The Nucleus Cafe

A very odd ball waitress works here. My family and I were told a half hour wait so decided to eat somewhere else. As we were leaving we decided to stop by the restroom. The waitress stops us and says «the exit is over there, making sure you’re not trying to find a table.» Like excuse me? One of the oddest encounters I have ever had at a restaurant, not to mention how extremely rude that is. Seems like she was just trying to go out of her way to say something snooty to us. Although we did come back a few weeks later and had a fantastic meal and a pleasant waitress– it does not make up for how ridiculously rude that was. Will come back for the food, hopefully something is done about that girl.

Try to go as often as possible. Breakfast burrito amazing ! Cool atmosphere. Yummy coffee too!!! Definitely worth the wait!

What a lovely place! Great ambiance, best latte I’ve ever had. We ordered the lemon ricotta pancakes & el president, both were amazing. You will not be disappointed!

Awesome! Great food and atmosphere! Love this place! Had the Real Housewife of E. C. and the Salmon crepes, both excellent, staff was super friendly! Great coffee, just awesome!

Waiting for great food is one thing, waiting for two and a half hours for food is another. I mean don’t get me wrong the food is good, I love their Nutella strawberry crepes, but waiting an hour to be sat plus another 20 minutes for my coffee and then another hour and half for my food? Just… No. The restaurant is always packed which is understandable as to why the wait is so long but the servers weren’t all that friendly and the coffee I got was lacking.

Aaah! The crepes! So good. Have to go here every time I visit. I’ve bought birthday gift certificates to my family who live there even though I’m from California. Great spot.

I bring my nephews and niece here every time I’m back in Eau Claire. We’ve had pretty much everything on the menu and love it.
I especially love the omelet and protein sections of the menu. And the coffee is amazing!
Great service from friendly waitresses. I can’t understand the few negative reviews. I’ve had a good meal every single time I’ve been here over many years.

My friend brought me to The Nucleus for breakfast and I have been going back ever since! Love the french toast and loaded hash browns! I also liked that there are board games available to play while you wait. I would recommend beating the church rush!

Amazing breakfast food. I love the quesadilla and the lemon ricotta hot cakes. They get very busy on the weekends so get there early or be patient. Treat yourself and order a side of hash browns, they’ll rock your world.

Excellent food, excellent service.
My mouth and tummy are in pure delight… This place has amazing food. We had the Penn & Teller and Salmon Croque Madame — both fantastic! If you’re ever up in Eau Claire, Wisconsin stop at The Nucleus for breakfast or lunch. You won’t be disappointed.

Haven’t been to the Nucleus in a while. The food is hit and miss.
Greece lightening — most flavorless sandwich ever. A few pieces of dry chicken, almost no feta, mint tasted like it had been stored in the fridge for two weeks and a few wan tomatoes (people we are at the height of tomato season and the farmer’s market is a mile a way — get a clue). The «cucumber» sauce on the side was also flavorless. And bagged corn tortilla chips on the side. What a waste of $ 8.
I got a blended, iced mocha. Don’t bother. Again, no flavor. No coffee, no chocolate, nothing. Seriously. The Goat Café across the street beats the flavor category by a mile.
I’m going to think twice about going back. The head chef/​owner needs to start reviewing the food — flavor, presentation, service. Another reviewer stated, «they need to put on their big boy pants» So true…

This is the best place to get coffee in Chippewa Falls. I’m somewhat of an espresso snob and normally cringe at what I might get for an espresso «pull» at some small town cafes. The Americano I had was really quite good. Great actually.
The décor is quite nice and the staff were super welcoming. I’m glad to have found this gem in what once was my home town.

Don’t waste your time. It took almost an hour to get our order.
When we complained the table that sat down after us received their food 20 minutes before us, they told us the order had «only been in a half hour.» Hmm… that parking meter must be broken then since we had to put another half hour on it. They then told us it’s because we ordered drinks (a coffee and cranberry juice, really?) — Which I said we ordered at the same time as our food and the ‘waitresses’ reply was «it’s a process.»
It sure it is. A process that they simply do not understand apparently.

