Parkside Cafe

Great place for breakfast or brunch. It has a nice diner feel, with polite staff, a clean open dining room and good food. It’s affordable also!

Love it here! Always busy, but the food and service are worth a short wait. Great place for Sunday breakfast.

Amazing food and service. You will wait for a table but the wait is quite worth it! The atmosphere reminds me of cheers you wanna go where everyone knows your name! If you want comfort food that feels like you have a personal chef in your own kitchen that will scream oh my gosh this is out of this world this is the place to go!

This place is the best! Funny my favorite breakfast joint is on federal hill in Bristol. Very deserving of 5 stars and the great rating it gets.

While it is definitely a popular café, the food quality fell short for me – sorry, Parkside. I wanted to like this place very much, but I walked away wondering why there are so many praises.
I got a custom crêpe – with peanut butter, bananas, cinnamon, and honey – in a full stack. (Like pancakes? I was confused, but the server said two was a half stack and three made a full stack). I also got a chai and a cappuccino, of which the chai was not drinkable and the cappuccino was average (not the best I have tasted). The crêpe, when it finally came out, I could not tell how many crepes I actually had, but found three mounds progressing from lightly cooked to pretty crispy from right to left. I dug in on the right, soon finding that the bottom of one and a half crepes to be too crispy and borderline burned. In actuality, these are not really crepes – more like thinner pancakes with that cake-​like texture. I scraped off the peanut butter and picked out the bananas, pushing the crispy parts to the edge of the plate. There was a good amount of peanut butter (sparing pieces of bananas and little honey or cinnamon), and the properly cooked area of the crepes was pretty good, melting in my mouth (though I question if it was raw). Overall, though, I spent most of my time figuring out which part to eat (which was about half of the entire dish), so I was glad I opted for the full stack as I could have a relatively decent amount to eat.
What struck me most was the price of my crêpe: $ 11.99. Twelve dollars for something I pretty much had to pick which parts I ate? Really? What happened to the inexpensive café? I did not see how it could be so expensive, with it essentially being $ 4 per crêpe. I’ve had much higher quality crepes in Boston that cost a total of $ 4 with more to them than the ones here at Parkside. With everything that I got, the total was $ 20 (not inexpensive at all, particularly with the quality of my crêpe).
Add it up for Parkside:
— Decent service
— Beautiful, clean café
— Good location
Take it away for Parkside:
— Crispy/​almost burned crepes
— Undrinkable craft beverages
— Steep prices
My overall understandings of this café: Parkside is more of a breakfast place with eggs, toast, omelets along with the basic straight coffee and orange juice for beverages. Go anything beyond that and you’re challenging yourself to get something good. The service was good and I appreciated the willingness to make a custom crêpe, but the quality of my food and the prices have me hesitant to return any time soon.

Awesome food; seated quickly (go early as they get very busy). Wait staff is very attentive. One of the best breakfast places in CT tops down. A varied menu that is very tasty and one you can have tailored to your tastes/​dietary restrictions.
We met with the owner who is wonderful at making sure all is going smoothly and who truly helps out his staff. Truly worth my ½ hr. drive!

Best breakfast in the area! French toast was amazing and strawberries were very fresh! The omelette and potatoes were also wonderful!

Wow. Excellent food for the money. Portions are more than generous, service is quick and efficient. If you show up during a weekend brunch be prepared to wait. It happens, but the staff turn tables fairly quickly.
I had the eggs benedict and they were perfect. My dining partner had some variation of stuffed French toast and the plate was demolished, nothing left.
One of the best places in the area for breakfast. Unless you are a power eater you will not leave hungry or unsatisfied.

Parkside Café has won a new customer that will return for the beautifully delicious plates! The restaurant décor has a real rustic mix with fancy as the ceiling glimmers in white and gold. Enough of the décor though, the meal I had was the eggs in a window, served with sausage links and home style fries.
The eggs and sausage weren’t over cooked, and they were made really well! The pancakes were also very light and fluffy and were very good. Loved the crispy edges of those hot cakes, thinking of them just makes my mouth water as I type! Can’t wait to go back. Want to try out many more items on the menu

Awesome food with exciting special and a fantastic wait staff. JR is always greeting table and making everyone feel special.

