My husband and I LOVE this place and it's our favorite place to get breakfast. Their call ahead service is very helpful especially on busy weekends. They have fresh squeezed OJ, the bacon and pancakes are divine, and the eggs and hash browns are great! Â I definitely recommend them. Even my out-of-town friends are Hooked on Honey Jam! Great place!
Review Source:I have gone once, and that was enough for me. I don't have children, and don't understand why I had to get sat in a party room full of crying children. I know I look young, but I didn't really need to hear the screaming kids. Our waitress seemed a bit frazzled by the whole situation. The sever ice was VERY slow. When I finally did get my food, it was wrong. I sent it back, only for it to come back out again wrong! I was too hungry to send it back for a second time, so I ate a few bites of my sub par skillet, paid my bill and left.
Review Source:Meh, this wouldn't be my first, second or even third choice for brunch again. Â Its OK. Â This place is run by Portillo's group and is located right behind the Portillos'. Â I admittedly was lured in by the potential of this place to be as awesome as Portillo's. Â Its not. Â Its a large place, but we still had to wait 30-40 min on a Sunday morning for a table for two. Â We waited outside since the place was crammed with people at the hostess stand. Â The decor is ....interesting... Â kind of like what my mom would have ideally picked for decor in the 1980's... Â large, slightly gaudy victorian/baroque looking. Â And its dark, which does not help me wake up in the morning, no matter how much coffee. Â Not really what you would expect given the more fun lively atmosphere of Portillo's. Â Anyhow, onto the food. Â OK, but not memorable. Â Plenty of it, way too much, which is about where the similarity to Portillos' ends. Â Nothing bad, just not great, not Portillos' great which is really what I was secretly hoping for. Â Ill stick to the cheese fries and Italian beef next door.
Review Source:On Sunday afternoon, I was pleased to be seated immediately in a lovely room at  Honey Jam Cafe. The walls had an amber tone and were adorned with stained glass artwork. Star lights hung from the the ceiling. Very classy dining area with a cozy feel.
We sat down, ordered coffee, and were served promptly. The coffee was quite good and the pot was left on the table for self-service. I appreciated that touch, as I am often mildly irritated by overzealous waiters. It was nice to be able to pour the coffee--which somehow stayed hot--at leisure.
Since Honey Jam Cafe is a breakfast destination, I ordered a breakfast item: the chocolate chip pancakes. The presentation was beautiful: three large pancakes stacked atop each other; chocolate drizzled in stripes across the stack. Beneath the pancakes I discovered a layer of thick chocolate, adding to the decadence. They did skimp on the whipped cream, I thought. It came in a dollop on the side. Frankly, I hoped for more. I don't care to be health conscious when I dine out; might as well live it up (the end is coming anyway, right?). Also, the menu stated chocolate chips were mixed into the pancake batter. However, this chocolate detective did not see traces in her pancakes.
My guests were not impressed with their meals. One ordered the chicken harvest wrap and said it was bland. The other ordered the corned beef hash skillet and said it was nothing special.
Overall, we found Honey Jam average. I would dine there again perhaps, but I wouldn't make a special trip for it.
I really like this place but, like one of the other reviewers, I was torn between 3 or 4 stars. Â I think the food is great and have never been disappointed by the quality of food. Â However, the wait can be kinda long, although that really should be expected on a weekend morning, but I have had some not so great service and some great service. Â It can be kinda slow at times and, as someone else experienced, after our food has arrived, we have had to wait for the syrup a number of times. Â The last time, the table next to us actually offered us their syrup because they didn't even have their food yet but were brought syrup. Â Overall, the food and many, many options do make-up for the occasional service issues that come with a bust breakfast place.
Review Source:Overwhelmingly Underimpressed is about as diplomatically as I can describe our lunch visit today.
It starts with the weird baroque decor, the dim lighting, and the ice cold draft; I would ascribe a more country living style to the name Honey Jam. Â I'd brighten things up a bit, and I'd turn off the G-D A/C-It is November 1st, after all! (trust me, we asked for the heat to be turned on and apparently only Dick Portillo can do that).
