Lou Mitchell's Restaurant

I don't know who this person is who said that there was poor service here because I've been going to "The Original Lou Mitchell's" for about 5 years now and I've never experienced poor service. No employee would ever expect a customer to get their own coffee even the busboys or girl would give it to you. As for the cashier I've seen her help out as well. The omelets are very good, they have so many varieties they can even make them with egg whites. One more thing if there was such bad service why would there be lines of people out the door? Come on free donuts as you walk in and Milk Duds for the ladies and children who can beat that.

Lou Mitchell's has good coffee, they serve it with heavy cream instead of half and half. However, the man behind their carry out counter has very poor customer service skills. I was encouraged by someone at the register to start getting my own coffee rather than wait 10 minutes for someone to get it for me. I started doing this when no one was available to help me at the counter. Then, even when the man who runs this counter was there he would have me walk over to get my own coffee while he stood at the counter doing nothing. Others who work there noticed this and said something to me about it, but obviously there must be a culture of poor customer service here because he was not at all concerned about who--including his boss--saw him treat a customer this way; clearly he saw nothing wrong with this behavior, because he still would try to make small talk as he sent me off to get my own coffee. I don't recommend this place.
The coffee is very good but the food is not memorable and needs lots of salt (the omelettes do anyway). There is a Mitchell's (called "The Original Mitchell's") in a strip mall just off Armitage near Clybourn, 1953 North Clybourn, that is what this Lou Mitchell's calls a copy; they are of no relation to each other.

PROS: Coffee
CONS: Outrageously poor customer service, overall culture of poor customer serv