Meli Cafe & Juice Bar

I went about a year ago because my husband and I wanted breakfast. I walked in and this manager lady was yelling so horribly at one of the waitresses! She was about to start crying! She didn’t notice and I was shocked, I just stood there thinking this can’t be happening is she getting fired?! and froze. The manager woman turned, got startled because she realized I witnessed this and sat me at a super tight table. For the price and fancy look we deserved more elbow room! The waitresses were all tall white Europeans and cleaners/​bus boys were Hispanics as usual. I started observing the staff and you can tell they feared that manager who was also a tall thin European woman. Ex. there would be a couple who barely left, and she snapped her fingers to the bus boys who were already on their way! Cruel cruel woman! If we weren’t starving we would have left. The food was good/​okay, nothing wowed me and we’ll never go back there again.

Reasonably priced breakfast/​brunch café with a variety of menu items. I like the omelets, the breakfast bowls, the benedicts, the pancakes… basically everything that they serve here. There’s nothing fancy/​gourmet about Meli Café; it’s a pleasant café with friendly people that serve delicious breakfast food

My partner went there for an early breakfast after staying at the Parthenon Hostel across the street. Thankfully they were open nice and early at 6am before our train left Union Station.
Upon entering the restaurant we were promptly greeted and sat. The place is well decorated and very clean.
Soon our server came over and asked for beverage orders. She was very nice and helpful. The menu featured an extensive list of interesting options along with a page of specials. I couldn’t decide between a chorizo and Argentinian sausage breakfast bowl (a special) or a hash eggs benidict. I asked our server if the hash was homemade and she responded «Of course, even the ketchup is homemade!» :). She recommended the hash benidict and I took her advice! My girlfriend opted for the hash breakfast bowl called the «Emerald Isle».
The food was excellent and plentiful. In particular, the hash eggs benidict featured homemade corned beef hash that was actually formed into thick patties fried like a burger to top the English muffin. A ton of food for $ 14. I am a big eater and I couldn’t finish it, nor could my partner finish hers. We also were given homemade strawberry jam, quince marmalade, and honey butter for the homemade toast. I was very pleased!
The only negatives I can think of were
1) the regular coffee was average and initially the coffee refill service was a bit slow, which seemed inconsistent with the rest of the place.
2) The prices seemed high with the total for us two, including tea, coffee, and two breakfasts was $ 42 including tax and a 16% tip. Maybe not too high for Chicago, but difficult if you are on a tight budget. Most options are over $ 10.
All in all, this is a great place — tasty food, great service, and a nice location and interior. I highly recommend it!

This is one of the better places to brunch in Chicago and has been for years now. The food is fresh and tasty and the environment is just right, although a little tiny. All the fresh squeezed juices are amazing and the smoothies can be a meal in itself. On New Year’s Day I had a bad experience where all the orders were mixed up and a vegetarian omelette had chicken. But management came and apologized for the mistake and comped the food. Overall I think this is some of the best brunch food in Chicago! Try the breakfast tacos. I will suggest going in small groups because anything larger than 4 is a huge wait and confuses the waitresses.

Very great breakfast place.
They don’t take reservations and if you go there on a peak time you have to be prepared to wait, there isn’t much waiting space inside so you can be stuck in bad weather outside. It is worth the wait however.
This is my second time here and both times the food was excellent. First of all and this is important to me, they keep the coffee flowing which I appreciate. This time I ordered a salsa crêpe. I rarely order crepes for breakfast because too many places only have sweet crepes but this has savory and I went with the mexican themed. It had a chicken chorizo which was different but very good. There was also avocado and tomoto and it was very well cooked.
The server was friendly and efficient.
The only reason it wasn’t five stars was because the inside was rather small and kind of crowded. However if it wasn’t the wait would have been over an hour. I will come back but may try some of their other locations.

