The Belmont Cafe

I would like to compliment Marco and Sam on the excellent customer service they provided me on a visit about two weeks ago (around mid-​June 2016). They were outstanding from beginning to end. They both asked how everything was and if I needed anything else. Service like that is not found everywhere these days. Please inform them and the manager/​owner of my feedback. Looking forward to my next visit. Matt Hauman

It took us at least an hour to get our food, the waiter only checked in once during that time, no apology, no nothing. Fries were cold when the food finally arrived. It was busy, but not packed, and there were at least 3 waitstaff working. During that hour we only saw one other table get their food, and none of the other tables had been served yet. Came very close to complaining/​walking out. Don’t bother.

The first time I went here service was terrible. Since they had a Groupon I decide to give it another chance because it was for takeout. This place has to be the worst in all of Chicago. My medium burger was completely burnt on one side. I ordered the regular Ceasers salad. If I was served three leafs as a side salad I would send it back at a restaurant. I’m pissed I did not check the food before I left. There was only one person dining in when I went this time. There were eight to ten on a busy Sunday when I went the first time. I can’t wait for this place to close so something edible could open up here. I would feel ashamed giving this food to a homeless person.

I wanted to try this place out since its been here for a while now and always seems to be empty. The menu and prices were good. The food quality was low, coffee wasn’t that good and took a while to get a refill once it was empty. The food came out cold but that could have been the fault of the server. My order was also incorrect-​I ordered a skillet from the menu and the cheese was missing. When I asked the server about it she said it was inside the eggs, which it wasn’t. I probably would not come back, at least for a while.

My friends and I probably waited over 45 minutes at our table and no one ever approached us. Not even for drink orders. We walked right out. I don’t think I have to say that I won’t ever be coming here again.

Mediocre. I got a chopped salad that wasn’t chopped. They forgot my chicken (at first) and the chicken had no flavor. Wasn’t worth the money at all.

Second time in this place and I really cannot understand the bad reviews! I got my order in less than 15 min, great food, great service. They have all day breakfast which is perfect for when you are craving for some pancakes in the middle of the day! Plus the price is fair for the amount of food! I will come back every time I want good food, decent price and excellent service!

Service is terrible. After 15+ minutes without being acknowledged, we finally found someone to take our order. Then it took an hour to get the food.
We saw our waiter once the whole time we were there. After drinking my coffee and 20 minutes without a refill, I took my mug over to the hostess station and tried to fill it myself.
There are too many places serving the same food to bother going back to Belmont Café.
The woman who looks like she should be running the front of the house, should concentrate on exactly that, not bussing tables.
Only redeeming item was the Intelligencia coffee.

This is the worst burger I have ever had. Inedible.
I got the Hawaiian burger thinking it sounded delicious. First, it came out way later than everyone else’s meal. Second, the pineapple was not ripe enough and was out directly on the bottom bun so that when I tried to take a bit the entire bottom bun was SOGGY. Common sense that you wouldn’t put the pineapple WHICH IS JUICY directly on the bottom bun. The patty had 0 flavor and was tough. The rest of the sauces were not cohesive at all. Awful awful awful. The fries weren’t even good.
This place is mediocre at best. From what I heard everyone else I was with thought their meal was just okay.
I definitely don’t recommend.

I decided to stop here out of curiosity after noticing it was no longer a Clark’s. Unfortunately the experience was no different for me. Don’t get me wrong, the food is very good and if you’re in no hurry then sure I’d recommend it. It’s the obnoxiously low service that earns the diner only a 2 out 5.
Most of our time there was spent waiting for someone. Waiting on them to bring us out check and cash us out took 30 minutes alone. The staff wasn’t even apologetic about it. The amount of time seemed pretty common practice.
So, if you want delicious food and a nice place to chatter this is the place but you better expect to spend some time here.

I was very skeptical walking in on a weekend morning and there wasn’t much of a wait for a table. Breakfast places in Chicago are typically jumping. Not here. We stood around the front for a bit and were eventually greeted and seated by a host /​wait staff person.
Service was borderline dreadful. Wait staff sort of meanders around not completely certain of where they should go next or what they should be doing. I noticed several tables eager to pay and get out but no one was around to take credit cards or cash. Getting a fresh top-​off on a cup of coffee seemed impossible, and food was really slow to come out of the kitchen. The place lacks urgency.
Having said all of that, the food was decent once it arrived, but the Belmont Café would seem to benefit from better management in restaurant operations.

