Java Joe’s Cafe

Great Food! Great Service! My Wife and Myself ate breakfast here Twice and Pizza one night when we visited the U.P. the first week of July! Java Joe himself refilled our coffee. My wife and I found out that Java Joe is a native of Niles Michigan just like Us! And I Went to Junior High, High School and graduated with his nephew!
It is small but the Great Food and Service makes up for it being small!

I usually cut a restaurant a lot of slack when I see they’re really busy. Not their fault I picked a busy time to visit. However…
Joe’s only seemed to have one waitress working the whole place. There was a crowd, and I’m sure she did her best. However, this is a coffee shop, right? We started to order «fancy» coffees, lattes, only to be told the machine was broken, and all they had was plain coffee. We ordered that, along with a yogurt parfait and a plate of blueberry crepes. It took forever to get the food, and our coffees were nearly gone when it arrived, yet we were never offered refills. I noted the apparent regulars that carried on long conversations with the waitress did get the refills, and her attention. Guess you need to know someone. When we sat without coffee and never got a bill, we finally just went to the counter, noted our lack of bill, paid and left. Our food and coffee was good, but the service will prevent our return.
P S– not enough parking either!

What a quaint and cozy dining experience! My husband and I stopped here while we were staying in St. Ignace. We both ordered the skillet frittatas (which was delicious), and the coffee was great. The owner is a nice guy. Took out the time to sit and chat with us for a bit, and make sure everything was to our liking. We will be back

Java Joe is St. Ignace’s hidden treasure. With a real life Java Joe, himself, the little restaurant comes to life in the middle of this middle America little town.
We are here for a wedding, on Mackinac Island, but I hope to return to Java Joe’s sometime before we leave. If not, we’ll be back!
Great coffee, food, and awesome customer service!

The best hidden gem in St. Ignace!!!food was great, owner Joe is there to welcome you, give you suggestions on what to do!!! Awesome place!!!

If the service wasn’t snail’s pace, I’d give it 5 stars for being adorable. Waited 45 minutes for pancakes and eggs. Coffee is really good but I was never offered a refill. Old lady is kind of rude, yelled to the rest to the while restaurant that if you don’t want to wait don’t eat here. Wait time for food is 45 minutes standard. Wait staff is super nice though.
Lots of cute decorations.

The service is very slow. Waiting for more than Half an hour and nothing showing up yet…
French toast is fine
Pancake is good, the kids loved it
But main concern with the restaurant facility. The table are not stable
Forks and knives are old and need to be replaced
Service is bad

We discovered Java Joe’s a couple of years ago thanks to Unilocal.We come up to St. Ignace about 3 – 4 times a year and eat here at least a couple of times each summer, so yeah, we like it.
I can agree with many things others have said in their reviews: eclectic, fun décor; Joe is a nice, amiable guy; food is pretty good (not that we’ve been able try too much off of the 4-​page menu!), service can be slow from the young waitresses.
I’ll have to say my omelet I had this last time was more ‘ok’ than great and the coffee didn’t have much flavor. A bit disappointing, so I’m hoping it was just an off day.
Next time I’m definitely going to try one of the sweeter breakfast items like pancakes, crepes or French toast.

Eclectic! This place is covered in pictures from patrons and coffee cups from all over the world! I ordered the veggie breakfast sandwich, it was good. The latte was even better! Joe was back there making the coffee and making customers laugh. An absolute must stop if you’re in the area.

The food was great (buckwheat pancakes), and the service was nice even though they were packed. We went at lunch time on a weekend, but it was totally worth it.
A slice of local culture away from the city hustle bustle

Java Joe’s is worth a visit for the atmosphere, which is Key West meets U.P. And the food is definitely in 4 star territory — my bagel with cream cheese, avocado, onion, and tomato was yummy, as was hubby’s 2 egg, sausage, and cheese (huge) breakfast sandwich. The coffee was good, too.
The service is sloooooow, provided indifferently by teenage girls who are by all appearances working their first waitressing jobs. Kudos to Java Joe for hiring these kids, but then a little more training is needed.
Anyway, the good food and coffee offset the poor service, so if you’re in St. Ignace, this is a good place to eat breakfast.

This little shack was right next to our hotel. I’ll admit, I had my doubts. It’s not too appealing from the outside and the parking lot is small.
However, walking in, I was already sold. The place is covered in neon colors, a ton of random teapots, cookie jars, and other figurines, and pictures — pictures everywhere — of people eating whatever huge dessert seemed to be their «challenge.» It’s cute and cozy and you can tell whoever runs it really, really loves this place.
We went for breakfast and because I’m boring, I went with your classic breakfast — scrambled eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, and toast. I wish I would have picked something out of the ordinary, but I have a toddler, so I’ll blame all quickly made decisions on him. Anyways, the breakfast was cooked perfectly and well, it’s hard to mess up the basics. The bread here, however, is amazing. I don’t know if they make it or what, but really, probably the best piece of toast I’ve ever had. The service was great and if we come back to St. Ignace, we’ll be back!

Amazing best pancakes ever! We had the coconut chocolate chips, just try it! Also the lobster omlette was very tastful! I wasn’t a big fan of the melted mozzarella.
The owner will just walk around and chi chat with customers.

Driving past you would never think to stop, but you would be foolish not to stop. The food and server were outstanding. With an abundant selection of meals on the menu there is something for everyone to enjoy. Breakfast was outstanding!