And while I'm sure that most of the gals out there would describe our waiter as "Hot", he should perhaps reinvent himself as a stripper or a runway model, cuz he ain't much of a waiter. Â We waited forever for drink straws and coffee creamer, and my wife eventually went to the front counter for the creamer. Â Same story for the pancake syrup. Â Remember kids, it's the little things.....
And the food was uninspired, at best. Â I went with the Tuscan omelet and found it to be a rather gooey, bland mess. Â My wife thought the same of her Egg Beaters Tuscan Omelet. Â My daughter did enjoy her scrambled eggs, chocolate chip pancakes, and sausage links. Â Butterfield's is exponentially better.
Absolutely delicious!! My Wife, myself and my folks were in Chicago for a family gathering and we went Sunday morning to Honey-Jam Cafe. My wife and Mom had been there Saturday afternoon for lunch and raved about it. We arrived at 1030 and my wife made reservations for 4. We were so happy she did as the place had a line going out the door.
We were seated at 1104 in the back party-room. Marla was our server and she did an absolutely fabulous job. My wife ordered the French Toast and my Mom and Dad ordered omelettes. I had the 2 eggs, sausage and hash browns along with a side of Corn Beef Hash. At the end of breakfast, no plate was empty as the meal fit the bill.
The next time we are back in Chicago/Bolingbrook, this will be our place of choice.
I couldn't really decide whether I wanted to give it a 3 or 4 star rating, but we've had pretty good service and enjoyed the food each and every time we've been here, so I'm going with 4 stars.
This place gives you a lot of food. A LOT of food. I don't understand why people call this pricey for what it is; when I visited with my brother and cousin, the three of us ordered four entrees and coffee and paid $50 for three people. We even took food home. That's quite a lot of value for just under $17 each. Oh, and the food was excellent!
On my recent visit, I ordered the Julian's Benedict and split the Bananas Foster crêpes. Both were fantastic and just perfect. My brother ordered the chorizo & eggs and my cousin ordered waffles with strawberries and bananas. Both my brother and my cousin were pretty satisfied as well. The chorizo & eggs was really good and the waffles were huge!
I couldn't believe how big the entrees were. It was plenty of food - probably more than they needed to serve. I think it's a great value.
The server was really funny. Maybe a little weird, but really funny. She did try very hard even though she wasn't the fastest server; that's okay, she didn't make any big mistakes and always refilled our coffee and water promptly.
I like this place and I'm really glad there is one in Bolingbrook. It's a perfect family place and Bolingbrook is where my family is at, so it's ideal. I will definitely be back.
I had been to the Honey Jam Cafe in Downers Grove a couple of times before, but this was the first visit to the restaurant in Bolingbrook. It did not disappoint.
The lunch meals --
wife: Pumpkin Waffle with cheesecake topping
daughter: Chicken Tortilla Soup and Simple Turkey Club 1/2 Sandwich
mother: Italian Wedding Soup and Chicken Harvest 1/2 Wrap
me: BBQ Chicken Tortilla Salad
My mother did not like the soup (I did not know she had tried Italian Wedding Soup before and had not liked it). Other than that little blip, everything else was excellent. We were seated immediately in a space that was convenient for my mom, who walks with a cane. The service was exactly what one would want it to be -- friendly, fast, accurate.
The food was excellent. Drink refills were frequent. The prices are reasonable. If I lived in the area I would be a regular customer.
Great job!
kind of pricey for what it is. I have no complaints with the quality of the food, but it took a very long time. We were seated in a party room, which seemed to be all tables with a crying baby and us. My gf insists it was her orange and red mohawk, but I don't think the little highschooler seating us cared one way or another about her haircut.
My meal was fine. Her meal was not, even after the 2nd try. They'd delivered the completely wrong meal, and then brought a 2nd one that had one of the ingredients still in it she'd asked to have omitted. (tomatoes, maybe?). At that point we were both so hungry and we didn't want to wait 10 more minutes to get a 3rd attempt at her dish.
