GREAT food. Poor Service. Â This is a wonderful place to get breakfast food or lunch in Btown. Â Especially the breakfasts are so good. I can't count how many days I've woken up out in Seattle and longed for a Hoosier Scramble! Â The service sucks though. The wait staff are friendly if they ever come to see you but I have waited a long time and even got up and left after 30 mins of non-contact on a few occasions. Â They are always busy so they probably don't care, but if you go early enough or don't mind waiting for a long time its good food.
Review Source:The Village Deli is located on Kirkwood Avenue in Bloomington, Indiana. Its location makes it easy to find, which contributes to its high number of customers. Every time I've went so far, there has been a 10 to 20 minute wait. There isn't much space to stand around inside, so on a nice day, customers sit on the picnic tables outside while waiting for a table.
This restaurant is known mainly for its breakfast food, which it serves all day. Last time I went, I ordered the "Breakfast Burrito," which was great like always. It consists of three scrambled eggs along with sausage all wrapped in a tortilla with salsa on top. Needless to say, it was very filling. Plus, there was a side of home fries, which were the perfect complement to my already large breakfast. In all, my meal cost around $9, which it pretty typical for a meal at The Village Deli. Whenever I go there I feel that food serving sizes are great for the price. Other great breakfast foods include their pumpkin pancakes, bagels and lox, and waffles with fruit on top. Besides their breakfast food, Village Deli has a great lunch/dinner menu as well. They have a lot of great sandwich options, including the delicious "Jammin' Jamaican" sandwich. The chicken has a jerk seasoning, and it is served on a tasty Kaiser roll.
The service at Village Deli is typically rather slow, but the servers themselves are generally friendly and keep you updated on the status of your order. I've waited up to 45 minutes for my food before, which was frustrating. This could be due to a shortage of staff or the fact that the restaurant is almost always packed. If you don't want to have to wait for so long, I suggest going in the evening when it isn't as crowded. The hours are 7 am-9 pm Monday through Friday and 8 am-9 pm Saturday and Sunday. Â
The interior of the restaurant is in the style of the typical diner, with a black and white checkered floor. There are three separate rooms in the building. Two are filled with cozy booths, and the other room is more open with tables and chairs spread out. Its atmosphere makes it a great place to bring visiting family to a casual meal with friends. Even though it's a busy place, it has a relaxed atmosphere, and it is definitely not a place that calls for a certain dress code.
If you aren't in a hurry and are looking for a place that gives great food at a relatively inexpensive price, then I definitely suggest The Village Deli.
The Village Deli is located at 409 E Kirkwood Ave., Bloomington, IN 47408. Â It's a great location for both college students and families. Â I have been there many times for both breakfast and lunch and I can't recall ever having a bad experience. On the weekends I have had to wait 10 to 20 minutes for a table during the breakfast hours, but the wait is worth it. Lunch is a perfect time to go. I've never had to wait and the lunch menu is great!
During my last visit, I came in during the early afternoon. I had your basic cheeseburger with a side of potato chips made right there at the deli (I know this because I asked the waitress.) I also had an extra side of their potato salad. One side would have been plenty and filling, but I'm a cyclist so I eat a lot. The cheeseburger was delicious. I'd been craving one for a while and it certainly hit the spot. Mmmm. So tasty. The sides and a cup of coffee were the perfect attributes to complete my meal.
The cost for all of it was about $12.00. The sandwich and one side, however, would have only cost me about $6.50. That's a pretty good price for what you get. $6.50 is the average price for a lunchtime meal here. Breakfast meals may be a little less, but you always get so much food.
I especially enjoy the ambiance at the Village Deli. The booths and tables are private yet the space is open to let in light and make you feel at home. Â It's a very casual place. I have seen college students come in looking pretty hungover, but I have also seen families that have come in right after church. Â It's a very clean place whether you are there for lunch or dinner. It's louder in the mornings when people are in for breakfast, but during the afternoon it's a quieter, very comfortable atmosphere.
The service has always been good. During my last visit my friend and I only had an hour. We feared being late to something if our food took to long or the waitress ignored our table. Â Time was not an issue at all. We were in and out with plenty of time to spare. My friend does not eat cheese or pork. Â The waitress made an extra effort to ask the cook if the sauce on her turkey burger would contain either. The waitress was kind, friendly and very helpful.
The atmosphere, the service, the food and the price all make The Village Deli a great 5-star restaurant!
Pretty good breakfast, though definitely not the best in town. It's usually packed to the gills on the weekends, mostly with students and/or tourists who don't know any better. The servers are okay, but don't really go out of their way to be nice or helpful. This place gets a ton of business because of its location and portion sizes. It's good once in a while, but not great.
