Mom and sisthas love this place for brunch. very simple food but utterly delicious. The busboys actually took better care of us than our own waitress so I'm hoping she shared our generous tip with him. read more

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We went with our Burger Club to Lucky Burgers (a.k.a. Jelly Cafe after dark or 4pm, whichever comes first). Jelly Cafe is a breakfast and lunch place open 7am until 2pm. Then they switch over to Lucky Burgers which is open from 4pm until no one is there and they want to go home. Though technically I think they're open until 8 or 9pm. There are a handful of items on the Lucky Burgers' menu: about 5 variations of their classic burger, a chicken sandwich, chicken tenders, and waffle fries. When we went, the place was empty and never got busy. Which opened the door for one of the owners, Scott, to regale us with tales of days gone by from his childhood in Evanston and the famous people he knew, grew up with, and worked with. It was nice hearing these stories and it was nice to give Scott something and somebodies to talk to as well. The place has a large parking lot and is nice and clean on the inside. There is a tiny area with slot machines and a small bar/counter at the entrance. The burgers are all smashburgers. They come as singles or double patties. Go for the double as there's not a whole lot of meat once they're smashed. The differences are the toppings. Scott recommends their housemade dijonaise sauce which is good, but ask for it on the side. The cook slathers it on the burger and that's all you can taste. Once I scooped (you read that correctly) the sauce off my burger, it was a pretty good burger. The meat is seasoned well and cooked nicely and the bun holds up (despite dripping in dijonaise). We all shared the chicken tenders as an appetizer. Five nice sized tenders come in the meal and you can choose your dipping sauce. Scott recommended their honey mustard which was very good and the ranch wasn't bad either. He is also johnny-on-the-spot to refill fill your drinks. I seriously thought that I would float away. The best part is the price. All said and done for a burger, waffle fries, and a soda, with tax and tip is like $15-$18 bucks. It's a nice place that I need to go back to and visit for the Jelly Cafe side. AND return for their burgers, tenders, and more of Scott's stories. read more

Ordered scrambled eggs with sausage and red potatoes. Eggs had mild flavor. Potatoes were so salty I ended up getting them replaced for hash browns. Was told potatoes are prepared and spiced in advance so they "marinade". Sausages were plump with great flavor. Pancakes were dense; not fluffy. When I pressed them with my fork, the tines left a deep permanent impression. I could not eat the pancakes. Coffee was rich without bitterness. Good service. Total bill after tax was about $20. Left 25% tip after tax. With so many breakfast/brunch options, I don't plan on returning. read more

Good food in a comfortable atmosphere. Nice selection of menu items. The soup was great!

Visiting family locally, had to find a casual breakfast place, so picked this one based on menu of options. It didnt disappoint!! Walked in to busy energetic diner/cantina looking place and was immediately greeted by a lovely lady that escorted us back to a perfect table in the front of the house. She chatted with us a little about life and was so sweet. Wish her the best!! Quickly the staff brought waters and Gino our server popped over with a positive and fun intro. Hooked us on coffee and beignets to start(Amazing and recommend if you aren't feeling something too healthy). Coffee was great and then Gino helped with decisions and options - as we ended up with Bacon-Avocado Omelet (side of French Toast) and the Breakfast Quesadilla. Portions were large so you could split them with a loved one. Potatoes were super tasty and a recommended add. They were super flexible on changes/add/deletes. Both were amazing and plentiful. We saw a young lady next to us get a NEST = Omelet wrapped in Shredded potatoes. We want to try that next time we stop - would definitely split it!!! Thanks to everyone that made our visit fun and amazing - Hope to see you soon. read more

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We had a great experience till it was time to pay the bill. She slammed the receipt on our table and sounded very angry. Everyone else was very nice and polite... read more

Jelly Cafe wasn't too bad. We met some friends for a late brunch here just before they closed up for the day. Service was good--prompt, friendly. I got the chilaquiles and they were really good. I didn't get any meat but I think you can have chorizo or chicken if you like. We also ordered some beignets to start. They aren't like New Orleans style beignets but they were good. They're served with their house raspberry jam, also very tasty. They are served in orders of four so we probably could have gotten another one so we all had two, but the meal was filling nonetheless. They had some interesting pancakes on their menu; I considered the pumpkin pancakes but they made them with raisins so I passed. I like raisins a lot, but haven't ever had them in my pancakes and didn't want to start today. We ordered some potato pancakes to share because I was curious about them. They were good, but I'm not sure I'd choose to order them again. They also have some lunch items on their menu, but we all stuck with breakfast fare so I'm not sure. I did see their burgers advertised and they look pretty good; if I was here again at lunch I'd consider it. They have gaming machines here if you want to get your poker or blackjack on. read more