Ambience is really relax and casual, decoration makes it look like a modern diner. Our food, the steak sandwich and the chicken avocado sandwich weren’t the best. Steak was overcooked and my chicken was bland and undercooked. Menu looked great but overall food was bad. Service was extremely friendly and quick.

For some reason… every sunday morning I wake up craving a wrap from Belmont Café. I usually get a bbq chicken wrap and then a side of ranch. The ranch is really good too! The food takes a little long to come out but I think it is worth it…

Two omelets took over thirty minutes to arrive. However, once we got our food, the waitress brought the check really quickly and came almost every two minutes asking if we were done signing it.
The waitress seemed really out of it and sometimes we couldnt understand her, as she spoke too fast, and sometimes she couldnt understand us!
Anyhow, the food was alright although the meat in the steak omelette tasted a bit stale.
Overall, it is not worth the hefty price.

Sadly, I can’t say I was a fan. I was hopeful that something good would go in here after the previous restaurant closed because even though I loved the old place, it wasn’t the greatest.
They did improve the inside by renovating and doing some updates. It’s brighter and more modern than it used to be. That’s a definite plus.
My experience:
We went in rather late (11pm on a weekend, but they’re open till 5 or 6am).
There were a few other tables occupied, I believe 3. Not exactly a crowd for this place. On top of that, we had two pretty simple orders; a burger, a meatball sub and an appetizer order of Mac and cheese. Unfortunately, we waited, waited, waited and waited. I’ll be generous and say 35 minutes later, we got our food. I was able to pretty accurately gage it because I had a friend text me just after we ordered.
We received no explanation as to the delay, no apology or anything.
Beyond that, the food was just ok. You could tell the beef in my burger was real beef, however, it was just plain as can be. Even for a burger, there’s generally something done to add some flavor… nothing here. Again, nothing wrong, just blah. The whole meal was rather blah to be honest.

Meh.
This your common diner, not much to say.
The food is average, more of a breakfast spot. This place used to be PJ Clark’s.
Parking is hard to find, staff is friendly, prices are comparable to any other diner in chicago.

The wait here is atrocious… there were only two tables when we came in, granted there was a big group of us but it took the waitress almost 20 minutes just to take our order and another half hour to get our food when the place is dead!
One person in our group didn’t even get their food.
And the burger was bland and not worth $ 11. The «sweet potato fries» were basically bright orange flavorless regular fries.
A vegetarian in our group got a meat burger instead of a veggie burger.
The waitress was very nice but that was the only nice thing about this visit at all.

Came at midnight on a Saturday night. Service was ridiculously slow. Our server Celia seemed to want to avoid our table. She’d walk right by and we would have empty soda glasses that we had to stop her and ask for a refill.
Our food took over 30 minutes from the time we ordered, and the restaurant was not that busy. She never came and apologized for the delay. I had to ask someone else to check on our food.
Also I ordered my steak sandwich medium and it came extremely well done. But she didn’t come by and ask how the food was until we were almost done with the meal.
Either they train their servers or they are going to go under.

What an improvement over Clarke’s! If I’m going to get boozed and turn up somewhere and make bad late night food decisions, I’d rather it be in a restaurant that’s aesthetically pleasing.
Admittedly, I can’t vouch for the food with a clear conscience. I was a bit too far gone at that point to be relied upon, though from what I remember I was very satisfied when I left. Alas — I’ll post an update when I go again with a clearer head.

The Belmont Café has replaced Clarkes and I say good riddance.
The new remodel has an open floor plan and a very modern feel. Wood, leather and metal seems to be the theme here and it works well for the space.
So far, every employee I’ve met has been incredibly friendly and knowledgeable about the menu.
They have typical diner fare. I wasn’t super hungry so I ordered the appetizer pretzel with beer cheese dipping sauce and a side of mustard. It was delicious. I’ll mention that you can order a full or half, I got the half which could easily have been shared by 3 people and was delicious.
Update:
So I’ve been back to TBC twice since my original review and have to say the food has been pretty solid. I tried the buffalo chicken wrap which had lettuce, tomato and cheddar cheese. It was fantastic. It included fries which had sea salt and pepper. Like another person said, they could’ve been cooked a bit more but were still really good.
Today I went again and had a burger and fries. Both were great but the fries once again could’ve been cooked longer and this time were missing the sea salt and pepper which was a bit of a bummer.
I’m sticking with 5 stars because for a place that’s only been open for two days, they are doing a great job, I’ve worked at several restaurants and its not easy opening month let alone opening week. Keep up the good work guys!