Al's Cafe & Creamery

Fir-Git-About-IT. This is a must go. Food, Famous Malt Recipe, Nostalgia & Great Service with a Smile.
Take your best friend, take your boss, take your mom, go by yourself just GO! Then head over and win some money at The Boat.

I came with such high hopes. This place came highly recommended. It was over promised and under delivered. The waiter was a trainee so I will forgive service and still tip well. But the food was lackluster. The Montreal Corn Beef didn't come with cheese. So it was just warm bread and corned beef. It came with a slice of pineapple. An odd choice of fruit for deli sandwiches, and it wasn't even peeled or cored. The worst part was the coveted milkshake. It came in two cups. Half in a glass cup and the majority in the stirring tin.  I am totally fine with a milkshake coming served in a tin if that is the style you are going for but sending it in both is just sloppy and lazy. Told me they weren't going to be bothered by serving the milkshake properly. It didn't come with a straw of any kind, just a spoon. The overall quality of the milkshake wasn't that great. It just seemed like slightly melted soft chocolate ice cream.  Overall it wasn't a bad place, just sloppy execution. I'd be willing to give it another try before passing final judgement.

Very nice little place with a warm staff and nostalgic atmosphere. I want to revisit this place during dinner time!

Atmosphere:
This place is located on a neat and less busy in the heart of Elgin. Parking is fairly easy to find. Inside was a dimly lit place with a lot of history it seemed. I loved how the music was jumping around from the 1920's to 1950's. It really feels like a different time period in this place. Everything is neat and organized with green walls. This place is quite relaxing. The bar and the spirits area looks very appealing and well organized. No loud sports TVs!

Service:
We received a warm welcome and had ourselves seated by the window. Our waiter was polite and was helpful with suggestions. He did well taking care of us. But..... We were the only ones there, so I was hoping we were taken care of well. We arrived just as the place opened at 11am.

Food:
I have to say all the ingredients are top quality. You can taste the quality in the meat, the bread, cheese, and the ice cream. However despite this, nothing wowed me surprisingly. This isn't technically Al's fault, but I am not a sandwich person. I ordered a great sandwich, but I don't like sandwiches. I know that makes no sense, but a sandwich person would love this place. Their kettle chips were pretty good too, but I am not a chips person either. So I took a few bites of my sandwich and had it packed. I then ordered a mushroom and swiss burger. It tasted pretty good, but it didn't impress me enough to be memorable. I feel a restaurant can have all top quality ingredients, but you still need the cooking skills to make use of the ingredients. Not that their chef is bad or unskilled, but none of the food was memorable that day. I also regret not getting their Yelp famous Malts over the Milkshake. Their milkshake is pretty much ice cream in a cup I feel. The quality of ice cream is great! But it doesn't feel like a milkshake. Man... This review just makes me sound super picky lol. I am willing to come back and try their other interesting choices. I can definitely recommend this place for sandwiches though! They have so many menu options and props for their vegetarian options!

Overall I would give this place a four and a half stars if I could. Only because there was only two of us there, and none of the food was memorable to me. I would love to recommend this place as a great lunch date place and a place with awesome sandwiches. I will come back here for dinner food and test this place if it deserves the five stars! I would come back just for the relaxing and nostalgic atmosphere though.