Harvest Cafe

Had yet another amazing, three course, vegan meal here today. Kevin and his staff never disappoint!

Simply the best restaurant experience I have had in years. The food was spectacular. We had the meat and cheese starter, tomato soup, a house salad, the catfish dinner, and a burger. The food was high end, quality food. The portion size was significant. The ambiance was inviting, and the service was wonderful. It was definitely worth the 40 minute drive.

The food and service was impeccable. Tomato soup made fresh with grilled cheese, ribs smoked to perfection, and drinks made with plenty of libation. Thank you Kevin for a satisfying dining experience. One of the best restaurants in Central Illinois!

In my opinion this is one of the best restaurants in central IL. I have never had a bad meal here. A week ago I had skate here. and it was phenomenal. Service is always great. The only negative is the acoustics can make the noise in the dining room deafening. Half the time I can tune it out though because the food is just outstanding. Very affordable especially given the high quality local ingredients. Make the drive to Delevan and you won’t regret it!

WORTH THE DRIVE from Bloomington-​Normal!
Everything possible was locally sourced. They are closed on Mondays & Tuesdays, but that’s when they are making homemade jellies and jams to serve the rest of the week.
Not going to go on and on as the menu changes with the seasons, so just drive there and there’s a really good chance whatever you order will be delicious.
Wednesday is meatloaf and fried chicken night. Thursday is barbecued meats night fresh from their smoker. Good chance the cows you see on the drive in to Delavan are on next week’s menu

Really nice spot that is worth the drive great variety of food and drink. We had Saturday brunch. Chorizo hash was good and pulled pork BBQ was awesome!
Can’t wait to come back for dinner.
Great farm to table eating!

After my third trip out to this eatery in the fields, I think I can only award three stars. I am just not blown away by the items I’ve tried. This most recent trip I started with the radish salad and my dining partner had the kale. They were definitely the yin and yang of salads. Mine had sour pickled radishes with crisp bitter greens and a sharp white cheese liberally sprinkled over it with a spicy vinaigrette and the kale was a rich medley of shredded kale, rich bacon and feta and a sweet oniony dressing. We ended up mixing the two together and then splitting them back up. I think they would be better off with some sweet and some sour tastes for each salad rather than being so much of the same.
For mains, we had steaks, a ribeye and a sirloin. The sirloin was by far the superior steak despite being lower in cost. The ribeye was about a third fat/​gristle which reduced it to the same edible size as the sirloin but definitely lacked flavor despite being cooked with all the fat and bone left in. The sirloin was cooked perfectly and had a great char and beef flavor. The ribeye was overcooked just a little and just didn’t hardly have any taste to it. We both had the potato croquettes which were ovals of fried mashed potatoes and were nothing amazing. We ended up the meal with a pistachio crème brûlée which was served extremely cold and lacked any noticeable pistachio taste. It’s a mild flavor but it’s not like crème brûlée is a very strong tasting dessert to begin with!
I do like visiting out here and will return to try their ever changing menu in hopes I can order something amazing soon!

The Harvest Café runs from Ok to Very Good. My husband really enjoyed the chicken dish he had, the chicken was flavorful and the whole dish went together well. The Smore dessert was awesome, with homemade marshmallows. I had a few menu items that had that bitter taste of something cooked too long, which was disappointing. Also, the appetizer of harvest tomatoes was fine, but it just tasted a little too much like a tomato cut into slices and I was expecting more, especially for the price.
The restaurant is very nice, though it is all the way out in Delavan, and if you’ve never been to Delavan, it’s because there’s almost no reason to go to Delavan. However, if you are tired of the choices in either Peoria or Bloomington and want to try something different, it’s a good choice.

I love this place. Everything I’ve ever eaten here has been delicious. If you go for breakfast I would recommend the biscuits and gravy, I never even liked biscuits and gravy until I tried theirs. I would order their fried chicken or steak for dinner. Unless they have the lamb chop with the couscous, which is one of the best meals I’ve ever had. The service is always great too!

Foodies rejoice! This Delavan gem is worth the drive from Peoria or Bloomington! This Farm to Table restaurant delivers exceptional flavors at a solid price!
We usually make an evening of it by meeting friends at the sister bar next door, picking up a bottle of wine from the wine store (also a sister store) then coming for dinner. They will happily serve your purchased wine from the sister store to you. Never feel rushed and it a great ambience, with occasional live background music.

Quick update: They can now serve alcohol starting at 11:00 on Sundays, so bring on the mimosas!
They tend to run out of menu items which can be disappointing when we drive an hour for their lamb sausage gravy, but we are still big fans. Their ribs are possibly the best I’ve had. Smoked to perfection and fall right of the bone. A sidenote: We asked to substitute mashed potatoes for fries, since mashed came with a different entrée. They declined which we thought was both funny and bizarre.

