Crystal Lake Coffee Shop

Trashes are overflowing. Tables are either full of food from previous people or soaking wet from a poor attempt to clean it with a nasty rag. Food selection is limited and reminds me of what you would get at a gas station. Over all. Pack your own food and bring it. Not worth you time, money or possibility of good poisoning.

Tried bean burger. Loved it.
Exclusive coffee shop are usually horrible and exorbitant, luckily this proved me wrong.

Not bad for eating in between/​before/​after the cave tours. The grilled chicken with fries was good. Service was friendly.

A pleasant little diner near the Caves ticket center. We had the Stenson french toast. Not bad.
The service was a bit slow on order, refill & bills.

Went here before caving because me and my friends had been in a car for 6 hours. The food was okay, and the service was okay. The waitress was very friendly, but a bit of a gossip with her fellow workers.
I spent about $ 15 for a turkey and cheese sandwich, and a piece of pie. The sandwich came on regular sandwich bread, and tasted like the meat had come from a plastic container. So, not really even like deli meat… A bit disappointing, to say the least. The pie was at least good, warm and rich. Perhaps the reason I’d rate this place 3 stars instead of 2, on the basis of their desserts. I’d say that they are definitely over priced for the quality, but good for a quick pre-​trail meal.

How to get a 2 star review from a group of people that has just emerged from a cave tour and eat… well…pretty much anything.
1. Tell them you don’t have any wraps on the menu when the person right next to them is eating a wrap.
2. Wait until you’re bringing out the food YOU opted to substitute to tell the customer you were out of what they ordered. Better yet, don’t tell them. Wait for them to point out that it’s not what they ordered.
3. Never refill their drinks.
I guess everyone has bad days, but wow.

I enjoyed my breakfast at the Crystal Café. I had «The Caveman» which comes with the following in order of enjoyment: butter cream scrambled eggs, biscuits and gravy, potatoes, and ham.
The ham could have used some work, but everything else was great. The scrambled eggs were like velvet and tasted quite buttery and good to a non-​egg person. The biscuits and cup of gravy met my high expectations.
Most importantly the café could not be any more convenient, located steps from the visitor’s center. I would highly recommend coming here before a strenuous day of caving.

Ate here for breakfast with a family of six total. There were 3 choices on the menu — eggs/​bacon/​hash browns and toast for option 1, pancakes/​bacon for option 2 and a cinnamon roll on its own for option 3.
The prices were low, but the lack of options was annoying. Like it or not, that’s what you got. The cinnamon roll was large and looked good, but it was swimming in a bowl of icing. Figured out that it was microwaved when I tried to bite in — hard on the edges and basically inedible. The eggs were good, the hash browns were seasoned with the same stuff they use on curly fries everywhere and kids liked those. The bacon, though, was a Kentucky cured type and my Illinois family didn’t like it. Pancakes were good, but my sons said the maple syrup had some kind of fruit taste and they didn’t like that. I know it sounds petty, but we just didn’t enjoy the limited options.
We ate the one day, then went over to the camp store and bought milk, cereal and donuts to eat in our room for the rest of the week.
Nice staff, but slow and again, the limited options were not a good thing.