The Mitchell’s Original

As of Monday 9÷26÷11 Mitchell’s has closed for business.

Mitchells 1998= 5 star. One of the best. Good bang for the buck, great food, nice old lady service.
Mitchells 2003= 4 Star. Prices climb a bit, food still on the money. Staff just as good as always.
Mitchells 2008= 2 star. This got expensive. Now they serve beer? Staff getting a little cranky, decline in food quality.
Mitchells 09/​05/​11= WTF man?! $ 3.65 for a side of sausage? All breakfast plates that were $ 6.99 are now $ 9.99 and up. My waitress was so bad she didnt get a tip, the first time I have not-​tipped in over 10 years.
Mitchells you broke my heart today. You used to be one of the best. I will never go back.

I honestly don’t get Unilocal.Some of the reviews on here are hysterical.
This is a diner. It’s not the ritz. Grade it as such.
For a diner this place is just great. Sure, I suppose there could be 5 star service but what you get is just fine.
Had just a plain order of eggs, hashbrowns, and oj. Everything was up to par.
Good food.

One of my pet peeves is: Businesses that come to take your continued patronage for granted and start treating you with the thinly-​veiled contempt that comes from familiarity.
My wife and I recently experienced this with Mitchell’s, to which we’ve been going to nearly every Saturday morning for the last eight years or so.
You may know what I mean: the service gets a little sloppier or slower; the waitstaff bristles a little when you make a legitimate complaint about the food not being what you ordered, they pay better attention to the other people there than they do you — things like that. I think it’s because they stopped seeing us as a customer and more like a family member. And people are not always polite to their family members.
It’s almost as though they became tired of seeing us come there every weekend. You know, like a family member who comes around uninvited too often.
(To be clear, not all the waitstaff are like this. We like Sharon and Maria, especially. Good folks. And another Latina lady, we forget her name, I think she’s from Central America? The rest of them range from inconsistent to simply awful.)
And now with a new manager — I think his name is Arthur? — I think his mission is to cut costs to increase margins. He’s not like Steve, the previous manager, who was a great guy but left the business to sell real estate. Arthur’s not mean or anything, but he is decidedly colder, a bit standoffish, and even adversarial. When you discuss something with him about the service, he must win the point to protect his margins.
Well, I guess he won. We’re not regulars anymore.
I like the food and portions, and it was nice not to have to discuss where we were going for breakfast, but all things eventually come to an end, don’t they? It’s probably good this happened. Maybe it will lead us to a regular place we’ll like better.

Check this out, OK?
Me: –Omelet +egg whites +spinach +cheese
came with hashbrowns and toast
–hot tea
Dining mate: –Two eggs plate +egg whites
–Fruit cup
–Coffee
Total: $ 36… Huh?
This wasn’t the Russian Tea Room. Nor, was it M. Henry, Wishbone, or any other higher echelon purveyor of brunch fare. It’s a diner. Not Eleven City Diner. No. There are no bells and whistles. No fancy pants entrance with cool shiny décor to make one feel justified in charging a bit more. No, no, no! This is just a straight up, plain ol’ diner. So… … … why thee f* was our bill $ 36 for just what I listed?
I’ll tell you why, because the prices are inflated to ridiculous proportions. After the sheer shock of the total, we closer inspected the bill. Coffee was over $ 3!!! No, it was not some special roast. No, it was not flavored, or massaged, or cooed, or whatever stuff is done to coffee for it to be that price. It was just diner coffee. Poured out of a coffee pot at your table before being carried to the next table. And no, the price for the coffee was not noticed pre-​ordering for the simple fact that you just don’t frickin expect to pay over $ 1.50 for diner coffee-​pot coffee. So, don’t sass me any of that «Well, didn’t you see it on the menu?»
I won’t even get into the other prices. Point blank, the omelet was decent. The hashbrowns weren’t cooked well. The toast was chewy. My hot water for my tea arrived lukewarm the first time. Dining mate said there was nothing to write home about their meal. Not worth the money in reality OR theory.
I’m going to stick to Clarke’s on the diner food front in that area. Even with an alcoholic beverage, I still pay about $ 20 for more really tasty food than I can eat there. Mitchell is trippin. Clarke hooks me up.

I have to update my review. I’ve been back since my last review probably 6 times and every visit has been increasingly bad. Today’s visit was the absolute worst though. from the slowest service on the planet to delivering cold food, to saying when they BrOUght out the cold food — oops by the way, they don’t have what my friend ordered, does she want to order something else? 15 minutes come back to take the order. I hate bad reviews to be honest. I would much rather see good service SOmewhere in a business. I told the manager before I left. He said «sorry. Do you want to leave a tip?» that’s it?
Wow. Mediocre food served by the slowest, most mismanaged bunch of people. Mismanaged is the key word here.
Never. Again.