This is truly a foodie oasis in the middle of nowhere. After hearing about this farm to table brunch we knew we had to try it! It was about 40 minutes for us from normal but so worth it!
We arrived in this tiny farm town when the community auction was going on downtown. Harvest café was situated right in the heart next to two well developed places (a wine store and a bar) and found out later they are owned by the same people.
I had short ribs and eggs with a mimosa and they were excellent. We saw a man come in with platter of fresh meat that had just come from the farm. Needless to say the meat was fresh and tender.
The only complaint was the service. Not up to par with the rest.

In my search for good eats in the Peoria area, Harvest Café has been the best that I’ve found. Not only is it the best that I found in the area over the past 5 days but it ranks in my top 10 favorite restaurants that I’ve ever experienced.
Delavan is quite an unassuming town and I didn’t expect to find such a gem there. The town is quaint and looks like Americana and I really loved the feel that I got while visiting. Harvest Café is also quaint with great atmosphere and lots of character. I think the smaller size helped to set the stage for an intimate evening with great food! There was a guitar player and violinist setting the auditory ambiance along with happy chitchat and light hearted banter.
I had the seared foie gras to start off my dinner and it was delicious. Rich and full of flavor. For my main course, I had the smoked duck carbonara which included roasted duck breat, smoked duck leg, and fresly prepared pasta. This dish was one of the best duck dishes that I have ever had. Finally for dessert, I had their chocolate bread pudding. It was served in a stone crock and was piping hot and delicious! It wasn’t overly sweet or too wet but had a great texture and richness to it.
If you are ever in the area you definitely should check out Harvest Café, I only wish that I was able to experience the breakfast here too!

We have been wanting to try this place since last year’s Christmas walk when they handed out great Hot Chocolate. Old downtown in a nice small city. Four of us went so we got to try four lunch dishes: Grilled Chicken salad, Pork belly Pastrami, fried oysters with crab cake, and pork tenderloin. We also tried the Corn Ice cream and Carmel Date Cake. Each dish is very unique and has it high points. All but the seafood was locally sourced from neighbor farms. Fresh chicken and pork (did not try a beef dish)
Great oysters and Crab cake for central IL. The spice in the crab cake was very good and great balance between meaty and bread in the crab cake The port belly pastrami was exceptional with great smoke flavor.. The chicken was very fresh with a nice smoked flavor and the grilled squash in the salad was wonderful. The tenderloin had a good meat flavor with a good breading. The breading did not overwhelm the meat.
Great dessert and coffee.
We will return as often as we can.

Had the best breakfast here this past Saturday. Two words: HARVEST BENEDICT. If I’m on death row ever and get asked for my last meal request, this might be it!
The menu description of this amazing meal doesn’t do it justice: ‘Local farm eggs, zucchini cakes, kale, radish, hollandaise, home fries’.
The zuchini cakes take the place of the traditional English muffin. In addition to the description, mine had addition of some teensy, crispy baby green beans added into the kale/​radish mix.
This was topped off with REALLY good coffee and super friendly service. The owner sent over a complimentary order of jam croissants (one of their side items) for us to try also — a nice treat.
They were divine but different from what you traditionally think of as a croissant. They were much heavier and had a lot of rich cream cheese taste mixed into the dough. Like fantastic little breakfast cheesecakes. Cheesecake disguised as breakfast? GENIUS! Highly recommend.

We stopped here on our way from St Louis to Chicago, being greatly amused by the concept of a fancy restaurant in a tiny town.
Both the watermelon cocktail and cheese plate I had were quite good. They didn’t have any veggie entrees on the menu so I had the server ask the chef about this. She came back with news of the «really great mushrooms» that he would turn into a pasta dish for me for $ 18. I thought that seemed pricey for a veggie pasta, but decided to go for it.
Well, I was blown away. Oversized ribbons of fresh tagliatelle were perfectly cooked and seasoned in a wonderfully light yet incredibly flavorful butter and lemon sauce, adorned with a huge hen of the woods mushroom with the kind of substantial meaty bite I’ve only known in trumpet mushrooms. Added to the mix were pine nuts, kale, garlic, onion, and FLASH-​FRIED SPINACH. Seriously, WHAT? What kind of MADMAN spins up the deep fryer to make a friggin delicacy like flash-​fried spinach as an unannounced mix-​in for an off-​menu vegetarian dish?
We finished with a s’mores-inspired dish with chocolate ice cream, toasted marshmallows and homemade graham crackers. It was excellent.
One of the most delicious meals I’ve had all year. Can’t wait for an excuse to go back!

