Yellow Rose Cafe

Friendly staff, great food, and reasonable prices. I stop in twice a week. Corned beef sandwich is the way to go.

Top notch service. Friendly, helpful and professional. The variety of food is fabulous, and everything is prepared with the best ingredients and always comes out delicious. I can’t believe it took my husband and I five years in the neighborhood to discover it, but now we are not only regulars, but we are the best free advertising they could get!

My sons favorite place! The staff is super friendly! The food is good. Space is limited as its a small restaurant but we love going here for breakfast… reasonably priced…

I love breakfast and if you do too, this place won’t disappoint. From homemade corned beef and hash, hot sauce and jams, to the friendly service and people who frequent here, this place has what you like. It’s a small environment that’s a bit dated, but it feels more cozy than anything else. The plates are big so come hungry and leave happy. Just be aware that on a Saturday, you might wait a few minutes, especially if there is more than 2 in your party and you want to sit together. Cash only and I didn’t see an atm.

Cash only with no ATM. Service was good. I had the turkey sausage scrambler which was mediocre at best.

A bit out of the way maybe, but worth the trip. Saturday morning the place was full of regulars but there were a few stools at the counter. Pretty old-​school, which is refreshing in this day and age. The clientele is a little older I guess, but friendly.
It was pretty busy, though I got coffee right away and a few minutes to peruse the large menu.
Corned beef hash was on my mind, and it didn’t disappoint. Homemade and not from a can, thank god. Nice and chunky, served with hash browns, toast, and a couple overeasy eggs on top. They had a trio of interesting jellies for the bread, mango, peach, and another one, plus homemade hot sauce which was great.
The waitresses here were very sweet and welcoming even to a first-​timer like me.
A great throwback diner with lots of options, popular with the locals.
I’ll return if headed this way on a weekend outing, great place for breakfast.

Surprised this place has a check-​in offer… that kind of publicity almost isn’t necessary because their clientele seems to be a lot of familiar and steady regulars that are about three generations before me. People literally reading the newspaper and everything!!! We felt really out of place walking in there actually, but the service was friendly.
A regular of my own often checks into this place on Facebook (so I guess the social media platforms do help!), and the specials they post on FB really caught my eye — 2 eggs + ham + hash brown + toast + coffee for just not three, not two, but just ONE easy payment of $ 5.99! Can’t get that kind of deal and variety everywhere, and certainly not at that price.
The menu is just typical diner food. Lots of variety in the breakfast plates in the combinations o f sausage/​egg/​ham/​toast/​hash/​bacon etc, all at extremely reasonable prices. I’m interested in trying a few of the skillets, which have a nice combination of not all totally generic ingredients. A lunch menu side too, but I didn’t look too close at that.
Anyway, our pancakes were delicious! Very light and soft, and mostly importantly, not at all doughy or floury. Decent coffee. Filling plates of food. This is probably the best diner food I’ve had in Chicago, AND like ½ as expensive. What a gem…

I just love this place. Ive been here over a dozen times in the past 6 months. Each time it feels like home. The ladies behind the counter make you feel like family. The food is so tasty. Ive been working my way through the menu. The corned beef hash is by far the beat Ive ever had. Love the pancakes and country fried steak. The pork chop and eggs are great as well.

This place is a gem. Top notch service, terrific food, and ridiculously cheap (seriously, charge more!!!). Don’t miss out on the homemade hot sauce and jams. I would by them by the bottle if it was available!
The corned beef hash is solid.

I have found my oasis in the middle of urban living. Yellow Rose Café is my new home away from home. I grew up on this kind of food for breakfast, and it’s not often you find a place that serves it up the way mom used to make it. There’s bottomless coffee and large portions of food. The staff is so sweet and I felt like they adopted me from the moment I walked in the door. If you’re bored with your smart phone, while you wait for your order there are a couple of newspapers they keep on hand for diners to skim through. It doesn’t get any better than that.
I had skirt steak and eggs for breakfast. I like my eggs over easy and my meat pink in the center. That’s exactly what I got. Just to show my love, I made sure I ate every last morsel of my breakfast when I am usually leaving some hash browns and toast behind. You gotta represent when you’re a newbie. Even if they aren’t expecting it. You let them know your appetite is for real. In all seriousness, I cannot express enough appreciation for everyone I met while I was here. Hopefully the next time I visit, we will all be on a first-​name basis!

You need to get the sautéed banana french toast and the corned beef hash with siracha hot sauce. They call it the rooster hot sauce. Everything else is not something I would go out of my way for. But the sautéed bananas are similar bananas foster on french toast. I like that the corned beef is real pieces. Typical diner atmosphere and service is not rushed.

