Cozy Cafe

A good alternative to fast food! Lots of hometown classic dinner food at a reasonable price, especially with a coupon. Lots of daily specials. Got value and quick service!

Terrible experience recently for dinner. We will NEVER go back. The signs were there and we stupidly kept ignoring them until it was too late.
1 — help wanted sign posted on entry door — only a big deal in hindsight
2 — visibly dirty floor (straw wrappers, food crumbs)
3 — overwhelmed waitress despite the restaurant only being half full
4 — a small ant walked on top of the table while we were waiting for our food
5 — burgers were way over-​cooked and buns were stale, like hard edges stale… Terrible!
6 — the roast beef in the French dip was so tough my wife couldn’t chew some of it
7 — daughter commented her lemonade didn’t taste right (she orders it everywhere so knows)
I could go on, but it was the single worst dining experience I’ve ever had. I assume they were so short-​staffed that nothing was being properly attended to. Given that, we didn’t complain (not my style when the only people there are 20-​somethings that clearly «just work there») and I tipped the waitress well… On the drive home we debated whether we should have mentioned these things… And I said I’d for sure leave this review.
This was my second visit to a Cozy Café and it will be my last. Nothing about this place is impressive. If they have these issues for a while longer, they’ll be out of business soon.

This place actually has great coffee I was surprised because I am picky with coffee flavor! Will be getting another cup soon!

A lovely place with very friendly staff ^_​^ I go here for breakfast whenever I can. The food is always amazing ! I especially love the Cozy mess which is the house specialty. The staff is amazing and friendly. I always have a great experience when I eat here. I give this place 5 stars every time !

Very average food. I had a breakfast sandwich and some fries and it was edible. When I was there my friend and I were the only ones in the restaurant and the environment is kind of depressing. I probably will not return to this place. I can have cheaper food that tastes better elsewhere.

I used to LOVE Cozy Café, but have been underwhelmed during my last two visits. On my last visit I ordered eggs over easy, there is a definite difference between over easy and raw, unfortunately I got the latter.
The other issue is my credit card was charged twice, for two amounts (one cent different). I called the restaurant 5 days ago and was told that a manager would call me the next day, but I have yet to hear anything:(

The reviews for breakfast seem to be consistently good. Dinner is another story. Our family recently moved near the Hickman location and thought we should support a local establishment. The atmosphere was nice. The food, however, left a lot to be desired.
The mac & cheese had no cheese visible. The fried fish, which is a special on Fridays, was over cooked and dry. The tartar sauce was thick mayonnaise with little taste. My daughter didn’t care for the pizza sauce because they use the same sauce as the cavatelli. I didn’t mind, but it was definitely different for pizza. No one loved what they got and the service was slow on a week night. Could it have been worse? Yes. Will we pay to eat there again? No. Would we go again if someone else was paying? Probably not.

I love going here with my family for breakfast. It’s a cute and cozy diner and the food is good! The coffee is great. The service is a little slow, so give yourself some time. However it is a nice place for a home style breakfast comfort meal with family.

Nothing spectacular. Spent $ 18 with tip for breakfast for one. No buffet, this is off the menu. Eggs bendicut. Ham slices where very thin like cold cuts from the deli. Lack of flavor and not sure about the eggs. Waitress really did not engage in any conversation. It was clear it was a eat and go! Just an order taker.
Disappointed since it’s close to me… but I will not return.

The service is terrible along with the food. Had to wait. Everything ordered was wrong. Will not return.

5 stars for breakfast. (I would rate it 3 for lunch or dinner, but it’s a solid 5 for bfast, and I’m not averaging the scores… I feel too strongly about Cozy’s amazing bfast).
This little diner is Cheers for my family for breakfast. We have been regulars at this location for weekend breakfast for a couple of years now. The servers know us and we know them… to the point where they know our usual orders from memory. We also have gotten to know the other weekend regulars a little bit.
The servers are very friendly and quick.
The food is delicious and quick. We especially love the French toast and omelettes. They brew Frederick’s coffee, which is good (not as good as the Grounds for Celebration coffee they used to brew, but I still like that’s it’s local).
There used to commonly be a wait for a table for breakfast, but we haven’t waited at all since the Waukee location opened. Even when there was a wait, the food came out so quickly that the wait was never long.
This location has a drive thru. I believe if you order at the drive thru, the menu is limited (not positive… I’ve only ordered coffee at the drive thru and haven’t paid that much attention to the menu. Knowing this location though, they’d make anything you specifically ask for that’s on the normal menu… just my guess).
My tips for Cozy café:
–check out Groupon – there are occasionally deals
–Ask for any drink to go. I always get coffee with my breakfast and my husband gets Coke. They will give to go cups of either to take home.
–In a hurry? Call in your order and pick up it up through the drive thru!
This is a nice little local diner with great breakfast. We have eaten lunch and dinner here before, and it’s ok… bfast is where it’s at.
Oh, and the hours listed here on Unilocal are not correct. This location is open into the evening for dinner.

