The Lantern Brunch

Its a really tiny place with only about 4 booths for seating but many bar counter stools. The waitress was quick with coffee refills and dropping the check. The food was decent and moderately priced. If you can’t find street parking you’ll be paying to park in the lot. Not a hit or miss in my opinion overall.

Ask for the fresh blueberry pancakes they are one wonderful. We both have a great breakfast and a great value the lantern is The real deal

The food is great! The eggs florentine and the french toast specials are delicious. Prices are very reasonable and service is great. Would definitely come back here and would recommend it to everyone.

Homemade soups are awesome! Especially pea soup during the winter and fish chowder on Fridays. Omelettes are fantastic! On weekends when packed, you cannot be in a rush-​small diner, small grill. Owner George and team are very friendly and patient.

Cute place. Great prices and yummy food! ;) I had the meatball sandwich and it was amazing! cash only so make sure you have some with ya!

You’ve got to know what you’re getting into.
This place has charm, solid food, and some small-​town credentials. These are pluses. The waitstaff is friendly and there’s a great independent bookstore next door. More pluses.
The weekend service is also *glacial.* I went there with friends a few months ago and waited well over 70 minutes for food: no special orders, just eggs, toast, some potatoes. For some, this is part of the charm. For us – hungry after a modestly-​vigorous walk when we sat down — it was a struggle. A struggle exacerbated by the fact that a member of the waitstaff left the restaurant for about 20 minutes to take care of some banking. (This is also part of small-​town American diners, perhaps.)
I’ve eaten here on and off for close to a decade. But the pace on this weekend made it a real struggle. If you’re going to go, go during the week — and know what you’re getting into.

Dropped in here for breakfast on a Monday morning with my best friend. It is small inside! All the booths (only about four in total) were occupied so we sat at the counter –diner style– The waitress was friendly and attentive without rushing us at all despite the fact that it was busy the entire time we were there and we stayed for an hour and a half!
All the regular breakfast options were on the menu– but I saw Irish eggs Benedict on the specials board and knew I had to have that. It was delicious– corned beef hash on English muffin halves, topped with an egg each and spoonfuls of warm hollandaise sauce, then served up with home fries (which were «eh», not bad at all but nothing out of the ordinary).
We ordered a side of potato pancakes with sour cream and they were REALLY good!
I love breakfast in general and this place did not disappoint me ! Definitely recommend it and will be back!

You can’t beat the charm, menu, and prices of the Lantern Brunch. Perfect little diner nestled in downtown Andover — I’ve been going here for years and absolutely love it. The waitresses will come sit at your booth to take your order and call you «hun,» it’s absolutely adorable. Everything about it is classic, and exactly what a diner should be. The menu has all sorts of combos and sandwiches, and even has potato pancakes!
I wouldn’t say it’s the all time best food I’ve had, but who cares? I love this place, the people, and the consistent, inexpensive diner breakfast I’ve come to know and love.

Was craving for american style local breakfast and glad to find this place. Location was not easy to spot but glad that i found it. Friendly staffs and I like the environment and foods of course. Price was reasonable.

I have been going to breakfast here for over ten years and you would be hard pressed to find a more charming and hilarious crew. Regulars come back for the old school charm, simple and tasty food, downtown location, and the wonderful staff.
If coming on a Saturday make sure you leave some wait time as the restaurant is tiny and it is so beloved that there is often a wait (though well worth it).

I only go here on Mondays, when the shawsheen luncheonette is closed. It is an average diner with average food. The service is ok but the food is slow.

Lantern is a nice little spot to grab a nice little breakfast in a nice little town. I’ve been going for breakfasts since I was a kid and it still has the same homey feel.

For the same reason you watch reruns of Golden Girls, consider a late brunch at Lantern.
Why late? You’ll miss the onslaught that may corrupt the staff. A group, mind you, that’s been slinging hash here since the 70s. Speaking of ancient…
Nothing about the Lantern is modern: the mushrooms aren’t farm-​raised porcini, they’re from a can. Airy, cheap ice cream goes in to every shake, and the forks are likely forged from lead. Looking around the U-​counter at the four plastic booths, you’ll feel like your on a sitcom set. The Brady’s neighborhood diner, only closed on Sundays.
Kara G raved about her breakfast of french toast, sausage and a chocolate shake, aka the same one she’s always gotten. My three-​egg omelet came with a heaping helping of crispy home fries and two slices of buttered wheat toast. A massive $ 7 meal that, with the right quality expectations or alcohol-​soaked innards, will hit the spot.
Sysco empowers anyone to create mass-​production grub, but it’s the people that earn the Lantern a fourth star. When it’s quiet, they’re a can of peaches. If it got busy though, they’d get more frazzled than a bad perm.

