of your meal! You won’t regret it, and it’s great people watching during the brief wait in line! (Don’t miss the fish-​less aquarium.)

Most important meal of the day and they do it justice. Try the corn beef hash with any type of egg. I had mine scrambled and it came out like a fluffy hot air balloon hovering over the perfect amount of corn beef and crispy potatoes. Can’t go wrong with some old fashion diner style service and cheap good ol eaten.

Super fun place! Right when I walked in I was offered a donut hole! Great touch :) the food was good and came out fast. The seating was pretty close for comfort. You could hear the conversations next to you but other that that, it was an overall great experience!

Eaten at Lou’s several times while in the city for work. Service has always been excellent. Food is delicious. At a diner with relatively high prices, the egg sandwich on the with hash browns at $ 6.95 is one of the best breakfast deals in the south loop.

While the food is not going to blow you out of the water, the experience of this good ol’ fashioned city diner is really what you’re there for. Get greeted at the door, by whom I can only assume is the original hostess of Lou Mitchell’s, with delicious donut holes, then escorted to your table where you will view a menu of all the classic diner dishes. Omelettes, pancakes, biscuits, bacon… You get the idea.
Your server will be a story book diner waitress, a little rough around the edges, but an efficient sweet heart nonetheless.
You’ll be in and out within a half hour, feeling fueled for your day.
Great coffee, too.

So when you arrive at Lou’s you get a donut hole and it tastes really good. All the food there tastes good, but my brother’s girlfriend and I got very sick and the only thing we both ate were those donut holes. I’m not sure if it was a bad batch or what but it pretty much ruined our day. I doubt we’ll be back. I wouldn’t trust their food and their service was average at best despite not being busy. I mean it’s a fair price and it’s a cute location but after that whole ordeal I would never go back.

Oh yes, fantastic old style breakfast diner.
The fluffiest omelettes you’ve ever had.
Fast waitresses who are always on top of your coffee and snarky just as they should be.

Good, hot coffee, lots of great food and warm hospitality. How can it get better?
The prices are low, it’s really busy — a fun place to people watch.
I didn’t have to wait– I sat at the counter. The staff was fun. They give you free donut holes.
The lady who passes them out was NICE! Such a great time — I’m glad a local pointed the place out to me while I was walking downtown. A must check out!!!

I have walked past this brightly classic Chicago sign almost every day of living in Chicago and decided to try it out one morning. There is usually a semi short line but it seems to clear out quite quickly. It has a diner feel, but not a «fun» one, more of a dirty old one that tries to play off the vibe of «yeah we’ve been in Chicago for so long so we can just use our name to attract customers instead of making our place quality and clean.» Route 66 signs and classic American themed things like that.
We got seated at a dirty table, still old eaten off plates. We asked to get moved to a booth and our waitress reluctantly let us sit at one of the open ones. We checked out the menu, and also noticed our silver ware was dirty, that was a nice touch. There was a little quiz about Chicago at the table which was fun, but again trying to use their name as a wow factor. For example, «What famous movie was Lou Mitchell’s featured in?»
The menu looks pretty ordinary, classic American foods, nothing wrong with that. I ordered the eggs Benedict and my colleague ordered egg whites, potatoes, French toast and a piece of fried chicken.
While we were waiting we got a crusty looking date and a small slice of orange. Not even juicy.
Our food didn’t take too long to come, I got the benedict and it looked okay, except for the fact it was cold. Nice. On top of cold potatoes but the edges were warm. Great. Everything was flavorless, but if you ask for hot sauce they will give you a bottle, thank god. The fried chicken was dry, he had one bite and didn’t even bother with the rest of it. The waitress was not personable and was more off a «here is your food, see ya» over «how is everything going?».
There is some weird obsession with milk duds (aka the candy that everyone doesn’t want at Halloween) here, of all things the waitress made sure was okay with our meal was to make sure we got our milk duds. I almost felt guilty saying I didn’t want any.
Everything there is over priced for what you get. As we paid, I noticed that they served baked goods, as it also says on the massive sign outside. I asked about how they bake them and they told me they don’t even bake anything in the restaurant… okay.
I am truly surprised if someone eats here and decides to come back. There is potential for greatness in this place, but they haven’t even put one ounce of efforts into trying to make it that. I hope in the future that Lou Mitchell’s will turn around and really become a Chicago classic diner, instead of a nightmare with bad service and food. Thank you for the terrible experience, I will not be back and I will never recommend this place to anyone I know.

Iconic diner in the west loop. Are there better diners out there? For sure. The fact that this place is old, like really old make is legit. The sign, the long line of tourists, and the weird location in the shadows of huge Union Station make this place what it is. I do not get the milk duds for the ladies. They’ve had that schtick forever.
The food is decent but don’t expect to be blown away by anything. I enjoy their coffee. I also like their burger with green olives. I’m sure that thing is sodium overload but it’s damn tasty. They have a salad called the Slenderella salad. I want to order that just to say the name! Lots and lots of omelet choices including one with lox and a zucchini one too. It’s Greek owned so they have Greek sausage as a breakfast meat choice. They also have obligatory filet of sole sammie and skirt steak sammie.
They tout their desserts as homemade. They look good and quite a few customers were ordering them to go.
So A-​OK spot that really served a purpose in the west loop years ago. Now a days breakie places are popping up all over so Lou’s is cool for hanging in there for so long.

