Bananas Foster Cafe

OK, so I am fully aware this review is a pound of salt on a fresh wound, but I’m still so disappointed in this place I have to do it. But I’ll make it short.
Banana’s Foster moved into neighborhood shortly after we did. Moving from Lakeview, we were stoked to have a brunch place nearby. WERE stoked. We gave it several chances, but when a brunch place doesn’t have coffee ready… well, I guess it’s no surprise how this restaurant ended up.
Oh, and it had the worst, most confusing hours of any restaurant I have ever come across.

I am so sad that this place is closed! I wonder why.
honestly, it was the best breakfast place in chicago, with HIGH QUALITY food and reasonable price!

I love the food, but their delivery is a bit dodgy. They seem to be no longer on Grubhub, and then when I called them directly to order Breakfast I get no answer. So I would say dont go for delivery if this is what you expect.
it’s to bad…

Quick Review on BFC:
* Really good breakfast food; A bit too much butter on my Swedish pancakes… but not sure if this was them or me :)
* Fast and friendly service.
* Nice décor and atmosphere (back area).
I plan to come here again soon!

This place is our go-​to brunch joint in the ‘hood. No ridiculous wait like M. Henrys, no pretentiousness, just great coffee in huge cups and decent grub. Actually, for brunch, I tend to have sweet dreams about the Benelox. The huz scrambles for the farmhouse, also tasty. I think it’s the hollandaise that does it. I could take straight shots of that savory goodness.
As for the previous review of the loud moustache man, maybe the reviewer just needed a cup of java before dealing with him. Fair enough. But the guy is passionate about his job — how many people can you say have that sort of enthusiasm? He’s friendly, maybe partially crazy, but definitely iconic and helpful.
We dig it.

I have passed by this place numerous times and had never actually stopped in. Finally, last Sunday (8÷28÷11) I had the opportunity to take in brunch at the Banana’s Foster Café.
To my delightful surprise the establishment had a fabulous British influence to it. If you dine in the main dining room, you are literally face to face with the kitchen staff which for some may be a great experience (I know for me it was!) but for others, the yelling of orders and commands may get annoying.
Thinking ahead to fall, I have a feeling this will be a great fall establishment to have breakfast at. They offer a great all you can eat buffet for $ 12.50 which includes a wide variety of British breakfast delights.
If you don’t mind a wait of around 30 to 60 minutes this is a great place to pull up a chair, enjoy a big cup of coffee and some delightful food!
Cheers!

We went for dinner. I figured before we went that this is a breakfast place trying to do dinner service.
Made reservation. Saw that I didn’t need to when we arrived. We were 1 of 2 groups there at 6:15p on a Saturday.
I had the CSA, 5 course for $ 16. 1 in our group thought it would be too much food. I thought it was a way try a few things for the cost of an entrée. Was a bit surprised by the 1^st course, one tiny stuffed mushroom, 2^nd course was salad that I enjoyed, 3^rd course was broccoli and cheese soup that you pour the stock over the broccoli and cheese. lacking in flavor. 4^th was a seared lamb dish that was very good. 5^th (desert), not sure what the actual name was but the peach was ok, the upside down banana cake with a sort of flamed jelly that took forever to pick from my teeth. Hated it. Some people may like the burnt taste, not my thing. The Bananas Foster was really good, Love the vanilla bean ice cream.
All of the entrees were quite good though, perfectly cooked chicken, very nicely done fish, both the trout and the escolar. Flavor and texture were on point.
Service was lacking, I was into my salad before we got our drinks. Somethings seem to take quite some time. There were only about 4 or 5 groups in the restaurant. We waited quite some time for them to bring back the receipt, so we went to them. This was after they left the credit card on the table, another waiter came looking for it.
1 member of the group wouldn’t go again. The rest of us would like to see how they do for breakfast since that is what they’ve been doing so well for so long.

It pains me to give such a negative rating. Bananas Foster used to be a reliable place for delicious food and excellent service. Since expanding, it seems to have gone drastically downhill.
They seem to have put little thought into the expansion remodel. (Perhaps «remodel» is giving them too much credit?) First off, the kitchen is apparently too small to accommodate the capacity of the restaurant. There are prep tables in the middle of the dining floor space. Second, there is only one small-​ish hallway connecting the original restaurant to the expansion. This hallway serves as the waiting room and all service traffic. (How undesirable is it to have your food walked through a waiting room on its way to your table?) Third, the décor of the expansion is not to my liking. I’ve never seen such a deep burgundy-​ish color on the carpet AND the ceiling. (And, carpet in a restaurant?) It is such a shame, since I really like the décor of the original restaurant.
The eggs benedict, were very tasty. The plowman’s breakfast was disappointing. The bubble-​n-​squeak tasted like PAM and slightly frostbitten veggies. The coffee was extremely slow in coming (and was only refilled once — and only barely refilled at that) — however, this was not as big of an issue since the coffee tasted really stale. :-(
Service was always so friendly and polished before. I’m guessing that they must have changed management or something — since the staff seems quite the opposite now.
Side note: the bathroom was unpleasant and the floor unbelievably slippery. (Did the map with oily water?)
I may give them another shot in a few months in the hopes that they get their act together. Er, and, only if the wait at M Henrietta is too much.

