For someone with a significant amount of social anxiety, there's a comfort in going to a well-run restaurant: there's a rhythm to the service, there's a physical design where you're equal parts a part of community of strangers and connected to the person you came with (or allowed to be comfortably alone if that's what you want), and it has one consistent aesthetic "message" - and have you ever gone to a place where the décor and service and food seem to have been devised by different people, on different days, with a different budget, who were working from different notes from the owner? A good restaurant either has an extremely well-functioning team who are all on the same page, or is directed by one person who's talented in all facets. Before you walk to your seat, you know you're going to have a good experience or a bad one - good food can only make up for so much if the rest of the restaurant isn't well executed. But when you walk in and know that you're in something well-run, and then when the food exceeds that expectation? I know I've found a gem. Enter the Milkstand, a restaurant akin to a French brasserie/old-school American diner, where I just came back from, feeling satiated by a shared plate of crispy chicken and fluffy waffles with maple syrup and sriracha and a Florentine crepe that had been folded into a triangle and tucked with perfectly cooked fresh seasonal vegetables and surrounded by a delicate lemon-butter sauce with two perfectly-over easy eggs atop. Coffee was abundant, served in thick mugs that held the heat up to that moment where I wanted a top-off, and our server Quinn poured with a fabulous flourish that made me think of a Turkish coffee: sometimes aside from appreciating the subtle change in flavor that comes with the aeration of a long pour, I just like a little performance with my caffeine. The space, which some will know is a renovated Byrne Dairy shop (Byrne being a local standby famous for its fresh milk sold in glass jugs and creamy ice cream), might be a challenge for larger groups to meet in, but for families, friends and business meetings of 5 or 6, you'll be able to both hear the people you're talking to and be surrounded by a vibrant community: the man seated next to us had his tablet and phone out and worked, as did a man seated to that man's left, while more people sat in groups of two and four and five, the place beginning to hop between 9 and 10:00. I've heard others say that the noise can get a bit much, but when I was there that wasn't the case - the 60s pop tunes coming from the sound system didn't overpower anything, and my breakfast-mate and I happily talked and ate for an hour. In the past two weeks, I've wanted to find spaces that are conducive to community and connection more than I have in the past -places to talk and laugh and enjoy good food, be alone if I needed to but remain connected to a bigger community. Happily, the Milkstand is there, right when it's needed. read more

On Opening Day, you expect the service to be figuring out their roles, a slight delay in the kitchen, but excellent food. Everyone in the front of the house was very friendly, positive, and great. The decor was excellent and every seat in the house was packed. Upon walking in, despite the large crowd, only one table had food. We waited over an hour for our food. And we ended up leaving before our order was brought out. A waffle and eggs should not take over an hour -- no matter how hectic opening day is. We learned our lesson and will give them a try in a few months. Bottom line: they should have edited their menu to fewer options they felt capable of serving in a timely fashion, maybe done a soft open, and limited their seating. Not a good first impression. read more

So for whatever reason they couldn't accommodate people due to kitchen issues. Ok. Understood. There was plenty of people in the restaurant so I thought I'd wait for a table to go. Nope. Couldn't wait either. Kicked us out. I suggested a sign on the door or post to their social media So People don't waste their time. Nope. Won't do that either. I don't get it. I understand issues but none of this made sits well. read more

Came on a Saturday morning around 9:30 and was pleasantly surprised by how fast the food came out (15 min or less!) I really liked my food, and the decor is very cute feels like you're in NYC. A little pricey but a nice treat overall. read more

Milkstand - a plate of food on a table - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Ithaca, New York

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The food was absolutely delicious. We came for the breakfast menu. The Cheesecake Crepes and Sriracha Chicken and Waffles are to die for. The service was fast and friendly. The restaurant was casual, but clean! Great ambiance. read more

