Honey Jam Cafe

Went there on a Saturday morning. The place was pretty busy. My wife and I were placed at a ‘table for two’ that could have been bigger but we were seated right away. Staff was friendly. Coffee carafe was placed at our table which we both appreciated. Order was taken quickly. Not much of a wait for breakfast to be served. We were pleased with the preparation, fresh ingredients, and portions served. The prices were reasonable. About $ 10 for each breakfast skillet. The dining room and bathrooms were clean. An open view, if you wanted, shows the kitchen staff hard at work in a clean setting. We will recommend to friends and be back ourselves.

Good table service and decent food. Bathrooms were disgusting and in need of a major deep clean. I mentioned it to the manager early on when we got there and they were still dirty when we left 2−½ hrs later. Tells me they don’t care much.

I am usually a consistent consumer. Foods great, and in my experience the staff is usually pretty good. However, my cousin was in town with his girlfriend and I wanted for them to have an awesome goodbye meal. 20 minutes to sit down when we were told 10. 10 – 15 minutes to get greeted and to order. Ignored for another 40 minutes after waiting 10 to get out drinks. When we were attempting to confront them about when our food was going to be out, the waitress was unprofessional, by zipping by us saying that food will be out momentarily without fully acknowledging us. We are pretty understanding about it not being the wait staff’s fault for late food but it kept getting more ridiculous. We ended up leaving starving and going to the portillos next door. The place wasn’t packed or anything, so I guess they are short staffed. Either way the wait staff needs more training on how to handle these situations. So disappointing. I was really set on my skillet.

Just had breakfast. What Happened Yo this place! The food and coffee were aweful. I’m sorry I didn’t go to Egg Harbor. This place will not last.

Slowest kitchen I have ever seen. I spent an hour and a half in this place and it was NOT worth the wait. Service and the food were mediocre at best. Definately not up to Par with the rest of the area. Very disappointed and I will NEVER go back to this place.

Won’t ever go back, overpriced for breakfast, food was not great, wait was ridiculous at our table, saw the waitress twice, she seemed way to busy or irritated to care, floors were dirty. No Thanks.

We stopped in on Sat. There was a line so we sat at the counter. As we walked towards the counter we noticed numerous empty tables. Our order took more the 30min to receive. As we sat there and waited we noticed lots of meals just sitting waiting to be served. Yuck! When we finally received our meal the eggs where cold and rubbery. My omelet was overcooked! Yuck! We mentioned it to the waitress and all we got was sorry. No manager, no discount. We won’t be going there again.

Was so excited to hear that Honey Jam was back open, but when we went for the first time since the reopen we were highly disappointed! We were seated and our hostess asked for our drink order, then our waitress came and also asked for our drink… needless to say there was no communication! Our hostess returned with our water and coffee, but I was surprised to see coffee grinds in my water and my husband had ice cold coffee… not hot, ICE cold from a thermos! Well after 15 minutes of no one coming to take our order we left, with no one asking how our visit was or anything, guess they didn’t care! We will not return until there is new management!

The food was pretty good. I got the Malibu chicken with onion rings and cheese broccoli soup. The service was so so but I would definitely go back again.

I almost feel like I should keep our experience a secret so we will always get seated quickly. We went at 1015 am on Sunday. There was plenty of seating at that time, but it got much busier by 1115. Our waitress was very nice, courteous and professional. I had a skillet with swiss ham and chicken and it was very good. I got an upgraded side of blueberry pancakes with banana crumble for an extra $ 2 and it was well worth it. Gave me the right amount of sweet to complement the breakfast. Endless coffee pot is always good for me, so I never had to look for some. My wife was very pleased with her skillet, but I think she coveted my pancakes. One minor issue occurred. My wife asked for tomatoes instead of mushrooms and they remembered no mushrooms but didn’t include tomatoes. They brought the tomatoes quickly and apologized way to much for what was a minor inconvenience. All together good food, served in a timely fashion.

What happened to this place. Seriously, if anyone knows I’d like to hear… I was excited when I heard they re-​opened… We always liked HJ because the staff was great and food even better. I’ve been there 3 times since it reopened. The first time part of my meal was still frozen. I kid you not. I chocked that up to being newly opened. The next time my food was so greasy I could not finish it. The 3^rd and final time I received the wrong order — it took an extra 15 minutes to remake eggs over easy. The fruit I think was out of a can. I’m not above that but I can have that at home if I want it… They used to always have fresh ingredients but it seems like new ownership is not interested in that model. Too bad. Used to be one of my favorite breakfast and lunch spots.

Just found out HJ reopened under new owners.
People are friendly, food was very good but it was noisy.

The sign was put back front of the building and they are hiring … How soon till they re-​open?

Apparently it’s set to re-​open, and I hope it does so soon.
Their hash browns and Denver omelets are the stuff of legend! Perfectly sautéed peppers and onions, fluffy scrambled eggs, perfect cheese…
And they serve amazing freshly squeezed orange juice and Intelligentsia coffee. I can’t wait for it to re-​open so I can have a place for brunch when I come to visit!

Honey Jam is a good restaurant with decent food. They have terrific pancakes. The food portions are a bit stingy for the price which is not to say I leave hungry. The biscuits and gray are superior to others in the area.
My husband and I visit the HJ a few times a year.