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Nice atmosphere the bar was a nice surprise for those weekend morning or what have you that have you starting early lol. The dish I ordered was the country fried steak plate. The gravy was untraditional but good, cream gravy with a Cajun touch 8/10 eggs over done 4/10 country potato's felt lazy and underdone (not crispy) they will double fry them at lunch time and those are the fry's customers get with there burger I'm sure. Over all not bad not great so so and a bit over priced for what u get but if your into something that feels like first watch it's close just not as detailed craftsman ship from the kitchen read more

Jelly Cafe - Country fried steak breakfast plate - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Palatine, Illinois

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Nice little modern diner with classics served right and some new options in breakfast as well. Service was spot on and food was hot and tasty. I think they nailed what they are trying to be! (Which is how I rate a place). We will be back for breakfast again !! read more

Pleasantly surprised, drove past many times first visit. Stopped for breakfast. Many options and also senior specials! Great value!

Solid brunch spot in Palatine! Very friendly staff and the skillets were solid. Great family atmosphere and we are going to make this an annual spot for our son's birthday! read more

I had a great experience here at Jelly Cafe. I pretty much just chose to come here because of the proximity of it to my house. I was hesitant, but was delightfully surprised. My friend and I shared two dishes, and we really enjoyed everything we ate. We ordered the San Fran Bennie (thick bacon, avocado, grilled tomato, and pine nut pesto). I loved this dish .. it was probably my favorite out of all the items we got. The pesto hit this dish out of the park. We opted to pay an upcharge to swap out the side of potatoes for pancakes. The pancakes were standard and good as expected. We also ordered the chicken and waffles. This comes as a large waffle with 3 pieces of chicken tenders. They give you warm syrup on the side (which I expected), but also gravy (a plus that I did not expect). The chicken tenders were really good and the gravy added even more great flavors to it. Staff was friendly. The place was pretty packed on a Tuesday morning, but service was still great. I'll definitely be back again to try more things on the menu. read more

Jelly Cafe - San Fran Bennie (bottom) with a side of pancakes (left), chicken and waffles (upper right) - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Palatine, Illinois

Hit all the buttons on a below zero Sunday morning. Well worth leaving the house for the breakfast meal. Good menu and good service. Friendly place. read more

We've been to Jelly Cafe three times now and we've had great experiences with the service and food every time. It's a great local breakfast and lunch restaurant. I ordered the country fried steak breakfast on both visits. It's been my go to recently at breakfast places. This didn't disappoint, great portion size, the country fried steak was perfect, not too salty and the house made gravy was really good. Btw they have a semi enclosed front area of the restaurant with video poker/gaming. I haven't been in there yet, so I can't review that part yet, but everything we experienced has been really good. The service has been great every visit. The servers are on point and friendly. I'm glad we finally gave Jelly cafe a try. read more

Jelly Cafe - Country fried steak! - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Palatine, Illinois

Great service. Good food. Affordable. Great for Sunday breakfast after church! Very clean restaurant with comfortable spacing of tables. Bus employees very attentive to refilling water glasses. read more

Excellent spot for breakfast! Consistently solid. Great service. Nice atmosphere. Lots of families, young people, elders.....

I'd never been here and I wanted to try their panini sandwich. It really wasn't done well, soggy. The panini bread should be toasted well and crispy. The place was freezing, they had some type of issue. Service was very attentive. Not sure if I'll go back. read more