Although the food here is pretty decent, I can’t get over the wait staff and the prices. After being seated, you’re either left waiting without a waitress for nearly 10 minutes, or you’re being asked within the first minute of sitting down if you’re ready to order. If you tell them you need a minute to look over the menu, the waitress usually irritatedly walks away and doesn’t return for about 10 minutes.
I know waitresses get busy, but if you’re expecting to get a good tip, don’t talk to me for .2 seconds, get all pissy because I don’t have the menu memorized, and then take FOREVER to get refills/​check/​etc. Absolutely blows my mind how horrible the waitresses are — if you insist on being a miserable person, it’s probably not your best bet working in the service industry — just a thought.
I would never come back here if I had it my way, but my boyfriend loves their omelets.

I’m not surprised about the three star rating this place has. This diner is not anything special, and IMO, not even anything decent. Our breakfast took awhile to get to our table, and we had to ask twice for orange juice. We didn’t get any water refills during our visit, so had to deal without it for our meal.
Which, now that I mention it, was not good. My boyfriend’s steak and eggs was flavorless and boring, but my skillet was almost inedible. The «cheese» on it was some hyper-​processed cheddar blend, and they have the balls to charge an extra dollar for some generic Kraft cheddar single. Even the sausage was oddly soft, and kind of gross. The potatoes clumped together into a mush, and the texture turned into something that would have been good for someone with no teeth. Thank the lord for my eggs and toast.
Everything on the menu was an extra dollar or two than it should have been. A nice way for a gimmicky diner to make an extra hundred bucks every day.
The Original Mitchell’s has been around since the 1970’s. I’m surprised that it still has such a clientele.

love this place! Everything we’ve ever tried here has been incredible and reasonably priced. My favorites:
Greek Spinach-​pie Omelete

Mitchell’s has been one of my first choices for Breakfast for at least 12 years. It’s certainly not the best. But it’s easy free parking with quick and consistent food. I always stick with the basics here. I’ve never been disappointed with the standard egg, bacon, toast and OJ. It’s not a place to stray away from basic easy dishes.

Where everybody knows your name. We have not been for months due to invasion of infant. Manager gives big hello wonders where we have been, sees daughter and understands and gives us the warmest congratulations. And so did the waitress.
I have never ordered anything besides an egg white omelet and it is terrific.
Technically 4 stars is a bit much compared to other breakfast places but they really made me smile.

My parents insisted on taking me, my wife and our 3 year old daughter here for lunch. It was mediocre at best. I had the fresh turkey and corned beef sandwich on rye. My wife had a veggie taco salad. My parents both had the Greek salad and they loved it. Obviously, they had this salad on their mind and that is why we went there. My 3 year old daughter had pancakes and bacon and was a happy camper.
Service was lousy.

Adjust the sliding scale of expectations and lower yours to the «diner» level before you come to Mitchell’s. There are many high-​quality brunching options in Chicago, and guess what Unilocalers, this ain’t one of them.
Saddle up for your standard diner menu consisting of omelettes, pancakes, and basic lunch/​dinner options. Mirroring the menu, the dress code is casual and you’ll see lots of morning after meals taken unshowered in sweatpants. I find this to be one of Mitchell’s most redeeming qualities. This is the perfect spot for a lazy meal where I can eat eggs at 12:30pm with little to no judgment. Another great quality? Diner food comes with diner prices. This isn’t exactly a hidden gem, so be prepared to wait on the weekends if you come at peak times.

I have been to The Original Mitchell’s a few times and I absolutely love it. It’s probably one of my favorite places to brunch here in Chicago.
It is very diner-​y. Which a few of my friends have criticized it for. However, I don’t mind this. It sort of reminds me of a place called Ridgeways, back in my home town, which brings back nothing but good memories. The service is fast, maybe a bit too fast, in a way that makes me feel a bit rushed. There is always a pretty substantial line on the weekends so they are eager to serve their customers but still, sometimes I just want to take my time and enjoy my breakfast!
I am pretty boring when it comes to what I order. I stick with the traditional two eggs, toast, hash browns and meat. But, I LOVE it. I especially love the hash browns. And they are REAL hash browns. They aren’t potatoes but cut in little strips like you would expect when somebody says hash browns. They’re just so good. And the rest is great as well, especially the toast, which I think is the thick texas style toast. They also have lots of butter packets on the table so I don’t have to continuously ask for more butter, but rather, can use as much butter as I see fit. Which is usually a lot.
There is parking as well, but the parking lot is usually pretty hectic. I always seem to find a spot but sometimes it can get crowded with cars pulling in and out, etc.
I hope you all enjoy this place as much as I do. They make good food and I enjoy the vibe there. And I look forward to coming back shortly!

