Gail’s Carriage Inn

Always looking for a new breakfast spot in the area, but was hoping for better food here. Its a very old crowd, which isn’t a bad thing. The food was just utter bland. I got a steak omelet I believe it was. All the ingredients sounded good, but zero salt and seasoning. The steak tasted blah with no seasoning, and same for the peppers, onions, potatoes, etc… Maybe with the older crowd they watch salt and under season everything, who knows.

Went here for Brunch on a weekday. Place was full and service was okay. Food was average nothing special.

Love Love LOVE GAILS! we have been going for nearly a year and we have not found a place in the area that does better! Wondrous wait staff, always friendly and helpful. The food is amazing! We always enjoy the specials, since they are always changing! Gail treats you like family! Can’t wait for Sunday morning breakfast!

Great local place (I think) and much better than many of the chains in the area. My girlfriend and I came here for brunch one morning, mainly because they offer a Groupon for around 40% off. Unfortunately, you have to make a reservation more than 24 hours in advance in order to use the Groupon. Not sure if this is a Chicago thing or something specific to this restaurant, because I have never before seen a policy like this in my three years of using Groupon.
Even without a discount, I would definitely recommend trying this place. The prices are average, but the food is not. My girlfriend and I both had omelettes, which were delicious. I also had the giant apple pie – I mean pancake.
Despite being spurned by Groupon, we left with high spirits and a heavy to-​go box.

Definitely a hidden gem. The coffee was hot and strong. .our waitress was very friendly and attentive. Great service and really good food. I got the Meet me in the Middle spuds omelette. Basically an omelet with sausage and bacon with lots of not so healthy for you, but yummy gooey cheddar cheese and it is encased in hash browns. The rye bread was marble rye, which was a nice surprise. I can see why their claim to fame is the spud omelette. Perfection for a pretty good price.

Best breakfast in town. This place use to reside on NW Hwy in Mt Prospect, they have since moved to Des Plaines on Algonquin and Elmhurst Rd. Great Apple Pancakes! OMG to die for! They are huge and can easily serve 3 – 4 people. I have been to other breakfast places and they give you half the portion, and charge more!
Quality at Gails is AAA, I’ve never had a bad meal here.
I also recommend the Skillets.

This is a pretty good breakfast and lunch place. My office is nearby and we come a few times a month. Ive had everything from eggs, soups, salads and sandwiches. All have been pretty good. The waitress service is spotty and inattentive though. Give it a try

The food here is great. One of my favorite breakfast spots. The service could be better, however. It’s always packed at breakfast, so it’s understandable. There is almost always a wait and service is slow. Just don’t come here if you’re expecting to get in and out in a hurry. Enjoy one if their spuds omelettes. Delish!

Great service great food. My husband had the The omelette wrapped in hashbrowns and it was amazing! I also had the weekend special which i can only describe as a deep dish pancake with georgia peaches… devine! Our waitress was engaging and very attentive. Had a really wonderful brunch with my family. Would definitely come back!

Fast, great service, good coffee. I had the double trouble (2 eggs, sausages, bacon and a blintzer). The blitzer was fantastic. Just passing through but happy I decided to stop.

While we do go unexpectedly on Fathers Day we waited over twice them time they told us. The food was pretty good. My niece had the crepes and loved them. The coffee was only okay. My biggest disappointment was the apple pancake. Too much dough and not enough apples and cinnamon sugar. There couldn’t have been more than one half of an apple worth of fruit in it. And for $ 14 I expect to be wowed. We won’t be going back. It was much better at the Mt. Prospect location.

A nice old school breakfast place, and with a very reasonably priced as well as extensive menu. The servings are generous. Their unique specialty is the spuds omelette (omelette encased in hash browns), and you can’t come here and not have one. We tried the Gentleman’s spud (skirt steak), and a Cajun spud — both were nice and filling breakfast items that also come with pancakes. Additionally, we had a Dutch baby that was also quite satisfactory. We hear it can be quite busy here on the weekends and we can see why. Coffee was good quality. Give em a try if in the area.

I have visited Gail’s for years. For a while it was my go to breakfast place. The food used to be great and portion sizes were huge. Lately not so much. Service has been very good, but not enough to keep me coming. Last time I called in for pick up. I ordered the hash omelet, crepes, and French toast. Everything was just underwhelming. The omelet was greasy, diced onions were huge. Just overall laziness and no pride in the food put out. Maybe it’s nit picking, but when you cut into your omelet and you find an onion the size of a golf ball it just screams lazy. I suggested this place and was embarrassed I did. My friends crepes were bland and the French toast had an odd taste of onions and garlic. I used to love you gails. I really did. It may come across as harsh, but in my honest opinion you could do way better and you have in the past.

If you like family restaurants that remind you of home cooking from Grandmas, this is your place. Portion size and menu selection is large. Friendly staff and your cup of coffee never goes empty. The bonus is the gift shop that includes beautiful handmade table runners for every holiday occasion, etc.

On one hand, the service was very friendly. Although, the waitress did seem to have an issue filling coffee cups. They weren’t very busy, so that was a plus.
It’s okay food, but a definite greasy spoon. I thought the pancakes were bisquick at best. My eggs were undercooked, and I suppose I could have asked for them to be cooked longer but I didn’t.
It’s not a terrible place to have breakfast, but I’m certainly confused as to why it’s rated so highly. It’s only fine. If there’s ever a next time, maybe I’ll try one of their signature dishes.

