Cafe Marie of Ann Arbor

This place is NOT OPEN at 4pm on Mondays. This is despite what the website says and despite what the notice on the front door says. (Starting Monday, March 3, 2015: Monday — Thursday: 7am — 7pm!)
I came a long way for this and was extremely annoyed.

Café Marie was a random choice — we were driving by and it was 8:30 in the morning and we hadn’t had breakfast yet.
There was only one table with customers. The hostess seated us and our server came, eventually. She apologized profusely for not realizing we were waiting. That’s ok, things happen… After all the two of us had just doubled the number of customers. However, her fragrance (cologne/​perfume) which would have been pleasant in a social setting was over-​powering In a food place.
The food was not hot (including us there were 4 people in the restaurant — have they no heat lamps?)
The toast was not toasted — it looked like and had the texture of bread that had been painted with melted butter the placed on a cold plate.
it seemed expensive for what we had — simple breakfasts — no fancy skillets or «avalanches» — good heavens, oatmeal was $ 6.79!
We had eggs, bacon, and toast. I expected hot food, toasted toast and crispy bacon. Sorry, they didn’t have that.

Bad food and poor service. Will not visit this place again! I had my worst meal ever at Café Marie. The pancake was bitter and I had a stomachache afterwards. The server was careless. When I ordered the pancake, she took the order without even asking which type I’d like and whether I want regular or wheat. The food was really slow, although there’s only two groups of people in there. Very disappointed and will never come back.

We’ve been to Café Marie many times for breakfast (never lunch). We’ve always enjoyed their different breakfasts.
We received a coupon for lunch so we went.
I ordered the classic burger because it was advertised as made with Angus beef from Knights market. I ordered the burger to be cooked medium rare but that is not what I got. It was well done and dry. What a shame. They ruined good quality beef from Knights!
My husband had the grilled chicken cherry salad. He said it was okay, nothing special.
It’s a good thing we had a coupon otherwise lunch would have cost almost $ 30. Too much for nothing special!
I think they should stick to just doing breakfast.

I have been to café marie twice and i have been in love ever since.
I have had their salmon and regular benedict and it was yummy both times. I am a huge eggs benedict fan and café marie does it very well. What stood out was their potato & cheese avalanche. It is so good with loads of cheese, scallions, ranch sauce and potatoes. SO GOOD I TELL YOU!
They have a variety of teas and the earl grey is super rich.
I really like the service here too. I never felt rushed for sitting too long. This is plus for me because sometimes, you just want to catch up with your friends at brunch on a Sunday and there is nothing worse than a restaurant that makes you leave after you have paid.
This place also has a gorgeous patio that I have yet to try, hopefully i can bring my puppy since she loves brunches with me.
Café Marie, I will see you again soon!

Went for late breakfast last Sunday. Exciting menu with lots of interesting options. Ordered a spicy skillet dish called The Westgate with chorizo, jalapeño, potato, egg, and cheese. It was delicious. However, my daughters pancakes were not good. They tasted grainy and definitely with too much baking soda. Their bacon is paper thin but somehow crispy. My son’s standard breakfast was serviceable. My wife’s «gourmet blend» called an eye opener was basically an omelette in a small baking dish but it was overcooked. the eggs were dry and that rendered the meal kinda bland and underwhelming.
I wanted to like this place. My meal was very good. But the rest of my family had average to subpar meals. The service was great, however.
I’ll be going back to give it one more try. Maybe for lunch…

Have been to Café Marie multiple times. Always good food… Sometimes there is a wait for a table. In the summer it is nice in that you can sit indoors our out. They have great options for meat lovers, vegetarians, and everything inbetween. This last time I came I had their eggs, meat, toast and potato special. Everything was great, but I thought the potatoes could have been a little bit more seasoned.
They have great sandwiches, salads, breakfast items (eggs, scrambles, frittatas), etc. I love all the coffee and tea drinks they have. Pretty unique!
A great place to eat near campus!

3.5 stars for the food, 4 stars for the service. We got seated/​served waters quickly. I appreciated the plate of lemons that came with the waters! I ordered The Moose which was a skillet for just meat, meat, and more meat. It was quite tasty and came with some toast on the side. My sister got the Huevos Hermosos and she totally killed the plate within ten minutes. Service was great — attentive but not overbearing. The location has a crowded parking lot so I would suggest parking the lot close to Wendy’s and walking through the plaza.