Laughable. To put it mildly, this ‘café’ needs to put a pair of big kid pants on.
Our experience (knowing full well we would need to wait for the supposed awesome food): We arrive at lunchtime, they tell us an hour wait for a table. OK, we knew we’d have to wait. After an hour, tables started opening up, so part of our party (of 5) sat in a couple of open chairs — we immediately got seated at a different table. Our waitress was good at this point, getting us beverages and taking our order quickly so we could «get it in as soon as possible» (waitress quote). Then it begins. We waited an hour for our table, then we waited another hour and still had no food. Our waitress stopped checking on us and they were starting to tell potential customers that the restaurant was closed. OK, where’s our food? We’re creeping very close to having sat at this place for two and a half hours and still haven’t gotten a morsel of food.
I must interject here — throughout the wait described above, another party was seated, ordered, received their food, consumed their food, hung out for a while, paid their bill and left happy campers (must be the friends referred to in some of the other reviews).
We were still waiting.
A couple of us went to check to see if they realized we were still waiting for our food and they said it was on the way. Nope. Not on the way. We checked in again and one of the waitresses said it was being plated up — is it? Is it really? The waitress then said that «she didn’t know what we wanted». Well, simply, food inside of two and a half hours. At that point we paid for our beverages and left.
We’re from Eau Claire and get back to visit quite often, we love trying the local restaurants and bringing friends and family along. This was one of the most embarrassing experiences we’ve ever had. Needless to say, we won’t be back and will definitely make sure to spread the word to all of our friends and family in the area.
Abide the Unilocal reviews and save yourself the headache. …and oh yeah, do NOT look in the kitchen, you will not like what you see.

This place is just incredible. I was going to take a pic of my food but i fell in love and started eating it. The service is good and friendly but the place is a bit small. If you want to get your food come in early! We waited an hour for the food but it was worth the wait! I would recommend coming here if you are ever in Eau Claire.

Great food. The service is a little slow. But the food makes up for it. We ordered the El presidente omelette which was AMAZING. As well as the real house wives omelette which was yummy.

This place is the worst. The service is the shittiest thing that’s ever happened to you. You will not be able to stop and have breakfast here without it taking two hours. And you won’t get a coffee refill while you’re waiting. Want to avoid the wait? Order over the phone! Oh, wait. You can’t. Suddenly you can only place «to go» orders from inside the restaurant. Don’t ask me what kind of fucking sense that makes. The real kicker is that they have the best goddamn breakfast burrito you’ve ever had. However it would be faster and easier if you had to climb a mountain using only a unicycle to get one. Their food is amazing, but they’ve done absolutely everything they can to make your breakfast experience super inconvenient and frustrating.
Seriously, save yourself and go somewhere else.

Came here for breakfast to find a full house. Breakfast was delicious. Ample portions even for the big eater I am. Girlfriend had stuff French toast which was holy hell big. Nice thick cut bread with heaps of whip cream. Good mound of hashbrowns to compliment the full plate. I had a skillet that tasted so damn good. Big slices of bread with my own dish of jam.
Keep it up and Perkins clients could find a new place.
Plan in the works to return back.

Every time I come to Eau Claire I have to eat here. And I have to get the lemon crêpe. I wish I could explore the menu but damn, that crêpe is excellent.
I just recently had a gold press coffee. Not sure what that is but it’s delicious.
I love the atmosphere of this place and the staff is always nice and accommodating.

Usually on road trips, I’m the one trusted to find the good spots to stop. However, Nucleus was found thanks to my husband’s Unilocal skills. We were headed to Minneapolis and Eau Claire was the perfect place to stop for breakfast and coffee.
The Nucleus reminds me of other breakfast restaurants I’ve found in my travels. It’s small but has so much charm and memorable food.
I started my meal with a white mocha while we perused the menu. There were actually 5 or 6 meals that we wanted, so we deferred to our server. She was honest and told us the one we were thinking about ordering wasn’t the best. Of our possible choices, she told us the two that WERE the best and so we went with them. I ordered the Penn & Teller with marble rye and my husband ordered the El Presidente with an English muffin.
My meal had a super juicy piece of steak, as well as some marvelous hashbrowns. These were probably the crispiest hash browns I’ve ever tried and were elevated to a whole new level with the peppers. There was also a sauce on the side that I wanted to put in my purse and take home. I can’t think of any way that this could have been better.
I only got a tiny bite of the El Presidente but it was really, really good too. Of the two though, I think mine was the winner. Did I mention the steak was cooked perfectly? My husband has already mentioned he’d drive back to Eau Claire just to go to Nucleus again.
The only downside I can think is that it took us a few minutes to find parking the morning we came, but it was worth the effort.