Mitchell’s has everything I want in a breakfast diner — free parking, no wait, and the fattest omelettes on this side of my fork. I ordered the spinach and feta omelette, and every bite of this roly poly deliciousness was jam packed with the fillings. I only finished a third of it, and had enough for a late night drunken snack. Yum.
The service was speedy, the coffee was refilled before I went below half a cup, and the prices were very reasonable (everything’s about 10 bucks). The atmosphere is cheery with families (man, I hope I can be one of those hot moms someday toting my baby things in a gucci bag) and hungover yuppies galore.
It’s hearty, wholesome, and makes you want a belly rub afterwards like a satisfied puppy. If you want a tangerine-​marscapone-​ganache thingy, go somewhere else. This place is for solid breakfast and bottomless coffee.

I can’t get over the 2-​star and 1-​star reviews. IT’S A FREAKING GREEK DINER, PEOPLE!!! And a darn good one. The eggs are sooooo fluffy. The spinach pie omlette is a little bite of heaven. I also love simple over easy eggs here because they are all double-​yolk eggs! yum-​o! The waitress service does vary a bit; in my experience the older women calling everyone «dear» and «hun» are leaps and bounds above the young girls who basically all look like they kinda want to sit down at your table and take a nap. Water and coffee refills are abundant… there is ALWAYS a runner walking around with both.
Speaking of the coffee… there is one really lame thing about this place, and it ticks me off every single time, but it’s hardly breaking the deal of me going back — the coffee is freaking $ 2.79 (for a bottomless cup). And it’s crappy coffee. BUT alas… I can live with overpriced crappy coffee and I cannot live without spinach pie omlettes. I will be back!

SERIOUSLY good omlettes. SERIOUSLY GOOD for a Greek-​style diner (yes, Monte Cristo is on the menu).
Now, a summary of everything else:
THE GREAT:
Again, great omlettes. Super fluffy and — bonus — evenly dispersed ingredients (don’t you hate it when the goodies have gathered on one side of the omlette and the other side is a desert?).
THE GOOD:
Good pancakes and Greek Toast (nice and thick, warm).
Great bus staff always stopped by to fill water, ask if we needed anything replenish the hot n brown acid drink (see the «BAD» below).
THE BAD:
Coffee. Amoco serves better brew.
THE SERVICE:
Borderline crap. The hostess was a grump and the server was forgettable. But then again, this is a diner so you cannot go in expecting sommelier-​style service.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
Would I go back for the omlettes? Yes. Would I make an extra trip to get out here for anything else? Probably not. But overall, this place is much better than the current 3-​star average review.

I went to Mitchell’s for the first time this week. My experience wasn’t great. I don’t consider myself incredibly picky, but if I’m going to spend money on a restaurant meal, I want it to be worth it.
The food was somewhere between so-​so and average, and for what it was, it was pretty overpriced. The salad I ordered, which was $ 5.99, was a sad little thing – a pile of iceberg lettuce with a little cabbage and one tomato slice on top. I got soup to go with it; the noodles were overcooked and the roles were MIA. My sister got breakfast food, which looked more promising, but it was expensive. Our waitress was hovering over us, and it started to grate on me by the end of the meal.
The next time I’m in the area and need a quick lunch, I’ll probably hit Dunkin Donuts for a bagel and coffee.

My husband proposed on the morning of my 30^th birthday. After the weepy joy was under control, he told me to pick where ever I wanted for breakfast.
I picked Mitchell’s. Tried and true delicious-​ness.
The omlettes are jaw dropping. The size and volume never cease to amaze me. So fluffy and perfect. I’ve spent hours in my kitchen trying to immitate them without success. The cheese is always melted in the center (BIG petpeeve of mine) and the meat is never skimpy.
The wait can be intimidating on the weekends and they usually won’t seat you until your entire party is present. But they often have a little baked snack sample on the counter to tide you over.
I’ve never had lunch or dinner there. Why would I?! The omlettes are just so impressive.

Mitchell’s is a shining example of what the quintessential «Chicago Diner» is supposed to be. Bustling, friendly but direct service, greasy food fast, cheap.
All the servers (if female) call you «hon» or «sweetie» while smacking gum and scribbling your order in almost illegible scratch on their order pad. The menu is HUGE, and spans every kind of breakfast skillet (these are excellent), pancake special, patty melt, burger, omlette, gyro platter and/​or salad combination you can think of. Order coffee at any time of day or night, and you gotta love that free parking.
Mitchell’s is great for a quick dinner, hungover brunch or anything in between.