The Jelly Cafe becomes Luckys Smash Burger and bar Palatine at 4PM til 10PM You'd think this place is inactive during the early dinner hours. Touch at 4:00PM and you'll walk in on a few clients other than yourself at most. They do have a good deal of activity from DoorDash Uber etc but they don't disrupt customers and many seats are far from the door. Service here is nice fast and simple. Straight to business staff but with a slight polite friendliness. Not exactly the most outgoing but I didn't come here to chat with the barkeep and the restaurant keeper at the time clearly could tell despite me not being in my business outfit that we were indeed there on a business dinner with intent of talking over some business over a pair of burgers. This is where the management shined. They clearly could tell what we were talking about was of a semi-secure nature and enclaved us by seating people at tables away from us. Almost like they intuitively knew we needed extra privacy for our dine to be enjoyable. My mate had the double burger, for a little more than the basic smash I think I'll get the doubler next time. Then again that little bit of money is a lot of extra food. It looks pricy but your dollar goes pretty far here. You're in for a delectable juicy burger that will have you slowing down to enjoy the flavors. Yes FLAVORS! In a burger, finally! BK and McDs and every other burger restaurant just died to me when I visited Luckys on Tuesday the 7th of May. Interior design is simple with a lot of dark wood and modernity. The ambient noise level is relatively quiet even with others present and conversations are not audible. It's easy to have a private business meeting here if you have the timing correct. I see the evening hour and night hours as riskier as you'll see more bar diners and people there to hit the video gaming area. You'll want to get in during the early dinner hours. I'm gonna have to go back when it's Jelly Cafe and I can try their breakfast items. Until then I'll assume it's all as good as their tasty burgers and leave them a 5 star. It's not a day to day burger place. It's a monthly or twice a month treat your mate to a date place. A nice dim atmosphere offers a calm place to discuss business and transition off to closing business and personal chat. read more

Go to place for me. Always enjoy the food. Service is good Ambiance is simple and casual Veggie Quesadilla was great. read more

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Always amazing place to be. This is our family favorite. I love this place. The breakfast options are good. Its just walking distance from my house. The food is decent. Coffee is good and i love their jelly that they serve you. And yes service is pretty quick. This time when i went the cafe was decorated with fall decor. read more

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Slow service. Food was over cooked, prepared improperly and they added way too much lemon juice to the "jelly" which was liquid strawberry. Had to throw out all my toast. Also the decor needs some serious updating, the couch was ripped and covered in hair which they never wiped down. Not returning. read more

Jelly Cafe - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Palatine, Illinois

opened the cream cheese to this... I work at a restaurant and this generally should not happen. I did not want to eat after seeing that. Other than this, food was not bad. read more

Jelly Cafe - Ordered a bagel and bagel & cream cheese - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Palatine, Illinois

I hate to give negative feedback, but today was a disappointing experience. NOTE - this review doesn't include a review of the food because we didn't have any. We had ZERO service altogether at this location! We were basically ignored. My family (of 4) arrived at Jelly Cafe in Palatine at 12:45. There were plenty of cars in the lot and a couple of people leaving with what looked to be leftover containers. We walked in and waited to be seated. There was a table of 2 and a table with one gentleman dining alone. No other tables were occupied. A half drank glass of OJ was on the bar to the left of the entry. No host greeted us. Two employees peered at us from in front of the kitchen area, but neither came out to greet us or to seat us. They turned their backs and continued doing whatever they were doing. We waited. I stepped further into the restaurant hoping to get the attention of the two employees. One guy turned and peered over his shoulder, then they both disappeared around the area they were standing and never came back out. We waited a bit more, probably a total of 3-4 mins without anyone coming out to seat us or greet us. There was no server in the dining area helping the two tables. We walked out, hungry and disappointed. My sons really wanted Jelly Cafe and we decided to drive to their other location would put us too close to their 2pm closing time to enjoy a meal without feeling rushed. read more

Everyone working here was super friendly and kind-- it was me and my 5yo and 2yo, and the service was thoughtful (kept things out of their reach when placing!) and speedy. We immediately knocked over a full glass of water and they were nice about it and quickly helpful in cleaning it up; I was initially concerned because of all the signage about "gaming," but there were no TVs or games visible in the dining section, they were walled off to the side. :) Kids pancake/egg/sausage/hash brown breakfast was $6 each, and for me there were tons of gluten free options including toast, pancakes, and gf waffles! read more

They have two locations! I say this because my friend and I showed up to opposite locations, which are about 20 minutes apart - so be careful. The hostess was a kind woman who kept me company while I waited. The food, service, and atmosphere were all worth coming back for. read more

Jelly Cafe - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Palatine, Illinois

Big disappointment. Was hoping we would enjoy. Food was terrible, ordered a spinach Cobb salad and it was small and clearly they threw bagged spinach on top of the toppings. Picked out the bad spinach and bad strawberries. Service was not good. Long wait to get waited on and unfriendly server. Never came back to see if we wanted anything else. Place was old and dirty. Food on the floor and sat at a dirty table. Ugh Half hour before closing (9 tables still eating) they brought out a bucket and mop to clean the floor. This was at 1:30, closing time is 2:00. Seemed they were in a rush to get out. Could see our server eating in the prep area between waiting in her clients. Will not be back. read more

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We frequently visit with our grandkids and have never had a bad experience. The food is innovative, fresh and tasty, and the servers are courteous. I complain about the noise level at every restaurant, but that's possibly because I'm getting old and cranky. Keep up the good work Jelly Cafe! read more

Love it here! The potatoes are great but I really love the Mexican food. Probably eat the huevos rancheros once a week. Fun staff too

Good food and great Greek flavor with understaffed location. I understand because it doesn't have a ton of business during the weekday mornings. Love the location. read more

Very good smash burgers. Flavorful and filling. Hit the spot! I will be going back, Jack.

