The Uptowner Cafe

Avoid at all costs.
I went on a Sunday afternoon, so it was fairly busy. That being said, the service was incredibly slow. It took nearly 40 minutes after ordering to receive my eggs, hashbrowns, and bacon. The eggs and bacon were decent enough, but the hashbrowns were RIDICULOUSLY greasy. If you pressed them with your fork, the grease would form puddles. This lead to a rather explosive day in the bathroom and a debilitating sluggishness for several hours.
Due to the narrow shape of the building, it gets very loud in the restaurant as well; definitely not a relaxing environment for a Sunday breakfast.
TL;DR: Slooooow service, greeeeaaasy food, and bad ambiance.

Just great cheap diner’esque brunch food. I love the eggs benedict (sub the bacon for ham) and any of the omelettes. Hands down best hash browns around– greasy, crispy goodness by the plateful! My boyfriend and I come here at least once a weekend and have never had to wait for a table. Service is good and staff is super friendly. This is a hidden gem.

Tried to go here Sunday only to find out that they’re closed… yet I just bought a
for them not too long ago. Hmmmm… a bit disappointed!
Uptowner Café was a really good breakfast place! The portions are super generous and you just couldn’t beat their price!
Hopefully they will reopen somewhere else!!!

Sooooo good! Best hash browns ever. Perfect omelette with fresh veggies and yummy marble rye toast. Rounding out the perfect meal was EXCELLENT coffee served in large mugs and friendly service.
Seriously, get the hash browns!!!

No breakfast is complete after a night of drinking without one of my favorite’s Eggs Benedict I would enjoy the Uptowner Benedict. I chose the Uptowner Café on a whim, simply because it had a 20% off Unilocal offer. The food is tasty and straightforward. The eggs were perfectly poached and that spice was delivered by the andoullie sausage and the tomatoes added a nice touch of acid to this non-​traditional play on Eggs Benedict. I would definitely eat there again considering the amazingly reasonable prices for their huge portions.

We ordered delivery from Uptowner. Delivery was earlier than expected. Prices are decent, considering the portion sizes.
I had the Uptowner Club Sandwich, which was excellent. Far too big for me to take the full bites, but I gave it my all and it was delicious. The fries were nice and thin, the way I prefer.
My girlfriend ordered pancakes with banana and chocolate chips, but they forgot to add the chocolate chips. Also, her breakfast sausage was a little on the burnt side. Uptowner could earn another star if they didn’t mess up her order, possibly two more stars if the prices were a little lower.
A nice place, but could be better.

Been here twice for brunch. Both times I ordered the Uptowners Eggs Benedict. Talk about a heart attack on a plate. Usually I order a bacon and cheese omelette regardless of what breakfast restaurant I go to. Only thing I don’t like about this place is the seating because you can’t see whats really behind or in front of you and the waitress service is a little slow especially when waiting for the check. But still food is very good for this small little restaurant and is a must try if you’re in the Lincoln Park neighborhood
One more thing, portions are freaking huge!!!

Thank you for providing my little sister and I warm shelter that dreadfully windy morning we arrived to consume the meal that breaks the fast from the prior night.
After walking past the joint about 3 times, my sister and I finally realized where the entrance from The Uptowner was and we made a beeline for a cozy booth a safe distance from the door. A nice girl came back with menus and grabbed our petitions for water (yes, this is how frugal travelers stay hydrated). Perusing the menu piqued our interest, but we settled on a Mediterranean omelet with a serving of hot oatmeal served with brown sugar, raisins, and bananas.
When the plates came out, we knew that between the two of us, we would be satiated with the portions that we ordered. We asked for a second plate to split up the omelet, hash browns and toast. Omelet was delicious and fluffy and the hash browns were crispy and tasty. Oatmeal was standard fare, but it was filling and just what the doctor ordered for such brisk weather.
We may or may not have licked our plates clean, but you would have been hard pressed to find even a crumb. The next time I go to Lincoln Park (can I live there, please?!), I will have to make a pit stop here.