My wife is trying to do this low-​carb diet business, so on a rare cheat day when I was able to convince her to join me in going out to breakfast (arm twisting wasn’t exactly necessary), I knew it had to be good.
Enter the Spud at Gail’s Carriage House Inn.
I saw Anthony M’s photo of this potato-​wrapped delicacy and knew it had to get in my stomach. So despite another bombardment of Chicago snow (which seems to happen every other day lately), we trekked out early on Sunday morning to eat potatoes and more potatoes.
Long story short, it was just okay. None of the ingredients were really all that special. It was good, just nothing to write home about, or leave home and travel 30 miles north through crappy Chicago winter conditions for. The omelet was just as good as any pancake house/​diner, the hash browns, while crisp, were average, and the diced onions were huge (size of a quarter, doggone!) and I ended up picking out about a handful because it was just too much.
Our server dropped our food and disappeared, never to be seen or heard from again until bringing the check. I hate that. No refills til I asked for them, and never asked how everything was. Disappointing.
So would I go back? Yeah. The food was decent, but I wouldn’t drive almost an hour to get there again.

Looks like grandma’s, tastes like grandma’s, the food is in grandma’s budget, the waitresses are quick and treat grandma with respect and it doesn’t smell like grandpa at all (I know better than to tease grandma!). Gail’s Carriage Inn is a Traditional American no-​frills breakfast/​lunch spot and it’s always been pretty good. Recommended more for pancakes but their patty melts are decent too. Good quick spot if you happen to be in this area, so long as you come expecting ambiance befitting grandma and her friends. p. s. Playing Bridge is optional.

STUFF IT
I’ve got three words for you «Spuds Encased Hash-​brown»! What? I’ve never heard of those but apparently Gail has been making these for 20+ years. Just when I think I’ve had every breakfast combination, something amazing like this comes around.
So let me explain. They make omelets here which seems normal until you get it encased in a perfectly cooked crispy hash-​brown. My delicious omelet is being hugged by a potato blanket. I loved it.
This was the first meal I had for 2014 and I was glad I did. We were staying in a nearby hotel where the free breakfast was well free. We didn’t want to start our year out like that. So we checked Unilocal and called around and were lucky enough to find that Gail’s was open. How great was that! Open New Years morning in the middle of a snow storm with unplowed streets. If that isn’t a sign of perfection, then I don’t know what is.
I called in our order and I was told to give them 30 minutes. When I walked in at 30 minutes our order was sitting on the front counter ready to go. I paid and was on my way. The inside looked nice and cozy. There were a few people eating inside but it was not crowded at all. Hey it was New Years morning, so I’m sure many people were still hanging at home.
These amazing omelets are called Spuds. I ordered the original spud which was bacon, onion & cheese. You can not go wrong with an original. It was really good plus I was having bacon in 2014. Happy New Year to me. I would definitely order this again. I am not usually in this area but it is worth a trip. My wife had the veggie version of the Spud. She really liked it also. The spuds came with a choice of side either toast or pancakes. We went pancakes but were so stuffed we could not even eat them. I know I was stuffed like an encased hash-​brown.
So if you are in the area looking for something that is out of the norm for breakfast, then get in here and try one of Gail’s Spud creations. You will be happy you did. I can’t wait for my next one.

Busy breakfast place but it’s worth the wait, if you can handle the slow service. I get that you’re busy and I really feel for you, but on a Sunday morning it takes a lot to get my hungover ass out of bed. The longer it takes to get my waiter, coffee, sprite, juice, anything… the more my body dies a little. Help a sister out, geez.
On to the food.
Biscuits and gravy — ³⁄₅ — Dry biscuits but the gravy is thick, yummy, with chunks of sausage. Needed more gravy since the biscuits were so dry. Definitely didn’t taste fresh.
Eggs Benedict — ⁵⁄₅ — English muffins, topped with poached eggs, bacon, mushrooms, and hollandaise sauce. Cooked to perfection.
Hash browns — ⁴⁄₅ — I asked for them to be extra crispy and they weren’t. Still tasty.
Omelette — ⁵⁄₅ — Bacon and spinach omelette, bf loved it.
Crispy breakfast potatoes — ³⁄₅ — Not crispy whatsoever.
This place would be a 5 of they stepped up their potato game and if the service was any more efficient.

A group of 3 of us. Two of us got «Spuds» meals, one got a breakfast burrito, but the waitress was perplexed when he asked to have melted cheese over the top of it and said it could not be done! (What?)
My spuds order was a garden spuds. It was ok– nothing spectacular. I was concerned mine may be soggy (with mushrooms, spinach and cheese) happy that was not the case. The menu here is extensive and many of the dishes I saw passing by me looked good. My friend’s order was Cajun spuds and she thought it was «good».
I’d like to stop in again, but I see serious issues with service here. We visited on a Saturday morning. Not particularly busy and I noticed 4 waitresses and one bus boy. It appears that waitresses do not (or take offense to) filling up coffee mugs. I saw the bus boy go by once during our stay but most often was busy cleaning so not running around with the coffee pot! I’d like to say it was just our waitress, but no– because the couple across from us was waiting so long that he took to holding his empty cup in his hand and holding above his head to get service. His waitress was different than ours so appears to be a thing here — yet none of them were particularly busy. I saw 3 tables that had to ASK for coffee refills. On a weekend breakfast time, that is just not acceptable. My other dining partner had tea and that too was not refilled until end of meal upon asking.
My companions (whose drinks it took forever to fill– I had water, but I didn’t see them refilling water either!) did not want to leave a tip but I mentioned leaving a small tip had more impact than leaving none. As when questions were asked of our waitress we found her rather snarky (could be Kathy Bates’ sister). Big minus here for the waitress y dropping off our check before asking if we wanted anything else.
If I venture back for one more meal, I’ll try one of their many skillets. Basically we all agreed it would be a definite return if not for such poor service.
The prices seem reasonable for the quantity of food.