Little Mesa Cafe

For lunch I ordered a grilled cheese sandwich with swiss cheese and a side salad. The grilled cheese sandwich came out too greasy and the side salad was ice burg lettuce, some cabbage and croutons. No tomatoes, no cucumbers, nothing. I asked for ranch dressing and they DROWNED it. It was ranch soup with lettuce flavoring. I returned it and asked for ranch on the side. There was still too much ranch on the bottom meaning they didn’t even rinse the bowl out. On the plus side the coffee is refilled and they did not charge me for the salad.

I love Little Mesa Café. The food is like home cooking and the staff are like family. They have the best chicken and dumplings and breakfast here is amazing. I highly recommend that you bring your family and friends to dinner or breakfast here. It is hard to find food like this anywhere else!

I tried this place 3x in a year time. 2x for breakfast 1x for lunch. It was horrible each time. I wont ever go here again. Yucko.
Food was nasty. The place is dusty and dirty. There is old décor. They have a plate collection on shelves above the tables and i noticed one of the shelf brackets had broken. Ready to fall any minute. I told the flighty waitress and she said, «Wow, that is bad! I will have to tell the owners». And she continued taking orders.
The place smelled like a dirty restroom. We noticed the smell as soon as we walked in.
Also, many older people go here. So you have to deal with their snorting and clearing there nasal passages while your eating. Older people just dont seem to care where they pass gas or blow their nose. So we had to deal with the gross sights smells and sounds while we tried to eat our nasty food.
Oh, and the old rude german sounding cashier topped it off. She was snippy to the people checking out including me. She didnt even say thank you. And the display case up by the register was full of dusty handmade things that you may see sold at a flea market… in 1970.
I like to give places a fair chance. I gave this place 3 chances. And all were fails.

Everything about this place screams Robert Irvine come help. We walked in and were hit with the dated décor and peeling wallpaper. The waitress forgot our order for coffee and coke (they only had R.C.). The food was mediocre at best I had to send back my eggs because the whites were runny ‚(at least they were real eggs). We won’t be coming back but do give them point for kitsch.

Stopped in for lunch & it will be the last time. The food was very mediocre and unattractive. My husband had a hot roast beef sandwich & it was very bland. My salad was a little better.

This is the place you wanted to find the last time you did a road trip theouh Iowa or Kansas. Just plain good home cooking. A simple décor, friendly waitresses, and a good cup of joe when you need it. Prices are reasonable and the parking is plentiful. By the way they offer some cute gift item; yeah, very reminiscent of the Midwest.

This is an old style café. The food is really good, as well as the prices. The ambience is that of grandma’s! It’s very friendly and cozy.

I came here for breakfast/​brunch and it was delicious! I had biscuits and gravy with a side of home fries and a cup of hot chocolate.
The biscuits and gravy were better than other places I have been to. The biscuits were cooked and not moist or floury. The gravy was also scrumptious not too many spices just good. It had bit of sausage and was great!
The home fries were pieces of sliced potatoes and not greasy at all. They were excellent.
The hot chocolate was also delicious. Sweet and creamy.
Overall it was good! No complaints here!

I’m very sorry to have to give this restaurant only two stars because I’m a long time customer and notice that this restaurant has gone seriously down hill. First off, the décor is so old and the dining room is so dirty and worn that it really makes me wonder what the kitchen looks like. The carpet looks like it hasn’t been cleaned in 20 years. Ends of booths are completely off and the wood exposed and the booths are in disrepair. Nothing’s been dusted in probably the same 20 years.
That said… the food. I used to LOVE the food here, they used to have the BEST chicken and dumplings, home made soups and great fish fry.
The last few times I was there the food was terribly over salted and when I pointed this out several times (on different occasions) to the owner, she shrugged it off and said «oh, they must have used too much base» and she didn’t offer to replace the order or take it off the bill or do anything about it. This has happened several times, with soups and gravies both. I was with several others and none of us could eat some of the food because it was so over salted, particularly the clam chowder (which we used to love) and the turkey gravy and chicken gravy.
The fish fry used to be the best in town but the last two times I was there, the fish was undercooked and made me queasy just to eat it.
I will say that the home made pies are the BEST I’ve had here in Arizona but usually by the time you get there they’re out of almost everything.
The rest of the food is standard diner fare, but just a notch above Denny’s (which isn’t saying much at all).
The side salad is some lettuce in a bowl (usually chipped) and the plastic drink glasses are so old and worn that it’s scary.
All that said… I will say that the servers are very nice, albeit slow sometimes. You have to know what section to sit in to get good service from the only one quick server they have who’s really on the ball.
I’m really sorry to say that I think the owners have stopped caring and putting the love into this restaurant that made it so popular originally. It’s really sad because they’re good people and I’d love to continue to support this small, local Mom & Pop business instead of a chain restaurant, but unless they clean this place up and raise their food quality standards some, I probably won’t be going back.