There is a lot of options for french toast and the size is reasonable that you can order something savory. I went with a small groups so we all got something different. Everything we tried was good so I guess my advice would be great what you feel like. The Cowboy was heavy and tasty, Farmhouse was a great country version of egg benedict, the full Irish a lot of tasty food. Now the french toast that I love the banana foster but Lemon cheesecake was good too and the apple caramel was my least favorite.

Well, after a couple of years I suppose it’s time that I updated this review. Since my first dinner experience there I haven’t been back for dinner. I have had breakfast/​brunch there several times though for one specific reason. They offer basil as something to put in your omelet.
Basil is one of my favorite flavors, it just adds a little something extra. The only problem is that it’s not a really common ingredient. When I saw it on the menu here I was thrilled. I ordered an omelet with ham, mozzarella and basil… and it was fantastic! That’s now my go-​to order when I come here.
I’ve tried a couple of of the stuffed french toasts and they’re ok. The flavors that they offer are interesting but there isn’t anything that really stands out among them. They all seem like dessert items rather than breakfast items.
The staff is always friendly and nice and they seem to have regulars that they know. Also, the space is small but it looks like they’re expanding into the place next door. When that opens and there’s more room I may make Bananas Foster a regular breakfast spot.

Yet another A+++++ brunch experience. at Bananas! Not only is their food AMAzING, but their staff is just as much. Although the limited space, I think this adds to the warm and cozy ambiance. The Iirish Eggs Benedict was light and filling. Can’t go wrong.
GREAT PLACE!

We came on a week day morning and ordered
Western egg Benedict — very good with great sauce.
Banana foster — awesome with great sauce and ice cream
I was impressed with the plates and presentation of food. I want to try the pancakes!

I had breakfast here with Sage and Andy this morning after having coffee at cha’va café. Not too many healthy options here, but the place has character. A few British and Irish type breakfast, so you’ll see a lots of stodgy dishes. Most breakfasts are either loaded with hollandaise sauce or fried. Andy ordered the banana walnut pancakes and a sandwich. Sage and I ordered the vegetarian omelet with no cheese. He had fruit on the side and I tried the bubble and squeak. I took a bite of one of the pancakes and I think it was deep fried like a donut because of the texture and the crispiness. It was tasty, but not the healthiest. They have free wireless which is great, very reasonably priced and nice service too!

Wonderful food and great atmosphere. Possibly my favorite restaurant. This is the first place I take any out-​of-​town guest.
For Breakfast/​Brunch — Everything on the menu is delicious. The banana stuffed french toast is my favorite. The bacon is thick and fresh; you can really tell that the ingredients are a better quality than other places. Even the oatmeal tastes better there. You wouldn’t think that oatmeal would be something «special», but I crave theirs when I haven’t been in a while.
For Lunch/​Dinner — The French Onion Soup is some of the best I’ve ever had. The broth has a wonderful flavor; you can tell there is a bit of wine in it. The fish and chips is always good, but I recommend home-​fries instead of the regular. The home-​fries are crinkle-​cut with sea salt. Always delicious.
Service — I’ve never had a bad experience there. All of the wait staff is friendly and attentive. Sometimes the food takes a little longer to come out than I would like, but it just shows that everything is being freshly prepared.

Definitely need to come back. Love the idea of this place. It’s a homey, diner kind of place. But it’s nicer than that at the same time.
I picked the grilled cheese. of all things… and I got a grilled cheese. Loved the tomato soup it came with. I do feel that a grilled cheese at a restaurant needs to have more cheese than, like, two slices. oh well. I probably could have eaten three of these sandwiches. That’s me just being a pig.
The interior is super cute. The bananas foster really is great. And you do not want to eat that baby alone. It’s massive. Oh man, I’m getting hungry.

