Kirkwood Cafe

I have been here for dinner many times now, and I love it. Conveniently, my husband and 12-​year-​old son do as well. We love the crepes! The cook is amazing. My favorite is the Crêpe chicken fromage (main course) and the Kirkwood cheese turnover for dessert. It’s nice how inexpensive it is, especially for such quality. The Earl Grey tea (endless, and quick, refills) is delicious – I have never liked Earl Grey tea before. This is a unique restaurant to Bloomington. My birthday is coming up, and this is where I plan to go! (The crepes are thick and chewy, not the thin types.) The house salads are great too – no iceburg lettuce here! My husband and son have enjoyed various other of their dessert options. I can’t desert my turnover dessert, so I haven’t experimented further yet. (I also enjoy the décor and atmosphere.)

This is a bad location for restaurants – not near where people normally find themselves. But, the guy who owns it knows how to cook. Very tasty food and good prices. Give it a try. I’d hate to see this place go under because of its location. It’s so nice for Bloomington to have local independent restauranteurs to provide an alternative to the standardized food at the chain restaurants.

A friend and I had gotten a coupon for Kirkwood Café, and we decided to check it out. (Note: We forgot the coupon at home. We’re really good at this, can’t you tell?) We met after work for lunch, as we’d both worked early shifts, and upon arrival found ourselves to be the only people there. Then again, as it was 2PM on a Tuesday, perhaps that’s to be expected.
Our waiters (as our first waiter served us as his shift was ending and then our second came in) were both very attentive and paid a lot of attention. Understandably, I suppose, as we were the only people there, BUT on the other hand I’ve eaten in plenty of restaurants where I was the only person there and still managed to not get any attention from the waitstaff — so you know what, kudos to them. They also engaged us in conversation and we had a few interesting conversations while we were there.
The food: my friend got the grilled cheese with steak fries, I got the cajun fish tacos with sweet potato fries, we shared a spinach and artichoke dip appetizer, and for dessert I had a crêpe suzette and she had the, I think it was, 9-​Cloud Crêpe? Whatever the case: completely and totally delicious. The Spinach and Artichoke dip was wonderfully hot and FULL of spinach, just the way me and my friend like it. I didn’t try her grilled cheese — she said it was the perfect type of grilled cheese, though, so I took that as a good sign — but I did try a steak fry, and they were cooked to perfection. Meanwhile, holy crap – I’m glad I took the advice of several people on here because the cajun fish tacos are the perfect mix of spice, sweet, crunchy; just over all they’re delicious. And the crepes were flawlessly made and the fruits and sauces used in them. What I actually liked most about everything was the presentation. The chef set up his plates wonderfully, so it felt and tasted like you were eating a lovely meal.
For all we ate, too, everything was extremely cheap. The meals were cheap, the desserts were cheap; split down the middle, neither me nor her had to pay particularly much, and both of us still had food to go home with.
The place is decorated really well, with a very clean art décor sort of thing going on. There’s lots of parking outside, both right along the store and in the back. All in all, while it may not be my #1 place to go, I’ll certainly be going back, especially as it’s not too far from where I work!

Good menu, unimpressive delivery. My calamari was good, the fish in the fish tacos was fried to a tough crisp. My dinner companion’s salmon was served raw on the inside. Friendly but incompetent service. Upshot? No reason to go back. Zero ambiance

