Mimi's Cafe - Naperville, IL

Mimi's Cafe
2656 Show Place Drive
Naperville, IL
60564
(630) 904-2380

We went to Mimi's for breakfast the morning of February 6th, 2009.

This was about our third visit.

When we were escorted to our seats, there were several tables not yet bussed - yet the restaurant wasn't excessively busy.

The menu is its own unique and creative blend of New Orleans style food - but not cliche' New Orleans cuisine. I don't even think they have red beans & rice.

For about $34.00 including tax & tip, we had a full breakfast. To me, that's a bit on the high side of breakfast pricing.

The ambiance was pleasant, with good lighting and fun decor.

The Food: A mixed bag. Great crabmeat, asparagus, & sweet corn quiche, baaaadly undercooked potatoes. Fresh fruit was quite nice. I had two links of andouille sausage on the side. The sausages are a bit pricey, but not a common find. Worse, we asked them to bring out new potatoes because they were undercooked; they took the WHOLE PLATE away and the potatoes still came back slightly undercooked. I think they just microwaved everything but the fruit on the plate, because the quiche was hotter than a pistol now, and so was the plate. They're lucky they didn't dry the quiche out doing that.

Repeatedly at Mimi's, the desserts have been somewhat blah. They've some times picked up the scent of garlic in the brownies, or just weren't that "over the top" that you get in their main entrees, both breakfast and dinner.

We were there for breakfast on the first day of my birthday weekend, and I asked the waitress if they do anything for a person's birthday. (It's customary in the US for at least a small dessert to be included gratis on a person's birthday, or within a couple of days of it.) The waitress forgot it. She had to be reminded. Even then, there was a long delay before it arrived, with us sitting at the table with our food finished and empty soft drink glasses. There was no choice of desserts, either. It was, however, one of their better desserts - chocolate cake, and no funny flavors.

To top off this same visit, we then had a long wait for the waitress to bring our check. Her personality was also rather indifferent and she was inattentive, only checking once through the entire meal if everything was OK without being called. She wasn't rude or willfully mean, just not present enough and not personable. She might have been having a bad day, but the impression rubbed off.

Overall impression: GREAT entrees. The main dishes there are really unique and really good. Very iffy sides and desserts. (Except the fresh fruit with breakfast, that was very good.) Wait staff is usually nice and attentive, I think we just caught our gal on a bad day or got the worst one there. Great decor, really pleasant.

Overall Rating: Three stars - and the entrees are the only thing that got them past two. Work on those sides and desserts, and for goodness' sake, cook the breakfast potatoes on the grill or have someone else cook them!!! This is the SECOND time we've had the exact same problem with those breakfast potatoes.
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Thank You for reading.

Dan

http://www.archive.org/download/ReviewMimisCafeNapervilleIllinois/Mimis-Cafe_Naperville-IL.mp3