Nibbles Play Cafe

Spent lots of time at this great little place. Ive enjoyed many visits with friends chatting over coffee while our children played happily close by. Food was good and staff was friendly. Always allowed outside food in for children with allergies. Sad to report that as of February 23, 2014 nibbles is closed :(

I brought my 1 yr old here a few times for playdates with his friend and lunch. He really enjoyed himself, we can spend a good 2 ½ — 3 hours there and we only leave because it is nap time. We have gone on Monday’s when its not so busy. He liked all the toys and loved the train set when no older kids were playing with it. And we both enjoyed the food. My only suggestion would be to have some healthier options for the little ones. They did however make my little guy steamed carrots since he cant handle uncooked ones just yet. So they are accommodating which is nice.

Nibbles is a great place to hang out with your children — fun for the kids and parents can relax a little! We’ve been going to Nibbles for almost 4 years — my oldest is now 5 and still enjoys it. It caters towards the younger kids (I’d say 5 and under). I can say that I have met many of my good friends through Nibbles!
The environment is very clean. There is seating for the adults and for kids who want to eat. The rest of the room is broken into mini rooms (with waist high walls) for trains, dolls, building, dress up, etc.). The toys may not be the fanciest toys out there — but I think that’s good! Kids can use their imagination and don’t need the toys to do everything for them.
I love supporting local businesses and have gotten to know the owner and employees over the years — they are great people who work hard to make Nibbles a fun environment for families!

We love taking our daughter here and I am happy to give 5 stars!
We had our 1 year old’s birthday here since she loves the place so much. NO REGRETS! It was perfect!
Everything was done for us and the staff was super nice. We continue to come here to play and they have a ton of events through the week.
My daughter never got sick coming here. We make sure she doesn’t put anything in her mouth and washes up after.

I don’t understand the bad reviews. This place was great. It’s super clean. The staff is friendly and the price is right. We came here today and enjoyed free play, lunch and a rely fun song, story, art hour that was no additional charge hosted by the lovely volunteer «grandma» Miss Fran. My little friend had the hot dog which for 4 $ came with fruit, veggie, and drink. I had a pop and a decent margherita pizza. It was no gourmet lunch but it was ok. This is the perfect place to keep an eye on your kids and still get a break. The set up is perfect. Plenty of large booths with outlets for your laptop. You can literally sit and not worry about your child while getting work fine, reading or sitting on Facebook. I think this place is five stars all the way. It could use some more toys and maybe a bit more colorful décor that attracts kids. Kind of blah. But really who cares. The only annoying thing is the moms and caregivers who literally pay no attention to their kids while they are there and expect miss Fran to babysit. Hey moms. She’s a volunteer not your free babysitting service. Anyway all in all a great place.

My kids love coming here and so do we. The staff is very friendly & kind, the coffee is great, the kids have a blast. Great place for crawlers & walks alike. Bathrooms are the epitome of kid friendly. Wonderful place to come when you need to get out of the house and the kids need to burn off some energy.

This café could be better. I visited last week with my friend, her baby, & my 16 month old. In the city you pay a higher admission for such cafes. However, they offer a lot more. There needs to be more put into the design to be charging $ 7.50 per child. The toys are old and not plentiful. The art area only contained crayons and some xeroxed copies. They could add more such as push toys, a small ball pit, a kitchen play set, small slide, etc…
Also, the service was slow. In an establishment where you are serving children and moms, I think you need to be on your A game. The food took forever to come out & my lil’ guy is 1. So its hard for him to sit and wait endlessly. The food was good but a little overpriced. The people working there didn’t seem that happy or even that they got along that well (from what I could see/​heard when they interacted). Lastly, I think its strange there was no door on the outside entrance into the bathroom. My toddler naturally wanted to go run in there which made it difficult b/​c there’s no door to stop him. I believe this is another flaw in their design.
The concept is great but not well executed.

