Stone Soup Cafe

The French toast was good, coffee war not good. Service was ok, not that great. we we’re not impressed with the rest of the breakfast meals, we. didnt finish and did not take a. doggie bag. Will not go back

They are closing!!!
I could not believe it. Lauren and I went in on Sunday this past week and they had a limited brunch and lunch menus. Place was packed as usual. We sat at the bar and when the mimosa’s came out pre made I was wondering what was going on.
After asking the bartender (ate there because so busy) she explained that her parents decided it was time to close up shop for stone soup.
Ugh…so upset. I loved this place…
We had the eggs Benedict and I got the monster sandwich for the first time… WOW that was unbelievable! I loved it.
Good by stone soup… we loved you!

Tried this place several times. Atmosphere = zero, service = why are you bothering me, food = greasy spoon.
Bottom line: why are they still open? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller ???

Service was horrendous, the hostess was annoyed because we were there (seemingly), the waitstaff was not educated on the menu and didn’t bring what we asked. The food. Meh. Greasy, salty, but edible. I don’t return to a place for edible.

My wife and I stopped in this evening as we’d heard good reviews. We were seated promptly in the bar area, even though there were many seats in the dining room. I didn’t care but we weren’t even asked. I guess wearing shorts in the summer isn’t good enough for their dining room. However, my wife couldn’t sit down on either of the seats on her side of the table as there was food debris on both of them. The entire restaurant was dark inside and looked like it needed some serious updating.
I ordered a cup of chili and my wife ordered clam chowder to start. My chili arrived with a mound of shredded cheese on top of a layer of sliced jalapeño pepper. I knew there was a problem as none of the cheese looked even slightly melted. The chili itself was lukewarm, the slices of peppers were cold, and the cheese wasn’t ever going to melt. I sent it back. My wife’s chowder was slightly warmer but not really the way it should be served. When my freshly microwaved chili was returned, the slices of jalapeño were still cold but the chili itself was hot. Unfortunately, the proper temperature didn’t make up for the sweet ketchup-​y flavor. I am fairly confident this chili came out of a can, no other visible peppers or onions.
My wife had the beer battered coconut shrimp as her entrée and I had a Reuben sandwich with fries. The shrimp were just okay but the apricot/​horseradish dipping sauce was an odd accompaniment. The Reuben was tasty but grossly overpriced. The fries were lacking in any real flavor.

Seafood Marina is to die for!

We decided to come here for my birthday dinner. MISTAKE! The atmosphere is horrible, the food is horrible, and the service is even worse! This place is in great need of Robert Irvine. Do yourself a favor and do not eat here for dinner.

If I could rate it lower, I would! Menu is great. Food and service have hit bottom. Avoid it. I used to come here regularly. No longer will!

Service was awful. Never going back. I would never write a bad review unless I was entirely disappointed. I’m a server, so I understand when things go wrong. When everything goes wrong, however, I am going to speak up about it.

(score 1 – 100) — 80. If you are looking for an epic breakfast on the North Shore, this is your place. I have another house down the street from this location so I’ve spent many weekends eating breakfast here. The food is reasonable for the sheer volume of food. One of my favorites is the double cut french toast, with fruit… ohh so yummy and only 7 bucks! Throw in a mimosa and well, you are in breakfast heaven. They make fresh smoothies as well. I know sometimes you don’t want a traditional heavy american breakfast, a smoothie will go down… well smoothly! Make sure you get there before 11 am for breakfast, they are pretty strict about the changeover to lunch.

Planned a day-​trip to Crane Beach with a group of friends and decided to come here for brunch after reading reviews on Unilocal.I noticed a lot of the bad reviews on here were due to the customer service or the open hours, but it seemed like almost everybody still had positive things to say about the food. I personally value good food over service, so I was still down to check it out.
We came in a group of 7 at 10 am and were seated within 10 minutes. The restaurant was sparsely decorated, but the place was very clean and the wait staff was extremely friendly from beginning to end.
We all ordered either the blueberry cream cheese french toast, banana pancakes, or the Irish eggs (poached eggs over corned beef hash served on an English muffin), and everything was SO GOOD! We all tasted each others’ dishes and agreed that everything tasted amazing. My friend said the first few bites of the french toast were good, but it got too cream-​cheesy towards the middle, so if you are not a huge fan of cream cheese, ask the chef to go light on it. I love cream cheese though, so I thought it was the perfect amount. The plates were well priced, and the portions were huge.
Maybe it’s a hit-​or-​miss with customer service, but all of us agreed the food itself was enough reason to come back!

I just read the other reviews here, and I would like to add that when we walked in, I mentioned the noise and the hostess/​server gave me a look like, «What are you, nuts?» Mind you, I had ridden a motorcycle quite a few miles to get there. My motorcycle was extremely quieter than the restaurant. For the whole time there, she was neither friendly nor helpful. I gave the place two stars because at least they were open.

