Chicory Cafe

Love this place for a quick bite or study spot. I’ve tried a couple of their food options, including the mac&cheese and some of their sandwiches — all were very tasty, with good portion sizes. Their drinks are also really good, my favorite being their chai latte. Perfectly sweet with a kick of spice to it, definitely hits the spot, especially on a cold day.
Usually busy, especially during lunch hours. Has free wifi, connection is usually strong. Definitely check this place out!

Pros:
amazing lattes — try the Nola and Ruby in the Bayou
very reasonable catering prices
alcohol
good mac n cheese
late hours
fun special events
beignets
Cons:
way overpriced sandwiches
small portions generally
unpredictable wait times
loud atmosphere
not enough salad options
awkward bathroom situation
I mostly just recommend the lattes and the catering. I had a brunch for 30 on ND campus catered; nobody could beat the price quote, and all my guests loved it.

We stopped by here on a road trip and had a great meal. Started with a spiked coffee, don’t remember which one, but it was delicious and just the right strength. Then we had a cajun fish po’boy and my wife had the jambalaya. Both were delicious! We will definitely be back next time we’re in town.
Décor was cool too, seems like a fun place at night.

It’s a little on the noisy side as far as work/​study environments go, but the mac & cheese is worth breaking your diet for. It’s seriously so good.

Love the coffees and the food. Lunch gets really busy, but service is quick. I once lost a receipt for a work lunch & need to have it re-​printed, staff was super helpful.

I’ve come here a number of times now, and I really cannot figure out what everyone seems to love about this restaurant. I’ve had countless people recommend it to me (from locals when I first moved to the area to friends and coworkers when we’re trying to decide on a place to grab a bite to eat), but I really don’t get what the hype is about. This place is pretty mediocre in my honest opinion, though at least it’s a unique local place, not a chain or anything.
The food isn’t all that great. I’ll admit, the mac and cheese here is some of the best I’ve ever had, but the sweets/​pastries and the sandwiches have always been pretty «meh» in my opinion. It’s not bad, but it’s not great, either. They do have alcohol for those who want a glass, however, so that’s a plus, and something you probably wouldn’t expect from a little café in downtown South Bend. There’s not a huge selection, but hey, it’s good enough that there’s a selection at all. Although it’s slightly inconvenient that you do have to order drinks from a separate bar.
My biggest problem with this place is how loud and crowded it gets. I don’t mind a little bustle or a little wait at the counter to order, but the place is often annoying loud. As in, can’t hear half of the people at your table and have to shout to hear the person across from you loud. And that’s when it’s just music playing from the speakers. Go there when anyone’s playing live, and you’re out of luck; it’s a tiny little place and they turn the speakers up WAY too loud. It’s a bit ridiculous, really. I don’t know how anyone can work or study while at this place.
The food can sometimes take an annoyingly long time to come out, too. Just as a heads up. I’ve gone with a group of 5 – 6 a few times, and when it’s been low-​key busy (not crazy, but their normal level of busy), someone in the group has fairly regularly had to wait 20+ minutes to get their food. Twice now we’ve had a situation where everyone had finished except for the poor bloke who still hadn’t gotten his food. I can’t tell if this is just poor planning on the kitchen’s part or if sometimes orders just get lost or forgotten about until the customer asks what’s taking so long.
It’s also WAY more expensive than it really should be. Nothing justifies those prices.
But over all, it’s not a terrible place, but it’s definitely not for me. I don’t think it really deserves the hype it gets.
PRO-​TIP: If you’re looking for beer/​wine, you have to go up and order from a separate bar (not the counter you order food and non-​alcoholic drinks from). Also, don’t come here if you need to have any kind of serious conversation — the atmosphere is too loud and busy for anything more than casual shouted comments.

Popped in here for a quick lunch while I was at an event at the convention center. Super cute, spacious, and a pretty large menu! I ordered a cup of seafood gumbo with bread and got some freshly made beignets to go. Food came out quickly, was tasty and hot, and the service was friendly. Their coffee looks awesome.
Lots of people were in there on a Saturday eating lunch, socializing, or reading/​doing work. A cajun place was probably the last thing I’d expect to see in Indiana, so this was a pleasant surprise. I’d definitely come back if I’m ever in town again!

The coffee and crawfish Mac and cheese is really good, but I did get food poisoning from the mac and cheese once out of the ten times I’ve ordered it. It’s a great place to study with friends!

The coffee is great, I get a 12 oz plain latte every time and it is spot on. This time I got a Cajun fish poboy, wow. I have never had a fish poboy and it was great. The fish had a great Cajun spice and the tarter sauce spread had a good Cajun spice. It is a must try.