Maybe should be 3 stars but we’ve had many more good meals here than bad. It was our breakfast place for a long time. At that time it used to be busy but service was generally friendly. It went downhill and service was pretty lousy the last few visits. Portion sizes also seemed to get smaller.
The selection for vegetarians is good. The veggie skillet and scramble are pretty flavorful. I used to get the spinach skillet a lot too. The banana pecan flapjacks are pretty standard banana pecan flapjacks. The two eggs side prepared any way you like is a pretty good value.
The setting is nice. There is plenty of space and it seems like it has gotten less crowded (it’s been empty on a few of my past visits) so there is not as much of a wait. However, even if service is hit or miss the portions definitely need to get a bit bigger. I’ve had many meals here and felt hungry as soon as I was done.

The service is absolutely terrible. Clearly did not want us eating here at all. I can understand it being busy bit with only three tables with customers, you’d expect to have a glass of water filled when it’s been sitting empty for the whole meal.
Also, she brought the check after two minutes of bringing our food. I barely had a bite to eat.
The avalanche potatoes that were supposedly good we’re not at all. Potatoes were burned and were trying to be covered by too much ranch that it started to making it soggy. The egg beaters that were supposed to be a breakfast burrito were horrible.
Definitely not the experience of subjecting myself to come back again.

The waiter we had was not helpful and was quit uninterested in being a good waiter. I eat gluten free, the restaurant did not have items marked on their menu nor did they have a gluten free menu, I am generally pretty good at finding something under these circumstances with a little help from the server. Ours was of no help. I ended up with a salad, which is fine, just disappointed that our waiter was not interested in his job or making a generous tip.

Yay for healthy options and unique, tasty omelettes! Everything else was just kinda «get-‘er-done.»
Super lean breakfast options are provided, plus regular omelettes go easy on grease and salt, too. The skillets looked great, and evidently were super delish. The place was clean, and it was nice to have a window seat.
Considering the combination of old customers plus names plaques on the tables, my friend and I both instantly assumed the plaques were some kind of memorials (lol). The plaques did break the ice by inspiring us to make up hypotheses about the names on our table. Seriously, though, it’s weird to have names on tables. Maybe have a picture wall instead?
Kids menu is fine, but the «Happy Face Pancake» photo has banana eyes, whipped cream hair, a globby smile, and a 3-​nostril nose. Even if the owner is intending it to be funny, Its creepiness surpassed any comedic effect.
Ho-​hum customer service knocked down this score 1 star. I walked in, and stood there for a few minutes while an employee right in front of me cleaned the register counter. No greeting. Her coworker finally greeted me, and she looked up at me, then looked right back down at the counter. No smile, no apology. Wait staff is very blasé, slow on delivering menus and drinks, and pretty inefficient. They both took multiple trips empty-​handed and not looking at their tables. As a former waitress, I know that smiles, attention to detail, and efficiency bring customers and big tips. At the very least, smile!
Tip for the management: up the ante on customer service, and you’ll get more business! Also, remove that creepy kids pancake photo.

We had lunch here with a friend. I got an omelette with fruit and toast, and a large chai. Everything here was fine, as was the service and ambiance. I end up feeling less inspired about (aka not 4 or 5 stars) because it reminded me a lot of the food I make at home. At the same time, it was a perfectly fine lunch at a normal price. So, A-​Ok.
I wouldn’t recommend Café Marie to people as one of Ann Arbor’s great brunch offerings, but I certainly would be okay to return if invited.

My friends and I wanted to meet for brunch over graduation weekend but were afraid of the long lines that the usual hotspots would have, so we settled on a reservation at Café Marie. Unfortunately, I was pretty underwhelmed. I don’t want to say it was all bad. We sat on the patio which was lovely and the menu is extensive. But the food was just not good.
I had the roasted red pepper fritatta but there were only two red peppers in the dish. In fact, it was pretty much just a fried egg white with melted white cheddar. I was also disappointed in the lack of feta it had promised on the menu. You can’t tell me something has feta in it and then forget to add the feta. And pretty much no one at my table was into her dish.
It also took a while to get the food which was surprising since it wasn’t very crowded and our dishes were pretty simple.

I’m almost scared to write this, as this is the only good brunch place in Ann Arbor I’ve found that you can walk in and eat brunch without standing in line forever. But it’s also too good not to share.
I’ve been working my way through the menu of veggie items, and after half a dozen visits, I still have many choices left, and everything I’ve had so far is top notch.
One piece of advice, though: always avalanche your potatoes — homemade buttermilk ranch, potatoes, melted cheese… Yum!