As we entered we saw a booth empty, a table for 6 empty and another table for 8 or so with a sign that said «reserved». After telling the hostess that we did not have reservations, we stood for about 10 minutes. Then we waited for another 15 at the bar. It was Father’s Day, and they seemed a bit short-​handed on the wait staff.
After we were seated in a booth, one of the empty tables for 6 was then turned into a table for 2 and a table for 4. A couple was then seated at the table for 4. Not sure why were were left standing for so long. Weird.
The food however made up for all of the unwelcoming feelings that we received when we first walked in as we seemed penalized for not having a reservation.
Our waitress asked if we looked at the menu while sitting at the bar. I said that we were not offered menus. She apologized.
The menu is fantastic and ingredients are from local farms. The place is probably perfect-​sized on any other day. Avoid going there on Mother’s/Father’s Day and you should be OK, or make sure to make a reservation!!!
I would return to give them another try. The coffee was good. My Breakfast strata was excellent and perfectly seasoned. The greens next to it were well dressed. My husband had the pork pastrami sandwich with fries and a bowl of onion soup. Also excellent.

Oh dear. I had intended to visit Harvest Café back in January, but due to my own fault, I got the directions wrong, and ran out of time before I had to get to a meeting in Springfield. So, when my travels brought me back to this area this weekend, I was so excited to finally visit Harvest Café. This place came highly recommended by several people whom I like and whose opinions I respect. That, coupled with the awesome menu I viewed online, had me salivating as I neared the restaurant.
Sadly, this was one very disappointing breakfast. To get a good feel for their food, I ordered the biscuit with lamb sausage cream gravy, and the crab cake benedict, all for myself. Beignets have been added as a comp lagniappe «amuse.» Now for the review:
Pros: 1) the restaurant is very attractive, with dark wood furniture, and large windows in the front to bring in the morning light. 2) the staff are friendly and excellent, offering coffee refills, and expediting my order when I explained I had time constraints, and packing up the leftovers for me to take with me. 3) the coffee is delicious. 4) the food is largely locally sourced. 5) the lamb sausage gravy was immensely flavorful, and well prepared. 6. the home fries served with the benedict were crispy and tasty, though they needed a bit more salt. 7. portion size was very impressively generous, enough to satisfy the heartiest appetite.
Neutral: 1) the poached eggs were slightly undercooked; I love runny yolks, but I like my whites a bit more cooked; they were also a bit watery, as if they weren’t dried on a towel before being placed on the crab cakes. 2) the crab cakes, while full of crab, smelled and tasted a bit «fishy» in an «off» way; don’t get me wrong, as I love seafood, especially fishy-​tasting seafood, but this seemed just a bit old, and I did have some gastrointestinal distress later in the day, but that could have been tied to my salad and quiche at lunch.
Cons: 1) the beignets, while crispy on the outside, were raw on the inside, a sign that the oil in which they were cooked was too hot. 2) the biscuit that came with the excellent gravy, while homemade, was as hard and dense as a bad scone. 3) cold plates! I sampled everything as soon as it came out of the kitchen and was placed on my table, and the cold plates had already caused the home fries and the crab cakes to become lukewarm; the same happened with the gravy that tasted good, but was barely warm. This one flaw had a ripple effect that really ruined the meal. I like my food hot, or at least very warm (and it was brought right out from the kitchen, so it isn’t the serving staff’s fault.
Because of the strong recommendations, I may return again, but right now, I just have a bad taste in my mouth. It is possible that my explanation of time constraints caused the kitchen to cut corners, but I had 45 minutes for breakfast, so I don’t think that my time constraint is a good excuse. I was also the first person in the restaurant that morning, but that shouldn’t be an excuse, either. The Harvest Café has potential, but also has enough technical flaws to make me hope they get their act together before I visit again.

Yummy yummy yummy, I got love in my tummy! :)
And I must say, I got a lot of love for Harvest Café!
My whole dining experience was top notch! First impressions were wonderful. My boyfriend and I were warmly greeted by a friendly host as soon as we stepped in. The restaurant had a great energy, filled with families, couples on dates, and friends enjoying the night. Not only did I enjoy the social atmosphere, the interior was delightful and was actually a surprise to me. Compared to the outside, a very old Mayberry type street, the inside was quite modern. I’m no interior designer but I thought it was a nice mix between modern and rustic. Very cool.
Now, for my favorite part of my of the night: THE FOOD!
I had a glass of pino grigio and it came with a tiny decanter! That was such a great idea because it allowed my wine to breathe before my entrée. But that didn’t stop me from pouring a little in my wine glass and sipping it throughout the appetizer. haha.
We had the Calamari, Sausage, and Gnocchi to start. Everything was delicious. I’ve never had gnocchi before but from what I read, it was exactly what it was suppose to taste like– light and flavorful! For my entrée, I had the duck pasta and it was heavenly! Like, cue the choir and shine a beam of light on it, heavenly! Another great surprise were the pickled grapes in the dish! OMG, they were amazing and I wish had one every bite! It just worked so well with the duck and pesto sauce. So, needless to say, I highly recommend this plate!
Overall, I loved it! Five-​Stars all the way. Amazing food without the pretentiousness. What else can you ask for? I cannot wait to try their breakfast and lunch. This is definitely my new favorite place in central Illinois!

Love coming here for breakfast and would like to try dinner soon. The food is good and a lot of it is locally sourced. Their coffee is of nice quality, and service is great.
The building is a nicely-​restored historic building.