Admittedly, I’ve never eaten at the restaurant. However, after ordering takeout twice, I probably won’t attempt it.
Against all of the advice of other reviewers, we decided to try to order breakfast from this place. (After all, we’ve been waiting for a neighborhood breakfast delivery place. What’s better than getting Sunday brunch in your PJ’s?)
We placed our first order on Grub Hub and, when the food arrived over an hour later, the order was totally wrong. The funny thing is that they even stapled the printout of the Grub Hub order to the receipt. The prices/​items didn’t match up, but no one seemed to notice. When we called to complain, they offered to send us a gift certificate for $ 15 off a meal (dine-​in only).
We got desperate a couple weeks later and decided to give them a second try. It was the middle of a weekday and we didn’t think delivery would take too long. We placed the order at 11:30, Grub Hub said the estimated deliver time was 12:30 and our food arrived (after a phone call) at 1:00. Again, the order was wrong. Again, they left off items that were listed on the receipt (and items I paid for).
Finally, you may have noticed that I haven’t actually mentioned the food at all. And, really, that’s because it isn’t anything worth mentioning. The prices seem reasonable and the food isn’t terrible, but I probably will never eat at the restaurant again, despite having a $ 15 gift certificate sitting on my table.

For me to give Bananas Foster Café 4 stars is a big deal in my book. See, I’m not philosophically aligned with breakfast joints with $ 9 omelets and $ 4 glasses of OJ. I’m more of a diner guy. Give me a large menu with lots of items, most under $ 6 and some coffee from a Bunn-​o-​Matic and I’m a happy camper.
Tweet gets my love because of the diverse menu and because of Mary. Bananas Foster runs a close second for it’s great staff and HUGE cups of coffee. I will say this, my $ 9 omelet was pretty good, and for $ 9 you do get unlimited items in the omelet, they don’t nickle and dime you ala carte for each one.
My wife and I both enjoyed the place, but we won’t rush back, mostly because we’re both diner people.

Not much to say, really. It’s great to have a breakfast place in this neighborhood, but everything was mostly «just okay.» It’s been on my radar since Day One, as I live nearby and have seen a handful of places fail in that location. I finally got around to trying it and can’t say that I’d go out of my way to return.
Our server was extremely peppy to the point of eye-​rolling. I ordered the Irish breakfast, and while some elements were solid, others were just boring. The eggs and toast were just eggs and toast. The sausage and the loin bacon and the beans were pretty good, but the mushrooms were bland, the tomato half-​inedible, and the pudding slices mushy. I liked the «home fries» although truly they were more like circular french fries than anything I’ve ever seen on any kind of breakfast plate.
And although she denies it, my breakfast buddy got some earl grey tea which smelled like ammonia. Blech.
The restaurant was full with no wait at 10am (Sunday) but at 11 there were about three groups waiting.

Look at the picture and I dare you tell me that doesn’t look appetizing to you? I really wouldn’t mind laying on these stuffed pillows of goodness and taking a bite every morning. I feel the same sentiment as Anthony Bourdain states in the Indonesia episode, «Eff the International House of Pancakes!»
BTW, you can check out that episode (Kampung Sampireun, Indoneisa):

I’m conflicted.
Indeed, I do not eat bananas… ever. Not once in my entire life. So, I must admit that willingly going to a restaurant that has a big yellow awning and «bananas» in the title… well, ya know. Not a great start, however I realize this is due to my utterly odd eating bias against the beloved banana.
Having said that, I am rooting for this place. Before it moved in, it was this very random coffee shop that never did very well and closed for weeks at at a time and never got it together. I want BFC to win. Yes, Edgewater!
The entire kitchen is exposed. Which is cool… however, the energy in the staff and kitchen peeps seems to be strained. People seem tense. The overall vibe is… stressed. Chill BFC friends, this is a brunch/​lunch/​dinner happy food spot… have fun!
LARGE cups of Lavazza coffee: a plus, but we need Splenda up in here right quick, folks. Right quick.
Server: VERY friendly, and seemed new. He did a great job despite seeming a bit flustered… even though it was 2pm on a weekday. I imagine brunch and busy lunch/​dinner times is kind of a crapshoot…
Food: My salmon panini was good… with goat cheese and spinach, but… teensy. Very little filling, plain bread (not panini bread), soft goat cheese, salmon. It was A-​Ok, not much more. The side salad was great though, and the white wine dressing was fab. MY gal pal’s Shepherd’s Pie was LOVELY though, and I snuck a few bites of her mashed taters with gravy and lovely puff pastry/​tender beef. She ordered better… next time, I will too
Desserts: Carrot cake: B+. Chocolate Cake: C+. If you are going to be named after a dessert, the ones residing in your biz better be… AMAZING. People expect it. These were suitable, most definitely, but I left wanting something a bit more… inventive, tasty, delicious, etc.
Overall, a great spot to check out in Edgewater and I will forgive them the banana thing, if they just work out the kinks, get some Splenda, and revisit the panini construction phase.