Review Source:I don't know why people love this place. Food is OK at best. But nothing I would stand around for and wait for a long time on a Saturday or Sunday. That's another big problem, the wait and slow service! To me it seems like the servers have too many tables to take care of or they are lazy and like to hang out and chat with the other servers rather than take care of the patrons. The wife and I have had service that is quick and friendly to slow and rude. In my opinion find another place that won't be run by annoying IU students who are trying to work on a Sunday morning hungover from the night before.
Review Source:Horrible service!!! Â We sat down, ordered, then proceeded to wait for about an hour for our food. We asked our server about our food and he replied, "it's coming, the kitchen is running really slow right now.". HOWEVER, the table directly across from us got our food before we did despite having five people compared to just the two of us and arriving about 10-15 minutes after we did. It seems like our order was forgotten about. Once they got their food, we slapped a few bucks on our table for the drinks and left. Will not be going back. Maybe if our server spent some time checking on our order instead of chatting in the lobby, we would have gotten to eat a nice breakfast.
Review Source:Had Village Deli for breakfast on our way out of town as it seemed like one of those places you're supposed to go in Bloomington. Â Every time we walked by later in the morning/early in the afternoons it was packed, so we figured they must have been doing something right.
We stopped in early to miss the crowds and service was a bit on the slow side as it appeared that they only had two people working the whole place. Â Our server was good though, so it didn't really hurt anything in that regard. Â The coffee was mediocre at best, and my wife really didn't like it at all. Â I thought it was passable, but for a place that serves that much breakfast, they should probably have better. Â We both got Paxton's potatoes and got a cinnamon pancake for the kid - the Paxton's are supposed to be this super famous thing they've got, but it was just a lot of potatoes with some gravy and cheese - nothing to it and too many taters vs. the other ingredients. Â The pancake was enormous, and was tasty but a bit sweet as it had a frosting/glaze on it as well, so it was basically a huge flat cinnamon roll. Â Not a bad thing per se, but a bit much for breakfast - I guess it is the midwest after all.
Overrated based on the Food Network etc. type hype.
Despite my lengthy Bloomington days, I only visited the Village Deli twice (and the second time was as an alum on a visit back). The first time was just underwhelming enough that I didn't particularly care to try it again - if I want a quick breakfast meal, I'll stop in at Bloomington Bagel Company or Scholar's Inn Bakehouse.
This time around I ordered the Southwest Omelette, which was stuffed with cheese and sour cream and enough salsa to fill me up for the next 8 hours. Despite all those supposedly wonderful flavors, it was lacking some spice or at least powerful flavor. The coffee was the same - nothing special. For the price, it was reasonable, but I'd rather increase my budget a little bit to have a less-rushed, more flavorful meal at one of Bloomington's many other fine breakfast locales.
There are long lines. The coffee is only passable. But the omelets are pretty good, and they serve traditional lox & bagels. There serve a HUGE pancake, but I'm not a carb loader. Season stuff yourself; they don't salt and pepper much but they have both and Tabasco, and on a good day Sriracha.
Their ingredients are of good quality. They're also consistent in their preparation, which is very good. The booths aren't particularly comfortable, and as mentioned elsewhere here, their coffee isn't good, but that might be to flip tables. If the coffee were really good, everyone would stay. But, as their motto goes, they eat and get out. I do this frequently, as budgets allow.
I get the feeling my breakfast tastes are different than most people's, because this is the 2nd place that everyone has told me is great and I have been less than impressed. Â
When breakfast was all said and done, I just wasn't wowed. Â
Their menu isn't huge and they have a nice selection of healthy options, but what I ordered lacked flavor. Â What I saw on everyone else's plates looked generic. Â Also, like most breakfast places, they make a big deal about giving you way too much food so you either have to be uncomfortably full in order to not be wasteful, or throw away half your plate. Â It just doesn't seem worth it. Â
I ordered the Village Veggie Omelet. Â Like I said, it was okay. Â I appreciated that it wasn't greasy and the vegetables were crisp, but I needed some serious salt and pepper, and it seemed like others did too. Â I did enjoy that one of the cheese options was feta. Â
I probably won't be back.
Exquisitely serviceable. They set their expectations and they nail them. Then, at times they knock it out of football arena and create such goodness mixed metaphors don't matter anymore.
Oddly, in Indy lox isn't on that many breakfast menus. I said yes to coming here thinking I'd get a manageable omelet Then, lox is on the menu. Done. $7 and I'm transported to the perfect cocktail of offerings I've ever come to know (see my last supper on my profile, I'm not kidding). They nailed the classic lox. Because of that, I will always be on our side. Other reasons I'll be on your side:
*the odd domed ceiling.