The high ceilings with painted metal made the whole place an echo chamber, and the service was uber-slow. I won't be back, I've got plenty of other places to try.
This is a wonderful restaurant. My friends & I live in Park Ridge & Schaumburg but whenever we come to Bolinbgrook we always make it a point ot stop at this restaurant. Â The food is always delicious. The wait staff is always curtious & on the ball about refilling drinks & clearing the table. Â It is always a pleasure to come here.
Review Source:It's always nice to see a manager at a restaurant willing to help out instead of merely standing around giving orders to their staff. This morning Robin, the manager, asked me how everything was. And when I told her that my hash browns were cold she immediately remedied that by bringing me a heaping plate full of delicious steaming hash browns twice as large as the side that originally came with my entree.
Potatoes make me happy. Double potatoes make me twice as happy.
My wife and I are frequent visitors to Honey Jam. Everything is always perfect. The food, the service, the prices, we couldn't be happier. So on the rare occasion when my potatoes are cold, it doesn't really bother me. It happens, and believe me if I were the one cooking my breakfast I'd be lucky to have hot potatoes half of the time.
I also noticed that there seemed to be more empty tables than usual. Someone commented that they might be a little short staffed. I applaud Robin once again for not stretching her staff too thin and keeping their high quality of service for all her customers.
Thanks Honey Jam, and thanks Robin!
I'm glad I didn't look at all the negative Yelp reviews before going, because I probably wouldn't have ever made it here, and then I would've been missing out!
I have to say, I was thoroughly impressed. We were greeted with a warm welcome from a woman who was likely the manager. She promptly sat us, and shortly after, we were greeted by the nicest server (Dani was her name, I believe). Because it was our first time there, she pointed out some of her favorites, ALL of which sounded SO good!
One of the skillets she recommended was the Countryside skillet which had ham, sausage, bacon, broccoli, mushrooms, onions, and peppers. This was the skillet I ended up ordering and it was SO so good. And it was huge! I finished about 1/3 of it, and ate one of the two pancakes it came with (you can do toast instead of pancakes), and was completely stuffed!
Yeah, their prices are slightly on the higher side, however, I brought more than half of my breakfast home, so I don't feel like it's really worth complaining about.
All in all, I was impressed and will definitely be back. Great food, friendly attentive service, and the restaurant is CLEAN. No complaints here!
Everything here is alright. I really can't complain about my breakfast as it hit the spot. The prices were a little bit higher than typical places like this that I frequent. IT was not enough for me to get my panties in a bunch. The restaurant was not very crowded at all and it took a VERY long time for us to receive our food. Â The restaurant looks rather nice and is rather comfortable.
I left here with a resounding eh rerunning around in my head. Everything was solid here but there was nothing that made me feel like I had to return. I probably will return as everything was pretty decent.
I love Portillo's restaurant, so I assumed this one would be the same. Boy was i wrong. I came to this restaurant and went into the bathroom and the women's bathroom was so dirty. One of the toilets was overflowing with toilet paper. Then after ordering and waiting for the food, you received a small amount of what you ordered. I asked for a Belgium waffle with whipped cream and strawberries. My waffle had a small dollop of whipped cream and about 4 strawberries. My friends meal was called a nutella crepe. It had a minimal amount of nutella and a thousand bananas, quite disappointing. When speaking to the manager she proved to be unhelpfull and rude, not caring to hear why we were upset. Sleep in and skip your breakfast and just go to Portillos for lunch.
Review Source:They should call this the "Honey Badger Cafe" Â (not everyone will get that!)
Drove here from Channahon for breakfast/lunch today thinking it would be as good as the other Portillos restaurants. Â Sadly this was not the case.
We arrived around 1pm so there was no wait. Â The hostess was excited to seat us next to the fireplace but it wasn't lit.