Loved it, definitely going back.
Woke up after NYE2015 party, craving for some good food, me and my friends decided to check this place out. This place was awesome.
They have a good variety of creative breakfast items giving enough options to meet everyone’s variant food preferences. For that reason, looking at their menu, I felt that I should order something different/​unusual than the regular breakfast menu items like omelette or pancakes. I ordered «black pepper bacon hash» from their «Today’s special» section. Bed of shredded crispy potato hash brown, bacon, green peppers, onions, red pepper, topped with melted cheese and covered with 2 over easy eggs (any style eggs, I choose over easy), served with toast (choose Rye) butter, fresh real pineapple jelly. So darn delicious.
All my friends loved whatever they ordered. They also have some good smoothies and coffee. Loved their green machine and mango smoothies. Service was good too.
Overall, I’ll definitely and happily recommend this place if you are looking for something different and delicious.

The service here was great! We were greeted and seated right away and the server was very attentive so for that I would have given 5 stars however, the food was terrible! I ordered the fresh berry crepes and baby reds. The baby reds were delicious but the crepes were very bland and well… just nasty. My friend had pancakes which we both agreed were not very tasty at all. We won’t be back, the food is just not worth it and the space is very tight.

Spent the New Years brunch here and it was wildly busy! After getting seated after 40 minutes I started with grapefruit juice which was amazing and so fresh. The meal itself was typical brunch, I would feel comfortable comparing to an eggsperience type of brunch. I had an avocado caprese wrap which was comparable to any sandwich shop. I also had their special which was a croissant French toast– lackluster. They also messed up our order a few times. The service left a lot to be desired, especially after a 45 minute wait.
I would return for an average brunch if the wait was not significant.

Solid neighborhood brunch spot. Expect a packed house if you come on the weekend. The juice/​smoothie options were all great and made our breakfast feel healthier. Food portions are large and definitively shareable. I still prefer Wildberry Café overall but this is a good alternative if you’re in West Loop or don’t want to wait 2 hours for brunch. Limited parking in the area, but there are meters available ($ 4/​hr eek).

Holy Crepes!!! do not leave without getting the crepes, even if you don’t like sweets, for the love of god order the crepes.
We came here with a group of 4 and they set us pretty quickly. We ordered our own entrees and got a crepes for the table. The plates were massive — each plate could easily feed a party of two. So I purposely didn’t finish my plate so I could try the dessert crêpe we got for the table. We ordered the cobbler which came with a ton of berries and tasted really light yet filling. It had just the perfect combination of sugars, syrup and fruit — enough to want you coming back for more!

Fist time dining in here it was a Sunday great first impression. Very friendly atmosphere and great food. This place was pretty packed when we arrive there was an estimated 25 minute wait we ended up being seated within like 10 minutes.
The menus weren’t too complicated. They offer a kids menu and specials along with the regular menu. Unfortunately they don’t have many food options that include pancakes. Our waitress was really nice she recommended a few choices. I ordered the breakfast sampler which includes 2 pancakes eggs bacon and hash browns. The eggs were scrambled soft the way I like them. The bacon was crispy and the hash browns were flavorful. The only reason why I’m giving this restaurant ⁴⁄₅ stars and not the whole 5 is because the pancakes were not to my liking. I recommend this place and I will be a returning customer.

I found the wait staff to be just what I wanted. No non-​sense and straight to the point with respect and timeliness.
I had the farm house skillet and it was soooo good. It’s enough for two people, so come with an appetite
Best Greek breakfast in GREEK TOWN

Meli Café is a fan favorite all around. It a no nonsense diner that truly has a place in my heart. Time after time, Meli serves up an absolutely divine breakfast… such as the one I had last Saturday!
Walking into Meli your eyes are immediately drawn to the plates of those around you… the hard part is deciding which plate looks the best! Oh there are specials, egg dishes, omlettes, skillets, eye openers, breakfast tacos, an entire juice menu, pancakes, French toast… and I haven’t even included the lunch… need I say more? Last week I went with the oh-​so-​hearty breakfast tacos served with chicken chorizo, avocado, cheese, pico, and even secret sauce. It was such a magical moment when my waitress graced me with my solid b-​fast choice. My dining partners and I also couldn’t resist the pancake section so we chose the maple pecan pancakes. WHOA… warm pecans and bananas folded right into the pancakes all topped with whipped cream and maple butter. Needless to say the rest of the day was pretty useless after devouring these two insane dishes.
The service is fast, friendly, and muy professional. They pair creative dishes with classic takes on your breakfast and lunch favs. I’ve never had a bad meal at Meli. If you come on a weekend, you may have to wait a couple minutes to be seated. but trust me, it’s always worth it;)

