Café Penelope - Restaurant & Catering
Chicago, IL 60607
Phone: (312) 243-3600
05/18/2008 Posted by jingmama
I never EVER write reviews; but felt compelled after an unbelievably horrendous brunch experience at Penelope's. So unlike the other 2 reviewers who hated this place, I did not have high expectations (I later found out this place was voted "best audience brunch 2007 of chicago). What a JOKE! We arrived at 11am on a gorgeous Sunday morning. There was no line at all, which I thought was odd, because every other decent-to-average brunch place has about a 20-40 minute wait. We got sat down immediately which was nice. Problem number 2 - the service was horrible. Our waiter (who may have been the busboy), poured us water and said, "let me give you a couple of minutes to decide on what you want." He promptly left before I could ask him to get me any coffee. Oh well, no big deal, i'll just order it when we order our meals. The menu was really small (single page, really large font), which I actually don't mind. I prefer places that just have a few items they do REALLY well...rather than a restaraunt that has alot of items in which several of them are bad. So I ordered pancakes with cranberriesand my gf ordered caprese egg benedict. I also ordered a 2 eggs over-easy. So the server comes back after 10 minutes just to make sure he got my order correctly. So there were literally only 2 other tables at the whole restaurant and it took a good half an hour for our food to be ready. The coffee came in the meantime and it was just average. Our food finally arrived and my pancakes came with strawberries, not cranberries. No big deal, I'll just eat it...and my eggs came later...sunny side up...I had ordered over-easy. Whatever, no big deal. Then I realized that 2 of my 3 pancakes were burnt...and by this moment I was getting upset. My Gf's meal was also luke-warm. The table across from us got mad too 'cuz one of their orders was messed up and their "hot tea" came cold. STAY AWAY! DON'T EVER EAT HERE! Instead, Go to Sweet Maple on Taylor St.
Pros: Parking
Cons: Horrible food (either burnt or cold), incompetent service, lacks heating.
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