I’m going to give 5 stars to offset the idiotic 1 star reviews. Is it the best place ever, no? But is it the perfect spot to burn off a couple hours with the kid, yes! The food is average, but if you’re coming here for the food than you should reevaluate your meal choices. For kids, the food is perfectly fine. We buy the 5 visits for $ 25 specials when they have them which makes it perfectly affordable. I’d be happy to spend $ 2.50 an hour so I can do some studying/​reading while my kid plays in a nice, safe environment around other kids. Barnes and Noble might be free to play with trains and Legos, but I’ve got to keep my eye on my kid the whole time. This is way more relaxing. I bring a bottle of water for myself and eat lunch at home and am perfectly fine as I’d rather save the money and eat/​drink at home anyways.
The facilities are clean and the toys are fine. «The toys are old» comments are a bunch of BS. They’re kids! If you want them playing with some top of the line, brand new crap than keep them at home.
If you’ve got a kid or two, looking to get through a day without shooting yourself and are sick of sitting around the house then come to Nibbles. It is also 1 minute from my house, which adds to the convenience for a stay at home dad who is always looking for something to do with my kid that doesn’t cost a bunch of money.
I’ll also disagree about the staff complaints. They’ve always been wonderfully kind to me and my family. The toys are also cleaned every night, so don’t listen to the moron who said «looks like they haven’t been cleaned since they came out of the box.» People like that shouldn’t waste our time with their whiny crap.
This is the kind of place that every town should have and people with kids should be patronized places like this as it would be unfortunate for them to close. Go to local businesses and give them your money instead of a place like Gymboree or Yu’s Island. These guys deserve it way more.

I have to agree with the other reviewers and say that at $ 7.50 admission is wayyy overpriced for what you actually get.
The toys are very old and in pretty bad shape. The service is not great. I had a very long hair in my coffee. I apologized for bringing it back and said that it’s probably mine (even though I was wearing my hair in a tight bun) and the owner said «let’s PRETEND it’s ours» and gave me a new cup. I am happy with a new cup, but that comment rubbed me the wrong way. She was not friendly. I had to ask a few times just for a few napkins.
The owner did give the kids juice boxes and a sugar cookie and read a book to the kids that were there. Free of charge. That was awesome and very nice. But she just doesn’t have that «kid aura» around her. She read the book as if she was reading a newspaper. But maybe I’m expecting too much and got spoiled at story time at the local library.
The idea of Nibbles Play Café is genius. I absolutely love it. The whole place is child proof and I definitely felt safe with my 1.5 year old running around. It’s a great place to meet for playdates.
My son was occupied for the 2 hours we were there, so I can’t complain about that. I think if he was older, the toys would not have been sufficient for him. Honestly, if the admission was cheaper, say at $ 3.50 per kid, I would have given this place 4 stars.

My friend and I came here with our 18 month old boys on a cold day, and we both loved it! We’ve decided to make it a weekly playdate because the kids have a blast and we can relax. The atmosphere is really warm and inviting. Some of the other reviews said they thought the place looked dirty, but I don’t see that at all. The toys are well-​maintained and the café area is very nice. The toys available may not be super crazy action toys, bouncy houses, and the like but they’re great for imaginative play and there’s a good variety. My 18 month old son and 4 year old daughter both love it. My friend and I also discovered last week that they have a free storytime with snack and songs at 10am — the kids loved it! I’ve ordered coffee (good quality) and food for myself and my kids here, and it’s always been quite good and well-​priced. You really can’t beat the value of this place. Love it!

The ownership of Nibbles was kind enough to give my family a free membership after a family tragedy. Its a great place to take multiple kids because its not as big as the Kohl Museum or Pump it Up. On top of that, they have wireless for parents to get their own work done and a café for lunch and/​or coffee.

I love the concept, but like a few other reviewers said, the execution sucks. I think $ 7.50 per child is a ridiculous amount, just to walk in the door. The food is way overpriced and not worth it. I ordered a sandwich, which cost $ 7.00, and I could have made a better one at home. But don’t bring any food from home, as they made a comment about NO OUTSIDE FOOD. I understand, someone could have a food allergy, but it just annoyed me that they wanted to charge for everything, even some cheerios for my 1 yr old to snack on.
The toys are not great. Small selection of things to play with and most of them look like they haven’t been cleaned since they came out of the box 5 years ago.
Don’t get me started on the staff. Each one seems very unhappy to be there and just miserable all around. Service SUCKED. I was extremely disappointed.
Another annoying thing is of course, plenty of moms ignoring their kids. Those kids who either have 2 inches of snot running down their face while hacking up a lung, or who nearly decapitate my kid with a toy vacuum, while their mothers blab to each other about their nannies or where they will vacation next. I’m sorry, but I would not bring my kid somewhere if I wasn’t going to supervise, or if she is sick.
Needless to say, I will not be returning.

My play-​date friend and I checked this place out this morning and YES! I want to live here. There are plenty of toys, dress-​up clothes, trains, dinosaurs, kitchen items, etc. etc. etc. Our boys are 2 years old and they occupied themselves for more than two hours! There were a few other kids there who were a little older, but everyone played nicely together. The coffee was really good, the variety of snacks and entrees looks amazing.
While we were there a man was singing and playing the guitar. He was fun and talented, but mostly background music for our young ones.
The place is very well child-​proofed. We felt safe, the kids had a blast, and the price ($ 7.50 per kid) was well worth the break. We will definitely be back.

