Viola Cafe

My wife and I were staying in the area for a wedding and decided to try this place out. Our biggest complaint was the interminable wait. We arrived around 9 am on a Sunday and were seated right away but had to wait about an hour for our food, with no updates other than 30 minutes in when the waitress swung by our table with syrup and condiments and said our food should be coming out shortly (which typically means food will be out within 5 minutes), and then 15 minutes later when she said she was still waiting on the food and that we must have come «during high tide». What puzzles me is that the two folks right in front of us had been served their meal, finished eating, paid, packed their food up and left before we even got ours, almost an hour after we sat down. The food was underwhelming – pancakes were a bit dense rather than light and fluffy, the biscuits and gravy were overly salty, the hash browns tasted like standard Ore Ida frozen – but at least serviceable. At least the waitress apologized for the wait when I paid, but she hadn’t really updated us very much while we waited for an hour, nor did this place comp us a dime for the extended wait. I really was disappointed as the whole thing took at least an hour and a half with little to no attention to us or updates throughout the time that we waited. If you’re in the area and looking to get brunch, try Luisa’s in Harbert, which was fast, courteous and attentive, with really good food as well.

Good Place for a Solid Breakfast, but Bring Your Patience
This café is now the only place in Three Oaks that serves breakfast on the weekends. The prices are good, the staff are pleasant, the food is solid (no surprises!), but the service is slow. My husband and I were there recently on a Sunday and it was busy. We were seated about 10 minutes after we arrived which was fine. The problem was that after we placed our order (eggs, bacon, pancakes — nothing exotic requiring much prep time) it took nearly 40 minutes to get our food. No question that everything is made to order as our food was hot when served to us, but 40 minutes seemed like an eternity. So, if you’re in Three Oaks and looking for a decent breakfast, try this place, but be forewarned that the kitchen is slow.

Cute café that serves breakfast and lunch. I had a tasty grilled cheese and my husband had chili (which he raved about) and we split a salad. Their balsamic vinegarette dressing was one of the best I have had and the waitress said that it’s homemade. This is a cute, low-​key place in Three Oaks.

Try the biscuits and gravy! Yumlicious. All you’ll need is a half order. Friendly staff, great window seating, reasonable prices.

Great place! Awesome coffee and baked goods — esp. their bran muffins. Great service. Owners Mike and Chrissie are good people. Everything on the menu is very good.

Not sure what’s going on with brunch places in Harbor Country, but here’s another «meh» review. I’m really all about supporting local business but I think Viola’s suffers in the summer on Sundays because of the influx of out of town visitors going to basically the only spot in town that serves sunday brunch.
We got there at 1030am, wait was «4 parties» but no time given. We actually waited only 30 mins so we thought, man this place must churn out food FAST. not quite.
We had 2 small children so seated next to their wooden play house which was great for the kids… and glad we had it because it took 45 minutes from ordering to getting food. And we had to ask what was going on with the food… not even a courtesy, «sorry about the food taking so long, want a muffin while you wait?»
After food was received, the biscuits and gravy everyone raves about. not remotely close to good. The gravy probably was passable (it’s thick) but the biscuit tasted stale. An «ideal» biscuit would be crunchy on the outside and super soft in the middle, this was not that at all. I wonder if my biscuits were waiting for the rest of our tables order to be ready so they got soggy, shame shame. And I waited 45 mins for them!
The OJ was not fresh squeeze, which makes me feel that perhaps a lot of their food is easy pre made stuff. The coffee machine behind the counter is the same one that my hospital cafeteria serves coffee from, so not even fresh brewed? Even if thats the case, they did it take my food so long to come out.
Again, if you can’t handle the business, don’t seat the customers. Tell people their wait will be an hour, but stand behind the fact that if I wait that hour, it’s gonna be worth it.

This is my go to place for breakfast every weekend. Biscuits & Gravy are great

Love this place not only do they have the best coffee in the world their eggs Benedict is out of this world! I eat here a couple times a month the service is great the atmosphere is friendly and it’s one of my very favorite places to go!

Great place for breakfast. We went on s Sunday morning and had a bit of a wait — well worth it! Unfortunately they had run out of biscuits and gravy which was what I was looking forward to but went with eggs Benedict and was not disappointed. If we are in the area again this will be our goto breakfast place.

Breakfast is great! Real maple syrup which is a must for me. Amazing biscuits and gravy and the customer service is superb!!! I’ll be back a lot.

Have been there many times. Sunday’s they are only open for breakfast. If you arrive at 11:30 AM ask for lunch… IT WILL NOT HAPPEN.

Great place. Gets busy in the summer with the Chicago crowd so be patient and leave the attitude at home. Be assured they are doing the best they can which 9 out of 10 times provides excellent results. Will bend over backwards to make it right for you. Owners are working right there trying to make your dining right. Love the food.

Stopped in Wednesday for a late lunch — had the special — chicken & biscuits. OH! My Gravy! It was delectable! The biscuits are light and fluffy, covered in thick buttery velvety smooth gravy with nice pieces of tender chicken… and peas, of course! It’s very filling and you get a heaping plate full, they offer a ½ order. The desserts looked scrumptious, but we were stuffed! We want to go back to try more dishes! It’s a cute storefront, very simply decorated, comfy chairs — charming place in a charming small town! Excellent service.

Best omelet on the planet but although we’ve been going there for years my husband and I both said today that we are starting to dislike the place. Whenever they get busy they seem to get very scattered and don’t focus on getting folks seated as quickly as possible and with as much courtesy as they should. Very disappointed in your customer service as of late!

Viola is a nice place, there is a small but good outdoor eating area, the food is good, space is clean and service friendly. It’s worth trying if in the Three Oaks area.

Regular American food. Love to listen to the locals here on weekday mornings. A consistant breakfast place. Nothing fancy.

Not sure what was going on at this place. I stopped by to see if I could get a coffee to go. I stood behind one lady paying her bill, another lady picking up something to go, my turn came and it was like I wasn’t there. The first women who was at the register walked away, a second waitress looked right at me and helped the guy that came in after me and some guy behind the counter felt that opening the front door was more important than even saying hi to me.

If you are looking for a cheap breakfast and are not too particular about your coffee, then this place is for you. We prefer to go down the street to Elm Street Bistro where they serve great coffee and some of the best breakfast potatoes in Berrien County, but come to Viola once in a blue moon. At Viola, the service is good and the food is fine for the price you are paying.

It’s a great and quaint place for lunch and brunch. The brunch menu is great and the lunch sandwiches as perfect!

I can’t think of a single bad thing to say about Viola Café, with its down-​home, stick to your ribs food and the ‘jumped from the Andy Griffith show’ vibe where it seems like everyone is a local-​even out of towners like me. The breakfast special they had was biscuits and gravy and it was under 10 bucks. Additionally there was the enticing option of half and half. Hash browns and a ½ order of biscuits and gravy.
Did I mention that a ½ order means two biscuits? That means if I decided to just get a large order that would either mean 4 biscuits or they just give you an order of hash browns in addition to the larger order at no additional charge.
I could have used a little more sausage flavor-​but nothing an extra order of sausage or bacon can’t cure. They also sell pancake-that’s right if you just want *A* pancake to go along with whatever feast you choose in the morning for under 10 bucks. I love a good, hearty breakfast and I love small town places but I love it more when those two are combined with me dropping a 10 spot including a decent tip.