The meal I had here is in my top 5 meals I’ve ever eaten in a restaurant in my entire life. Random back story, I stumbled across this place while my husband and I were in the area to pick up a Craiglist find. It was late morning/​early afternoon so I Unilocaled restaurants in the area looking for something pretty basic, maybe brunch. Parkside Café popped right up and it had great reviews, so we figured why not?
The café itself is small and the parking isn’t that easy, but it’s oh-​so worth it. The staff was very friendly and the service was quick. We both had coffee, which was delicious. I chose a crêpe from their specials menu, I believe it was called a black and blue crêpe or something to that effect. It was a crêpe with blueberries and blackberries. This is what was hands down one of the most amazing things I’ve ever eaten. The flavors were perfect, it was cooked excellently, I cannot even put into enough words how great this crêpe was. I had home fries on the side, which were shockingly fantastic as well. Nothing run-​of-​the-​mill about them. They were cut larger than normal home fries I am used to getting, and the flavor was outstanding.
Go to this café. Seriously. Don’t think twice, just go.

The only thing I didn’t like about this place was the long wait time, but that’s just because there was limited seating and it was a Sunday morning. Other than that, everything was fantastic. The wait staff, the food, coffee, everything. Would definitely make the drive to come back.

After weeks of taunting me on Bristol’s Unilocal homepage, I finally made my way to Parkside Café, and I wasn’t disappointed.
The place was pretty crowded for Sunday breakfast/​brunch, but that was to be expected. The inside is very quaint and homey, the walls being adorned with an eccentric mix of photos, paintings, and a bunch of other knickknacks.
The food that my group of three ordered was enjoyed by everyone. I got what was essentially a breakfast BLT with a fried egg and avocado mayo. I’m not a huge fan of tomatoes, so I had to take off one of the two thick-​sliced pieces off my sandwich, but it was very good overall. The home fries, while I typically enjoy more crunchy and fried to their softer method, were very nicely flavored.
The biggest downside for me is their location. While the actual building and where it’s located isn’t that bad, there is a major parking issue in that particular part of town. It’s a street parking situation, with a narrow side street essentially turning into a one-​way with all the cars lined down with patron’s cars. There’s no room in that area for any type of parking lot, so it’s just something you’ll have to deal with, particularly during breakfast time on the weekends.
With a decent mix of breakfast, brunch, and lunch items, I’ll definitely be back!

First off you must know it’s a huge pet peeve of mine when a business doesn’t stay open for their stated hours.
I tried to dine here on Friday July 3^rd. My girlfriend and I were both off from work and after sleeping in, I decided it would be nice to get a late breakfast. I checked Parkside’s Facebook page and the hours showed it was open until 2:00. It was a little bit before 1:00 and there was a hand written sign saying that they were closing early for the 4^th of July.
If a business is using social media or electronic media to broadcast its hours of operation, don’t you think it would be nice if they used it to convey their hours when they decide to close too?

Fantastic breakfast joint with large portions, bottomless coffee, and all the fixings at reasonable prices.
If you prefer sweet, you can’t go wrong with their special strawberry banana crêpe. More of a savory type? Their diner-​style breakfast options will hit the spot. (Love the #9! Two eggs with corned beef hash and home fries.)
Be sure to arrive early (before 9 a.m.) on the weekends, or expect to wait. If you do get caught in the morning rush, put your name in, and kick back in the waiting area or on the benches outside — the food is worth it!

I wasn’t completely blown away by this place and neither was my boyfriend. We himmed and hawed for awhile in this place deciding if it was worthy of 4 stars. We settled on 3 and a half but to be fair I upped it to 4.
I’ll start with the okay (because nothing was really «bad» per se): The seating. We were at a high top and the table sort of felt like an after thought.
The service: It was good, but I felt like because it was busy it was seriously lacking. The wait time on the food was atrocious. Pitiful, really. 30 minutes for 2 omelets and a side of fresh fruit.
And in regards to the fresh fruit, it was $ 4.99 for a very tiny dish. The pricing is way off here. $ 8.99 for an omelet and $ 4.99 for fruit. *sigh* What gives?
The good: The omelets. They were delicious. A ham and american and a mushroom and swiss. So so good. The homefries were perfectly salty and hot. The toast was good.
My favorite though: The sugar free Vanilla Chai I ordered. You can’t ever find this stuff. It was YUMMY and piping hot and simply perfect for a Sunday morning.
As a sidenote and this sort of frightens me: I found not one but three rather large size chunks of bacon in the homefries. I was sort of wondering after the third piece if they were cooking it with bacon on purpose. If not, it really makes me uncomfortable thinking about people who can’t eat things like that (for health reasons or religious reasons) that would find some of that blended in the homefries. I don’t know if it was a misstep or on purpose but a word of caution: the grill needs to be cleaned better if bacon doesn’t come in your homefries…
But, very kitschy feeling and the food was mostly excellent. I’d go back but maybe not on the weekend…