Quite literally the best simple cup of coffee I’ve ever had! Rich and bold but not a hint of stale or bitter after taste. The eggs, as expected were fluffy and delicious. Amazing place to just hang out after the crowds in the afternoon and enjoy history.

I wanted this place to be better. It looks like the kind of old diner that should know what it’s doing. Our meal started off with a donut hole: awesome. I ordered biscuits and gravy and my friends got skillets. Before our food, we were served a small plate of random fruits, which were okay. My meal would rate at a 2. The biscuits were not good, and burned on the bottoms, but came with a mound of enjoyable sausage gravy. I’m giving a third star because my friends’ meals were huge and did look good, though one did mention the vegetables were bland and unseasoned. After our meal, we were offered complimentary soft serve but all declined. And yes, there were Milk Duds, aka one of the worst candies to exist.
This place is cool for the historical aspect and décor, but I wouldn’t return.

Un dinner à l’américaine, très old school, très bruyant, très speed, très COOL de pouvoir se faire un petit déjeuner à midi ou 13h si ça nous chante.
Vous voulez des «booth» pour vous installer un peu cachés? OUI !
Vous voulez une carte longue comme le bras pour en avoir pour tous les goûts? OUI !
Vous voulez vous en mettre plein la panse avec une omelette bien fluffy et bien goûteuse et accompagnée de pomme de terre qui ressemblent à des chips? OUI !
Bön accessoirement, on vous amènera la note après le plat sans vous demander si vous voulez finir sur un café ou commander autre chose, mais bon, je me suis endurcie pendant ces vacances aux States et j’ai fini par comprendre qu’ici le service est un peu plus tough love qu’ailleurs.

Challenge of the day: use one word to describe this restaurant.
Easy — my answer is «iconic». Lou Mitchell’s is in every way iconic of a classic, old-​school American diner — the atmosphere and interior décor, the down-​to-​earth friendliness of the employees, and even the food! It’s almost like I used a time machine to go back to the 1950’s. A friend and I came here for brunch Sunday morning, waited about 15 minutes to get seated, and ordered a malted bacon pecan waffle with hash browns.
Food was delicious! The waffle was infused with bacon-​y flavors (no actual bacon meat came with the waffle unfortunately) and was delicately graced with pecan bits. Hash browns were made old-​time style: fresh, crispy, and simply tasty! Definitely recommend those.
As a final note, make sure to bring cash, as it is cash only. Other than that, get pumped for a journey down History Lane!

Ok, I was a little skeptical of a place with only 3.5 stars in a city known in large part for the food. But we were right around the corner and decided to give Lou’s a shot.
Holy crap, I’m glad we did!
This place was basically the first stop (or last, depending on your direction of travel) for people driving the old Route 66 between LA and Chicago. I can imagine people getting out of their now classic cars and lining up to get in here to get fueled up for the trip out west. I can’t think of a better place. And speaking of lining up, if there is a line and you’re waiting a bit starving to death, have no fear. They will come by with a small box of Milk Duds or donut holes to tide you over. A long held tradition at Lou’s.
Lou’s is a classic old diner, but has a menu full of classic foods as well as updated items. I got the malted waffle with bacon in it. Wow. I devoured that in record time. My wife had a custom made skilled creation with home made greek sausage, feta, mushrooms and black olives. Okay, not my cup of tea, but she loved it and made our waitress drool. The coffee was good, the pancakes fluffy and light and the service was some of the best I have ever had. And they will give you a little cup of soft serve at the end to clean your palate. How cool is that?
Sit at the counter and make a new friend with the fellow customers. You may not be driving Route 66, but you can definitely fuel up at Lou’s for whatever you are doing that day. You won’t regret it.

Popped in for a weekday breakfast and requested a seat on the patio. As we walked through the restaurant I observed my buddy grabbing a donut hole out of a basket. Following protocol I did the same. After popping it in my mouth I quickly realized I had made a GRAVE mistake. It was super dry and thick.
I panicked, trying to choke it down, but it just hovered there. Stuck right in the middle of my throat, for what felt like an eternity. I looked around for some water, and started slapping my chest thankfully unnoticed by others. Last thing I wanted to do was cause a scene.
Eventually it passed, and I let out a sigh of relief. We both ordered scrambled eggs, mine with cheese. The food came out quickly and everything was delicious.

Not too bad but I was disappointed given the hype about this place. Service was pretty good. We came on a Saturday morning and we were seated immediately. The waitress came to the table immediately after being seated and wanted to take our order before we had any time to look at the menu. We were ready about a minute later but it took several minutes for her to come back. When she came back the first time it was just to drop off our drinks. We had to wait several more minutes to place the order.
I ordered an omelette with hash browns. I don’t like my hash browns undercooked so I asked for them well done. My wife ordered hers the same way. I was surprised when my order came out and my hash browns were potato chips — I will post a photo. Apparently they don’t follow any of the definitions of hash browns as defined at
— they slice them and either cook them until they are potato chips like mine, or greasy and undercooked like my wife’s — which as I noted above were ordered the same way.
My omelette was excellent and my wife’s eggs were perfect. The donut holes were cold, dry and seemed like they had been sitting around for a while — we didn’t finish the order of 6.
This place needs improvement — especially to learn how to make hash browns.

