Aviary Cafe and Creperie

My husband and I had the caramel apple crepe and some americanos. The crepe was delicious and I loved the atmosphere and quaint feel of the place. We definitely want to try dinner here, too.

This review is directed to their catering service but, of course, that will include a review of their tasty tasty food. For a work holiday party, we hired Aviary to handle our lunch. Aviary provided a salad, main, and dessert course for our party; and I must say I could not have been any more pleased than I was with the execution of the courses. Some people weren't wowed by the salad (leafy greens, pear, goat cheese, a lemon vinaigrette if I remember correctly), but I thought it was outstanding.

Then the food from the main courses alone was deserving of 5 stars. I know that my co-workers enjoyed the beef and fish dishes, and let me just say that the vegetarian option (I'm a sucker for ratatouille and will choose it as an option almost very time) of Ratatouille over creamy polenta dressed with goat cheese and arugula was simply devine. I wanted to hug the chef, but I didn't want to freak out my co-workers...well more than I may have already done with my charming personality.

As for our dessert crepes, they were very good as well, although mine was undercooked. No matter, as I actually like them that way. At least one co-worker, however, asked me if the crepe was supposed to be so undercooked, so it wasn't simply mine.

If the review was based on the food alone, I'd consider giving it 5 stars, although I'm normally a give-four-stars-on-first-visit-and-bump-up-upon-­revisit kind of gal. The ratatouille and polenta was really that fantastic. Because of a few issues with the actual business of facilitating the catering and the menu, I'm giving Aviary 4 stars. Don't get me wrong, Aviary was great to do business with (4 star Yelp worthy), and I would recommend them to anyone else looking for a great catering experience.

I look forward to visiting Aviary, so that I can hopefully bump up my review soon.

Every time I go here, I have to keep telling myself it's the "CRAPE-ery" not the "CREEP-ery." (And it's "AviaN flu" not "AviaRY flu.")

Joking aside, if you've never been here, you have to try it.

For the moment, just forget the food: this is the most charming little restaurant I've ever been in.  It's a neat corner lot anyway -- I remember its previous tenants, a small trendy clothing store, was fun to shop in -- but my gosh, every little detail is completely adorable.  Not adorable in the sense that "my husband wouldn't be caught dead in here", but adorable in the sense, "I'd seriously pay you to come over and decorate my house."

As you might infer from the name, birds are a common theme here.  But it's also French-themed.  There are a few French-specific items on the menu, and I didn't feel like bothering our server to figure out what all the things were that I didn't recognize.  The menu isn't overwhelming, just two pages, but because this type of food isn't common in Springfield, it may take you a few minutes just to decide what you want!  Shoot, it could take you a while to convince yourself to have a "dessert" crepe for a meal.  That's perfectly acceptable -- go with your instincts!

My favorite "French" aspect were the checks -- I've never been so tickled to get my check, ever -- they were brought out in little children's book!  Mine was "Hansel et Gretel," all the pages in French.

The creeps -- wait, CREPES -- are interesting.  They're very good, though it took me a couple visits to decide I officially liked them.  I tried the salmon one months ago, and couldn't get over the texture of the pastry with the flavor of lunch.  That visit, I did have a bite of a coworker's dessert crepe -- something with fruit and whipped cream, if I remember right -- and realized that was where it's at.  My last visit, I tried a breakfast crepe with bacon, egg, and cheese, and I really enjoyed it. I even dipped some of the dough in maple syrup and pretended that was my dessert. MMM!

Our server was very on top of things, and I could tell they fit in perfectly -- they contributed to the overall sophisticated charm of the Aviary.

Beware if you have a large group -- I don't know if they take reservations, but I don't believe there are many large tables (5+ guests).

This place probably won't please a really picky eater.  But I think everyone needs to try it at least once, and if you have any fears, just stick with a sweet dessert crepe -- you can't go wrong with that!