My mother and sister come here every week and my mom finally had the chance to bring me.
Very pleasant atmosphere, a gem for Bristol!
The waitress was so nice and we were greeted right away.
I got the pulled pork wrap… OMG AMAZING. so fresh and flavorful. Came with their house made chips. So delicious.
Mom had the portobello burger and loved it. They accommodated her request for no-​bun.
Can’t wait to come back here for breakfast or lunch soon!
What a great little place for Bristol to have. The owners should be proud.

This place is nicely tucked in a nice neighborhood of Bristol no too far away from Bristol Public library.
Cute, coffee house like décor. Lovely around breakfast time when small families, friends, or the elderly come in to have a coffee and waffles.
Lunch is served at 11:30 and breakfast is served during lunch time too.
I got the daily raspberry chocolate coffee special which was deliciously fragrant. Free refills as well.
And since the crepes are ever so popular I decided to also go with the daily breakfast special: raspberry white chocolate mascarpone cheese and whipped cream on the side. Double stacked. I found some parts of it to be overwhelmingly sweet.
My comrade ordered the Two Eggs, Hash, Home Fries & Toast. He was not a fan of the corned beef hash because it tasted like the food of a canine.
However it would not hurt to give this place another go in the future

Seeing as how I’m a city girl born and raised, I live for brunch. So when my friend who I was visiting in Bristol told me that there were no good brunch places in the area, I was in shock. Not saying I didn’t believe him (okay, I didn’t), but I decided to turn to my trusty Unilocal to see if this was indeed true. Lo and behold, I found this little gem of a place and I couldn’t have been happier.
Parkside Café doesn’t take reservations, so we were expecting the worst when we headed over around noon on a Sunday, but the brunch gods must have been looking out for us, as the wait was only a mere 10 minutes. Hallelujah. One of my friends and I decided to each get our own savory dish and split the Berries Crêpe because we are fatasses. I went with the Burrito Special, which was honestly probably one of the best breakfast burritos I’ve ever had. The crêpe also didn’t disappoint, as it was light and fluffy. My only complaint? That this place isn’t in NYC. And yes, we finished everything #nocrumbleftbehind

Finally got the chance to stop into the Parkside Café this morning for breakfast. I’ve had the place bookmarked for some time now, we were really looking forward to coming here, but honestly, we felt the experience fell short of all the praise this café receives on Unilocal.
Street parking, which is alright. Least it’s Bristol, CT and not New Haven. So we went inside, sat at a corner table. Very nice ambiance, it was «cute». Waitress asked what we wanted to drink, we both went with coffee. Coffee was good. I ordered one of the specials off the menu — the Heath Bar Crumble French Toast w/​a side of sausage links. My fiancée went with a bacon, cheese & tomato omelet, red bliss/​skin-​on homefries w/​rye toast.
After placing our order, we waited… and waited… and waited some more. Honestly, it might have been one of the longest waits for breakfast we ever experienced (was around 10ish in the morning on a Thursday, place was moderately crowded). Well, the meals finally arrived, the Chef brought them out. My French Toast looked pretty enough (see my pic), but I felt it was a bit too sweet for liking (don’t get me wrong, I do like sweet). Fiancée felt my meal tasted like a «candy bar». Fortunately I didn’t experience a major sugar-​crash later when we were shopping at West Farms Mall.
My fiancée wasn’t overwhelmed with her omelet either, she felt the tomatoes were starting to go sour, they had a funky taste to them. She did, however, love the red bliss/​skin-​on homefries, they were excellent.
Also, we felt the service was lacking. Took a while to get our check, our waitress was shooting the breeze with a customer. When I did discuss the sweetness of my French Toast with her, she did not even realize that the Heath Bar is a candy bar. I tried to explain it to her, but she was clueless, so I just gave up.
Overall, a disappointing experience this morning at the Parkside Café in Bristol. Honestly, even though it is close to where we now live, can’t see coming back. For $ 28 (before tip), it was an expensive breakfast.
The Parkside Café is a weak 3 Star rating, IMO. Maybe we should’ve tried the crepes?