Salt & Pepper Diner

This place was truly lovely! Amazing food, and best of all the service was phenomenal! Truly will be missed.

One of my favorite places in Chicago to eat. The place had a great atmosphere, felt like coming to a comfortable family meal every time you walked in. I’ll miss it, and more importantly, the amazing staff, tremendously.

Great Monte Cristo!

NOW CLOSED… FOREVER…thanks for all of the memories for the 20+ years I’ve been coming for breakfast (chicken/​Swiss omelet, tater tots and a English muffin will never be the same)

ZERO stars — food is meh but one of the servers and the woman who answers the phones are an absolute nightmare. They are losing this restaurant money every day. I have had two terrible experiences with these people. .. no one wants to be yelled at on a Sunday morning waiting for pancakes. I tried to call later to complain to the manager and the same woman answered the phone, wouldn’t let me talk to a manager, and screamed at me in a way that I can only describe as a drunk 22 year old girl finding out her boyfriend cheated on her.. . the sheer volume of this woman was unreal. I will never give this company my business again. And frankly this server and the woman who answers the phone should be fired.

Well this sucks. It really does. I like diners and I like the food here. However, I have got the worst service ever twice in a row here, both during breakfast on a Cubs game day. August 2015 and now again in April 2016. I understand that it’s super busy. I have been to several breakfast restaurants on busy Sunday mornings and holidays but none have been this bad. Maybe counter service sucks? I don’t know.
Once we were seated at the counter (far left side, two seats from the end) we waited quite a while before we were waited on. Luckily we knew what we wanted and ordered right away. I like to judge how good service is based on keeping drinks full. The real good places do refills a lot, the ok places maybe once, bad places not at all. This was worse than not at all. After waiting 10 minutes after we placed our order we finally got our coffee but the waitress forgot cream so I asked for it. She did not return to our area of the counter until our food was done, an INSANE 30 minutes later. People behind us in line that were sitting at a table not only got their food before us, but were almost finished before we even got ours. By this time our coffee was cold and I asked again for cream and now new coffee because she never stopped back that entire time. Now, you’d think if you screwed something up you’d take care of it right away. Nope. She took a few orders and served a few people before bringing us our coffees. I couldn’t believe it.
It took over an hour from the minute we sat down to the minute we walked out to eat here thanks to the service. When we walked out, there was a line out the door to get in with an hour or so left til the game started. Some of these people had children with them. I didn’t want these kids to have their baseball game screwed up because of this place. I warned those waiting that it took an hour for us to eat there and if they want to get to the game on time I suggest going elsewhere. At least 8 people left the line when I said that. This place needs serious work on the service. Almost the exact same thing happened when we went last year but I figured it was a fluke and I’d give it another chance. This tells me it wasn’t a fluke.

This place is the best. Great breakfast spot in the heart of Wrigleyville with friendly service and good food. Love the skillets and flavored mimosas. Prices are very reasonable and can’t beat the people watching if you get a window booth around game time! So sad to hear they are closing… Salt&Pepper Diner will be greatly missed!

Continuing to patronize this place after several years. The staff is excellent and universally nice, food is excellent, and it’s clean. It’s a pleasure to spend my cash in there and I can’t think of any improvement needed.

Came here for the what’s new pussycats, and left satisfied, to the tune of what’s new pussycat. My only complaint was I wasn’t sure how many times they played it through. It was either 20, or 10, I can’t tell because there might be a dip in the middle of the song. Speaking of dip, I’d recommend the spinach and artichoke dip. YUM. Salt & Pepper Diner, thanks for one of the best meals of my life. ¹⁰⁄₁₀

As part of tradition with our group of friends, we always start the night here for 1 $ Jell-​O shots. Even on weekends, the place doesn’t ever seem to be crowded.

Inexpensive food minutes from Wrigley. Cheap cocktails. Easy. Food was pretty good.

Went here on saturday to grab a quick lunch as we were in a hurry. I understand its a Diner and sometimes they might run slow, but we ordered pretty quickly. I simply got the Buffalo Chicken sandwich. It was really basic. Buffalo Chicken Patty some lettuce and a tomato on a bun. I wouldn’t recommend it, really not worth the 9 bucks that it was. Took us about 25 – 30 minutes to get food. Then we had asked for our check, but our waitress took her time with that and was chatting it up with the table behind us when we tried to pay the bill at the counter. We waited about 10 minutes and decided to just pay with cash and walk out. Service could pick up quite a bit, and this place needs to work on the food portion a bit. There are much better options in the area, I would only suggest this place if you are in a pinch.