Our server, Marla, was prompt and attentive. Â Always had a smile throughout our meal. Â
My fiance and I both ordered Diet Cokes but, I'm still scratching my head as to what she served us because it wasn't Diet Coke. Our server promptly brought us Iced Tea which was good.
The silverware was dirty; Â I'm talking chunks of leftover food on it. Â That will make you lose your appetitie real fast.
I ordered eggs, corned beef hash, hash browns, pancakes and a side of bacon. Â The eggs were ok (really, how can you screw up eggs?) the hashbrowns were overcooked and the pancakes were FAR from "light and fluffy". Â They were more like flat and pasty. Â Someone commented earlier that they served "gourmet pancakes". Â Can someone explain to me what gourmet pancakes are because these weren't even in the same universe as gourmet. Â I've had better pancakes at Denny's. Â The best part of my meal was the bacon,which was way overpriced. Â $3.50 for three pieces of bacon!My fiance ordered the Huevos Rancheros which were just ok. Â
Overall, the service was good but the food was not. Â Dick needs to stick to what he knows best; burgers and dogs.
We came here on Easter and had great experience. The service was exceptional and the bunny-eared server was incredibly friendly and attentive to our needs. I would like to see more breakfast combos on the menu, but it's not a deal breaker. I had a Dutch baby and was very pleased with it. Look forward to going back.
Review Source:A one star is to generous for this place.Wait time is horrible. Nothing special about this place. We waited over half hr for our order. The lady took our Oder an forgot about us I had to flag her down. My brother order a skillet and they actually forget TO COOK his food. Will never go bk there.
Review Source:This is a pretty decent breakfast place. The interior is all woody and amber-toned, like honey! Jam?
Cafe.
I liked it, but there was nothing that really stood out. The service was awesome, the food is what you expect.
There was a barber shop in the same strip mall that had a donk parked in front of it. Now THAT was a sweet honey jam.
Cafe.
I wanna give it 2 1/2 starts this time, but just seem to wanna give this place the benefit of the doubt... even though it continues to disappoint.
Nothing about this place is special... maybe I'm not ordering the right thing?? And the service still left something to be desired. We didn't even get refills on our coffee.
One of the best places in the area for waffles and crapes. The Very Berry waffle is my favorite with the Bananas Foster a close second. Â Good coffee (they leave the pot on the table so you never run out) and offer free to-go cups at the end of the meal. Who else does that? Â Plenty of staff even on a busy Sunday morning.
Review Source:Honey Jam Cafe had a lot to prove to me when I dined here on Sunday. Â I already have two favorite local breakfast spots: Pancake Cafe in Naperville and Eggs, Inc in Bolingbrook. Â The name drew us in....honey, jam, this place must be awesome. Â
Well, it was just ok. Â I had a bacon/egg/cheese sandwich and bf had an omelette. Â The sandwich was a bit dry, but the bread was good (sourdough). Â The restaurant itself is decorated nice, but it was very crowded, loud, and the atmosphere was a bit chaotic. Â Not how I like to spend my Sunday morning.
In essence, I feel lukewarm about the restaurant. Â While I am not opposed to going back again, I will most likely stick to my regular breakfast joints.
This place is huge...room after room. It really does not look like a breakfast place...it is very nicely decor and dark. Nicest breakfast restaurant I have ever seen.
The coffee was delish and I really loved that they had all types of flavored creme.
Food was decent..much nicer plating them most places. I loved their eggs and toast.
The only thing that made it not as a great experience is the tight parking and that it took foreeevver to get our food...and not only that but it took forver to get our food ordered..and it was during the week so it wasn't that busy.
Overall I think this is a breakfast place to go and check out but not a place to be a regular at.
I was going to get an Italian beef from Portillo and then I saw this Honey Jam Cafe and decided to give a try. I am glad I did.
I ordered the "Julian's Benedict" Â A toasted English muffin topped
with sautéed baby spinach, artichoke hearts, portobello
mushrooms, tomatoes, two medium poached eggs and
hollandaise sauce. It's really good.
I am not a breakfast person. But I will go back if I am near there.