The food was really pretty good! We had the cream cheese crepes and the cheese omelette. The crepes were excellent and filling. The filling and sauces really complimented the dish, and fresh fruit. The dish was a good size, and I almost finished it all. The omelette was good as well. We didn't order any of the potato sides as they didn't appear to be made in house. This was based on both meals at other tables and photos from Yelp. We got an extra order of toast instead. One order equals one slice, so that ended up to be 2 pieces total. The coffee was good as well. Our issue with that was we did not have attentive service. It took forever to get our initial coffee order, forever to get our order in, and forever for refills. Much of the staff was very active. Our server was not attentive whatsoever and impacted our experience. Also, the restrooms were are a pretty big handicap. There are 2 separate and single seats for the whole place. That creates a long wait if you need to use them. Expect to wait in the hallway. All in all, if you have the time to dally, it's good food. read more

Milkstand - crepes - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Ithaca, New York

I have eaten here several times with a group of friends. We all enjoy eating here and will return soon. The staff are very nice and attentive. I particularly like their waffles, always lite with plenty of fruit and syrup. My friends have had burgers and sandwiches with never a complaint. read more

Great food, friendly service, and wonderful atmosphere. We ordered mimosas, coffee, and peanut butter whiskey milkshake to drink. read more

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Everything was wonderful!! The food is INCREDIBLE, love the atmosphere, and the server, Quinn, was so kind!

Meal was very good, texture of waffles was great, but the chicken was a little bit small for me. Sausage gravy on the waffles was very good, and service was good. read more

Milkstand - Fish and Chips - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Ithaca, New York

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i love this place! great service. fun vibe. amazing menu that's also very versatile for different food sensitivities and preferences

We are very happy with the service and food quality, it was a very pleasant experience for all of us. The selections of dishes were very good. read more

Excellent food & service! I had the Biscuits & sausage gravy and my husband enjoyed the chorizo scramble. I highly recommend this charming place. read more

Cute atmosphere, seating and decor! I'll have to come back for brunch also :) the fish and tacos were great, also the milkshake (I think it was black cherry flavor?) read more

Milkstand - Fish tacos - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Ithaca, New York

The crepes were delicious. I got the florentine and it was super buttery. Super cute restaurant with good quality food.

Sooo good the whip cream is delicious and the milkshake could use more strawberries maybe like an ice cream with strawberry pieces in it? That would in my opinion make it better but was still great!! read more

Milkstand - Strawberry milkshake - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Ithaca, New York

Food is fresh, the waiters are fabulous, and the ambiance is a mix of generic 80s vibe meets Edisonian nostalgia.

The food tasted fresh and good. Service was Great. Short wait and the waiter was very tentative.

Excellent food and excellent service. Try the garlic chicken and waffles, a perfect combo of sweet and savory.

I went there with my daughter to check it out. The atmosphere was very nice, modern, and well designed. My daughter said the eggs Benedict was good and the chorizo skillet scramble I ordered was quite tasty. The coffee was okay. It is a little pricey for breakfast but the service is really great. read more

some of the best food I've had at a restaurant. The place was stuffed with people, and they definitely deserve it. Went with my parents and each of us ordered something different, yet thought that our food was the best. The place is quite pretty, and I rather liked lights. read more

Food was delicious and service was wonderful. The chocolate milk is also very good. Lots of options on their menu. read more

Milkstand - Berry cheesecake Crepe - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Ithaca, New York

Long wait to sit long wait to get the food for 2. Food was nothing special and disappointing for our last meal before heading home. Over rated. read more

This place is getting a two star based on price per quality. I will preface my review by saying I travel a lot and eat at a ton of places all over the country, and the effort from this menu and kitchen is 30/100. My girlfriend and I had brunch this morning and paid $70 for two plates and Mimosas. The service was okay, the ambiance was good, but the food and plating is below average. The menu is very early 2000's nothing excited and I mean nothing. As you read through all the descriptions on the breakfast items you will inherently want to edit the dishes, which I did. The amount of food you get on a plate is not satisfying to a hungry person, you may want two meals, which is not economical. You are pretty much paying for the lighting and the tile work in the space and not for the food. Very boring, way too much salt in the home fries I could taste it over the sausage gravy. Which mmm was poured over the entire bowl. Everything was swimming in the gravy. Weird... my girlfriend got a spicy chicken sandwich that couldn't hold a candle to a Wendy's spicy chicken. Seemed like a frozen chicken patty from Sam's club. What a Shame! For a $16 sandwich we expect homemade. Id encourage the owner or chef to go out and eat at some places on top of their game. A new menu could make this place pop, but right now as is...it's a plarp. Big fat stinky no for me. Lincoln Street Diner is way better, hell I'd rather drive all the way to Horseheads to go to 'The Diner' before I came back here. Pineapple mimosas were good, but not good enough to save you from this review. read more

