Sweet Maple Cafe

Good food and a low key spot. Went on a Saturday morning around 11:30 and there was a bit of a wait. It was a nice day out and they had lawn chairs in front so you didn’t have to stand and wait so it was a nice gesture. Ordered the French toast and it was really filling. The home fries are really good as well. The biscuit was huge and so soft felt like it was fresh out the oven. This was my second time being at sweet maple and it did not disappoint. The staff was nice, definitely will be returning.

I honestly forgot I was in Chicago when I ate here. It feels like all the little mom and pop places I go to when I visit my sister in North Carolina. The food was great. Eggs were perfectly cooked and the bacon was the right level of crispy. Service was great but they did seem overwhelmed. Also, this is not a place to enjoy a lazy breakfast, there was a line of people when we arrived and a longer line of people when we left. Next time, I want to try the pancakes. But since the portions are huge, it would have been silly ordering my breakfast and a pancake.
The only reason why this is not a 5-​star review is because of their payment system. I understand why a restaurant does not want to split checks, but when visiting friends it makes it awkward to saddle one person with the payment on their card for the whole table. This is 2016, I don’t carry cash very often. So why dock a star? Because like I said it is 2016, to have archaic credit card policies is no longer quaint, it is annoying. With options like Square and Clover, there is no need for a system where you need to tip before swiping, can’t split checks and other limitations. Plus when you label it as «new», makes it seem like you purposely chose this system. Though at the end of the day, I will return because dammit the food is fantastic.

The french toast was. Service was prompt and friendly. The place is also small and cozy.

Was headed to the Lagunitas Brewery with a friend on Friday and stopped in at Sweet Maple on Taylor street for some brunch. This place isn’t very big, but has a lot of that old-​school charm to it. We got a table after about a 5 minute wait. I imagine it gets very crowded on the weekends.
Their menu has a nice mix of sweet and savory options as well as lunch fare. Be sure to check the board for daily specials and fresh bakery items too! My friend got the 18^th street scramble and I went with the special of the day, cinnamon roll pancakes. They tasted great (hard to screw up cinnamon roll pancakes am I right?) and were super filling. I recommend putting a little butter on it to soften the texture up.
On par with that old school charm I mentioned, prices are VERY reasonable. Our total including tip was $ 32. Great food, low prices and friendly staff… all signs point to a 5 star review for this Little Italy brunch classic!

Great place to enjoy breakfast on a Sunday morning. Staff is always friendly and the service is stellar!

This is a small, cozy, country style breakfast joint. With that being said, the restaurant isn’t spacious so I would recommend arriving around 8am-​9am for breakfast if you don’t want to wait a long time. If you’re impatient and don’t want to wait, there’s a carry out option.
The prices are reasonable and there’s something on the menu for everyone– scrambles, omelettes, French Toast, pancakes, biscuits, etc. The staff is nice and courteous and I will definitely return again in the near future.

My friend and I had an event next to the café so we decided to stop by based on the Unilocal reviews. I never visit this part of town, so I was excited to get a chance to try it.
I ordered the Sweet Maple-​Opolis which was simple, nothing exciting, BUT I cleared the plate so it wasn’t bad.
I also ordered Latte with Almond milk… NO WAIT! they don’t have almond or soy milk. So if you don’t drink cow milk, you should stick with black coffee or water. It’s 2016, everyone serve mile alternatives, stop by the nearest Jewel and but 4 gallons at $ 10 — charge $ 0.50 cent extra for almond or soy milk and you can make a lot of people happy.
Hostess was great and nice, we waited for about 20 min and she walked us to our table,
Waitress on the other hand was bad, and not because she didn’t try. The look confused and overwhelmed. I saw only 2 waitresses that were serving all of the tables. We got service only after 10 min, the table next to us that came 5 min after us got served just before we did. The guy who in charge of cleaning the tables felt bad for us and brought my friend coffee. We told the waitress that we have a meeting in an hour, needless to say, we got our food 20 min before we had to leave. Made us eat fast and very disappointed.
Good — new place for me
Bad — service and no almond milk
Ugly — part of the street with the abandoned buildings

Sweet Maple is a fantastic breakfast spot in Little Italy! It’s not a trendy brunch place, but just good, old-​fashioned breakfast.
Their menu is just the right size. Not pages and pages, but there is a little bit of everything — omelettes, scrambles, home fries, pancakes, and more. I don’t normally order pancakes at restaurants, but they are so fluffy and decadent at Sweet Maple. I highly recommend. The home fries are also great, and you can get them with a variety of different toppings. A lot of the entrees come with your choice of toast or biscuit — get the biscuit! They are homemade, using the owner’s family recipe.
If you come on the weekend, be warned that there will most certainly be a wait. But it will be worth it, so don’t despair!