*the sterling staff: fast, happy, accommodating
*the humble nature of what you do: you slang brunch.
The Paxton potatoes are really great. I don't generally like gravy but these tasty taters with gravy and cheese were pretty wonderful.
It was a 30-minute wait for the giant pancake but with some toast and Paxton potatoes to help me limp through my hunger, I managed to be able to wait without fussing so much as to disturb the other guests. I recommend adding blueberries to the batter. Hardly needed syrup (not to say I forewent the syrup)
In my undergraduate days (when the dinosaurs roamed the earth and we were still fighting with the Soviet Union), The Village Deli was on my "rotation" for lunches and when Mom and Dad and other honored guests came to town. Â
Now I'm a parent and while I don't have an IU student, my cousin is down finishing up her Doctorate, so we took our two little ones to visit and take her out to dinner. Â First off, it was fun to step back in time a little bit and experience the quirky decor and be around IU students again. Â The service was great and they were patient and kind to our little blond spitfires. Â
I ordered the Bird for the Wise, a delicious combo of turkey, cranberry sauce and lettuce - like Thanksgiving dinner in sammitch form. Â And those hot potato chips -brought back those sense memories. Â
My eldest had the pancakes and was going to pull a Man v. Food and try to finish them ("I can do it!") but out parenting clicked in thankfully. Â So, I was able to sample them and they are quite good. Â Â
All in all, a very solid dining experience - in Bloomington - which is always a great time!
The Village Deli seems to be a popular spot for students, townies, and churchgoers. Â It meets the needs of the non food-conscientious general public. Â Cozy, unpretentious decor, good service, and great location. Â It reminds me of the kind of place I'd go to back in my undergrad days after a long night of partying: Â greasy and buttery breakfasts and sandwiches, fried potatoes, and good prices; the type of place that you go into with low expectations and come out pleasantly satisfied.
However, there really isn't much for the food-lover who is looking for locally grown products, higher quality ingredients, and imaginative preparations. Once I ordered biscuits and gravy, envisioning two fluffy biscuits with a cream-based thick sausage gravy, and instead got a tiny biscuit with a cold, mostly flour and milk-based gravy. Â I tried the huevos rancheros on my next visit, and to my chagrin, they were served on a huge burrito-sized four tortilla - a complete faux pas for anyone familiar with true Mexican cooking.
All in all, this is a place that has made a great name for itself, and will always have a following. Â However, if you are the type of person who wouldn't set foot in a Cracker Barrel, Applebees, or Perkins, you might want to avoid the Village Deli and instead head to Runcible Spoon, Uptown, or Feast.
"Eat and Get Out!" - that's their motto! Â The Village Deli is one of the best breakfast spots in Bloomington with decent lunch and dinner options. Â To be fair, I always order from the breakfast menu even later in the day, so I'm not the best person to comment on other offerings!
The Deli is known for its pancakes - GIANT pancakes! Â They offer a comprehensive list of add-ins (I prefer banana walnut) and one is usually more than enough. Â If you're a big eater, the short stack (2) would feed an elephant! Â
Egg creations as well as potatoes (try the Paxton's Potatoes) are also among the favorite dishes for many.
If you're looking for a great breakfast option, the Deli should be high on your list. Â Beware, Sunday mornings often see a line developing as the nearby churches finish morning services - but it's worth the wait!!
I used to love the Deli about 20 years ago, now I'll only go there if forced. I remember the Sandwich on the Brink once involving an actual breaded breast of chicken and the last time I was there I instead got some weird processed chicken patty that tasted like cardboard. (And even if I would've liked it, the sandwich came with the wrong toppings and the slow-as-hell waitperson was annoyed rather than apologetic about it.) I'm sure my other old-school fave the Deli Melt is probably still good because how can you screw up a grilled cheese with spinach and mushrooms and Thousand Island dressing?
What perplexes me the most are all the rave reviews from friends and strangers alike re: the breakfasts here. Yeah, the pancakes are big, but they're as basic as ever. They don't even put most of the fruit in the batter, they just throw it on top of the pancakes. Zzzzzz. And the omelets are bland as hell, even when I've specifically chosen the more seemingly flavorful ingredients. I've had better omelets at pretty much every other Bloomington restaurant that serves omelets. The home fries? Chunky, mealy and undercooked. They're like mini steak fries... and not good ones. And, oh god, the coffee is bile. Seriously, the Sysco Deli would be a better name for this place.