Love this place’s vibe. Great coffee, amazing food (especially the roasted red pepper soup and the vegan coffee cake). The live music is fun. This is just a charming place to relax with a board game and coffee or an evening of music and dinner.

I recommend splitting the muffletta sandwich! I order mine with no oil. Great bread on this sammich! I wanted some beignets, but was too full from 2 beers and ½ muffletta. They also have very refreshing cucumber or lemon water free. Wednesday’s are trivia nights at 8pm. Great fun. Remember, you go up and order and then they bring it out to you!

Great Cajun Food! If you are in South Bend this is a MUST! Come in order your food and find a place to sit. We had the Cajun Fish Po Boy and the Cajun Shrimp Po Boy. The batter was fabulous! Crispy with the right amount of spice. Soft roll and tasty marmalade. We also split a cup of Jambalaya. It was good. Big chunks of chicken and andouille sausage made it a good hardy jambalaya. Make sure you get an order of beignets. Don’t make the mistake we did and order two thinking it was two individual ones. One order has three good sized beignets. No problem though. Now we can enjoy more later. We will definitely be back the next time we are in the area.

Great atmosphere, drinks, and food. Good for a diverse set of activities i. e drinks with friends, Saturday morning coffee, Monday night studying, etc. Try the sangria!

Okay, I musta been in a bad mood. This place is okay. Have been here several times, coffee always great, staff nice. Three stars.

For the most part I love Chicory. Their food is great (try the muffuletta) and their chai tea lattes are out of this world. It’s a great place to study if it’s not too crowded or loud.
I almost always have great service here but did have a bad service experience once. Nine times out of ten you will speak with someone at Chicory who is kind and welcoming, but beware when the staff changes shifts, especially if you buy the coffee that is refillable for a small fee. Keep your receipt or you may get some serious attitude.
Aside from one negative experience, though, this place is fantastic. I will go back again and again.

Had the crawfish mac, it was delicious! My coworkers had sandwiches, and liked them, but the prices are too high for the portion sizes.

One of my favorite places to spend time in DTSB. I’ve never had a bad meal, my favorites are the Caprese sandwich, the white chicken Chili and the Gator Bites! The expansion is great and they’ve kept it family friendly with plenty of games to occupy my children while I attempt to enjoy the awesome coffee they serve.

A lovely decore and theme, the staff has always been very polite and hey, they serve alcohol. They have a decent Moscato. The selection isn’t big but its certainly acceptable, given the size of the café (and that its not a bar).
This place can be an issue for someone with picky tastebuds. Everyone I talked to insisted I try the macaroni and cheese and I do love a good bowl of cheesy pasta – it’s comfort food. Unfortunately, their cheese sauce is made with a copious amount of onion. So every variety of their mac and cheese is onion-​y. I can’t stand onion – so that was unfortunate for me. I would have loved to try some of the other types – but knowing the sauce itself is made with onion kind of ruins it for me. It would be good to maybe put a warning up – someone who is allergic to onion would bite into that and probably have a panic attack.
I felt bad being picky but ugh, onion. They traded me a soft pretzel instead. The pretzel was really good. It only comes with mustard on the side, unfortunately. (I don’t like mustard) But the pretzel itself was really good.
Their baked desserts that are wrapped up at the register are just average. There’s nothing particularly amazing about them to make them worth the price. They’re just normal, average.
They do have interesting specialty drinks that contain alcohol. But they’re mostly sweetness. Hardly any alcohol to them at all – so you’re paying 6 or 7 dollars for very little content. It’s mostly milk and some spices and a tablespoon of alcohol that they charge 3 or 4 extra dollars for by saying it has rum or whiskey in it.
The prices are kind of ridiculous in a Panera Bread sort of way. Almost $ 10 for a bowl of ‘traditional’ mac and cheese seems kind of crazy to me. The other varieties were more expensive – and since all the sauce is the same – you pay 3 or 4 dollars extra for a few bits of sausage or peppers to be thrown in. If you want that – go to Noodles. That’s their specialty.
Live music is really cool but, seriously — this place is small. I’ve never seen one band that EVER needed the humongous speakers. I can’t hear people that are sitting right next to me. It kind of ruins the chill vibe of the place. Maybe consider having live acts NOT use the huge speakers. This isn’t a club or a dance floor – its a café. The music is so loud that its just distracting and disruptive. I come to a café to relax.
So, overall, its a decent place with a nice theme and polite staff — but I don’t like eating here because its too expensive for what you get and ugh, onion in everything. So much onion. It’s a nice atmosphere when a live band isn’t blowing your eardrums out.

I really enjoyed the seafood gumbo and Chicory Stout. They have a nice selection of food, coffee, wine, and cocktails, and desserts. Weekly events (music, trivia, comedy, etc.) add to the atmosphere. The price on the Chicory Stout was excellent!

