2290 West Galena Blvd
Aurora, IL
August 29, 2006
We figured we'd start with Mother's, since it's only a 15 minute walk from my apartment. Since I just moved to the area I have no idea how long it's been open, but the makeshift vinyl sign on the east side of the building and the lack of a yellow pages listing suggests that they haven't been in business for long. But I really have no idea. The inside could pass for new; everything seems new and clean, but there were more than enough retirees reading newspapers and sipping their midday coffees to give it that old school, pancake house charm. You'd think that the unexpected Italian disco music playing over the speakers in the lobby would undercut this vibe, but it doesn't. For fun, see how many roosters you can count in the decor.
Mother's has a pretty good breakfast menu. It's been three weeks since I last looked over their menu, but they've got just about every kind of pancake, waffle, or crepe you could ask for. I got the banana crepes, which were pretty good if you like lots of sour cream. Ayinsan had the strawberry french toast, which was more like little sandwiches of grilled bread and strawberries. You can't go wrong with any of their breakfast menu.
After we finished and were getting ready to leave, our waitress offered to take our check up to the cashier for us, so we gave her our money and waited for her to bring us back our change. It wasn't much, and we were going to leave it as part of the tip anyway. But we never saw her again. Needless to say, her tip wasn't as big as it could have been. Until the end, she was great. Or at least she was better than the waiter we had on another day that once exclaimed, with genuine shock, "Wow, that was quick!" when he saw that we were finished eating. I know, I know. Don't sweat the small stuff. But we weren't asking for any special treatment, and it wasn't busy on either day.
Anyway, if you're out in west Aurora, Mother's is worth a visit. Just find the Cub Foods and you're there.
Ayinsan here. I feel it wouldn't be fair to end this review without commenting on the cinnamon roll french toast, which is easily the most decadent thing on the menu (or at least, the most decadent that I've tried so far). They serve it to you with a side of cinnamon butter and frosting, along with the usual butter and syrup. The result is a warm, gooey mass of sugary goodness so intense that the rush of pleasure from the first bite may overload your nervous system and cause a violent cinnamon-induced seizure. After that bite, I blacked out and woke up in the hospital. After several months of rehab (those Nazis force you to go cold turkey, they won't even let you sprinkle a little cinnamon on your coffee--that's all I wanted, just a little sprinkle!), I'm still struggling to regain the full use of my left arm and learn how to write in cursive again, but it was worth it.
I had eggs and sausage with it to make me feel like I was actually eating a meal and not a dessert, but really, the french toast alone is enough to fill you up. I recommend also the banana bread french toast and the split pea soup. Or better yet, dip the banana bread french toast in the split pea soup for a unique experience. No, better yet, don't, that would be gross.
9 comments:
Excellent breakfast place. Extensive menu including many $3 - $4 specials (pancakes + eggs for only $3.25 can't be beat!). Service is usually very good, coffee, toast, and muffins are excellent, and all the food is very good. Nice ambiance, friendly service. Excellent place to start the day.
I will not eat there ever again, on Dec 23rd I found what appeared to be a large insect in my burger. When I brought it to the waitstaffs attention they reacted as if I was simply returning overcooked food and was inconveniencing them.
My husband and I recently ate at your restaurant and we really like the food and the friendly atmosphere. But we have a couple suggestions for what its worth: 1. cut the size of your portions down just a little. To much waste, and 2. maybe remove a few lesser liked items from your menu. To many things to choose from can be very confusing.
We liked your restaurant and would like it to stay in business, especially in this economy.
P.S. - Maybe you could give all the extra food to homeless sites?
Just ate at Mothers today on Galena in Aurora 05/8/09 for lunch with my daughter it was her first time there. I ordered a Cobb salad which is one of my favorite meals. I couldn't believe my eyes when they put the pathetic looking salad in front of me. It was nothing more than just lettuce thrown on a plate with just deli chicken slices. There might have been at most 5 pieces of bacon, no bleu cheese, and 3 little chunks of avocado. I commented that it’s supposed to have bleu cheese and she just brought me bleu cheese dressing. I told my waitress that this is worst salad I have ever had and she said she would pass that along. I now know that I should have sent it back and refused to pay. They need to learn what a cobb salad really is. Now that I think about how bad it was I want to scream. My daughter’s sandwich was a big disappointment. We won't be going back there. This was my 2nd bad experience at Mothers last time we had tried their North Aurora location business was slow and the service was extremely slow. We had to wait for 15 min before anyone even came to our table and had to go and get our own take home box. We gave it 2 tries now we can cross this one off our list. With how bad the economy is you would think that they would try harder to keep repeat business and be able to find good help.
Horrible food. Sandwich was pathetic.
Had a Reuben that was about as thick as a grilled cheese sandwich.
Bathroom had a flooded toilet also.
My son said his burger tasted like fish and his fries were soggy with greece.
Nice people but horrible food.
All my friends stopped going there also
I went to Mother's with my boyfriend sunday for breakfast, oh my god was it out of this world. He had a steak skillet that he said was wonderful. I ate a garden omel. that comes w/ a pancake and i could not believe the size of it.
The pancakes rock! I took half of it home and had it for breakfast Monday. We found our new breakfast joint!
My fiance and I have been to the Mother's on Randall several times - always great food and service. Recently went to the new one on Galena and had a terrible waitress and cold food. Got a 10% off our bill. Not good enough for us. Called Bobby, the Owner/Manager and he was great. We got much better service (like usual) and a great hot FREE breakfast. Basically, if you don't voice your problem folks you can't complain! Bobby your great! Good food for the money in this economy. We will definitely be back! Our hats our off to Bobby for rectifying our problem.
Lori & Dan
YOU REALLY NEED TO TRY THE NEW ONE THAT THEY OPENED ON RANDALL.
I THINK IT MIGHT BE EVEN BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL. GREAT LOOKING PLACE WITH A COOL LOOKING ATMOSHPERE. YOU NEED TO TRY SOME OF THERE DINNER SPECIALS LIKE THE PRIME RIB OH MY GOD BETTER THAN A STEAK HOUSE AND THE REST OF THIER DINNER SPECIALS OUR AWESOME. VERY CHEAP PRICES AND HUGE PORTIONS A MUST SEE PLACE
This Restaurant was one of the worst I have ever been in. The moment we walked in our waitress had a frown pasted on her face and looked like she really didn't want to be there. While ordering our drinks she talking in a really rude voice- when she delivered our drinks she got the order wrong, and when she came back made a big show and talked about how we messed them up.
We order two Patty Melts one Burger one Cold Cut Sandwitch, and one Lasagna.
The Patty Melts were okay, the Burger and a disgusting amount of cheese on it that wasn't even melted properly. the Cold Cut's turkey meat tasted very strange and had an odd color in some parts. And the worst, the Lasagna was absolutely terrible. It tasted as if there was barbeque sauce on it- just horrible.
Bad service bad food
Overall a very very bad experience I would advise anyone to not go to this restaurant.
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