This gem in Ithaca has it all, great location, beautifully lit restaurant, and a great, attentive staff that is professional and prompt. The food, much of which is locally sourced is fresh and delicious. Also a great choice if you are a pescatarian, vegetarian, or even vegan. They will cater to special diets if requested. Many wonderful breakfast and brunch choices. If there is a drawback it is only that it's only open for breakfast and lunch. It's a great place. read more

Unfortunately, I will need to say it's a bad news about serving a breakfast. This morning we returned to this place for a cozy breakfast but to our surprised, the breakfast plate was served a sunny side up egg, sausage, croissant (as per requested), and hash brown. They were all from the frozen foods except the eggs. The coffee wasn't that bad. I remembered my frequently visited from last year was filled with a homemade hash brown, quality eggs & sausage, and toasted bread. But this time the hash brown were from the frozen and obviously was made by the manufacturing because it is a mini rounded oval sized. It is not a shredded hash brown that I used to eat there. The sausages also were from the manufacturing as if you bought a ready- cooked sausages from the food store. Croissant, I cannot compare from last year but I would expected to eat at least a quality croissant. I asked this waitress and she said she is new waitress for only 6 weeks and that it's probably another new chef also. The waitress is pretty friendly but she made a huge mistake by saying that a croissant will be charge for $1. In the end, she said, "I am sorry the chef prefer to charge for $2 each." They were all charged separately. Reading a menu, a breakfast will start off with $10 including a homemade fries ( hash brown). I was told by a new waitress that a side order for croissant will be $1 (because croissant is not on the list). In the end, we received overly charged for ( $3 home fries for hash brown although it is not explaining clearly, $2 croissant, $3.50 sausage) when they are all from the frozen and manufacturing made foods. In my opinion, the total of $39 dollars should be at least $28- $30 for all the frozen foods. We have spend $40 and $3 tips on this newly waitress. The Chef and a waitress worked there on Friday, September 29, 2023 at 9:40am- 11am. I am definitely not going back there again. PLEASE DO NOT EAT BREAKFAST AT THE MILKSTAND! read more

I had the avocado toast- and I know food is expensive these days and avocado isn't cheap- but there was only a very thin spread of barely there avocado on this toast. I walked out of there hungry after essentially just having had an expensive piece of toast. Their coffee is good and servers are sweet, but I was disappointed. Others in my party had the fish tacos, which were not that great, and a milkshake, which, to be fair, was good. But really, they need to improve their food. read more

We had over an hour of wait, without any sign of apology from our waiter. The food was mediocre also. The ratatouille was sauteed cubed vegetables that tasted bad. Would not recommend. read more

Food was good. I got the margarita flatbread, my daughter got mozzarella sticks. The ambiance was very nice and chill, def bougie . Prices a little high but Manageable. Only reason I took 2 stars off was bc the wait time for the food was extremely long, about an hour for 5 people. read more

Fantastic breakfast!!! Fresh and perfectly cooked. The burgers are the best I've had in a long long time. Great service as well!!!! I highly recommend this restaurant- you won't be disappointed! read more

Ever since Mix decided to close for breakfast on weekdays, I've needed a new place to take my Mother for breakfast on special days. (Mix's weekend Brunch is nice, but a little too crowded for my taste.) I'd say this place fills the void nicely. Good food, great coffee, and stellar service. I don't think I've ever ordered a milkshake for breakfast before, but after hearing all the good things, I tried it, and I was amazed. My only complaint is the lack of parking spaces, but that's really an Ithaca problem, not a MIlkstand one. Overall, if you're looking for a decent place to have breakfast in this town, give this place a chance. read more