My boyfriend and I stumbled on this place looking for a quick meal before the Cubs game. The place was pretty swarmed so I’ll let them off on the slow service. However, it’s even worse when there’s slow service AND they mess up your order. My boyfriend asked for a side of tater tots and got fries instead. I asked for ranch on the side and had to wait 10 minutes for her to return. As for the food, my boyfriend and I both agreed it was not a great burger. I probably would have been more satisfied with McDonalds. Definitely the least impressive burger I’ve had when dining in Chicago. Only satisfaction I had out of the entire meal was the French fries but, hey, it’s hard to have bad fries. On that note, I’m not in a rush to return here.

I came here on an off weekday for food and my friends and I really enjoyed it. The food was good and the staff was friendly. I can assume that this place gets crazy on weekends especially with Cubs games or other events going on bear Clark st.
I ordered the chorizo scrambler and it was on point (or on fleek as the kids say these days). Judging the groans of jealousy in my friend group you should get something with chorizo in it. No one disliked their food but the chorizo created food envy.
You might be wondering why I didn’t give it five and it was because I was underwhelmed with the Bloody Mary. They are cheap bloody Mary’s so I didn’t have high expectation but I felt like they could add something to their premade mix. Or at least throw a pickle in instead of a celery stalk. I feel like a boozy brunch place has to have a solid bloody in order to stand out.

On our trip to Chicago we had breakfast at this place, which was right around the corner from Wrigley Field. I really enjoyed my meal and we had great service. However, I was disappointed that there was no changing station for my son in the bathroom.
My parents had been there before and want to make it a regular spot when we visit Chicago. I don’t mind that at all and already know that next time I’ll try the gluten free pancakes!

DELICIOUS!!! I found this place on Unilocal and had very high expectations for it. It did not disappoint. The service was friendly and speedy. The breakfast choices were fantastic. I was even shocked to see that they had a gluten free pancake option, which surprised me for such a old time diner. I loved it and can’t wait to come back… maybe I will try a strawberry shake.
Loved that there was close by street parking. Would be perfect before a Cubs game but was also great for a late breakfast on a weekday!

Salt and Pepper Diner is one of those place that is a staple in the neighborhood. The morning after a big night out, everyone chorales at Salt and Pepper for breakfast and rehashing the events of the night before. The corned beef hash is my favorite — just like my mom makes it. The orange juice is not fresh, but you can order a beer to help the hangover or a milkshake in its place.
Great spot, always busy but not necessarily difficult to get a table. They get people in and out quickly.

I’ve stopped by here after work several times on my way home to order takeout. Every time, the waitresses have been super nice and friendly. I’m always offered a seat and a glass of water while waiting for my food.
I’ve ordered the ultimate cheesy burger, a BLT sandwich, and a California wrap. They’re all good and your typical diner fare. Prices are average.
The place is never packed when I go which means I never have to wait long for my food.
I keep coming back because it’s convenient and the service is really great!

Friends took me here since they know I have a healthy appetite, and I was not disappointed! The diner was showing your throwback Saturday morning cartoons, which I absolutely loved! Who doesn’t love Looney Tunes?
I chose one of the skillets that had blackened chicken, diced tomatoes, onion, potatoes, cheese, topped with some scrambled eggs. I chose the mini pancakes that came as my side. The food was a generous portion, and kept me full for several hours! The pancakes were a nice sweet ending to my savory meal.
The bloody mary (only $ 4!) was just ok for me since it had more tang than spiciness. I preferred the adult root beer over the bloody. It really does taste like root beer! Try it, and like it!
Service was friendly, and my water glass was kept full at all times, despite how busy it was at noon. I did like that the hot sauce was already at the table. It helped add more heat to breakfast!
Highly recommend if you’re in the area since it’s so close to Wrigley field!

My buddies and I were in Chicago for a long weekend and we needed some grub for breakfast before the Cubs game. We found Heaven!
The place was pretty packed and the short order cooks were working like mad! I loved it, huge piles of hash browns were frying on the grill. We noticed they had booze, so 1 Bloody Mary please. It wasn’t very strong at all, but it had great spice.
Our waitress was awesome, she took our order, a breakfast sandwich for one of my buds, a turkey sausage skillet for me, and I forget what my other friend got.
We ordered a pitcher of Rolling Rock to split with brunch (Cool!) Our food came out pretty quick considering there were at least a hundred people in there.
The skillet was perfect, lots of turkey sausage, two sunny side eggs on top of a bed of hash browns. Every bite was perfect for a Friday morning after hitting the Chicago bars. Just amazing! I love a drizzling yolk over diner goodness!
My friend loved his sandwich and we left fully satiated to enjoy a drizzly day at Wrigley. Highly recommended!