Niland’s Cafe

Take a trip down memory lane. Come here and instantly feel like you’re back in 1950’s Iowa eating at a road side café. Great food, Great service. Fair prices. A must see place, reminiscent of a sadly by gone era.

Niland’s Café is my favorite breakfast spot in Story County. They do a fabulous Sunday brunch buffet that includes two egg dishes (one plain and one rotating – they’ve done quesadillas, green chili egg bakes, and more), sausage, bacon, biscuits and gravy, potatoes (varying preparations), a bread dish (fruit cream cheese french toast bakes are a favorite), fruit, and homemade dessert items. The brunch is delicious and more than reasonably priced –3 of us eat for under $ 40.
Niland’s regular breakfast and lunch is awesome, too. I’d recommend it to anyone in Story County and beyond!

We tried Niland’s for the first time and were pleasantly surprised! The staff was great, the setting was clean and neat, and the food was above average. We had a great time.

For my latest visit we stopped on the way to eastern Iowa for breakfast, but I have been visiting Niland’s for quite some time. The food here is very agreeable and offered an an honest price. Previous visits for lunch have also featured daily specials. You’ll see all of the café classics that’d you’d come to expect from a small town diner (biscuits and gravy, hamburgers) served within a historic venue that in this reviewer’s opinion is the pride of the community of Colo. It has been recently restored appropriately to its functional state when Colo was at the heart of American road travel.
You see before large Interstate highways and a ubiquitous motoring public, Colo Iowa was at America’s transportation crossroads at the junction of the Lincoln Highway (which became US 30) and the Jefferson Highway (which became US 65). This intersection had a filling station and motel for the motorists who were on their way easy, west, north and south from this junction.
The is food is honest but not extraordinary. The context in which it is served in conjunction of the venue and the genuine service here make this a regional must see for residents or people who again may be passing through to points elsewhere.

Just enjoyed the Sunday breakfast buffet. Good selection. Great atmosphere. Good food at a good price. I’ll be going back

We had one breakfast buffet and one lunch order (bacon cheeseburger and fries).
The breakfast buffet was amazing! They had lots of different options, including but not limited to strawberry cheesecake french toast, egg scramble with veggies, adorable little brownie bites, fresh fruit, and various meat options (breakfast buffet person is a vegetarian, so we saw but did not taste the meat dishes).
Speaking of meat, the bacon cheeseburger was awesome, too, and so were the fries that accompanied it. Cheeseburgers are my favorite casual food option, so I can be pretty persnickety about whether a cheeseburger is «good» or … meh. This burger was good+, juicy and flavorful, everything a burger oughta be. Noms!
The service was fantastic. I don’t meant to sound like a jerk, but, based on experience… usually when I see high-​school-​aged girls on the serving staff, it means we’re going to get shoddy, slow, and often sullen service, complete with texting in corners. Whoa, not at this place! The servers were friendly, knew their job, and were incredibly attentive. At one point, a smiling server showed up at our table to say, «Would you like a refill on your – …oops, never mind!» as a second (yes, also smiling!) server showed up with a soda refill in hand and whisked away my empty glass. Wow!
At the buffet, too, the servers came over immediately to hold serving-​tray lids for any customers approaching the buffet table. I can’t imagine how the service could be any better. They were fantastic!
The owner (?)/​cook came out when she heard my table-​mate ask about potential meat-​based content in the buffet dishes, and we had a nice conversation about vegetarianism. Apparently they always have at least one vegetarian main dish on the buffet — and, in fact, the owner (?)/​cook used to be vegetarian herself, so she knows what she’s doing with a vegetarian dish.
It’s awesome to find a place where vegetarian doesn’t just mean «oh, we took out the meat,» because oftentimes that means the dish is off-​balance and seems to be missing the main ingredient. Good vegetarian cooking is NOT the same as just «taking out the meat,» and this place knows that. Their veggie items were as amazing as their non-​veggie items! It’s win/​win, no matter what you’re looking for.
We were happily stuffed when we finished, but we got a piece of peach pie to go. Yummmmmm, it was great, and I’m now dying to try their peanut butter pie. Next time! Also, they have milk shakes and malts. I want alllll the desserts, oh my. Oh, and they have good coffee, too, which means they’re also a nice coffee-​and-​dessert spot.
Last but not least, the place was super spotlessly clean, and the prices were entirely reasonable. It’s a good place for two or for a group. We didn’t check out the museum this time, but we will next time. We checked out the old gas station outside, and that was definitely pretty cool.
Good stuff! Highly recommended for food, atmosphere, everything.

A fun stop for Lincoln Highway history fans. This small restored roadside café serves hometown diner food, ice cream, and pie. Location is interesting, at the crossroads of old Hwy 30 and the Jefferson Hwy /​Hwy 65.
There’s an old gas station with vintage signs, picnic area and little motel. The pie wasn’t all that great but the pour-​your-​own rootbeer float was just what we needed.