Sorry I have to give it only 3 stars but who goes to Ipswich Massachusetts, orders a «fisherman’s platter» and it has calamari rather than clams? OK, we were told, no scallops, no lobster, and asked what was put on the fishermans plate instead of those two offerings, extra of everything else was the response. Never mentioned Stone Soup in Ipswich had NO CLAMS… 4 shrimp, a piece of flounder, and CALAMARI, lots of it., if I wanted calamari I would have order it.
Searching deep into the french fries and calamari, nothing.
What was there was good. But, this little gem forgot to be honest.

If you like your food to be (1) shockingly greasy, (2) of great quantity, and (3) a 3-​dimensional visualization of the obesity epidemic plaguing our fine country, then this is the place for you.
If not, then you should probably search elsewhere for dinner.

There’s not much to do or see in this stretch of MA, but if you’re hungry and looking for satisfying American lunch fare, Stone Soup is a great choice. The sandwiches are enormous, the soups are thick and hearty, and the staff have that small-​town, folksy feel that Republicans love to exploit as «true American spirit».
The Cuban is delicious and bigger than entire entrees at other restaurants. The melted cheese melds perfectly with the pulled pork. The fries are abundant and crisp. The chicken noodle soup and the tomato rice soup are so good, you won’t mind sipping them in 80-​degree weather – outside. The grilled cheese sandwiches, with various incarnations containing avocado, tomato and bacon, are all delectable and so is the tomato-​mozzarella salad.
Docked a star for less than friendly initial service. Thankfully, the hostess was not our waitress.

I live a few towns over and for almost 2 years, I’ve made a point to stop in a handful of times. I think the food is great. However 2 times ago they gave us dirty looks as we came in, we figured it was because they were closing in 30 minutes. At 3pm ON A SATURDAY.
So fine, we ate quickly and left.
Well this weekend I had a group of 10 friends who I wanted to bring here after going to wolf hollow… again it was around 2pm on a Saturday but I tried calling at least 5 times… no one picked up. Then I tried looking it up online… their website was down. So now its rounding 3 and I said let’s just go over there. We showed up and the place has a ton of cars outside so we figure its open. Well not only were they not «open» (even though the door is open and there’s 20 people inside…) but the waitresses were so incredibly rude and nasty about the fact that they were actually closed that I’ve decided to never go back.
Too bad too… they missed out on a huge tip from a group of 10+. Small town businesses thrive on word of mouth. I for one will not be giving good reviews ever again.

Huge portions. Crappy coffee. This place is LOUD with rugrats running all over the place.
I had the eggs benedict and my dining companion had the breakfast sandwich. It was ok but I wouldn’t go back. I don’t usually comment on service but we waited a very long time for a table and a painfully long time for the check.

The breakfast is good, home fries are great. Honestly, there isn’t anything happening in the menu you can’t get somewhere else, just not in Ipswich, so they’ve cornered things that way. Dinner’s are good too. Nothing crazy. I honestly think it is raved about by locals just because it is the only place offering what it has in the area. And, let’s face it, not a lot of Ipswich folks leave Ipswich so for all they know it is the only place in the world with that menu. No need to travel far to go here but if you’re in the area definitely hit it up, worth it.
The one problem I have with the place, and it is a big one, American Toast??? Good lord Stone Soup, watch FOX News much?! Please, get that name of the menu, it is just embarrassing.

This time went for breakfast at 1pm on a holiday.
Still a fine place. A-​OK. New location, much larger. I had two cappuccinos, which were good, and looked like they were staring at me because the espresso machine was still dripping in when they added the steamed milk.. . and eggs bene with a side of avocado. The hollandaise was «broken» but tasted fine. I sat at the lunch bar. The bar bar was full.
I liked the cozy corner old location better.
Maybe I’m just getting old and cranky.
They don’t take credit cards, but do have an ATM machine which they graciously allow you to use for a charge of 2.50. grumpity.
I do understand. .. .it’s a difference of them paying for me to have convenience, or me paying for them to have convenience. Interesting.. . I personally seem to find the former more appealing.
I’ll be back to try lunch and dinner offerings, the bar bar and music.. .

After visiting the old establishment and getting directions to the new loction, I was really hungry, and not to mention needing a cup of coffee.
What do I see when I look at the coffee menu? THEY SERVE RAO’S COFFEE!!! Fast forward to me consuming 4 cups of coffee in one sitting. No really, I’m feeling GREAT *twitch*
Their signature breakfast sandwich is called the Monster — And who am I to pass that up? 2 eggs, hash browns, choice of bacon, sausage or something else I can’t remember, and cheese, served on 2 slices of delicious Italian bread — Amazing, to say the least. My only critique? Every time I put the sandwich down I had a fresh layer of grease on my hands. But I still managed to eat the whole thing. I nommed on Joe’s blueberry and cream cheese stuffed «American» toast and it was quite tasy as well.
Service was nice and fast, and kept my cup running over. Cash only though, but in case you forgot, they have an ATM in the back. And they only serve breakfast until 11AM, but I would come back to try out the lunch!