First impression: I arrived with a coffee, a latte more specifically, as the restaurant offers just regular coffee, and the host first words to us were that outside drinks weren't allowed, with a very annoyed attitude, no "hello", no "welcome to our restaurant", no "sorry but". Needless to say it put a damper on our moods and what was to come, until the waitress arrived and was very nice and did an amazing job throughout. Food wise : I'm an avocado toast fanatic ...and mine was so disappointing. For the price, I was expecting some real bread thick bread , not some sliced bread , barely toasted. The avocado itself lacked flavors. The other guests got a waffle that was good though the strawberry on it were sparse and a burger that was decent. Overall: I'm not inclined to go back. read more

Very disappointed. Immediately noticed that the prices are very high for breakfast. Ithaca really needs a good place for breakfast and as a ithaca native i was excited to see this place open and call it the "Milkstand" after years of it being Byrne Dairy. They did a beautiful job. Unfortunately I got a crape with chicken. My dad owned an amazing crape restaurant in ithaca many years ago. I was excited to see this on the menu as a breakfast option. It was a disappointment. At $16 plus additional charge for one slice ( yes one slice) of toast I will not go back. My boyfriends meal was nothing special and overpriced. The food needs to be a lot better with larger portions for the prices they charge. We also waited a long time for food but the restaurant was busy. So that's ok. It's like they invested a lot of money into the building and concept but are missing the one major ingredient Exceptional food and service which is the key to a great restaurant. I hope it improves. read more

Stopped by while in town, esthetically looks nice. Had Milk stand Omelet, falafel, burger & frittata. It was average, not bad but not elevated. Falafel's were hard through out sadly. We did wait for a bit longer than would've thought for our food, while others around us sat, ordered & got their food. Service was average as well. read more

Food was very good. We came for breakfast. I had poached eggs on English muffin. (Wish they actually toasted the muffin not just warmed it. ) My partner had another egg special -grits,sausage and gravy. He enjoyed it thoroughly. Staff was very good. Pleasant and welcoming. The decor was extremely well thought out and consistent. It had an upscale feel to it and a relaxed vibe even when the wait line started building up. read more

I'd heard mixed reviews about this place, so today decided to try it out. I wasn't impressed. I had something easy, the cobb salad, and my friend had the nicoise salad--which is typically made with tuna, but in this version had salmon. My salad came with chicken, and the chicken is a big reason I'm only giving 2 stars. For one thing, the chicken wasn't presented in nice, consistent strips or even cubes, but in rather random pieces. It was also very dry and unappetizing in appearance, and had no flavor whatsoever. My friend's salmon likewise looked rather dry, although she didn't say anything about it. And all things considered, the price for both salads was higher than I would expect from a place like this, and certainly not worth it. Service was just ok. It seemed to take a long time to get our food, even though the place wasn't that busy, and we had barely had time to take a bite before the waitress was back with the obligatory check to see how everything was. She did mention it was her 3rd day, so maybe it's just inexperience. Can't say that there was anything particularly noteworthy about the decor or ambiance. With there being so many excellent restaurants in town, I don't have any reason to return to Milkstand. read more

The Milkstand is quickly becoming one of my favorite restaurants in town. The menu is unique, with plenty of delicious dishes. I recommend the Sriracha Brussels Sprouts over waffles with syrup, their Fish and Chips is also outstanding. Everybody there is super friendly and welcoming. I can't recommend this place enough for breakfast or lunch! read more

Being from out of town we stopped by here. The Philly cheesesteaks were amazing. The staff was great, quick, kind and made you feel like your family. We definitely will be back, next time we are in town. read more

This is a cute diner. Staff is friendly and efficient staff, breakfast food is decent, and they have a parking lot.

Cute place with nice server , Food was good too We would definitely recommend and come back !