Reviews of Northside Cafe (Coffee Shop)

Greg Strohbehn

Love this place! If you are looking for a quality meal then this is the place. The owners are friendly and aim to please. Chef Walter is talented and puts a lot of love into his food. The tenderloins are large and some of the best I've ever had. Very good steaks and seafood. The blueberry crisp is wonderful. Old fashioned pies that remind you of grandma. Always a good selection of food on the menu. The owners are trying hard and I wish them much success! Please come and check out this historical gem!

Tony K

Great small town feel and service along with excellent food

Jarrod Lucero

Those new Prime Rib Sliders are off the hook! They have them every first week of the month. Order them! Ask for Hayley, she was a fantastic waitress.

Jordan Kuhns

Be careful if you've got a large party! The food is okay, but they charged us $1 per person simply because we had a party of 10 or more. Which was kind of rude since all we wanted was a place for our whole family to go get lunch while we hung out on the square. Seems like all they care about is money, not customer service or the community. It's a shame. The Northside used to be something special, and now it's just not. Head to Montross instead, for an equally historic and delicious experience.

Rebeca Trevino

Great food and excellent service.

Wilfrido Matamoros

If your are fan ofThe Bridges of Madison County, you must visited. Good food home style. Love hamburger. Excelente lugar para lunch. Pide las ensaladas, las hamburgesas buenos pies. Estilo midwest casero. Recomendado.

Rick Adkins

Amazing experience! B&G, excellent? Eggs Benedict wonderful and staff friendly. We will be back...

Chris Henson

Even though they were getting ready to close they let us come in and fed us an awesome meal. The steak was perfectly cooked and delicious! The pasta and hamburger was excellent. The service was outstanding and our waitress even told us about Clint Eastwood sitting at counter for the filming of Bridges of Madison County.

Steven Contos

What can you say about a place that's been around for centuries? Food was delicious, service was quick and efficient. Overall a great place to go-to

Dave Vaske

food was great service was fine

Sean B

There is a lot of history here, and it certainly has a rustic old charm. From the wood floors, old fashioned bar, and obviously aged booths, this place has a nice feel. If upscale and modern are your thing, this place isn't for you. The staff is all friendly. The menu (when I was there at 9:30am) was limited to breakfast, but had all the usual suspects. I had the chicken fried steak, eggs, and hash browns. The kids had a (very cute) French toast and a cinnamon roll. Everything was simple, delicious, but not mentionably good or bad. The fresh squeezed lemonade was nice (though a bit pricey). Prices are typical to a bit high. Portions were filling. I'd like to try it again and if I lived in Winterset I'd be back when looking for breakfast out. I don't, so there would have to be another reason for me to come to Winterset. I'd recommend it to anyone in the area, but wouldn't recommend a special trip just for it.

Mark Boyer

Amazingly tasty lunch! Great service! Highly recommend!

Gregg Beary

This place has a great atmosphere. Pictures of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood are everywhere. The service was good. The food was average.

Alexandra Hoenig

I just love the feel of North Side Cafe. I enjoy eating the giant cinnamon roll they serve.It's practically the size of the plate.

Michael Evink

Wonderful food, great service! Thanks Scott & crew!!!

Brett Elliott

We come here every year before the Christmas parade. If you're hungry in Winterset it's a great place to stop. Strongly recommend you try the pork tenderloin. It's probably the best item in the menu, and what they're a bit famous for.

Mark O'Hara

Delicious food and friendly staff.

Dan Mills

Great country atmosphere and great food!

John Alspach

They were under staff when we got there and it took forever to get waited on and also they brought me my hamburger and it was raw in the middle

Brenda Scrivener

The service was great! BUTT the prices are over the top!! The tenderloin was great but the bread / NO and the gravy ruins the tenderloin , which this part we did not eat! The blueberry crumble ?? Really not appealing at all ! So $60 for two tenderloins, with gravy, fried pickles, French fries (limp) , a beer , water, blueberry crumble (small) plus tip,! NOT worth $60

Tim Coble

Great place and quality food!!

