Meli Cafe Pancake House & Restaurant

Excellent!
Awesome chocolate crepes! Pancakes were also delicious!
Great atmosphere, great colors on the walls– very warm and inviting:)
Will be back!

It was okay. The first visit it was delicious, then my last 2 visits just okay. The last visit we went on Sunday, the week before Mother’s Day, we waited forever for our food. It looked like they were short staffed that day, because I’ve seen alot more wait staff in the past, it happens sometimes, so we’ll try again.

After half an hour waiting, we knew something was up… we looked around and virtually nobody had food. After 45 minutes, the party next to us walked out. They had been waiting over an hour and had starving little kids. We bailed without getting our food at the one hour mark ourselves. Cannot speak for the food but the service is abysmal.

No need to come in before 8 – 8:30 am if you’re expecting the complimentary donut holes. I had spent the night next door at the Comfort Inn and thought I’d walk over a gives Meli’s a try. I had gone down to the lakefront to watch the sunrise, so I was in early. My server was already standing out back having a smoke a half hour after opening.
The Country Benedict was nothing special. Doesn’t appear they make most items from scratch. Luckily they had enough sausage patties to make my meal, yet the next customer before 7 am was SOL. (shit out’a luck)
Guess someone forgot to order patties? The hashbrowns weren’t really cooked golden brown.
I should of saved the $ 12.34 and ate my free breakfast at the Comfort Inn.

So we came here for the fish fry, and it was great!
We will definitely be back to try other options on the rest of the extensive menu. The cod choices come beer battered or panko. We tried both and both were very tasty the panko was light and crispy and so was the beer battered. I was very pleased because most places go heavy on batter and this place is perfect it compliments the cod well. For the price of the meal it’s like they were practically giving the food away which is very typical for Greek restaurants. You get 3 big fresh pieces of cod with a great house made tarter sauce and fresh lemon wedges. A choice of potato to include option of potato pancakes which were light and flavourful, and also a bowl of the fresh made soup which were two options lemon drop and clam chowder and rye bread/​coleslaw. Also before meal your given loukamades and at the end of the delicious fishy fry they give you fresh baklava complimentary. They also had other options for fish fry besides cod. The service was very pleasant and felt family vibe. I found this place because of Unilocal and had no idea it was so close for us to make a regular restaurant to go to. Can’t wait to try other stuff here.

Just ok. We arrived around 7am on a Saturday and were the second table seated in the entire place. The service was slow and we didn’t receive any complimentary donuts. We both had skillets with eggs over easy. Just ok. Based on all the reviews I was very excited and looking forward to finding a great breakfast place, however based on the slow service and just ok food my search continues. Sigh.

Between Milwaukee and Chicago I was in here early on a weekday to grab an AM meal. I was surprised at how tucked away it was off the highway, not too bad, 4 miles? But probably a little further than you wish to go. It was clean, quiet and uncrowded. It also took 20 to 30 minutes for two simple breakfast meals to turn around so I shudder to think how the weekends go here if it is crowded.
The menu offers a good variety of choice, food was decent and the comp Loukoumades with honey are a nice touch and apropos as well, Meli is Greek for honey.

Great breakfast! Everyone’s food was good, the pancakes were huge and fluffy. The restaurant is big and clean. It’s busy, but we’ve never had to wait for a table.

Yes! Yes! YES!
— Complimentary loukamades (Deep fried, sweetened dumplings sprinkled w powdered sugar).
— Vast menu with all your breakfast, brunch, and lunch needs and desires, and them some you wouldn’t know you desired til you read it on the menu
— Decent pricing, great portions
— Open, comfortable, clean interior
— Great service and staff
— I wish I remembered our server’s name. She was excellent. There was a slight mix up w my order, but she handled it efficiently, was apologetic even though she didn’t have to be, and was quite pleasant.
— I’m so pleased to be able to give a 5 star review

The complimentary loukoumades are worth 5 stars by themselves! These deep-​fried balls of dough, glazed in honey and sprinkled with powdered sugar were placed on our table the moment we sat down, which is unique and a nice touch to this new café.
The inside of Meli’s had a warm, breakfast-​y atmosphere with polite and accommodating servers. We both ordered skillets, one was a Benedict, the other — a creative concoction of omissions and additions. We also upgraded our side of pancakes to French Toast (one was Ambrosia topped with blueberries and boysenberry syrup, the other — banana bread topped with caramelized bananas and pecans). Everything tasted great and was presented artfully.
I only wish Meli’s was open later so I could enjoy their loukoumades late into the night…

Great service and the food was much better then your average diner! The food was a step above diner style and served hot with a smile… I had the Greek skillet and chocolate chip
Pancakes!

Took the wife and kids here for breakfast on Valentine’s Day. Had to wait about 5 minutes to get a table as they were busy, but wasn’t a problem. Once we were seated, the service was great. The portions are generous. I ordered 2 scrambled eggs with bacon, Greek toast, and hash browns. All were delicious. Tried my kids pancakes and French toast and both were outstanding. Prices were reasonable as well as the total for the 4 of us came to about $ 25. We will definitely be going here again. I do believe they only serve breakfast and lunch and close about 3pm.