Me and my bf love this place!!!! Â We've been there almost every week for brunch. Â The chicken tortilla soup is awesome! Â So is the Greek Wedding Soup but I still like the chicken better. Â We've tried... the Julian Benedict, the Vegetable Omelette (reg eggs. Â they have egg white option!), the Tuscan Omelette, Banana Foster Crepes, Country skillet, Monterey Omelette, Strawberry Cheesecake French Toast, Banana Bread French Toast, and fresh tomato juice. Â THe hash browns are awesome and so is the side of pancakes or marble rye toast! Â I normally hate hash browns unless they're Mc Donald's but these are perfect, not overdone, not too crispy. Â They need one of these around Schaumburg or Chicago!
Review Source:I was not impressed. Frankly, the food was as it should be considering that it is overpriced for breakfast fare. Although I have to say they seem somewhat stingy with portions. I had actually finished my coffee and water quite sometime before flagging someone down with a pot of coffee for a refill. Â I was amazed at how slow the service was during off hours. Â The Geneva location is nice but really didn't set itself above any of the other restaurants in town.
Review Source:Let's just start off by saying this was the worst service I have had in many years. We got seated and then waited for over 10 minutes before our waitress greeted us to take drink orders. Then we waited another 10 plus minutes to place our food order. Our drinks did not arrive until after our ouur food arrived. Food was average at best, my club wrap had very rare cooked bacon in it (gross) and the fries were cold, I was going to send it back but waitress was nowhere to be found so I just picked off the undercooked bacon and salvaged what I could of the wrap. Another one of my friends ordered a mediteranian croissant which was slightly stale. I will usually give a place a second chance but things were so bad here I will probably not. Hey Dick, stick to dogs, I can get better service and quality at a Dennys than I did at your Bolingbrook Honey Jam Cafe.
Review Source:Food great. Service exponential "meh"...
Inexplicably, there are so many things that the Portillo's Restaurant Group does right that I'm stunned, simply STUNNED that they have a tough time with this one. Â Maybe it's the breakfast / lunch concept and in full disclosure, I have not frequented the other Honey Jam's in their system (including the one in Lombard).
If it comes off the griddle, it's going to be pretty solid. Â Eggs...they don't do as well. Â But gosh darn it, you've got to get to the table, bring it all together (my hash browns didn't arrive until after we finished our meal) and the sense of urgency attached to cranking out covers as breakfast places are want to do just wasn't there. Â
We've been twice and while very good friends of ours have it pegged as their top stop, we just can't give it that kind of kudos.
'ello!
Well. I went to HJC a few months back and it was okay.
Went on a holiday... since the owner owns the entire strip, they opened an empty spot next door, since the wait was so long. There was coffee, telly for the kids and tables to sit at, so while you wait for the pager go off... you have something to do. [doubt they do that all the time, but not too sure.]
Breakfast is definitely their strong suit. I had gotten a waffle and it was good! Sweet and fluffy with a nice crunch. My mom got a pick 2, a wrap and a southwestern soup... it was so so.. we actually got food poisoning from that wrap, which we thankfully didn't finish.
[I say we because she had a bite, took it home and when she left... I had a bite as well . that's the last time I steal a bite. ...well. i won't steal anything from THEM out of my fridge.]
Yeah the food poisoning was a lot of a turn off for us. When one of my girlfriends come back in town, I'll go with her, just to see how that goes.
[P.S. They close at 2:30 ish so... hop to it and get there early!!]
After having much love for the Oakbrook location, I was chomping at the bit to try the new, close-to-home location. Unfortunately, I was a bit let down on so many levels.
The ambiance: I personally think it's a little to dark and dreary on the interior for a breakfast place. I want a little bit more natural light. The wood is all stained dark, and the carpets and wall hangings are a deep burgundy. There are some very nice pieces of stained glass in there, as well. All through breakfast, I couldn't help but feel that I was eating breakfast in a funeral parlor.