This joint was O-​K, nothing really stood out food wise, my breakfast bowl was tasty but not $ 15 tasty, my wife’s Banana french toast was nothing to write home about either, but I can’t scold them for we kinda landed here by mistake, so I guess we can split the fault. I did however notice that the cushion on the bench where we were sitting had payed its dues and needed relief to say the least. The service was meh at best for we never got water refills and there was a mild lack of charm in our server, but that is never guaranteed so whatever, parking is nightmarish and the pricing just makes the whole ordeal not worth the while, at least for me.
Thanks but no thanks guys, it will be a while before we come back.

Had a really nice brunch here after landing from O’hare.
Ordered the Hash Benedict, french toast and baked oatmeal.
All were delicious.
Hash Benedict was cooked perfect and the egg was spot. The potatoes that came with it were decent.
French toast was just right. A little hint of cinnamon and not overly sweet. Didn’t need any syrup for it. Baked oatmeal was a surprise. It was kind of like a crème brûlée crust on top. It had a lot of raisins and bananas which I dislike, but it was still pretty food.
Interior was nice, very welcoming. Service was great. Good spot to go!

Soo good ! This breakfast place had been on my list for a while, and I was so excited to come here for the first time this summer. I got here around 9am on a Saturday, and it didn’t really get crowded until around 10. The menu was overwhelming, but I ended up getting one of their specials of the day. This special was the croissant french toast with fruit and almonds on top. This french toast dish was amazing! The dish was so rich, and even though it came with syrup on the side, it was not needed at all because of how moist it was. The scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese I had on the side were memorable. I don’t know what they put in their eggs, but they were so fluffy, buttery and flavorful. I literally could go to Meli again and just have a plate of 2 eggs and be totally content. I can’t wait to visit this place again for another delicious meal.

I have been here before a long time ago. I remembered i had a bad service last time but desided to give it another chance.
The service was very pleasant this time. They accommodated us right away even though we had to wait about 15min for the rest of the guest to arrive. So we where able to start drinking coffee.
The coffee here is so good! If you are a crape kind of person this is a place you have to come to. The crapes are amazingly delicious! I had the Cloud 9. Everyone else loved what they order.
I will definitely come here again and recommend it to my friends.

Overall: Great breakfast/​brunch/​lunch option with casual prices and atmosphere.
The good: The food is delicious and plentiful. You will definitely not leave hungry. It’s also pretty affordable. Plenty of options to choose from. Overall the service is friendly and the atmosphere is clean.
The bad: The check took a long time to get taken care of. The food also took longer than expected. Very limited seating.
Atmosphere: ⁸⁄₁₀
Service: ⁸⁄₁₀
Food: ⁸⁄₁₀

HASH BENEDICT! I haven’t seen it on any other menu where I’ve been except on multiple menus in Chicago, so I figured I should order it.
Good choice, me!
The hash was perfect and not greasy at all. They also didn’t put too much hollandaise, which is usually a pitfall of brunch places. The potatoes were excellent but reeeaalllly salty. My mom got the yuppie bowl and it was SO good.
Overall… awesome.

This is where I had the best egg benedict of my life. I can see why they have raving reviews. Ate brunch here on Labor Day and there was a short wait for our group of 5. Parking around this area seems to be difficult to find?
I was amazed by the extensive menu options — it can be hard to choose! Egg benedict is my favorite breakfast item, so I settled on that list and went with the Hash Benedict. Food didn’t take long to come out and upon my first bite I knew I had made the right choice. Excellent combination of texture and flavor. It was a huge serving that came with baby red potatoes, so I only able to finish one muffin.
Also tried my cousin’s Mixed Berry french toast. Delicious but too sweet for me even without maple syrup, two bites is good enough for me.
The menu also included a selection of juices and smoothies! However I only ordered a small orange juice because I knew I would have gotten too full. Their healthy smoothies contain combinations I would like, though, and I would have gotten one to go if I weren’t going to be flying out after the meal.
Highly recommended!

Il né faut pas être pressé, j’ai plus d’une fois attendu 45 min pour pouvoir rentrer mais pour les petits déjeuners /​brunchs c’est une adresse incontournable.