1. The food is typical of downtown, ie generic. At least it is not overpriced. Despite the charming atmosphere and service, you are not eating good food. Same goes for the chocolate cafeteria down the street. Food is very salty, lacks any subtlety, and is obviously out of a bag.
2. Coffee isn’t that good either, but it gets the job done and they can do fancy shit with it.
3. Beer selection is really good, and really well priced. This place is a nice comfortable alternative to a smoky dive bar, and you won’t be angry at life when you get your bill, unlike at Fiddlers.
4. Service, in my opinion, is the best part of this place. Always a friendly face behind the counter, nice people in the kitchen, etc.
So, don’t eat the food here. Get a buzz on and grab a sandwich at Jimmy Johns next door.

LOVE this place! One of my top favorites! Unique cuisine and an excellent variety (sometimes too many!)
Since they’ve expanded, we’ve been able to go for lunch without taking too much time. Service could be just a tad bit quicker during lunch.
I’ve had almost everything on their menu and there hasn’t been one time I could say it wasn’t EXCELLENT!
Parking in downtown South Bend continues to be frustrating. Chicory can’t fix this, but there have a few times (lunch AND after 5pm) we’ve had to go somewhere else because of the parking problems.

Lovely place, with a great atmosphere. They even serve celebrities! I ran into the lead actor of a community theatre play, which was also great.
I had the bowl of gumbo. It was yummy and perfect for a cold day.
They have a flavored water option for people who just want water. Love that, even though I did order a fountain drink. It’s an option for the future… because I will be back.

Just ordered their hemp pesto pasta and it was delicious… full of flavor, great choice of ingredients to accompany the pasta, and vegan to boot. This is a dish I would come back for. Their beignets are a real treat, and make me regret eating a Dunkin Donut earlier in the day.
Their café salad was decent as was their egg and mushroom po boy. I really like the décor and feel of this place… it is the place to be on a Friday night, but also family friendly.

A unique downtown ice cream and coffee place. They serve sandwiches here and the shop offers great people watching opportunities both inside and outside. A great place to surf, browse, mandyelp on the internet. Staff was real friendly. too friendly. Every town and college area should have a place like this or two,

Turkey/​cranberry sandwich was pretty good-​small for the price. Good café au lait!
Nice staff & atmosphere.

Is it a coffee shop, an evening restaurant, a lunch spot, a jazz club? Who knows? I guess that’s the fun.
I went during a weekday lunch and the place was rather slow, only 2 other tables besides my group. You order at the counter and your meal will be served to your table. The menu was mostly po’boys (sandwiches for you northern folk), but there was also gumbo and a few other dinner options. The shrimp was made perfectly in cajun style! Definitely filling and delicious.
I give 3 stars because I couldn’t decide what kind of place this was. Maybe if I went back for trivia night or a music show I would change my mind.

Maybe I’m missing something? I do not see the big deal with this café. I was really excited to hear of a great, local coffee place in South Bend. We carved out some extra time in our schedule to make sure we stopped in and I was disappointed. I got the iced coffee and the body was weak and the flavor left much to be desired. My husband got the vanilla latte and it was so overly sweet he only drank ¼ of it. Don’t think we’ll be rolling through here again.

Coffee, live music and atmosphere are great. Food is good… can be hit or miss. I had crawfish macaroni and cheese that was fantastic… shrimp poorboy was below average. Beignets are kind of heavy and greasy. I think they struggle to provide a lot of options and would do better to make 25 menu items that are out of this world, than 80 that are not always executed well.
For coffee or a beer and live music… Chicory is well worth it.
Service has always been good and friendly.

The chicory café was SO cozy. I sat in an over sized leather couch and enjoyed an iced vanilla latte AND (by suggestion of our friendly server) some AH-​mazing beignets. The vanilla latte was just sweet enough (not overly sugary/​syrupy) and the doughy in the middle crispy on the outside pastries were the perfect compliment.
I noticed some live music events being advertised and a very enticing promise of a build your own Bloody Mary bar which means I totally have plans for coming back to give the café a fifth star

Solid coffee shop.
The chai latte was good, if not a little too sweet but still good. I was pleasantly surprised by their beneights which were awesome.
Can’t go wrong with trivia night and half off wine too.

Summary– Cajun café gets it all right. Extra points for $ 2 kids menu.
Food– 5 Stars
Great muffuletta although the bread could be a little thinner for me but overall super delicious.
Great caprese grilled cheese.
Pretty damn good seafood gumbo.
Drinks– 5 stars
Good iced tea, very good coffee.
Service– 5 Stars
Friendly and prompt both at counter and food.
Atmosphere– 4 stars
Cool coffee shop atmosphere.