I am a recent transplant to DSM from Omaha and have been really impressed as to the variety of non-​chain restaurants that are available in this city! With that said, I went to Cozy Café for dinner recently and it was gross.
It wasn’t that busy when I went in which was awesome and we sat immediately at the bar for a diner/​café experience. We initially ordered onion rings and the breadsticks for an appetizer. The rings were pretty good — lightly breaded with largely circled onion slices. However, the marinara sauce served with the breadsticks is what should have been my first clue…
If you think about a color spectrum with ketchup/​bright red on one end with chewing tobacco/​black on the other, the marinara looked dangerously close to the latter. The sauce was waaay to dark and it was accompanied with no taste whatsoever. I don’t want to say it was burnt but it definitely may have not been fresh. Honestly it tasted like a bunch of wet nothing that was left in a pan too long.
For dinner my wife ordered a salad, the kid a hot dog, and I ended up ordering the cavatelli (against my own intuition). The cavatelli is a proclaimed house specialty and ends up coming topped with the «marinara sauce stuff». The ‘telli was a little better actually and I’m assuming that was due it being smothered in alfredo and provolone cheese. I gutted through the dish and was able to pay my bill without bodily incident.
Honestly, I felt like Gordon Ramsey when he initially walks into a Kitchen Nightmare and is presented with a menu having no direction, not fresh ingredients, and dishes having no taste whatsoever. It really looks like I should have ordered breakfast after reading every other positive Unilocal comment…

My wife and I stopped for breakfast today, because we were in the mood for a little neighborhood diner. Very disappointing! My wife had the biscuits and gravy. The biscuit was obviously pre-​made, probably frozen, and over-​cooked. The gravy was most certainly repackaged and bland. Her eggs were nicely cooked.
I had the Durango Omlette. Sausage, onions, and cheese covered with a chili sauce. I got sausage & onions folded over with two slices of pepper jack singles melted on top. No chili. The hashbrowns were good, but the Omlette was over-​cooked as well.
I’m not sure what on their menus is made from scratch, but I was not impressed at all. I’m not sure we’ll give it a 2^nd try. The servers were friendly, but poorly trained. It’s over-​priced and under-​performing. I recommend you pass on the Cozy Café.

Came here with the fam for brunch today. We didn’t have to wait for seating. I ordered the half order of cozy mess and a chai tea. The food came out fast and hot and It was yummy! I’m glad I tried it out. I’m also very interested in all the pies, cinnamon rolls, and other desserts. I’ll be back :)

It wasn’t an expensive meal for us, we used a groupon at dinner time and it was pretty busy but not too crowded when we went. I had the blue plate special which was the roast beef with mashed potatoes and I thought it was good diner type of food. My husband had the cavatelli which they are known for and he did not enjoy it. It was bland, and nothing special. Next time we’ll have to go at breakfast since that seems to be what people in the area have recommended.

The restaurant is extremely small so plan on waiting for a while. Sure the food is homemade… but not very good. The pancakes are made with a «unique» recipe and not even my kids liked the flavor. After waiting to get an open table, we waited another 5 minutes before we even met our waitress, so needless to say the service is slow. My omelete was so undercooked that the cheese was still cold and not even melted.
To top it off, they refused to honor a voucher we purchased online. They apparently forgot to disclose that vouchers must be printed (smart phone apps not accepted) in the DSM Daily deal online. The manager was not apologetic, in fact he was quite rude about it, going so far as assuming customers would fraud him if he allowed vouchers to be redeemed via smart phone app. Really?!?
In an attempt to find at least on nice thing to say, I will point at that their homemade cinnamon rolls were excellent. That’s it.
To say we were disappointed is a gross understatement because we were hoping to support local business but it looks like we’ll be going to a chain next time we want breakfast in Des Moines.

I’ve only went for breakfast and coffee, but it’s the best breakfast I’ve ever had. I had the Cozy Mess, it was awesome! My kids had the pancakes and my wife had an omelet. All of it was very good. Breakfast on the weekends is crowded after 9am, so expect a wait, but that’s another good sign that the food is great.
Their specialty coffee is from «Grounds for Celebration» and is pretty good. Not the best I’ve had, but comparable to Caribou Coffee.

One of my favorite new restaurants in the area. Been there 3 – 4 times, service is always good and food is great. The only thing I would change are the onion rings, I prefer a thick cut onion ring to the stringy thin onion rings, but that seems to be a Des Moines thing, lots of restaurants around here serve those.