Huge portions. Excellent food for a great price. Pancakes are a must. The service was great and we had a large party.
My kids had the chocolate chip pancakes and they did not skip on the chips or the face size pancakes.

Very very very good breakfast! I’ve visited on a busy Sunday and a quiet Tuesday morning, both times we were greeted with excelled service. They have a good menu with great prices. We will definitely be returning!

Food is great, generous portions for a reasonable price. Service is excellent and they have freshly squeezed OJ.

Food is ok but to me a little overpriced. Service was good just an average place in my opinion. There are better alternatives around town.

Unilocal says hot and new so I checked them out while I was in the area. Something was up because at 8am the lot was packed on this Saturday morning. It took a couple minutes to get a booth and the place was completely slammed.
The place looked nice on the inside with bold color walls with light wood all over. There is plenty of booths and tables with a small counter space. There is a few flat screen tvs that no one was watching.
Service was slightly slow because they were slammed but nothing to really complain about. It looked like a well oiled machine because the staff was handling it like a boss. My menu and water came quick. The Coffey servers did a great job and kept the cups full.
The menu had a lot of great options but I was going to keep it simple and get breakfast staples. I would get 2 eggs, hash browns, sausage patties, side of ham and Greek toast. See my pictures.
The food took longer than average to come out but they were slammed so I’m not going to ding them for that. The plate looked really good and it was a lot of food so a box would be needed. There is whipped butter on the table for your meal and the toast is not buttered so I used it.
A good piece of toast really makes a breakfast and the Greek toast was lightly toasted and super soft and fresh on the inside, very nice. The sunny side eggs ware perfect. The sausage patties were juicy and tasty, not that bland crap. The ham was juicy/​tender with good flavor but not the Aubrey cut. The hash browns were slightly crisp and not as cooked as I like because they were al dente if I can use that with potatoes.
Over all for being slammed they pulled off a great breakfast and I can see why there were slammed at 8am because this must be the place to go in the area. They put out a solid fresh breakfast and I would recommend them for sure.

I am going to give this place 4 stars instead of 5 for only a couple little things, but they are important.
This is a new establishment right off Hwy 20 and has a wonderful, warm décor. Upon entering, the staff was eagerly moving throughout the establishment, but in a very collected manner. We were greeted warmly and seated promptly. Please note that they are only open 6AM to 3PM and serve breakfast and lunch. We arrived about 11:30AM and they were about 50% occupied.
We were acknowledged by our server only moments after we sat down and asked what we would like to drink. The staff worked as a team and our water was delivered quickly by a busboy along with a complimentary plate of 2 loukoumades. According to a Journal Times article by Stephanie James, the owner, Pete Tourlis, said all diners will receive complimentary loukoumades, homemade Greek doughnuts. They are smothered in meli, which is Greek for honey and which the restaurant is named after. Just a note… They are DELICIOUS!
The server returned with the fresh squeezed orange juice and my blueberry pomegranate juice. It was a lovely touch to have fresh squeezed OJ and I would order that over the other juice everyday. The menu here is quite extensive and it was hard to decide. My fiancé had the Crab Cake Benedict while I chose the Mediterranean Scramble with toast and a side of cottage cheese.
Here is the first bobble — it took quite a while for our order to arrive and while our waters were topped quite readily, we saw a few tables that arrived after us get served and at one point heard a quite exasperated and continual ringing of the bell in the kitchen signaling pickups were waiting.
Our food arrived and looked wonderful. In fact, we saw many of their entrees at different tables and they all appeared well done and ample in portion for a great value in price. In fact, some of the items we saw delivered made me want to change my order and the order of pancakes we saw were so big that if we order them in the future, we will share. Our mouths were watering and we were not disappointed. The food was delightful — the crab cake benedict had perfectly poached eggs, superbly browned and cooked crab cakes and a generous amount of hollandaise. My scramble had a wonderful flavor and the feta was combined in the scramble to warm and melt instead of just being added cold atop the meal. The sun dried tomatoes were diced small and the entire flavor profile made my taste buds crave each bite.
The second bobble though would have definitely given things 5 stars. The seasoning was a bit timid, almost as if they were afraid of it. The hash browns were crisp and bright, but without seasoning, the bland flavor was lacking. The same could be said of the diced potatoes in the scramble — a bit of seasoning would have taken it to another level.
The owners appeared to be at the cash register and the credit card machine was down (a complete frustration in a restaurant, especially on the weekends) but they were in great spirits and accepted our compliments of a wonderful meal and even the critique of a bit more seasoning with a genuine reception and thanked us for stopping. Our server was delightfully pleasant and the staff worked as a complete team, which is quite wonderful in any restaurant.
Thank you to the owners of this wonderful place — please keep the energy and passion going and you will no doubt end up being a top spot for many years!

I am from Chicago, but stopped in to Meli with my parents for breakfast while visiting them for the weekend. The host and waitresses were unbelievably friendly from the moment we walked in the door. When we got our food we were equally impressed. We had 2 different benedicts, fresh orange juice (really freshly squeezed and delicious), and one of the scramblers. None of us walked away hungry and all have intentions to return.

I live nearby and have seen other restaurants fail at this location. This one did everything right. Very nice staff. Prices were reasonable for the large portions. We took enough home for a second meal. Neat and clean. The breakfast was very good.