Love this place brings me back to my childhood in the 80’s. Love the food, customer service and the price.

Came here for lunch the food isn’t bad, service is ok. Last time we went was a better trip, dunno if we will come back again. If your gonna eat here better to have a coupon just to try the place out paying less than you would have by just stopping by.

Went here for lunch because we had a coupon from the entertainment book. They are very accommodating when you have allergies… The navy bean soup was very good, along with the club sandwich which was big and had lots of bacon. They even have hot green tea and honey… due to my allergies I had the pancakes which were better than butters and butterfields in scottsdale… they do not use butter only margarine and they use soybean oil which is terrible for you. They do crack all their own eggs rather than using a mix, but lots of canned foods and not healthy ingredients. they make their own pies and will go back just for the pie… the prices are very good and inexpensive — coffee, tea and drinks are less than $ 2.00 and a full stack of very delicious pancakes are only $ 4.99…the place is outdated stuck in the 1970’s…the waitress is very nice and the owner is a veteran… nice inexpensive place to grab a good bite to eat at a very reasonable price plus on Saturdays from 3 – 8 all entrees are buy one get one free.

The little mesa hasn’t let us down for breakfast. It is a family owned an operated place. The coffee has always been good. Service has always been cheerfull and attentive. If you expect
canned smiles and fake. Take your self important attitude to the trendy places. come here for solid breakfasts from a family that is consistently on target with a welcome and a hot meal. As a tip. always ask for blueberries on your pancakes it is worth the upcharge.

We used to receive several buy one get one free coupons with purchase of two beverages, but now they are just buy 1 get 1 half with two beverages. Their breakfast is tasty, but without the coupon a little pricey. We used our coupon for dinner once, but it was still way too expensive, and the food was just mediocre. The service was ok, but very dusty, and outdated décor. Has lots of potential though. Not sure if we will be back.

I ordered a BLT on rye. When it arrived it even looked unappetizing. I sent it back and the replacement was not much better. This time the bacon was only overlooked and dry, instead of actually burned. The bread wasn’t replaced, and was dried out. The 2 slim slices of tomato were, well, ugly.
I understand their ad for new cooks and wish them well. The services was also ho-​hum.

This place is a diner, and if you’re expecting anything else you’ll be disappointed. But for a diner the food is fantastic! I had the eggs and bacon with an english muffin. I ordered my eggs over very easy and they came out perfect. The bacon was thick cut deliciousness. My dad’s girlfriend had the french toast and it looked amazing. My dad had pancakes and let me try a bite — fluffy wonderfulness, in my opinion. The orange juice is from concentrate, but again… it’s a diner. Please expect a diner and review as such. Oh yeah… the price is right too. About $ 25 for breakfast for three!

Have been to this restaurant many times before, so when a freind recommended meeting here for breakfast today. .. I said great. Not really sure what has happened. .. but this place has really gone down hill.
Service was a little slow. .. definitely could use more than three servers with a almost full restaurant.
Food took a little longer than I remembered. .. and when it arrived. .. it was missing a pancake. .. which my server told me would be coming, since they only made two and not three. This was probably the only really good thing about the meal. .. becasue by the time the missing pancake arrive. .. I had finished the other, and it was nice to have a hot one.
Definitely not my first choice. .. but would return. .. if not in a hurry. ..

Breakfast isn’t overly prestigious but tastey and its a bargin. The pancakes are delicious and pretty much everything I ordered was amazing.. The servers are wonderful and warm, it looks like the place is full of lifetime patrons, which makes sitting down for a meal that much more comfortable. Having dined for both breakfast and dinner i would say hands down breakfast is the attention grabber.. Try breakfast first if your in the area…

We had a buy one get one free coupon, so we decided to try this place out. Sorry to say, it wasn’t even worth that. As a over the road truck driver, I have eaten at many places around the country where the food was marginal at best, and most of those places are better than Little Mesa Café. The food was pretty much tasteless, as was the décor, and the service was slow and unattentive. It’s obvious that this place caters to the older crowd… Those who have lost their taste buds and don’t have anything better to do than digest their food. A better bet for this style of food would be the Hoosier Café or the Iowa Café, both of which have food that you can taste and more reasonable prices.

i think this is one of those neighborhood haunts that is only appealing if you actually live in the neighborhood. i know. i have one of these places right around the corner from my house.
the décor was nice enough, if not a little dated. and the staff was okay, if not a little inexperienced. but the food quality wasn’t good for the price. the kids meals are a horrible value, unless you like paying $ 4.39 for a handful of fries and five banquet brand chicken nuggets.
it’s the kind of place that should serve breakfast all day but doesn’t. they wouldn’t allow up to use the entertainment book coupon on a holiday, which made the meal insanely overpriced. i dined with three other adults, and we all agreed that we would never go there again.