I must say, the negative reviews are far from representative of this establishment.
The Honey Jam experience is ENTIRELY WORSE than even the most well-​crafted of sentiments have expressed.
The sign near the entrance (referenced several times in earlier reviews) truly repulses anyone I have asked about it, and serves as an apt microcosm of Honey Jam’s entire business model: Get’em in, flll’em with glazed and over-​salted solids which may barely qualify as legally edible, transact, wipe and repeat. I’ve never had a memorable meal.
An utter and unabashed MONEY GRAB.
Folks, you should know that just because a spacious restaurant off a main road is equipped with modern carpeting, blinking pagers, and an expresso bar, it does not logically follow that what you are consuming is high quality fare. In fact, it may often mean the opposite.
It’s possible I’m overreacting. So what if the food isn’t five-​star? At least they’re providing a respectable wage to their back-​of-​house staff. Oh… so not that, either:
«Cooks — (Honey Jam Café — Batavia)
Honey Jam Café is seeking Cooks for our Batavia, IL location.
Hours will range from 7am — 5pm and must be available to work on the weekends.»
(The offered compensation? $ 8.50-$ 9.00/hr.)
This is AN ACTIVE LISTING ON CRAIGSLIST for a restaurant whose average dish price often exceeds that of the egregious hourly compensation of its employees. The SAME employees that are in charge of preparing your food on weekends where the average wait can stretch for longer than one hour for a table. No wonder the wait is so long, THESE COOKS HAVE NO INCENTIVE TO WORK HARD. Honey Jam doesn’t value their service. Yeah, makes you want to think twice before sending that next half-​cooked egg back to the kitchen, right?
(SERIOUSLY ALL, LUMES IS RIGHT DOWN THE STREET, AND THEIR AVERAGE TIME FROM DOOR TO PIPING HOT FOOD IS 20 MINUTES!)
The food isn’t even good. I just don’t get it.
BOTTOM LINE: Save your hard-​earned money and wolf down a pair of McMuffins while idling outside a tollbooth window. You won’t know the difference.

For what it is, it’s a little pricey. I mean, consider it a Breakfast version of Portillo’s. Except if you want sausage with your waffle, it’s going to be an extra $ 5. $ 4 extra for a plate of bacon. It seems like it’s always busy, but of course I went on a Sunday at about 11:30 am. We waited for about 25 minutes just for the 2 of us. There is plenty of seating for those waiting. It also takes a long time for the food to be made. There’s just so many other good breakfast restaurants, I’d rather go somewhere else.

I have to be honest, I haven’t eaten the food, which may be good. But I turned around and walked out after reading a sign that said (paraphrase): «Please expedite your dining process, as others may be waiting.» WTF?
Let’s apply this to other businesses, shall we?
Nursing home: Please hurry up and die, Zsa Zsa Gabor is waiting to move into your suite.
Restroom: Please defecate quickly, Bubba in the lobby had sausage gravy for breakfast
Seriously?

Simply went in for Breakfast and ended up leaving without eating. after a 10 minute wait to order, still no food after 30 additional minutes.
The waitress stopped by after 20 minutes and said our order would be coming shortly, saying it was behind a «large group order» that got messed up.
The Manager finally brought the food after 36 minutes, and basically made multiple excuses, rather than admitting they messed up. He questioned us on how often we come in, apparently to determine if we were worth dealing with.
On top of all the delays, the Eggs Benedict were poor, and the Skillet was dry. Unfortunate bad experience overall, and the Manager attitude being not «customer oriented» caused us to leave without eating.
No, we will not go back. Surprising for a Portello affiliate.

I don’t know why but I had such high hopes for this place. Maybe it’s my undying love for Portillos, but I was deceived. The place itself looks warm, cozy and inviting, and so did their wait staff, so I thought.
We sat pretty promptly, no long lines or anything thankfully, and then it was all downhill from there, minus the soup, the tortilla soup was amazing! Our server was absolutely detached from everything. She had maybe 4 tables, one being a larger party but nothing insane, and the place was not full to capacity. The waitress would come by, ask if everything was alright and say «OK, wonderful» without stopping.
Ordering felt like I was at the lunch room cafeteria back in high school. «What’ll ya have, NEXT!» I’ve worked in the industry for years, and being as you are paid on tips… Engage, act like you care, and hell, you may get a decent tip then. For me to leave a 10% tip is a situation where most would not even tip, that’s how poor the service was. Even after we had to ask the GM for the bill (which we waited 15 minutes for) she still took 5 minutes to bring it over and incessantly asked over and over if we wanted to order anything to go, at this point I was thinking, along with the rest of my party, «NO! LET US PAY YOU AND LEAVE!»
I’m usually not this worked up but, …wow, that waitress needs a new job. I don’t even think I could accept the excuse of a «bad day» with her. I couldn’t even give you a name of her because, well that would have taken a little bit of personality on her part.
Oh, and as the claims for all the «BEST BACON» … Take it from a fat guy, there is WAY better bacon out there. We had 2 people order it on the side. One plate got 2 and ½ strips and one got 4 strips. And it wasn’t anything exceptional.
So, overall, the ambiance was that of a breakfast place, the food was not terrible and the service killed all semblance of a cozy restaurant. It’s hard for me to judge a place on one visit, but I can say this, I will NOT be giving this place a second try.