I have never been to this place but i have ordered delivery breakfast multiple times. The breakfast is soooooooo good! I have had the eggs benny and the biscuits and gravy and a couple of egg dishes. The biscuits and gravy is tasty, i always order it with 3 fried eggs on top because thats my thing, try it. The delivery comes fast and the food is wrapped with care to insure it is very hot when it gets to you. (box with tin foil lining, nice touch). Most delivery breakfast places I have had in chicago don’t do this so I decided to note.
Not too $$$.

Small restaurant with great prizes! and breakfast at all times, what else can beat that?
I ordered french toast with banana toppings and the bread was absolutely amazing. I got a 20% discount through Unilocal,which made it even better! The waitress was attentive and nice. The bathroom was «unisex» and very dirty :/​ (there goes 1 less star) it makes me wonder their sanitizing habits in the kitchen. But overall great food.

Weak coffee but huge portions of food!
That being said, those huge portions of food gave both me and the bf some not-​so-​healthy-​feeling-​shits. Yep. About 1 hour later we were both feeling the grease kick in from Uptowner. If you check into Unilocal,you get 20%, so that was nice! I think I may have lost about 20% of water weight though afterwards.
Now, I don’t want ya’ll to think it was 100% due to this café, however, pretty sure it was 99% their fault. When there’s that much food and that much grease, there’s gonna be that much… you know. I DID enjoy my egg scramble and 2 huge pieces of toast that I thankfully did not finish. That’s why I’m giving it two stars.
:) Hope you enjoyed that review.

This is my first-​ever Unilocal review because I usually don’t care enough about a place to actually write about it, but this time was different. I’m not sure how this place has gotten so many positive reviews. This is passable drunk food at best, but for those of us who eat lunch sober in the middle of the afternoon, it’s really not acceptable.
My girlfriend and I walked in and were immediately struck by an overwhelming, unpleasant grease smell that stuck in our hair and clothes for hours. But with so many good reviews, we decided to stay. I mean, I love a good greasy spoon just as much as the next guy — I don’t automatically hate a place because it’s a little greasy. Unfortunately, this place was greasy and bad.
We split a Cajun Breakfast and a side of biscuits and gravy, because the pictures online looked good, and the portions seemed big enough to share. It was definitely enough for two people, but that’s about the only good thing I can say about the food. The over-​easy eggs sitting atop hash browns cooked with mushrooms, peppers and onion would likely have been just fine if they weren’t completely swimming in the worst hollandaise sauce imaginable. And when I say swimming, I mean the plate was entirely covered with this stuff. It was definitely straight from a can. The biscuits likewise might have been okay without the nasty gravy, also clearly from a can. Being a Southerner with a mama who knows how to cook, I will admit that I am picky about gravy, but I can appreciate mostly anything that’s made in house. Canned gravy is where I draw the line.
We went in not really knowing what to expect. Judging by some of the other reviews, Uptowner could have been one of those rare dives that really does things right — I kind of imagined a place you might find on Diners, Drive-​ins and Dives — but sadly, it wasn’t. Again, I have no problem with a place that does greasy drunk food well (think Five Faces or the like). In fact, I love places like that because they don’t try to do things beyond their scope. If you’re going to be a greasy spoon, just serve really good greasy food. If, on the other hand, you’re going to offer hollandaise or sausage gravy, actually make it. Don’t serve me crap from a can. That’s not okay.
I will say that our waiter was very nice and clearly had quite a bit to do: not only was he waiting tables, but he was also in the kitchen cooking. Clearly a hard-​working, nice guy. However, the terrible food and cramping nausea we both had after eating here mean this place get two thumbs WAY down.