Small place, food was okay. The best was their special pancakes of the day. Which were Cinnamon roll pancakes. Very rich, you can order one. Coffee would get cold right away, it was odd. Scrambled eggs and omelet weren’t fluffy.
They need some Cholula hot sauce.
It was busy and waitress interrupted our conversation and with a fake smile asked if we needed anything else. It felt like we were rushed.
Overall it was alright, nothing to wait 30+ minutes for.

Nice little place, decent food. I tried their cinnamon roll, it was more like pancake with cinnamon syrup and frosting, but it was cute looking and tasty. I hope this place could be a little bit bigger tho so I would not have to block their walking isle while waiting in line. Parking could be hard to find, but maybe it was due to busy Sunday morning.

Sunday is brunch day and I happen to come across Sweet Maple Café on Taylor St! Great cozy brunch spot on Taylor in Little Italy. Open until 2pm daily this place is a must try. Space is kind of tight on a busy day but the delicious food makes up for it. All of the skillet and egg dishes come with a homemade biscuit that I highly recommend. Unlimited coffee refills is a bonus! Ordered a ham and spinach omelette that came with home fries and of corse I went for the biscuit instead of toast. Can wait to go back and try out the rest of their menu. If going with a group I recommend bring cash. They don’t split the bill and it’s only one credit card pre table.

Horrible Food. Horrible Service. Horrible Management.
Today i ordered what i thought would be a chicken & egg biscuit sandwich, what i received was a egg biscuit and fried chicken fat/​skin sandwich. Gross. (see pics). I immediately called the restaurant back to let them know that my sandwich didnt include any chicken at all and that it resembled fried fat. The manager told me that they only fry chicken and it couldn’t be anything else. I dont know if you guys frequent Chick fil a, but i thought my sandwich would resemble the chicken biscuit sandwich they serve in the am but a bit more sophisticated since my sandwich cost $ 8.45.
After speaking with the manager over the phonw i told her that i would be bringing my meal back. I pur everything back in the bag and headed out. Upon my arrival i showed her what they were serving as fried chicken, she looked at me and said that chicken. I said thats not chicken its fried fat and should never be served for human consumption. The women behind her got an attitude and said thank you and the Manager told me if i didn’t like, i didnt have to order there anymore. I will gladly take her advice. I will also search for the owner of this establishment to notify them of this. The supervisor was very nasty as well as the women behind the counter. I just walked out after getting my refund because i didnt have time to argue with restaurant workers, as i have enough stress trying to keep criminals off the streets.
My advice stay away from this place, bad food & bad service don’t mix!
Try Stax Café, instead :)

Great value, good portions at good prices and great flavor. Just delicious. Great spot for small groups no more than 4. Two of us in our party and we have a 40 min wait.
Food: ⁴⁄₅
Service: ³⁄₅ — I know they were busy but it would make more sense if we could pay at the table rather than trying to make way through the tight tables and long waiting line.
Venue: ³⁄₅ — Tight squeeze. Sat so close I just wanted to jump into our neighbor’s conversations since we couldn’t have our own.

Oh my goodness. This place is a gem. I love love loved every bite. I ordered a custom omelet with Italian sausage, spinach, potatoes and mozzarella cheese. It came with a biscuit that tasted like a cornbread-​biscuit hybrid and some potatoes. Delicious.
Coffee hit the spot. Refills were on point.
I came in and was waiting for friends. Tables were available working 20 minutes. Honestly the service is excellent.
I only come to Chicago about once a month. I will definitely be bringing other friends here.

I love sweet maple café and just about everything they do. Stax is definitely the more modern brunch spot, but sweet maple café hits you with hearty portions at the right price. I came the Sunday after Halloween at 9AM and there was still a 40 minute wait for a table for 3. Either people go hard for brunch after halloween or this place is always busy – but it could be a mix of both.
The interior features old wooden tables and chairs with old yellow peeling walls. However, it’s warm, cozy, and the service is great. For food I had the Diaz y Noches scramble which featured chicken chunks, jalapeño, and cheedar scrambled with eggs. Topped with salsa, it was as good as i expected. I wouldn’t say it’s the main dishes that make sweet maple café good. It’s the sides! The homefries here are crispy and flavorful with peppers and onions sauted with them. And the biscuits are massive and fluffy. My friend who doesn’t even like biscuits was like damn, these are delicious.
All in all, sweet maple café is a solid brunch spot that has some bomb biscuits. So get yo biscuits!!!