We wanted to try somewhere new for brunch this morning and Café Marie fit the bill. I’m used to waiting an hour to get squeezed in to a bar stool for brunch at places by Central Campus, so it was a pleasant surprise to be seated immediately at an adequately sized table here.
Our server was pleasant, responsive, and didn’t mock my excitement at «Avalanching» my potatoes. The coffee was nice and strong, though I would try the hot chocolate next time after looking at the reviews here.
We both ordered the South of the Border Omelettes, which are basically a mild take on Mexican food. I could have taken more spice, but perhaps I’ll just order an item with jalapenos next time. Making my side potatoes into «Avalanche Potatoes» (read: ranch seasoning, smothered with cheese) was a delicious and artery clogging choice for the extra $ 1.79.
The food was warm and comforting, but far from healthy – just what I needed after an all-​night writing session. The prices were spot on for the quality and quantity. I’ll definitely be back.

Chai latte and salmon scramble are a nice way to start your morning!
FYI they don’t serve lunch items until 11am.
The food is pretty good. People talk up the hot chocolate here with good reason. The hot chocolate is very good, but just know that it’s very thick and rich.
Prices are reasonable for a breakfast place.

MMMMMM hot cocoa!!! Yummy!!!
Yummy skillet meals!
Oh My goodness… right now. in the middle of this ccccold Michigan Winter… they have these great «special» hot cocoa’s here at Café Maries! OMGosh… these are yummy and with a lot of whip cream on it too! It really takes the «chill» out of your bones when you are out on these ccccold Michigan days!
Take a little «trip» to Ann Arbor, Mi and order the great new «Hot Cocoa“but don’t forget all of the other great food on this «town & country» little café in the heart of «Wolverine» Country! (Woverines is the name of the Univ. of Mich team mascot!)… They also have great pastries and these wonderful «granola with almond» pancakes that are so yummy and you just have to get extra syrup ! You get a lot of crunch with the soft pancakes and sweet syrup… yummmy! You can get their great cup of coffee or a Carmel Macchiato… capunccino and many other warm drinks! Also they serve several juices and you get a whole pot of tea and your choice of flavors all from a big box of assorted teas! Oh. it’s just so much fun! It’s a pretty quiet atmosphere and there are windows all around! It’s very clean and the people that work here are so nice and so «on top of it all»! Enjoy!

This place COULD be decent but it is ruined by the attitude of the manager. We have visited the restaurant for breakfast twice in the last month. Both times at around 9 – 10 am on a Saturday. Both times we asked to be seated, both times the hostess (different one on each occasion) took us to a table and left a single sheet «menu». This sheet basically listed the specials for lunch served from 11am. We wanted breakfast, looked around and see people with scrambled eggs etc and figured we were too late. So I sought out the hostess and asked and learned that we were in plenty of time but I still had to ASK her for the full menu. RIDICULOUS!
Second time — different hostess, same thing — hunt around until you can find the menu. Both times the food was good exceot this time I chose the «guilt-​free, stone ground whole-​wheat flapjacks». NASTY as hell. Must have been buckwheat or something, bitter with the texture of sawdust and an old sack. I tried one small bite and left the rest. Waitress asked if I wanted a doggie bag, I explained how nasty it was, suggested that they had used buckwheat or something by mistake. I asked for a second cup of coffee to wash away the taste. That’s what she brought me — no apology, no remove it from the bill, no offer of anything else (just my fault I guess).
On leaving I commented to the hostess about the menu issue, commenting that Maries of Ann Arbor must be the only restaurant in the universe where the customer has to get up and use their initiative and sleuthing abilities to find a menu. At this point, without even introducing himself as such, the manager came over and stuck his nose in. He smugly added that they weren’t the only restaurant in the universe that didn’t share their menu freely with customers (I was guessing to myself that perhaps the other was on Uranus). So I said that perhaps he was right, but regardless it was stupid and I would not be back. I suggest avoiding this place until the jerk gets fired or they go out of business because people don’t know what to order. Yes we watched others getting the same stupid menu ritual.

We met at Café Marie for our annual youth group reunion. I had to do some reading and see what was good at Café Marie, as I have never been here.
The restaurant is located right across from BP gas station. Parking lot is tight, so be careful. I was the last person to arrive and everyone had water on their table and it took another 10 minutes for the waitress to come by and take our orders. After doing my reading and reviewing the menu, I opted for ‘The Moose’ skillet.
Fast forward 30 minutes and we got our food. I’ll have to admit, the service is lacking… when I got my food, it was cold, I think they call it skillet for a reason… as for the taste, I could have made better Moose skillet. I understand that they wanted to bring the food out at the same time, however having it sit around while other dishes are prepared is poor execution on the chef and the wait staff.
Now, the place wasn’t busy but at least the service could have been better… I agree with some other reviewers, their service needs to be upgraded. I asked for refill on my water, after few minutes, I noticed that others got their water refilled, but mine was still empty… man of man… I didn’t say anything as we were leaving.
Overall, I can’t see myself going back, unless someone can tell me their service improved and/​or they get their act together.