Went here for a friends’ birthday party not so long ago. Aside from the lack of toys/​things for kids to occupy themselves with, the one thing that I wasn’t comfortable with was the air quality/​pressing odor that seemed to be everywhere.
Eating my pizza squares, I could almost taste the moldy smell. It. Was. Not. Good.

Here’s another great place for kids and parents to hang out. Nibles play café in the burbs offers a great afternoon for the kids to have fun and play games while mom and dads have a great cup off expresso from Intelligencia coffee. They also offer a great food menu like paninis and wraps as well as hot dogs.
Also try the hobbie shop next door and Russian deli.

I am the organizer of a local mom’s group and we love to go to Nibbles! The staff is always warm, welcoming and very helpful. The food is tasty for both kids and adults. The owner is kind to take my suggestion and expand her to menu to include vegan items. My 2 year old always finds endless entertainment in one of more of the play areas. She feels at home here. The bathrooms are very kid-​friendly with a colorful kid sized toilet and sink. Plus, it’s the only changing table that my infant didn’t scream and cry on — maybe because there are so many cute photos of little kids on the wall above the changing table? My six year old even has fun here with playing in some of the rooms and with the board and card games they offer.
Us moms can sit back and relax while the kids play. It’s well worth the money! Plus, they do offer free admission days with the purchase of a meal!
We are very fortunate to have this hidden gem nearby!

Great place for moms groups with their kids. I took our 1 year old there and he had a blast didn’t want to leave each play area. He’s very simple and just played with the play vacuum and hand vac the whole time pretty much. So barely explored everything (a lot of toys: 5 play areas) in the time we were there 10am-​1pm!
The rest of the time we ordered some food: egg casserole with muffin and kids meal of chicken nuggets fries fruit and juice. Both of us enjoyed the food.
I checked out paying $ 18.
The service is great also. You just go in and play and order food at your leisure then they bring food to your table an put it on your tab that you pay when you check out. They even come out and sing songs haha.

I went here saturday with 3 girlfriends and their little ones so we were 4 moms, 4 infants between 6 – 8 months, and one 4 y.o. This place was a great place to meet up because it was somewhere the babies could be on the floor, and give us a chance to hang out. It offered the comfort of someone’s home without having to worry about cleaning up. The food was really yummy and homemade, and there is free coffee refills.
So what makes it a 4-​star place instead of a 5-​star
— Not sure how clean the play areas are. My standards are high b/​c our daycare uses professional cleaning services, so while the place was «broom clean» I would love to know that they sanitize their toys every night since all the baby stuff goes right in their mouth!
— Food is good, comparable to panera maybe even better, but prices are VERY high. For a veggie sanwich, a coffe and a cupcake we were at $ 13, so while not totally unreasonable, definitly pricier than a panera or a starbucks
–cover charge for kids is a little high/​bogus. Our kiddies were under 1 so we didnt have to pay, but for what is offered $ 5 seems high. Especially considering that almost every adult in there was ordering food, which should be priced high enough to cover the children.
So great spot for mom’s groups to meet up and be able to have some adult chat time and a safe place to play, but would like to see the prices be a little lower

I think the idea of a play café is a good one. I don’t think that it is being executed in the best way at Nibbles.
I took the 18 m/​o I nanny for to Nibbles on a Friday morning at around 10am. We were the ONLY people there for about a half hour.
The café is separated into a couple of different areas. They have a «at home» area with puppets, dishes, tables, play kitchen, ect but nothing too exciting. The second area had a small fish tank, a box of legos and a few toy animals. In another area there was a train set and some small toys/​books. There was an infant area that was blocked off with a baby gate so I didn’t really see too much in there except for some mats and books. There was a block area with those big foam legos and cardboard boxes.
Yeah, a stack of cardboard boxes. I mean, don’t get me wrong — I know kids are like cats and love stuff like that, however — I can get him some boxes myself for free and we could’ve saved the $ 5.
The one thing that was kind of cool was the chalkboard wall, but unfortunately there were only a few broken pieces of chalk to use.
Some of the play area were not carpeted, the areas weren’t too colorful and looked a little musty. To be honest I felt like I was in a thrift store.
We didn’t stay for lunch but I did sip some coffee as I sat at my wobbly table until the kiddo was ready to leave (he literally went up to the door and started trying to get out after about 45 mins)

Great idea but not the best experience. Adult food is ok and the kids’ food is not very good. Staff is so overly attentive that they make you and your kids uncomfortable.
Play areas are a bit worn and not too interesting nor colorful (they charge kids $ 5 for admission!).
Better kids places out there, especially Kohl’s Childrens Museum in Glenview now that they will have Cosi for food.