This is such nice local breakfast spot. Cute, cozy vibes. The food was delicious and fast. Try their beignets! Gino, our server, was funny and on top of things. Will be coming back! read more

Food was average for a local breakfast spot I ordered a veggie skillet with pancakes, the staff however were very friendly. The hostess (an older woman) was the sweetest thing and had the most contagious smile. My waitress (sat at bar- forgot her name) but she was great as well! Will be back! read more

Jelly Cafe - Veggie skillet with pancakes - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Palatine, Illinois

Not only is Jelly's right in our hood ... but since they've opened - the service & chow is always fresh, fast & great! It's also a wonderful place 'cause I can get breakfast (with gf bread) & hubby can get breakfast or lunch! Today I had breakfast ...grilled asparagus with 2 perfect eggs, potatoes & sprinkle of bacon (gf toast with lots of yummy jelly) & hubby had the buffalo chicken salad (fav of his). Again - we've never been disappointed in any of their service, the welcoming feeling, the warmth of everyone & today ... I just had to tell them how much I appreciated the CLEAN restrooms & entire restaurant! However ... I forgot to get fotos so sorry no pictures today! But thanks Jelly's ... this gal has had a really bad Spring cold & been suffering in the house but you made my day! AGAIN...For a long while, Jelly's was one of the first places right around the immediate area to serve GOOD gluten free bread & always have it available ... so double thanks from me!v read more

Good breakfast and lunch spot. I wish their burger options were available for lunch. I never think about them for a diner spot, I need to try the burgers then. read more

This place is so good. My personal favorites of food are the strawberry banana Nutella crepes or their French toast. The service is so kind and welcoming. Jelly cafe has many decorations up to set the mood. Overall I highly recommend jelly cafe. read more

I went there for lunch one day and the food was fabulous and woman waitress was great, Will go again for sure. wish they were open in early evening Sandy read more

NEVER EVER AGAIN !!!!! 8/7/2021 we came for lunch...We got seated in the far back corner and all of a sudden the ceiling was leaking and dripping on me. My boyfriend reported this to the older lady who was manning the hostess stand and she didn't do a damn thing. We could see it still dripping all over the table..... NO bucket. My boyfriend ordered the chicken wrap and it was so greasy. I ordered the Belgian waffle with the butter and syrup on the side. A few hours later It made me SO violently ill that I almost had to go into the ER. My boyfriend said they probably didn't wash the waffle griddle or something like that. The floors were dirty and they didn't clear off most of the tables. I will be calling the Health department Monday morning and reporting this establishment. read more

Service was ok food wasn't all that, over price. I went there to try it and I think it would be my last. Not for me not saying is not for everyone just my opinion read more

We've driven past this restaurant for years and finally decided to stop on a Sunday for lunch around 1:00. We had to wait about 10-15 minutes for a table. A little surprising, as we thought the brunch rush would mostly be gone, but no problem. However, once we got into the restaurant, we were sat in a corner. Multiple servers walked past us and looked over. We had no menus or waters, so it was apparent we needed help. After about 5-7 minutes, our server finally came over. I'm not sure if she was having a bad day or what, but she was pretty rude the whole time and it was obvious she didn't want to be there. My fiancé ordered the Pot Roast Bennie, which he really liked. I ordered the Fresca Chicken Sandwich, which was also pretty good. My coleslaw side was not that great, unfortuantely. The menu was unique, with a lot of options I haven't seen at other traditional breakfast/lunch places. However, the service was a deal breaker. Not sure if we will go back, but happy we finally checked it out. read more

Jelly Cafe - Chicken Fresca Sandwich with a side of coleslaw - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Palatine, Illinois

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The service here was fine, just the food. I don't know if it was a bad day or what, but the bacon was stiff, and my bread had mold. read more

Jelly Cafe - Mold - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Palatine, Illinois

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