So I bought a $ 10 dollar gift certificate worth of $ 25 from
and I visited this place with 3 other friends. We ordered omelette, scrambled eggs with sausage and french toast, sunny side up eggs with a piece of pancake, mushroom and swiss crêpe.
I ordered the crêpe and it comes with the house salad. It looked really good, the salad seemed fresh and inviting but too bad, I’m not a big fan of salad. The crêpe on the other side wasn’t what I expected, it was too salty for me and I had to let it go after 3 bites. My sweet iced tea was too watery, so overall, my orders didn’t go well with me. My bf ordered an omelette with spinach, mushroom and etc and he wasn’t too happy about it either. His omelette is unique where it’s not the usual wrap around kind, it looked more like a taco but made of eggs. My other 2 friends ordered scrambled eggs that comes with sausages and french toast while the other friend had sunnyside up eggs, fried potatoes that comes with the pancake. I’d say the eggs looked yummier and the fried potatoes are pretty good. However, she commented that the pancake was bitter though.
Some good things about this place is that with the gift certificate, the meal cost us each $ 7 including tips, taxes and everything, not too bad for trying out a new place. Although the outside looked pretty run down, but on the inside, it’s very clean and nicely decorated. It would be a great place to have gatherings if the food tasted better. The server was very attentive to our drink refills, helpful with the food recommendations and overall pretty friendly service.
However, I wouldn’t be planning to visit this place the second time.

Despite the generic name, I highly recommend this place for a reasonably priced breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Everything appears to be homemade which comes through in the taste.
I especially enjoyed the cajun fish tacos, calamari appetizer and the chicken fromage crêpe. And get the sweet potatoes fries… best I’ve had in Bloomington by far. Prices are extremely reasonable for the quality of food you receive and the wait staff if friendly and efficient. My only suggestions is they should have some weekly specials of something not on the menu (broadcast through facebook or twitter)…it would entice me to come back more often.
There is ample parking on site as well, which makes getting takeout hassle free.

My friends were raving about this place because everything that they serve is Zabihah. It’s not a big deal to me but for others it definitely was. I thought the place was okay. It does have a nice ambiance and several different items on the menu but I got the chicken shwarma and I thought it was alright. I do live in DC and have been having awesome shwarmas the last couple of months, but for Bloomington the food was pretty good. Service was nice but they forget to enter in my friend’s burger and he had to wait. Prices were pretty cheap (Under $ 10). I think once this place works out the kinks (it hasn’t been open very long), it will become solid.

While I’m sad to see Rumba and its delicious Sandwich Cubano de Carne go, I’m happy to welcome Kirkwood Café. Here’s hoping its fate will be to last a tad longer than those prior, because it’s pretty damned good.
We had the calamari appetizer, which was fried (but not greasy) and breaded (but not heavily). It was served with their «house sauce» and the dish as a whole was addictive.
BF had the Cajun Fish Tacos, which he assembled himself using the elements provided: crispy fried tilapia, warm soft corn tortillas, slaw and poblano ranch dressing. Again, delicious.
I had a Classic Burger with cheddar, bacon, avocado, which would have been really great if I’d remembered to ask for it cooked medium rather than forgetting and having it wind up at the table well-​done. Oh well, the other ingredients were tasty and cooked (or not cooked) properly and I’ll remember next time. Lucky for me, the crispy sweet potato fries side dish more than made up in flavor what my burger was lacking in texture. Holy crap, they were good.
So, yeah. Good spot. They also serve dinner and breakfast (and have Sat. & Sun. Brunch Buffets) and – hold my hand – they make crepes! Kirkwood Café has selection of savory crepes AND dessert crepes. I’ve been waiting for a good restaurant in Bloomington to feature multiple crêpe options, so I’ll be back soon to try them. Breakfast/​Brunch/​Lunch prices are pretty comparable with that of other good brunch spots (Farm, The Uptown and Runcible Spoon), if not slightly cheaper, so why not?
Oh, and the place is cute with good ambiance. Our server seemed a little frazzled after the brunch buffet rush, but she was very pleasant even so. God, I hope this place continues to deliver! (Figuratively, I mean, as I don’t believe they actually deliver. Although I’d definitely back that proposition!)

Yummy! Ate a grilled cheese w/​sweet potato fries… grilled cheese comes w/​tomato and avacado and will definitely return for it! Sweet potato fries were ok but still good… nice atmosphere, nice people; give it a try!