On days when I run out of the house in a hurry, I usually end up grabbing something quick from Perfecto’s or Starbucks. But, as I’m sure many of you will agree, there are days you’re just not in the mood for yet another breakfast sandwich/​egg being zapped in a microwave or cooked in one of those supercharged TurboChef combo oven thingees.
So I wandered into this place on a whim. They always seem to have a semi-​respectable number of folks hanging out on weekday mornings. And I mistook this as promising and a sign of decent food. Yeah… no.
I love good food. Almost too much! But, I’ll admit it — when hungry, I’m a pretty forgiving person. Hypoglycemia makes my food standards fly out the window. And I was starving the day I ordered my omelette (more specifically, an egg white omelette with cheese, green peppers and onions). I was thinking, «Can’t really screw something like that up, right?» You totally can.
When I got the omelette, I stared at it for a few extra seconds because it was so brown/​yellowish that I thought they had accidentally given me a regular omelette instead of an egg white. And then I proceeded to discover that not only was it totally bland, it was really watery as well. The green peppers were the color of canned green beans — they were flavorless and totally dissolved in my mouth! I could only finish about a third of it.
The omelette was my second attempt at this place. The first time was equally disappointing. The only thing the Lantern Brunch has going for it is location, ample parking space and a relatively friendly staff. But if you want good food… then that’s a different story!
With the Andover/​North Andover area sorely lacking in a decent brunch spot, I really really wanted to like this place!

I really wanted to like this place … Small family owned greasy spoon. Waitress was nice, but food was poor, took forever to arrive, and was expensive. Although I live in Andover, I will not return.

There is no possible reason in the world to eat at the Lantern Brunch. If you want fast and cheap, you can go to Dunkin’ Donuts. If you want a real brunch, you can go to the Shawsheen Luncheonette.
The place is so short-​staffed that as soon as it fills up, the whole system breaks down. Your coffee won’t be refilled. Your breakfast will take 45 minutes to appear.
Almost everything comes out of a bag or a can. The English Muffins are Sara Lee. The corned beef is Hornel or some such. Just because a place has squishy plastic seating doesn’t mean it’s authentic! By that standard so is Denny’s.
The people I know worry about being pretentious, so they go to places like the Lantern in the hopes that the pretentiousness will slough off them as soon as they walk through the door. It’s no use. The Lantern Brunch won’t make the beret or the Criterion Collection DVDs magically disappear from your room, but it will make you ache for a second breakfast accompanied by stronger coffee.
They are closed on Sundays, which is the really mysterious part. Why would you close a brunch place on Sundays, forcing me to go to Bollywood Indian Cuisine? As a social experiment?

The Lantern offers an ample menu full of choices for breakfast or lunch. Personally I come here for the breakfast. Though very small inside there is an authentic country, homey ambiance that always puts me at ease.
Keep in mind you have to pay for parking and on weekends expect to wait atleast twenty minutes if not more. Also, surprisely enough they aren’t open on Sunday’s. Learned that the hard way… twice.
Bring your loose change for parking and cash for the bill on Saturday with no more than three friends (unless you want to wait forever to sit at the counter) and grab some breakfast.

The Lantern Brunch is a small breakfast and lunch place located at the Olde Andover Village. The atmosphere inside is cozy and old school with seating at the U-​shaped formica lunch counter & open kitchen/​grill area and four booths along the windows.
The menus on the counter/​table are a bit worn and offer typical breakfast fare (served all day) including eggs, omelets, pancakes, French toast, breakfast sides plus lunch items including sandwiches, burgers, salads, and grilled items. Sandwiches come with a silver bag of Wise chips and dill pickle chips. The coffee is from Donahue Bros. and Pepsi fountain drinks are served here. The prices are reasonable here, items priced well under $ 10.
I stopped here for «brunch» around noontime, The place was pretty packed and I found an open seat at the lunch counter. I was offered a drink as soon as I sat down. The coffee ($ 1.50) was pretty decent. I had some Potato Pancakes ($ 3.25) with a side of applesauce and a Grilled Cheese Sandwich ($ 3.75) with chips and pickle. The food was up in 15 minutes. The grilled potato pancakes (3 minis) were smooth outside and very soft inside. The grilled cheese sandwich (white cheese) tasted good on buttered wheat bread. The service was attentive with constant top offs on the coffee. Overall, a pretty decent and light brunch, $ 9.03 with tax, before tip.
CASH ONLY
HOURS: Mon-​Fri: 6:30 — 3:00; Sat: 6:30−2:30
CLOSED Sundays