All I have to say is yes! I enjoyed everything! I had breakfast for the first time at Sweet Maple Café and loved it. We were a party of 4, everyone ordered something different so we could each have a little taste.
I ordered the corn beef hash, eggs over easy, and (to my surprise) one really huge biscuit. My eggs were perfect and my biscuit was extra fluffy. I also tasted the liver and onions, the salmon cakes and lemon/​raspberry pancakes, which were both specials for today. Omg! The liver and onions is the best I’ve ever had dining out. Definitely what I’ll be ordering for myself when I return. The salmon cakes, as well as the pancakes were awesome.
Overall I had a really great experience. No complaints. The service was great, everyone was so attentive. I just loved the whole feel of the restaurant. The sign outside is cute and welcoming. The interior is warm and cozy… made me feel so comfortable. And I really enjoyed seeing the portraits hanging throughout the dining area. All of these things made my dining experience very special. I recommend Sweet Maple Café. Really, I insist you try it.

Please put the cinnamon roll pancakes on the regular menu! They were SOOO GOOD and I want to come back and eat them again! They use a real buttermilk recipe that has a great acidity to match the sugary topping. Holiday French toast was also delicious, as were the home fries and biscuits (biscuits are a denser, more northern style baking powder biscuit). Portions here are big — an average person probably just wants an order of pancakes or French toast without the sides.
We went around 10 on a weekday and only had a brief wait. You could probably do an early lunch around 11:30 here and do just fine if you work in the area.

SO flippin’ good!!!
Be prepared for a wait, as the place is a little small and very popular. If you get there by 10, the wait should be no longer than 20 min, and there are chairs outside.
*** It’s a 15 min walk from the Racine stop on the blue line OR there is a FREE gravel lot across the street ***
Choosing something to eat here is tough, as there is so many perfect choices. I ended up ordering the Carmen G scramble– eggs w your choice of cheese, bacon, spinach, mushrooms, home fries and a biscuit and was sooooooooo happy with my choice. The portion size was big, but not huge to where I couldn’t finish it. The home fries were nice and crispy, not overly greasy, and the biscuit was a huge square of carby heaven! YUM. I could go for the same meal again right now. Two of our other companions ordered a half order of pancakes– aka one pancake. It was the size of the entire plate! They had to quarter it to eat it and could barely finish it. I was impressed!
They stayed on top of coffee refills the entire meal too. With tax, our meal/​drinks was about $ 15 per person, which I didn’t think was too exorbitant. I will be back!

Early morning breakfast right around opening on Saturday — no wait! We were seated right away. Delightful and quick service.
Taylor street omelet — I enjoyed it! It’s a pretty basic omelet but tasty nonetheless. The home fries were killer and even better with the hot sauce. The biscuit was the only thing I was unimpressed with — it’s big but doesn’t have the buttery, flaky goodness that you want to taste in a biscuit.
Lemon raspberry pancake — I like that you can get a ½ order (1 big pancake) instead of the full (2 big pancakes) just for a little taste. 1 pancake was enough to share between 3 people who wanted a little bit of sweet next to our main savory dishes.
Cute little café and a rewarding brunch after a long week!

On the hunt for biscuits and gravy, we ended up at Sweet Maple Café. It’s a small, totes adorbs, type family joint that’s also super small. We had tried to stop by once before, only to be met with the indeterminate bull rush that is the Chicago brunch bunch.
So, this is possibly the grossest looking biscuits & gravy you’ll ever see in your life. It looks like a brown mush that most resembles the blended, oxidized, browned banana we feed the baby. I miss southern white gravy like a fat kid misses cake.
The gravy is just meh, but the homemade biscuit is admittedly dang tasty. If I were to return, I’d recommend just going with a biscuit, sans gravy.
I have a general non-​omelet policy when I dine out, since it’s so easy to make at home, but the wife’s «Sweet Maple-​Opolis» omelet was fairly fantastic, thanks to a nice feta/​sundried tomato kick.
Coffee is Seattle’s Best and forgettable. If you can stand it, wait until after the meal, go to Scafuri Bakery next door, and get a drip using Passion House beans instead. And pick up a lemon ricotta pound cake while you’re at it.