Add to all of this the utterly sophomoric conversations you're likely to overhear at the Deli on a busy day, and I'd pretty much eat anywhere else on Kirkwood. Even, god forbid, Kilroy's.
Village Deli is a Kirkwood classic for breakfast in Bloomington. It's abundant portions are bound to fill you up and the prices won't hurt your wallet. You're not getting anything fancy, we're talking your breakfast standards but they do have a few tricks up their sleeves.
The Power breakfast - more food than most people can handle. The pancake alone will fill the average patron. This thing hangs over the edges of your plate! If you're going to order pancakes, they give you the option of several fillers or toppings, such as fruit or chocolate chips.
This is some serious "I need something to soak up all the alcohol I consumed last night" food. Village Deli does the trick. Steer clear on the weekends due to long wait times unless you get there early [before 10am]. This place gets packed quick!
Super busy on Saturdays. Â I'm not sure if it's worth the long wait, no to mention it's hard to find parking nearby. Â
I had the breakfast burrito. Â It was pretty darn tasty with the eggs and chorizo. Â I also had it topped with guacamole and sour cream at an additional cost. Â If you ever plan on getting this...split it with another person, unless you're super hungry. Â It's pretty big.
completely decent breakfast place with generally decent prices.
pros:
-amazing belgian waffles, amazing anything with eggs
-endless drinkable if not amazing coffee
-tasty home fries
-just enough grease to soak up the hangover you probably have
-delicious homemade granola
cons:
-that damn granola is so expensive!
-honestly...the coffee does kind of suck
-gets crowded on weekends oh hmm i wonder why
This is a disappointing restaurant to be the best breakfast in Bloomington. Â I got the spinach scramble, which was just eh. Â Of particular concern were the terrible homefries/potatos, which were really the same potato cubes that come in airport breakfasts. Â There wasn't too much bacon mixed into my scramble either. Â I probably should have just gone with the pancakes (I'm just not a pancake person).
Review Source:HUGE breakfasts! Â I mean HUGE!!! Â Pretty solid quality too, at a decent price. Â I'm a big fan of their huevos rancheros and pancakes. Â The only thing I've ever had there that I didn't really like was the coffee cake: Â it was too dry and pretty expensive.
It's crowded on weekend mornings, and service can be very slow if you sit outside. Â Otherwise, I'm a fan!
The Village Deli is exactly what it appears to be: Â an inexpensive, clean and simple breakfast diner. Â
The food is fine (it's difficult to mess up eggs, toast  and homefries), though it's nothing to write home about.
Their coffee needs work.
The pancakes, on the other hand, are amazing.
If you're planning on going over the weekend, avoid the madness of brunch... you'll be up to your eyebrows in hung-over college students.
Simple, tasty, and easy. Â That's the Village Deli.
The Village Deli is our go-to place for weekday lunches, since it's a short walk from campus. Unfortunately, for the same reason, it gets CRAZY on weekend mornings, so we can only enjoy leisurely breakfasts during summer break, when most of Bloomington's population empties out.
Pros: The food is wonderful. They offer figure-friendly options as well as your basic fried fare; I'm a fan of the veggie burgers or the Skinny Turkey with seasonal fruit on the side. The portions can be outrageous, though, especially those flying-saucer-sized pancakes (just order ONE).
Cons: The service, while friendly, is very, very slow. That's understandable when it's busy, but during breaks when the place is completely empty but for a couple high schoolers it can still take half an hour to prep a simple sandwich and fries. They must only keep one cook back there.
So if you have a lot of time on your hands and don't mind the wait, it's an excellent option for a casual or mildly celebratory meal.
Big warning, they are extremely slow during winter break! Â The slogan is "eat and get out". Â Â We tried, but it took 45 minutes to get our order for two. Â With that being said (CYE anyone?), the food is good. Â It's nothing over the top, but it's a great value. Â The coffee is good. Â I'm sure we will go back, but it is not as good as I remember it in college.
Review Source:The burgers *suck*. it was bland and smelled funny--and it didn't have the consistency of a normal beef patty. By which I mean it had more in common with wonder bread than meat. Also the tomatoes were ice cold and the bun was untoasted and slightly stale.
I've had breakfast here a few times and that was acceptable for diner food. Just don't have the burger here.
I've never had the pancakes. Something about eating cake for breakfast is really gross to me. HOWEVER, their breakfast burrito is huge and reallllllly good. It's like a big burrito with a pound of beef and eggs, sour cream, melty cheese. Nothing you couldn't make at home, but it's nice to go out. Fun place to people watch, good coffee, I like the crushed ice. Their home fries are great. I think people love this place because that's where a lot of the piecing together of the night before happens.
