Whistle Stop Cafe

If your pressed for time, go somewhere else. Service is very slow even on a good day. Food is just ok

I was optimistic because we had to wait for a table — that’s usually a good sign that a place is popular but I soon understood that it was because the service was so slow they weren’t turning over any tables.
Eggs Benedict is not on the menu but they had a lobster eggs benedict so I asked for that without the lobster. They had to confer to see if it were possible to hold the lobster. Regardless, they tried to charge me 15 bucks for eggs on a muffin.
It took *forever* for the food to arrive. My eggs were underdone — the whites were transparent and runny. They forgot the sausage I ordered. So, I sent it back. Nobody has enough time to wait for 2 orders so I opted for nothing.
The people were generally friendly except the manager who tried to tell me that they would have taken off «a couple of bucks» because I didn’t have the lobster. I’m not sure when that would have happened since I had the bill in hand. She did nothing useful except to deepen my anger.
I will never go back. There’s a Denny’s nearby so I suggest you go somewhere reliably predictable.

I come here for the jalapeño bacon! It’s absolutely delicious and I’ve been unable to find it elsewhere. We also enjoy the grilled English muffins… a little twist on a classic breakfast item. I’m only rating 3 stars because the service can be a bit iffy. I’ve been here on multiple occasions during busy hours and sometimes I am greeted at my table within seconds of being sat and other times it’s taken more than 10 minutes. I know every situation is different, but a little more consistency in their service expectations would be nice.

2.5 stars is my optimal rating.
Food was okay.
Atmosphere feels like dated café. I like the building and location itself though: old train station feel.
The statues are impressive outside. Steelwork.

I started going to Whistle Stop in their previous smaller location. Great family run business. However I think they’ve had some difficulty scaling up to the new and much larger location. Most people that work there are very pleasant, and the food remains good, if not remarkable. But the service has gone severely downhill. I think it’s due in large part to the kitchen staff. It takes way too long to get your meal. It makes for an unpleasant experience, and every time I go here I swear to myself it will be the last. I try to support them but it always turns out to be a mistake going there.

Dined here with a group of 14 (give or take) people last Sunday. Our waitress was friendly and did the best she could on her own. There really should’ve been two servers attending to such a large party, but seemed like they were understaffed (or just wasn’t expecting such a large party to show up). Nevertheless, food was decent, and prices also decent. We had a little mixup with our bill. There’s a pick 4 for $ 8.99 in the breakfast section of the menu, somehow they ended up charging us for each individual item, which of course would cost more. When we brought it to their attention, they did not hesitate to adjust it.

This place is truly awful. The hash browns are greasy with no flavor, the eggs are bland, and everything was a truly greasy lousy slimy mess. I’m highly disappointed as this brings bad quality to a whole new level, yuck.

I tried to like this place but there’s some basics missing. Trying to find your way in from the parking lot is one. We almost thought the place was closed after the 1^st door we tried was locked. Luckily there was one or 2 customers inside.
Service is very slow. There were few people in the place, which is very dimly lit. Food was hot. The cups were stained and chipped. The coffee wasn’t very good. There was a nasty smell of burnt coffee that lingered in the air.
My omelette lacked flavor.
The good news is, I found a great place to have dinner and a few beers across the street.

This was the worst service I have ever had at a restaurant. We waited for 45 mins to get our omelettes which eggs hardly take any time to cook. Food was subpar. Would never ever go back.

Not sure where to begin but I don’t plan on returning. This was my first time here and I was looking forward to a good breakfast, and that was not the case. I should have known that this experience wasn’t going to be the greatest when I noticed people who were seated way before us, still waiting for food and the waitresses constantly saying «sorry it shouldn’t be much longer.» The breakfast menu does offer a variety of items that sound delicious but that’s not the case. I ordered cinnamon french toast, grits and kielbasa hash. I was so hungry that I waited patiently even though it took at least 35 to 40 minutes until we were served. The French toast was so bland, I didn’t taste any cinnamon. The kielbasa hash was disappointing as well. The kielbasa was good but some of the hash was undercooked and raw. The only good thing was the grits which you really can’t mess up and our waitress Kathryn, who apologized for the long wait and for our patience. Not the greatest first experience.

Went in on a Sunday morning. The place looked fairly busy, but we were seated right away and our drink orders of coffee were taken right away and arrived in no time. Our meal orders were then promptly taken and we didn’t have to wait long at all for our food. I ordered the build your own breakfast with 4 items and pleasantly received way more food than I was expecting. You definitely get your money’s worth here. Very decently priced. The pancakes were some of the best pancakes I’ve ever had, and the scrambled eggs, sausage, and crispy hashbrowns I ordered were very good as well. The wait staff was very courteous and prompt and made sure our coffee cups were always full. Would definitely go back!

The home fries and sausage were good: however the eggs were a great disappointment. I asked for them to be cooked hard yet they were runny. The waitress offered to put them back on the grill. Good customer service would have been to replace them.