Attention large groups of ladies looking to eat brunch together but NOT wanting to wait an absurdly long time for a table! Uptowner takes reservations! This came in handy for a Sunday morning reunion of some of my very bestest friends.
I apologize to our waitress as we were definitely talking over each other, without pause, for a half hour and seemingly never ready to order every time she asked… This was a decent brunch! Super greasy food and epically massive portions. We ate at 11 and I wasn’t hungry again until well into the evening.
They have a wide variety of egg options and other breakfast classics. I went with the Cajun Breakfast (without hollandaise, duh) and it was real, real good. Probably 3 potatoes worth of hashbrowns covered the bottom of my platter (not plate, PLATTER) topped with cheddar, and supposedly mushrooms, onions, and green peppers. However, these veggies were at first nowhere to be found, and then few and far between considering the mass of food in front of me. This was incredibly disappointing as the veggies had been my meager attempt at adding a healthy element to my meal. Two over-​easy eggs with cajun spice sat on top. The spice is actually spicy by the way! But in a good way. I opted to add sausage and was given a smaller plate with what seriously looked like a hamburger… I tentatively took a bite and it ended up being delicious. I still kind of wish I was chopped up and IN my breakfast.
I checked in on Unilocal and was given a 20% off coupon. Unfortunately, the waitress only took it off of my meal and not the full bill. I hate complaining so I didn’t say anything, but in my opinion, this was a little weird. If I hadn’t been a 20-​something girl, situation might have gone a different way. Overall, good experience, great pricing, typical diner-​y food. Go check it out one day when you’re a) really hungover b) starving or c) feeling a little poor.

How had I forgotten to write a review for this place.
My first time was random. We were bar hopping nearby and walked in. I’d seen a few reviews and remembered the name so we decided to check it out. It was 2 or 3 am when we walked in. Had a YouSwoop but our waiter suggested saving it till next time. Late night menu was half off and we were thrilled. Many of us ordered cheeseburgers with a sunny but runny egg on top. I ordered a couple shorts stacks as appetizers. Ha. The total bill was low. Everyone was happy with our food and the service. It’s diner food but served in a nicer environment.
I have to remember dudes name, a good ol’ boy that moved out here from Iowa. On future visits he would always be our server /​chef. Most times I have been in here late night, visits after midnight and every visit we liked the food and were thrilled at the low cost of our bill. To this day I haven’t had a chance to redeem the YouSwoop and that doesn’t bother me. The café keeps unique hours, like open a few hours in the day, then they are closed for most of the night and reopen in the late evening.
The café is hard to find especially at night. It’s not a bar so you won’t find bright advertising luring you in. The café for some reason is almost always dead and I have never minded that. That only means our server is paying more attention to our table and we are having a better time. So far I’ve tried the short stacks, cheeseburgers with an egg and eggs Benedict. The Benedict has got hollandaise out of a can, for late night, this doesn’t bother too much. Get it while its still good.
I’ve never had this food sober and can’t imagine coming in for lunch or brunch during day light. Not that its bad, just hours are too early for me and there are other places to go for brunch. Tried a few times to come in with little kids on beach days during my «Uncle» hang sessions, for fries and snacks but the afternoon cut off always got me.

If you didn’t know it was there, you would walk right on by this place. Actually, that is literally what happened to us and we were looking for it! After a couple blocks back-​tracking, we finally walked through the nondescript entrance and were greeted by the pleasant aroma of breakfast! To be honest, we were so hungry that any sort of food smelled wonderful.
The menu looked like it had some solid choices and we decided to try both sides: I went for lunch food and my friend went the breakfast route.
Uptowner Club: Yay for Texas Toast but the turkey was sliced a little thick for my liking. I sure do like my bacon sliced thick so they made up for it there. I gotta say– the Tomato Florentine soup was AMAZING! Best part of the meal!
Veggie Scramble: Was pretty good and definitely a good healthy option but my friend ordered it with fries so the calorie-​saving idea kind of went out the window. Stellar fries though so I definitely recommend ordering those.
Oatmeal looked good but it was served without the toppings? Wha? and the fruit looked pretty sub-​par.
While the food was 4-​star quality and enough to keep me sated (however not drooling), the service actually brought this review down to 3. Our waitress was super sweet but the poor thing was pretty darn spacey.
It seems we had to ask twice for each item we needed and then it would take twice the time to receive them. In a few cases, we actually just gave up on certain requests (I guess we don’t need a spoon for the oatmeal. I could probably live without that last diet coke…). What really made me nervous was that my friend had a food allergy and we were told the food was safe for ordering. Thank god, she had the guts to come back to us (after we had already had her assure us twice it was ok) and let us know the food did indeed have dairy. Too close a call for my comfort…
A good place for your hangover… just make sure the waitress doesn’t have one too…