It's good stuff. Parent friendly too. Which is rare in Bloomington :)
Bleh. Everything here is from Sysco.  The omlettes are merely plain.  The breakfast potatoes are the worst--cube-cut, freeze-dried, undercooked.  They serve all their fountain drinks with crushed ice.  People seem to like the pancakes, but that's ridiculous: it's just pre-mixed batter from Sysco that they pour right out of the carton on to a skillet.  Even the atmosphere of the  place is institutional.  What makes it worse is that it is a mad house on the weekends when undergrads take their parents there because they don't know where else to go for breakfast and alums take their families their because it was where they went for breakfast as undergrads.  A sad cycle which is the only reason the place stays in business.
Seriously, go around the block to Runcible Spoon.
I give them an extra * for frequently feeding the old schizophrenic homeless woman and allowing her to push her shopping cart into the restaurant on weekday mornings.
Folks, it's the pancakes. Â Oh god, the pancakes. Â I have honestly never had 'cakes like them, and God knows I have tried. Â I don't know what it is. Â Scratch that, I do know what it is, and it's the peanut butter and chocolate chips. Â But even if you don't want dessert for breakfast, get them without the chips. Â Just get them. Â Or get one, rather, because they're beyond massive.
All else can be forgiven at the Deli for the pancakes. Â Though I've had plenty of the other food here. Â Breakfast is the meal of choice of course. Â Another favorite is Breakfast on a Bagel.
Service can be variable as the place employs a rotating cast of college students, locals and other lovable ne'er-do-wells. Â
Oh, the pancakes.
The Village Deli is the only place in town that can satisfy my diner needs. While the Runcible Spoon is a great boho breakfast, sometimes I just have to eat something more inorganic and less rustic.
The ambience, though occasionally marred by a flood of college students, has an appropriate low-brow and functional, but still slightly hip, feel. People-watching opportunities are ideal; you will likely see one of several classic scenes unfold: sorority girls discussing last night at shameless volumes; parents visiting their obviously hung-over student; and a pair, one of whom answered 'yes' to the obligatory breakfast after offer that should never be accepted.
The food is diner food. It is thankfully done efficiently with a minimum of frills. Bacon, eggs, sausage, omelets, and sandwiches are all hammered out with comforting, unornamented precision. Some of the braver offerings are my kind of madness; one of the paxton's something-er-others is made by dumping sausage cream gravy and cheese on homefries. The result might be called comfort food if it didn't conjure deeply uncomforting images of my untimely end at the hands of cardiovascular disease with each abrosial bite. Pancakes are unreasonably large as is the consternating fashion of our times, but their texture and flavor do not suffer from this trespass, so I will readily forgive it. The breakfast burrito occasionally sounds appealing, but always disappoints; it's too much food, the salsa is watery and ill-suited to its purpose and the tortilla is starchy and adds nothing to the dish. The home-fries are small, crispy fried squares that are nothing like any home-fries I've ever had, if for no other reason than that they're good.
The coffee is coffee; I can explain it little beyond this tautology. If you want coffee that requires adjectives, then go to Soma. I've had little in the way of other drinks, but they use crushed ice, which is a nice touch and handy when playing with your straw (I advise you do so and also fidget with your straw wrapper and empty sugar packets while waiting on your food).
My only serious complaint is that the village deli should be open all night because sometimes breakfast can't be bothered to wait until morning.
Back in my IU days I used to practically live here. Â I was all about the Paxtons part II - the South of the Border home fries. Â It's a bowl of homefries, mixed with peppers and onions, topped with salsa, sour cream and cheddar cheese and green onions. It's ridiculously cheap and fills you up. Â My heart is happy that I don't eat this 4+ times a week anymore. Â My soul, however, still mourns.
Review Source:Delicious morning-after-big-night food. VERY fast service!! I got some type of bagel (maybe egg and cheese with butter?? MMM) and a side of the potatoes with all that yummy crap on it. That yummy crap (some type or variation of salsa??) was DELIcious. As you may know from my previous reviews I am a potato-lover and this mix was very unique. Had sour cream dolluped on top too :)
A lot of food. We were full til dinner, perfect since we had a wedding later that day anyways.
I lurve the village deli! Â They have a good selection of foods & serve breakfast all damn day, which is muy important for a college town. Â Good prices on good food. Â Every time I have been there, the waitstaff is great (they always bring water with your coffee). Â And their coffee is actually good for a restaurant establishment. Â I eat here as often as possible. Â
Be careful to miss the crowds on Saturdays and Sundays at certain times. Â Hangovers need a food fix and I believe a lot of them end up here :)
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