Niko's Breakfast Club, Romeoville

Niko's Breakfast Club
38 S Weber Rd
Romeoville, IL 60446

Autumn 2010

Groucho Marx once said, "I wouldn't want to be part of a club that would have me as a member." "I know they don't want me in the damn club / They even make me show ID to get inside of Sam's Club," Kanye West complained. Well at Niko's Breakfast Club, no membership is required! Maybe we could have asked to join anyway, and received a special "members only" menu or something. At least then they would have served me oatmeal instead of telling me they were all out for the day.

But anyway, Niko's is a good restaurant with a nice breakfast menu. Nothing that will change your life, but a welcome oasis in the desert of south suburban depression that is Romeoville. Last week, a man was crushed to death under three tons of granite at a Romeoville warehouse. What an awful way to die. And getting crushed by the granite must have been awful as well.

As you can see, Niko's kitchen is overwhelmed with a supply of cantaloupe, which they unload piece by piece with nearly every breakfast entree. Their pancakes are very good. During my visit, I ordered the orchard pancakes, which arrived with baked apples on top and a dusting of cinnamon. At least that's how I remember it. We started this entry several months ago and forgot about until today. Apologies to Niko himself if I've mischaracterized his pancakes. I do remember enjoying them quite a bit, for whatever it's worth.

Niko's, like so many breakfast restaurants, employs a design motif that evokes not so much a genuine nostalgia for our nation's agrarian past -- one that most of us who've barely set foot on an actual farm in our lives have never really experienced -- but a kind of yearning for the American Heimat that, deep in our collective subconscious, we're all beckoned to. Breakfast at Niko's (or Egg Harbor, or Southern Belle's, or even ) is an experience that surrounds the customer with touches of "country living," from antique signs to vintage kitchen appliances to whimsical rooster figurines, satisfying our urge to leave behind our fast-paced lifestyles and return to simpler times. If you like this sort of thing, boy oh boy, you're gonna love eating at Niko's.

Ayinsan here. Not too much to add, but among the restaurants we've visited, this is one I'm particularly fond of. Their menu boasts a lot of interesting breakfast offerings aside from the standard pancakes and waffles. Niko's pecan roll French toast, particularly, is quite good. Sweet and soft and pecan-y. I recommend their eggs Benedict, too. It's easy to ruin poached eggs--a little too runny or a little too firm, and it's no good--but Niko's are always that ideal combination of soft and chewy, and the hollandaise sauce is thick and rich. Nothing worse than watery hollandaise sauce, but you won't find that here.

Also, may I add that their portion sizes are gargantuan? I eat here and I'm full for the next eight hours...and I've got a pretty big appetite. Your eggs Benedict will arrive with a mountain of hash browns and slices of cantaloupe as big as the Cheshire cat's grin. And, as you can see above, they will spray practically an entire can's worth of whipped cream onto your pancakes. Greek restaurants seem to have a tradition of overstuffing their customers, and Niko's is no exception. Chances are you'll be needing a to go container.