I like the name. Lou Mitchell’s. Let’s go to Lou’s for brek brek…
While we were waiting they gave us donuts.
Our waitress was really cool, a little surly, but cool. Which I was okay with.
I had the simple straight forward breakfast which is what I typically have (2-​eggs over medium, bacon, and potatoes) and coffee, and it was very good.
My young thang had the corned beef hash (which looked really good) and she seemed to enjoy.
We had a nice time here, yeah, yeaahhhh… real nice time.

The only thing keeping this page from one star was that no one was offensive. Apart from that, this place was nothing special. I had the Greek cheese special with unripe, nearly white tomatoes and it was filled with enough feta to make you sick. The service was nothing special. They ignored us and basically tended to us about as much as a drive through would have. The food is was overpriced for what it’s worth and what it tasted like. The maple syrup tasted like sugar mixed with tap water. At least the coffee was good, but more expensive than I could have gotten at starbucks, to be honest.
The restaurant itself was dirty and the chairs are old, uncomfortable, and wobbly. I will never come back here again and I wouldn’t waste your money here.

What I great experience, it was an old rustic historical diner in downtown Chicago. It’s just a short distance from the beginning of the classic Route 66. Lucky for me, I visited on a business day and I’m the alarm clock for the sun. I arrived about 45 minutes after opening, so there was no line. I was cheerfully greeted by a waitress who seated me and offered me coffee.
As she was pouring my coffee, I told her I had to have an order of their famous donut holes. She giggled and responded, «Of course your do.» Being an experienced Unilocaler, I had already scoped out the menu on line and had a fairly good idea of what I was going to order. When Virginia returned with my holes, I placed my order for a Spinach Special Omelette which in addition to spinach, was stuffed with Greek Feta Cheese and Onions. Which can be perfect for someone who is trying to go low-​carb.
All egg dishes come with hash browns and a side of toast. Since I was cheating on my low-​carb with the hash browns, when Virginia asked me which bread I wanted, I told her I’d pass on the bread. She gave me a Medea look right out of a Tyler Perry movie and said, «You’re passing on our bread?» As I said yes, she sighed slightly and walked away.
As I munched on the holes (which were just okay) and read fliers on my table, I understood the Medea glare. I quickly looked towards the back of the restaurant and got Virginias attention. When she came back to my table I said,“You bake your own bread, here. No wonder you looked at me like I was crazy when I said, no bread.” She giggled and told me I was forgiven. She told me all the different types of breads and I choose wheat.
When my omelette arrived, it was overstuffed with spinach and Feta Cheese. The outside was too dark for me, I prefer a more even light color. However, the flavor was bursting out of the overstuffed omelette. The Hash Browns were crispy, but they were what I’d call American Fries. The potatoes were thinly sliced, not shredded like traditional hash browns. Oh, the toast, it was thick slices, smeared with butter and served with small jars of jelly and marmalade. I normally pass on bread when having breakfast out, but I will always enjoy my toast here. It was like having bread baked by my mom or Aunt.

Nice old fashion 90 year old diner in the heart of Chicago. Located on historic Route 66, just a few blocks from the beginning of the route.
Had the Denver omelette, which was a bit dry. Came with some thin sliced fried potatoes which were very good. They give you an orange wedge and a dried prune on the side, nice. Service was friendly and fast.

Après une visite à la Willis Tower un bon repas pour se remettre de nos émotions s’imposait ! (Quelle excuse !)
Tout d’abord nous avons été accueillies chaleureusement avec en prime un petit morceau de beignet. Bizarre de commencer par une note sucrée mais finalement ça passé très bien et le beignet né dégorgeait pas d’huile !
J’ai pris une chicken Caeser salad, servir de façon généreuse et très bonne.
En prime, 2 toasts briochés avec du beurre en quantité dans un petit panier.
Ma mère a pris le meat loaf avec frite fraîches maison, une aussi bonne idee.
Ensuite, du café en refuel.
Service aimable, adresse a conserver pour tester leur petit-​dej !

Adresse à faire absolument. Très fréquenté par des habitués ou non. Service impecable. Pour la note a deux entre 30 et 40 dollar.
J’ai pri les french toast, c’est pas les meilleurs je pense. Le sirop d’érable est meilleure qu ailleurs. Le beurre est a volonté! La marmelade d’orange est un délice et elle semble d’ailleurs faite maison. Les café est en refuel et on est jamais la tasse vide. Jus d’orange pulpeux et goûteux.
Je conseille vivement. Je n’ai en revanche pas testé de formule salé. Il faudra y retourner.

INÉVITABLE. si vous aimez les omelettes (et que vous avez très faim :)