I admit I didn’t even know this place existed until I was searching Unilocal for a breakfast/​brunch place in the area. And then when I was going there I walked right past it at first. It doesn’t really jump out at you, is what I’m getting at. It’s a pretty narrow but deep storefront. You walk in and seat yourself. It’s not a very large place but there are a number of tables and booths.
The menu has some good stuff, a mix of breakfast and lunch options, but it’s not very extensive. That can be OK – who really wants to go through 5 pages of menu anyway – but this one isn’t well balanced. The breakfast leans HEAVILY toward the savory side. The only sweet breakfast I see on the menu is the Eggs & Pancakes. I’m a savory breakfast guy, but the bf isn’t so I’d likely not take him here. The savory options are pretty good though, and I went with the St. Paul omelet: andouille sausage, mushrooms, tomatoes & cheddar cheese. It was tasty, but all of our hash browns were a bit overdone, just shy of being burnt.
Prices: reasonable, and they currently offer 20% off for Unilocalers (see check in offers) which makes it practically cheap.
Service: While waiting for the 3^rd member of our party we had two waitresses checking on us seemingly constantly. Once he arrived though, they disappeared for awhile. Otherwise it was OK. Coffee & water got refilled regularly.
Can’t comment on lunch here. The menu has some sandwiches, burgers, soup and salad.
If I’m in the area I might come back here… except for breakfast with my sweetie, who prefers sweet things (like me!).

I used to live in Lincoln Park, there I had trouble finding a chill breakfast joint, when all the sudden the Uptowner opened up around the corner.
They have great value for what you order. The Intelligentsia coffee is great, and the service is pretty good too.
I was very satisfied with what they had to offer, and ordered from them multiple times. Go here if your in the LP, Depaul, or even Lakeview areas.

I have Groupon to thank for bringing me to The Uptowner Café. The place rocks!
I visited The Uptowner Café for a Sunday afternoon brunch with my wife. First off, they have Intelligentsia coffee which is a huge plus! I ordered the Uptowner Club and subbed the fries for hash browns (brunch right!) The sandwich was huge and delicious. The bacon was crispy and lean and the ham was perfectly grilled. This was certainly not your everyday run-​of-​the-​mill club sandwich. Even the thick sliced wheat bread was toasted to perfection. The hash browns also turned out to be amazing. They were cooked thoroughly with a crispy surface.
I also had the opportunity to try my wife’s meal — the St John omelette add andouille sausage. It was amazing as well.
The service was friendly and the atmosphere was relaxing and cozy. Overall, a great brunch spot!
Note: They also have late night hours.

On a strip of Lincoln Avenue that houses the Victory Garden Theater, chad bars and parking meters, it’s quite a luxury to find a decent breakfast without waiting in a massive line.
Situated within walking distance from Oz Park, The Uptowner Café provides a solid Saturday morning breakfast that is somewhat hard to find in the area. I had the Greek Egg White Omelet and had enough to bring home to share with my husband.
Overall, The Uptowner Café is a pretty decent diner if you’re in the area with a group of friends.

Wow this place would be awesome for hangovers or if you’re still super drunk. The breakfast plates are enough to feed to hungry men! The prices are also very reasonable.
I ordered the Cajun breakfast which was hash browns, onions, mushrooms, green peppers, cheese and their version of hollandaise sauce. I can’t say it was my favorite hollandaise sauce but it works well with the rest of the ingredients. I definitely appreciate that the onions were nice and sweet and carmalized.
They properly cook their hash browns – I’m a real stickler when it comes to hash browns. Uptowner’s hash browns were nice and crispy and cooked all the way through. I hate when you get pale, soggy undercooked potatoes – I’m convinced they cause gas.
The Andouille sausage here is killer. I actually didn’t recognize it because it wasn’t in traditional sausage form and was a patty. It almost looked like a slice of rye bread but my boyfriend pointed out that it was the sausage. It was soooooooo good. I would recommend getting the cajun breakfast and getting an extra side of sausage so you can SHARE it because no one should ever finish this plate by themselves in one sitting.
My bf ordered the hamburger. It looked pretty standard, but I think I’m going to stick to breakfast foods and may be dabble with a club sandwich or something.