I dined Saturday at 12pm. This small diner is a genuine local chicago original. It has 3 tables 5 booths and a long lunch counter full of regulars.
As far as ambiance, this is exactly what I am looking for. The staff seemed as authentic as the décor. They were fast and polite and somewhat engaging, though they defiantly kept up conversations with the regulars.
The coffee was fresh and hot. The setup was nice with the full suger salt pepper and even a full old school creamer container. I was disappointed when I drank the creamer, which was non dairy stuff.
I order the biscuits and gravy with eggs over easy, which is my bell weather. The biscuits were good. The gravy was pleantiful but not verry good. The eggs were cooked right and pretty good. I also had a side of sausage Pattis which came out as 3 pre made patties. They were ok.
Overall I will try this place again. Maybe get a special instead. It looks awesome and was full of regulars but I would not get the bng.

Clean, cute little old school diner full of neighborhood regulars. Service is fast and friendly, and the home made corned beef hash is unbelievably delicious! Can’t wait to go back and try other menu items as well!

One of the great diners of a generation long gone. I love going to places where it’s clear that most of the customers are regulars, and yet the waitresses are still kind and friendly! Even better– the food is great! I wish this diner wasn’t so far away…

After loading up on rye bread at Andy’s Deli, we wanted to get a bite to eat on our way back to Wisconsin. I feel so fortunate we came across The Yellow Rose. Super friendly and efficient service, good food, just a great feel to the place. Old school in the best way!

Orange counters and brown coffee mugs, what’s not to love? Nothing I say. Cash only but this place serves up some mighty fine vittles for cheap. I think everything here is homemade. I could be wrong but I don’t think you’ll see any big ass Sysco truck pulling up here. Fantastic breakfast place. I love their sausage patties, sunny side eggs and buttered toast I dip into the eggs. I call them dippen eggs! Friendly career waitresses. I see myself coming back on a chilly day for a bowl of their soup. Comfort food at its finest at the Yellow Rose Café!

When thinking of a «yellow rose,» I recalled my second Christmas prom in high school. Hubby (boyfriend at that time) presented yellow roses and asked me if I would be interested in going with him. Apparently, a yellow rose symbolizes «friendship» in western culture. Coincidentally, that will be exactly what you feel dining at the Yellow Rose Café, across from the CTA Forest Glen garage, in Jefferson Park.
Everyone who works there knows their regulars! Although it was our first time coming to YRC, we were immediately invited to the party. We came at approximately 0900 hour on a Friday, and the entire venue was filling up quickly with working men and women, families with young children, and CTA employees and a police officer.
Rosa J. and Daddy J. went with the «All-​American» choices. I had the «3−3−3,» which translated to «three (3) over-​easy large eggs, three (3) strips of bacons, hash browns, and two (2) pieces of wheat toast with butter and homemade jelly.» Just FYI, the bacons can be substituted with sausages; three (3) pieces of pancakes can take place with the hash browns.
Daddy J. had the upgraded version of what I had, except all components came with the number «4.»
Everything was cooked like how your favorite grandma would have prepared in the morning. YRC is really a solid breakfast spot, in a close proximity to that annoying Driver Services Facility on Elston. If you’ve realized that you will never get your thing done over there, people at YRC will keep you company.
We had two (2) breakfast entrees with two (2) servings of bottomless morning coffee. Everything came to $ 21 and some change. I would rather hand my cash to the lovely people at YRC instead of the tax-​heavy Driver Services to get my out-​of-​state ID changed.

It doesn’t get much more Chicago N’west side than Yellow Rose Café (How’s about dem Bears… huh?) Its a bonafide neighborhood diner where the waitress knows most of the customers by their first name, and how they like their eggs. Unilocaler comments about the friendly service was spot on.
I learned about YRC on WGN Chicago’s Best, and then read the Unilocal reviews. The highly touted corned beef hash had ample hunks of shredded corned beef, however the potatoes had disintegrated into a mashed potato consistency. My portion literally had one small fleck of sweet red pepper in it, and if there were onions in it, the taste was not discernible. Overall, the hash needed seasoning. The waitress offered me bottled hot sauce (with no mention of homemade) and my toast came with the ubiquitous Smucker’s Grape Jelly (once again, no mention of homemade jam stated by numerous Unilocalers).
Four stars for the hospitable, friendly service. Three stars for the food.

I don’t normally write too many reviews anymore (there’s way too many people doing them for me) but I felt compelled, no obligated to do one for the Yellow Rose. The moment I walked in, I felt like a genuine sense of hospitality rarely seen in restaurants today. It was like going back to some better, nostalgic time when people were kind to one another.
It was super refreshing to feel that way. Oh, the corn-​beef hash was amazing but it almost played second fiddle to the warmth from the fine people at the café.
5 stars.

My husband and I came here for breakfast. We were served a nice cup of coffee which was a very good roast and soothing. I had the two eggs special with bacon and rye toast — a very simple dish with nicely toasted rye toast with butter; my husband had the corned beef hash with scrambled egg and hash browns. The corned beef hash was actually chunks of corned beef and onions; I think he was slightly disappointed as it wasn’t the typical diner corned beef hash, but it was still okay. We also had a waffle topped with strawberries and whipped cream to share and that was pretty solid as well. Great friendly service and a very cute old-​school type of a café. I’m glad I was able to check them out!
+solid coffee
+friendly staff & service
+plenty of street parking