Classic Café and Catering

This is a wonderful place to have an excellent meail ! The service is great, and the food is so delicious !!!

Friendly staff, very nice rustic dining room with no TVs, loved the ceiling.
The Classic came very highly recommended.
Not much fresh here. The salad greens came out of a bag with no opportunity for any variance: I prefer no Iceberg lettuce. Nope. Can’t do that. Got corn that had come from a can. Overcooked chicken fried steak. Fries were nothing special.
Oh well. Learning experience

Ate here for the first time while visiting relatives in Glenwood. It will not be the last time! I had the sirloin. Requested medium and it was absolutely perfectly cooked. The seasoning was spot on. My husband had the salmon special and also loved it. Both of us had the mashed potatoes, which were slightly garlicky and absolutely creamy. I had gravy on mine which was good, but not really necessary as they were great without. Other diners in our party had the prime rib and thought it was great as well. Definitely worth the stop!

Wonderful place to eat. We had a 60^th birthday party Saturday night and they could not have been better. Food is amazingly good. Very friendly staff. Place was busy but they had the staff to keep everybody happy. Nice clean bathrooms with comfy changing tables for the little ones. We will be back with a group again for sure!

Good food after a wrestling tourney. Smaller portion of waffle fries just right. No need to waste! Good pork tenderloin, fun atmosphere. Took a pumpkin bar home for later, best powder sugar frosting I have had in years and very moist and tasty bar! Took a ride around town after. Would definitely return!

One of our absolute favorite places to go. The food is always top notch! I would recommend calling ahead for a reservation in the evening… they can be quite busy, but that’s a good thing, right. You know a lot of people want to eat there!
Want an appetizer? Try the ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ AMAZING!

Still five stars after what’s been 3+ years since my last visit.
Sad I waited that long.
Came in after a bike ride down the Wabash Trace. We were starving!
Checked in with Unilocal and saw that we had a free appetizer of chips and salsa coming our way — ordered it up and devoured it. Chips were thin, crispy and salty — like they had just been fried up. Salsa was heavy on the tomato side and could have used a bit more kick, but it was fresh made and tasty.
Waitress was RIDICULOUSLY/​INCREDIBLY nice — and GENUINE. I felt like I was a guest in a very, very polite person’s home. Such a great feeling.
I got the bacon cheeseburger.
Holy cow, you guys. Wow. Wow. Wow.
Cooked perfectly — salty and peppery and CRISPY SEARED. Mmmmmmm.
And the house-​cut, house-​made french fries? You guys. They cut the potato fresh and drop it in the fryer, skin on. NOBODY AROUND HERE DOES THIS.
Especially a little diner in Malvern, IA. They are ALWAYS FROZEN PACKAGED CRINKLE CUT FRIES (which can be good, don’t get me wrong).
You could see the oil glistening on the fries when they came out. Ermagherd!
Drive here from all over. This place is excellent.
Home cooking. Great portions. Fresh ingredients. INCREDIBLE HOSPITALITY.
Go!

The capacity for appreciating a truly stellar dining experience is something I hope none of us ever lose. Tonight I was fortunate enough to have such an experience. Anne wanted to take me out to celebrate our birthdays, hers the 20^th, mine today. I had heard good things about the Classic Café in Malvern, IA so I checked my favorite source for reviews ( Unilocal, of course) and was surprised that it had 6 reviews averaging 5 stars! 5 of the 6 were posted by fellow Elite Squad members. Hmmm I’m thinking, how did I miss this restaurant, 20 miles from my humble abode? Well, friends, this place deserves 6 stars. New York Strip perfectly cooked, perfectly seasoned. Hash Browns, homemade, slightly crunchy exterior and buttery goodness in the middle. Salad, fresh, obviously home grown tomato and cucumber. Friendly, prompt service, and an atmosphere that made me think I was in the Sangre de Christo mountains of New Mexico, not the cornfields of Iowa. What more could a birthday boy ask for? NOTHING! Run, don’t walk, this place is simply off the chart.

Hometown goodness. Highly recommend. I have been here numerous times now and have yet to have a bad meal. The service is customer oriented, and since it is a small town, everyone knows everyone. Expect to see lots of people crossing the restaurant to go to another table to catch up on the latest gossip.
The food is amazing, consistently. They have top notch appetizers and everything has that «made from scratch» taste about it.
If I had to find something to complain about, and I would have to look hard, is that it can get busy duing the lunch hour increasing wait times. But… what does that tell you that a small down café is packed? Only good things.

A client of mine lives here and knows I am a foodie. He had been pounding on me to come here. So after a Wabash Trace bike ride I cleaned up and stopped in.
Wednesday is Mexican night… and I love concept nights like that. You gotta roll with it so I had chicken enchiladas. The only criticism I would have is that they could have been warmed a little more. But that is where the criticism ends.
The rice was so tasty I almost ate it all… there was a lot. The corn was a nice touch, and you mix it with rice for some snap. The black refried beans were about as homemade as I could imagine. The marinate tomatoes as garnish were snappy with vinegar and out of sight delicious. The enchiladas had a wonderful rich and creamy cheese sauce on them. You could bathe in it. Really.
I also had fried pickles, which were okay. But the enchiladas plate was the star.
Decent beers on tap and excellent service round out a nice meal in Malvern… God’s country… Iowa USA. :)

This place was fabulous. The filet literally melts in your mouth. We went last weekend and are planning on going with different friends this coming weekend. Don’t miss this one.

Malvern is my hometown so it’s nice to have such a wonderful place to go for a meal every time I come back. This place is one of the best restaurants anywhere in the area, including the Omaha metro. The service is always excellent, the food is consistently great, and the menu changes enough to keep things interesting. They also have a good bar with a great selection of beer for a small town. Just go.

When I visit my parents in Iowa I’m always searching for new cafes or restaurants to try.
One rainy day in December my husband and I decided to take my mom for a bit of a drive to Malvern, IA to try a place we found on Facebook called Classic Café. I had ridden my bike through Malvern a couple of months earlier, since I was on the Trace, and remembered that Malvern’s downtown was really cute and there were a couple of cool restaurants I hadn’t tried.
So we made the 30-​mile trip in the fog and we were not disappointed!
First of all, the atmosphere is is so rustic-​cozy-​cool. We were there right after Christmas, so there was a Christmas tree in the window, and the little seating area up front was adorable and the booths inside this spacious restaurant were so cozy.
And right off the bat the owner was warm and welcoming. She even told us we were a nice-​smelling party/​group!
My mother and I ordered a Chicken Fried Steak to split for lunch, which I would normally never order. But it was absolutely delicious. PLUS, the owner/​cook split it and served it on two plates free of charge. The portions were extremely generous. Oh, and the mashed potatoes were out of this world delicious, and you can trust me on this because I am a huge fan of mashed potatoes.
The prices are extremely reasonable considering the portions are generous. The service is great, and I love that it’s a family-​owned and operated joint in small town Iowa. I will always bring my money to these places instead of large chain restaurants where a smaller portion of the money goes back to the town/​state.
I plan on returning to Classic Café when we’re in town next! I wish this business the best of luck!

Had a GREAT dinner here last night. The place looks great and the food was wonderful. We both had the special — applewood smoked prime rib with a baked potato, veggies and a roll. Wow — I have had smoked prime rib before but this was definitely a cut above. You could really taste the smoke and the sauce/​gravy on the top was perfect. And to top it all off — ice cold beer for a buck!
I would suggest everyone make the short drive to Malvern and give this place a shot!