The Sycamore Cafe

We’ve never had a bad meal here. Always fresh and delicious. We come here about twice a month.

Showed up at open. Service friendly but slow. Coffee was weak. Eggs in omelet were dry and rubbery. Hash browns were burnt. In one word. Yuck!

If you want ok food this is the place to go, if you want good service this is not the place to go

We love coming here for breakfast. It has a traditional diner atmosphere. The wait staff is always friendly and on the game. Very clean and a good amount of parking. The lunch food I feel is mediocre, but for breakfast it is worth stopping in.

A good traditional diner. They’ve got pretty good food and they’re almost always busy, which is nice for a family diner. They have notably great coleslaw. In my opinion, though, there are better diners in the area that offer similar food and service. Definitely not my first choice but it’s close to home and the food isn’t bad at all.

Not only was my food barely cooked and mostly served to me at room temperature, the wait staff was more interested in talking to each other than bringing us our food and drinks. No refills on my drink despite being empty for over 20 minutes, and never checked on us after dropping off the food. Place looks nice from the outside, but I’d recommend not stepping in. My food was cold and tasted pretty bad. The person I was with had properly cooked food, but complained that the food was pretty mediocre — and not remotely worth the price.

This place is a little nicer than your typical greasy spoon. The service was good, and fast. I had the biscuits and gravy. The gravy was good it had a nice pepper bite, but there was not a lot of it. The biscuits were passable, I’m guessing frozen. Based just on that I would give the place three stars. However I asked for my eggs over easy, runny eggs are a must with B&G. The yolks on mine were cooked hard all the way through. This is a breakfast place, they should be able to cook eggs. Might try it again, but there are more dependable options.

Food here is very pedestrian and nothing to get excited about. Staff can be very friendly at times and somewhat disconnected at others so it is hit or miss.
The restaurant is always kept very clean and food prepared properly, however there is really nothing that jumps out that we could either recommend someone to either try or avoid.

The waitress was friendly, but forgetful. The food arrived hot, but mostly because it was WAY over cooked. The omelets were VERY dry. The hash browns were blackened outside mushy in the middle. I kept moving my coffee cup to the edge of the table to get at least one refill to no avail. Paid extra for mushrooms in omelette to get rubbery canned ones. Never will we go back. (Not first visit, nearly as bad nearly a year ago)

The food is good, but our waitress Allie made our dinner memorable. She is engaging and warm and funny and attentive and happy. (And the lemon meringue pie is worth the trip also).

For the risk-​aversive, Sycamore Café is a safe bet. Straight forward greasy spoon food, reasonable prices, but they do not go above and beyond with either the food or overall appearance. The waitstaff and management is friendly, and make you feel like a regular. Go for the hospitality, not the food.
Overall, a restaurant worth going to if you are hungry and right near by.

Their daily soup, which is included with deluxe sandwiches and dinner, changes daily and is great… nice homemade taste and ingredients.
The hostess and servers are all very attentive and friendly. I really like this restaurant. The food is reliable and might be your typical Greek restaurant food, but there is a reason, they know how to do food right! The tuna melt, patty melt, pork tenderloin are my favorites. Other family members’ favorites are breakfasts including pancakes, which you can get any time of day and the pasta dishes. The salads are fresh and tasty too.
The one thin I don’t like is that they changed their rolls and serve them in plastic bags which I’m not a fan of, but I bet it cuts down on the waste. I would much prefer them coming to the table with a house basket where I could be served a roll and then they could take the basket away. Get rid of the rolls in bags and just serve a basket of crackers and breadsticks… it’s tacky.

We had to make a run to Farm & Fleet. The area is peppered with the standard chains, which held no thrill at all. We spotted Sycamore Café across the street and decided to give it a try.
All in all, it wasn’t bad. Christopher had a patty melt with fries. He really enjoyed the fries. They are the kind that are crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.
I had the Swiss Steak with mashed taters. It was your basic diner fare, edible but not memorable, although the soup was quite good. Yes, I have had better food, but I’ve also had a lot worse. This place hit the spot when the thought of another chain restaurant made my skin crawl.
We’ll probably stop in again because we need to periodically hit the Farm and Fleet, so there you have it.

We travel to Sycamore a few times a year and look for different places to eat. Sycamore Café was a good find. The service was great as the server was very attentive. I was skeptical due to the average views, but I would suggest at least trying this place out. I went with my family of five and everyone enjoyed their meals. The price was what you would expect for a diner/​café.

Had lunch here with my ex-​wife and her mother (save your jokes, please). I had a burger (as always), I cant remember what my wife had, and her mum had a salad. Total came out to about $ 20. The food was pretty good, the staff attentive, and the atmosphere was reminiscent of Baker Hill in Elgin (on Rte 25 south of I-​90).
Update March 2013: went back with a friend for breakfast recently. Had 2 eggs (scrambled), sausage links, hash browns (why is it that everyone everywhere undercooks the hashies? They’re called hash BROWNs for a reason), toast, and a raspberry tea. Not bad for $ 8. My buddy had a steak breakfast with the same options (toast or pancakes? sausage patties or links?) as I had, I think it was $ 12. It was a little crowded since it was just about noon, but that’s expected for a brunch/​lunch crowd.

We chose the Sycamore café for breakfast/​lunch after a night of bar-​hopping. We should have been warned when the parking lot was practically empty, but alas we decided to eat here. Nothing was all that terrible, but nothing was really good either. And it was relatively expensive. Over $ 50 for 4 people to have breakfast?
We all had the cream of chicken rice soup, which was lacking in chicken flavor. I had the club sandwich, which was ok except for the dry turkey breast. French toast was blah, and a chef salad was so overloaded with meat that it barely had any lettuce. The hot ham sandwich had a weird tasting gravy.
Service was attentive, but I don’t think we will be back for the food.