The Daymaker Cafe

PRE: My dining partner and I arrived at The Daymaker Café about fifteen minutes before they closed. I asked if there was time to dine and the staff was accomodating and said no worries at all. Laid back place.
ORDERED: House Chicken Sandwich — $ 8.25 (Grilled chicken with applewood bacon, tomatoes, red onions, field greens and blueberry mayo on toasted French bread.) Side of fries.
TASTED: This sandwich has it all: Sweetness from the blueberry, salty from the bacon, acidic from the tomatoes and umami from the chicken. A very good sandwich. The fries were a daybreaker: limp and burnt.
IMPROVEMENTS: In my humble opinion there a few things that could bring Daymaker from «A-​OK» to «Woohoo!» pretty easily. ONE: Have some local art on the walls. The décor is bright but still seems stale, like an unfinished interior design project. TWO: Offer locally roasted coffee. When asked our waitress held up an unknown foodservice bag. Diners are an educated bunch these days with Alterra and other local offerings becoming commonplace at grocery stores. THREE: Put a telephone number of the café on the website. I accidentally left my sunglasses there and had to leave a message on the owner’s cell phone (which coincidentally never returned my call).

This was a quaint little place my girlfriend and I discovered through Unilocal when looking for a place somewhere on the way to Mayfair for a movie. They’re only open from 7:30am to 2pm, but they have a decent selection all around.
I had the corned beef hash, and the portion was very reasonable — both in price and size. It is also a nice, modernized sort of diner and substantially less greasy than some of the other, more traditional diners in town.
I’d definitely go back again.

I’d love to give Daymaker a glowing review. Just can’t do it.
On the positive side, the food is excellent. The menu features a great selection of unique burgers, and the ones I’ve tried have been excellent. You like pretzel rolls? Me too. They have a burger served on a pretzel roll. Hooray!
The disappointing: the service. As others have mentioned, the servers tend to be inconsistent, inattentive, and aloof. On my most recent visit, my wife and I stopped in for a late lunch, about 45 minutes prior to closing. We ended up being the only patrons left about 10 minutes before closing yet we still had to walk up to the counter to ask for more coffee and water. I’ve worked in food service and I understand the desire to clean up, shut down, and get out of the restaurant ASAP after closing, but you can’t do that until you’ve taken good care of every remaining customer, even if they stay a little past the posted closing time.
Bottom line: I might order takeout here at some point in the future, but Daymaker won’t be high on my list if I want to sit down for brunch or lunch on a Saturday. And that’s a shame, because the food is great.

I never would have suspected such a nondescript looking place to crank out such great breakfast food with names like the Cyclops (a sausage laden pancake with an egg in the middle)! It was top notch along with my brekky partner’s pretzel bread french toast with some type of sinfully delicious caramel (I think) sauce?!?
It’s definitely a place you’ll have time to sit and chat at as you wait for you food, then again I don’t know that they would have any more room for staff with the waitress and 3 line cooks sharing a space 2 bartenders would have a hard time in. The burgers look great on the menu and I’ll definitely try one out!

No excuse for inattentive slow service. The food was delicious, when it finally came. We waited 30 minutes for our food, and there were only a couple other tables filled at the time. It is sad to see a place with lots of potential go down the tubes, but I think that is what is happening here. The kitchen needs a professional’s touch — it seems like they only focus on one table at a time. The guys all seem nice — but there needs to be a strong, experienced hand on deck.

I’d love to review this place… would even love to try this place. However, when I went there today around 2pm they were closed. The sign on the door says that they close at 3pm. What’s up with that? Oh well, Daymaker… maybe next time; you just didn’t make my day today.

A great little addition to Wauwatosa. Corn beef hash is homemade and not from a can. Omelets are flavorful. Hamburgers (try the blue cheese!) are great. Service can be uneven, and they don’t always open up on time. I’m hoping they get the bugs ironed out.

The coffee is horrible. We had such great hopes based on the previous reviews. Went on a Saturday at 11am. Three cooks, one waitress. The waitress had no hustle about her and seemed to dictate service by moving down the line of booths as some sort of democratic way of dealing with her 5 tables. The food was very So So. I got the Veggie Scrambler with Rye Toast which sounded delicious on the menu. It looked great, but was very bland to taste and was missing several of the ingredients (artichokes, etc) posted on the menu. My boyfriend had an omelet which was wonderful except the toast (on both plates) was very cold and very dry. The décor is cute as a heck but sadly the poor coffee, lack of vegetarian options, no soy milk, etc will have me driving back to the east side cafes instead of supporting my own neighbors.
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Went at about 9am on a Saturday morning. The place was ¾ full, but we found a booth near the back of the diner. The menu was interesting and had many different unique options, particularly amongst the omelete selections.
After ordering, the food took about 45 minutes to come. The lone waitress did her best to keep my coffee full, and she repeatedly apologized for the delay (by about 10am every seat was taken). When the food came, the portions were large and very good (the pancakes were a hit). My blueberry pancakes were delicious, with lots of blueberries in the pancake itself, but a side dish to pour on top of the pancakes if more were desired. As a side dish, I ordered chorizo, which was also very good (but the portion was small for the $ 2.95 price).
The only downside was the wait. It seemed the staff was completely unprepared for the crowd that they saw, but probably should have anticipated it after the glowing review they received just days ago in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Only two cooks working the griddle and one server for the entire dining room didn’t seem like it was enough to handle a capacity crowd. For now, I’ll attribute this to growing pains that comes with rapid word-​of-​mouth reviews leading to curiosity.
Because of the friendly staff, large menu, and delicious food, a return visit is definate. However, I’m hopeful the diner will be a bit more prepared for the large crowds they’re now attracting.

Great Sunday morning breakfast spot! No wait, quick service, good hearty diner food, perfect portions and nice prices.
The All Day had pancakes, bacon, ham, hashbrowns and sauasage patty. Perfect meal to get you through the whole day!
The W. North Avenue corridor in Tosa really has spawned nice dining options in the last few years. Love it.

Such a great little neighborhood diner/​café. Went for breakfast on a Sunday and got a table right away for 5. Hope it stays under the radar bc the food is amazing and the lack of wait was phenomenal. Not the fastest service in the world, but pretty darn good. A quiet gem. The burgers look phenomenal!

I’m a fan of the traditional lunch counter. As I’ve stated about another local favorite, John’s Sandwich Shop, the counter experience provides a brief, yet pleasant perspective on what consitutes a ‘hub’ within a community.
Local identity is captured by coffee shops and those that inhabit them. I’ll be frank and admit I’m biased against non-​local chains. Support a new, independent Wauwatosa establishment and visit Daymaker.
I ordered the corned beef hash and was not disappointed. In fact, I saw this traditional breakfast plate in a whole new light. Gone are the days when hash only came from a can. This stuff was piled into a belly-​filling mountain of REAL shredded corned beef and hot, large fried potatoes. Although they didn’t carry English muffin, the toast was acceptable, but would have been better if it had been Texas toast. Something larger to fit the heavy out-​sized portion served on my plate.
The only reason I haven’t given them 5 stars is because I’ve yet to try a lunch or dinner. However, the hash could satisfy a grumbling stomach at any hour.