We went in today with a party of 8 for lunch to a fairly empty restaurant. After having us wait for 10 minutes, they seated us. After about another 10 minutes, we ordered. At this point, everything seemed fine –the staff seemed nice enough, if a little slow.
We were having a nice time talking so we didn’t realize that nearly a full hour since ordering had gone by, until we started to get really hungry. At no time did the waitress come by to give any explanation or offer so much as a piece of bread. I should mention that we had a 9-​year-​old child with us.
At this point we began to get a little antsy and inquired about our food. The waitress said it was coming. 15 minutes later, still no food, more than an hour after ordering in a half-​empty restaurant. We asked again, getting a little annoyed now, and the waitress apologized, but sort of complaining at the same time, saying that it wasn’t her fault, that the place was slow, so they let some people go home but then a few large parties like ours had come in and now they were scrambling. We tried to be sympathetic but she almost made it sound like it was our fault for coming to the restaurant! Plus, she tells us this after one hour of completely ignoring us? She couldn’t have let us know there was going to be a wait? Or brought us a piece of bread?
Finally, an hour and 20 minutes after ordering, the food slowly started coming out in drips and drabs, and they even forgot my daughter’s french fries after all that. After a while, the waitress came by and sort of apologized again, but kind of again in a complaining way. Still, we weren’t.hungry anymore and were apt to just forget about it, until the bill came. The waitress explained to us that we had to pay an extra charge because 2 of our party had shared a dish. We hadn’t realized there was an extra charge for this and normally would not have cared (it was. only two dollars) but we. simply could not believe she was insisting on this after that long wait, so we made a few astonished wisecracks about this. We of course were going to pay the full amount and just let it go.
But then the waitress came and threw down the extra money and said, «Here’s the money for the extra charge, because I have rhe feeling I’m going to get flak for this.» Or something to that effect.
We couldn’t believe it. We didn’t think it was all the waitress’s fault and we certainly didn’t want it to come out of her pocket but we couldn’t believe how badly she was handling it. Now she was just giving us attitude.
She walked away and we debated about whether or not to leave a tip. I was a waitress for many years and I know how hard it is so I always tip well, and so do the others in our party, but this waitress’s attitude was really bad. In the end, we left a fairly small tip. Even getting her to come and take our money so we could get the hell out of there took forever, even though the restaurant was empty except for one other table at this point and the waitress was just washing down tables. Finally we paid and got up to go.
Reasoning that in fact aside from her attitude, the waitress was correct and the slow service wasn’t her fault, on the way out, my husband tried to speak to the manager to complain. The same waitress told my husband that the manager wasn’t there. When he questioned why there was nobody there to complain to, she raised her voice and said, «You think we need the manager here to babysit us and make sure we are doing our job?»
Needless to say, none of will be returning ever again.

Wow, I am incredibly surprised by the other reviews. I came here for the first time this past Sunday and had an incredible breakfast. I’ll try a few more times and update as I try the lunches and dinners.
Place had great safe parking with pieces of railway history lining the parking lot. Awesome. I was promptly seated and a waitress was immediately available to take my order.
The menu was very creative. Bacon wrapped French toast. Three different types of hash. And really the ability to order whatever you feel like having.
My waitress was hilarious and just as professional and attenentive.
Funny shirts available for purchase too.
I can’t wait to go again! Way better than nats across the street

First time visiting this location. There is a staffing issue here and customer service from the owner is poor. Most people stand at the «wait to be seated» area as the owner is just a few feet away. In my case, she walked by my daughter and me several times without even recognizing we were there to spend money in her restaurant.
Once seated, the waitress was great and the food was above average. If he owner is looking to sell, let me know as I feel this place could be a real gem.

Food was just barely edible. Service was decent but food was not good at all. It was rather busy in there when I went so maybe they were not able to handle the crowd. I would not recommend.

I visited this place for the first time about a month ago and I had a great experience. I ordered the railway skillet with bacon and it was delicious and I had bottomless coffee which was also delicious. My only complaint is they were under staffed since it was a Saturday but I do give the staff credit because they made the best with what they had. The gentleman server was kind and very quick to check up on me when he was available and brought me more coffee as needed. I will definitely be going back to this place in the future.

I used to be a die hard Whistle Stop Café fan when it was in its original location. It was small with only one person working in the kitchen (or so it seemed). The food was inventive and always had amazing specials.
Now, this place seems generic. The food is mediocre and boring. I really wish this place hadn’t moved :(I’m really bummed out about how it has changed.

It’s always nice to come back to an area and discover something new. It’s even nicer when you can truly enjoy the new place. Sadly I didn’t completely enjoy my breakfast outing here :(
Not that it was bad, but it was just a little boring. I got the stuffed french toast with cream cheese and bananas… however it wasn’t stuffed it was just between to separate pieces of french toast. making it a sandwich and not stuffed per say. lol! I also ordered scrambled eggs which weren’t scrambled. they were folded… but they were okay.
My breakfast companions didn’t enjoy their banana pancakes b/​c their pancakes weren’t done inside.
I think we really wanted to like this place but between the ok food and not hot coffee it was hard to really like it. The service was kind of sketchy at first, b/​c we didn’t get a waiter for a while but once we had it got better.
If this place gets a few tweaks I would come back, but as for now I’ll stick to what I know and go somewhere else.

I specifically joined Unilocal to write this review. It is my first Unilocal review.
We bought two of the «$ 10 buys $ 20 worth of food» Living Social deals and had a Saturday lunch there on Sept 24 and Oct 8. Sadly, on both occasions, the service was terrible from the moment we walked in to the moment we left. We were greeted the exact same way on both trips– if being met by an empty hostess station qualifies as a greeting. The Oct 8^th greeting was especially galling as 4 or 5 cooks and waitresses yammered together, laughing and joking in the back within clear view of us stranded up front. A bus-​boy walked right past us as he traveled from the kitchen to the dining room, never looked at us once, and didn’t say one word.
Our lunch– three sandwiches took forever and the wait for the check was just as long. We were never approached by our waitress to check on the food. While waiting patiently for our check, she amazingly visited the table next to us TWICE, turned her back to us on both occasions, and never looked at us or said one word. I finally walked up to the register and paid, without ever even receiving our check. We have absolutely zero chance of ever going back again