The service: Our particular server was lacking. Possibly, she was having a bad day, because I don't know how someone so flighty could be a waitress. First off, every other table had coffee carafes on them. I finished my first cup, and tried to flag her down for another cup. She proceeded to tell me to use the carafe. Hey lady, you never gave me one! OK. So she brought me me coffee, and proceeded to take our orders. I had a build your own omelet with pepper jack cheese, Italian sausage, onions, and green peppers. While stating my order, our waitress kept on looking over her shoulder. She never even heard what I said, and I had to repeat my order.
The food: If my order was right, I would have been happy. My omelet was tasty, but was missing the onion, and it had cheddar cheese in it. (Not the fault of the waitress- I checked the receipt- she had it right.) I didn't feel it was worth the effort of sending the food back.
The place is usually crowded, especially on the weekends. They turn tables over rather quickly, and the 20-30 minute wait they state usually is no more than 15. I would say my experience left me wanting, but I will have to try them out for lunch. Hopefully, they are just working the kinks out.
Julian's Benedict: AMAZING! A vegetarian version of eggs benedict, but it's so hearty with the thick tomatoes, portobello mushrooms and artichokes. Definitely will get this again! Their hollandaise sauce is out of this word too; BF and I get eggs benedict at most breakfast places we go, and Honey Jam's hollandaise sauce is the best we've had.
Countryside Skillet: Pretty good too, but I won't get it again, as it's not amazing.
Atmosphere:
The restaurant itself is quite large, and I will say it was a bit louder than I would have liked (I think this is more an insulation issue, with their high ceilings and hard building materials everywhere, the sound just bounces around and around). But it's very roomy and getting a table was very quick at 12pm.
Owned by portillos, this place tries to hide that it's a chain, but the serving size prepackaged creamers on the tables give them away. The restaurant layout was cramped, but service was ok. It was waaaay too dark, I ddidnt like going from it being 10 am to a building that made you feel like you should be ordering dinner. The food was decent, thick slices of bacon, they didnt skimp on the feta,real cheddar or my hashbrowns...next time I think I'm gonna try sweet instead of savory
Review Source:I was excited about the opening of Honey Jam Cafe -- it's right down the street from me & I love breakfast food. My mom & I went today around 11 a.m. There were roughly 15 other people waiting, but the waiting area is larger than most & there was plenty of seating. A flat-screen TV displayed a slide show of different menu items, which I found helpful & unique. We only had to wait about 10 minutes before being seated.
Our server was friendly & polite. My mom ordered the Mediterranean Croissant (sautéed baby spinach, roasted red peppers, feta cheese, & crispy bacon), & I got the Bacon Waffle. Her sandwich looked really tasty, MINUS the huge hunk of feta cheese. We both expected feta crumbles, but the cheese was a large slice, about half an inch thick. She didn't eat the cheese, but said the croissant was very fresh & she enjoyed it overall.
My waffle was tasty as well. The menu said the bacon would be mixed throughout the batter, but the bacon pieces were actually on top of the waffle. Regardless, the combination of savory & sweet is a good thing.
I see in Sheila M.'s review that she had terrible service, but it looks like Honey Jam Cafe has gotten its act together since then. Our food only took between 10-15 minutes to arrive. I'll definitely be back.
I've been waiting for this place to open. The competition just north on Route 53 has closed (no surprise there), so they should do just fine.
We visited at lunch which made parking (on a rainy day) a slight hassle because of its close proximity to its sister restaurant.
There was a very brief wait, but not anything unreasonable. We were led to a table in a very busy traffic pattern, the hostess could tell we were not happy and moved us to another location, at a corner which was even worse. Finally we were offered a booth in a more private room which was much better. But, as I looked around, there really were no tables in the larger rooms, that did not have people rushing past, people being led past you to get to other tables, or just a lot of commotion.
There were a few minor kinks which will probably work themselves out. Â Portions were generous and there certainly is something for everyone on the menu.
The register to pay is located in a strange area, and yet again, accessible by weaving your way through tables.
Just a suggestion, leave a carafe of water on the table.
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