Beth De Vries

My husband and I enjoyed a lovely meal at the Northside Cafe on a Friday evening. The service was great. The food was fabulous (pulled pork sliders and pasta primavera). The pie was worthy of a blue ribbon at the State Fair. This cafe is a Madison County gem!

anthonybrown221

Fantastic tenderloin! Wow!

RPM

Price is high, but good food and service

Laura D

We had a large group. Service was great and food was too.

Amy Hickey

No prices on the menu. Definitely aimed at the younger crowd The menu did have #s on it but the looked a lot like codes used for the handheld ordering. Also I've never been to Vegas BTW. I know exactly where I was when I wrote the review as I was seated in your restaurant at the time thank you very much

Jeff Purdy

Great small town ambience; great homemade food; friendly staff; worth checking out!

Ted Heater

Service good food good price good

Ethan

Great food! Great friendly nice service. So glad we didn't eat at the bbq place. Northside is a hit and we will be returning.

Mary Snyders

Great food, friendly staff, great atmosphere. Our waitress Michelle very friendly. Had breakfast and dinner there.

Peg Stickrod

Great Hot Beef meal.

Brad West

The staff are very friendly and attentive, the food was excellent, the owners personally came and greeted us and asked how everything was. Couldn't have had a better experience and more enjoyable meal. If your in Winterset this is the place to eat.

Julie Weiss

A bit pricey

Barbara Sumrall

Good restaurant and very well and reasonable prices near the court house

Carol Granger

Food was excellent and our waitress, Melissa, was wonderful.

Mark Hayden

Up from Saint Louis for the Bridges of Madison County Festival and couldn’t come all this way without a stop here. I ordered the beef noodles with mashed potatoes and it was just like sitting down at a family kitchen table. I was very pleased but got to take my hat off and nominate their ranch dressing as the best I’ve ever had! Michelle was the best server we have ever had!!

Holly Grissom

Awesome Caesar salad. Fast, friendly service.

Lori Wiese

Excellent food, great service. My favorite place to eat out! Can't say enough good stuff about the food. This isn't reheated junk, this is real food from scratch. Quality ingredients!

Lisa Barth

Great food and lots to choose from. I reccomend stopping at the restaurant!

Tim Tiernan

Great food. Nice people. Will definitely be back.

David Peglow

This is some if the best Midwest home style food that you will ever eat

Greg Schwaller

Mediocre service and food. Bathroom had bad odor and not ad clean as I would expect.

Rusty Daniels

Went in with a big group, was told to be there by the time our reservation was for and that everyone should be there. They continued to set up for a larger party than us that was not all there at there reservation time, so we had to wait 20 minutes. On top of this they were not splitting checks this day so we had to divvy it up on our own, then the owner questioned the tip amount we left. Well !!! If you did split checks each of us would have tipped individually and most likely would have been a very good tip. I was floored to find out they questioned our tip amount in the first place. We won't return the next time our group is in Winterset for an event. Thanks to the new management.

Ben Friedman

The breakfast sandwich is wonderful. The coffee is better than 70% of the diners I've visited. My server was quick and polite.

Cheri Goertz

Most delishious pork tenderloins I have ever tasted.

rubberpenguin16

Alison is an awesome waitress. Also this is a great restaurant for comfort food.

Darrell Martin

We had a great lunch, the muffelata would be enough for 2. Interesting place with lots of history. Many pretty buildings in town.

Beverly Wilson

The BEST homemade pie!! Awesome place, great service and I got to sit on Clint's stool!!

Rusty D

Great food

Karen Van Hoever

Great food. Resonable prices for everything on the menu. Fun to see the cafe from the movie Bridges of Madison County.

Mike Davis

Pork tenderloin sandwich.

Mark Gavin

Nice hometown atmosphere. Good variety on the menu for adults and kids. They accommodated our large group. Food was good.

David Cutrone

Loved everything. Mac and cheese. Adult grilled cheese. Patty melt. Apple crisp with ice cream. Heaven.

Aaron Hill

Smaller, craft menu that has some great options. The pork tenderloin was amazing and one of the better ones I have had on a artisan bun. The homemade chips were great as well. My wife enjoyed the squash soup and gluten free bun toasted with it. It was priced okay for the crafted entrees and the atmosphere was very nice.

Kip S

"old fashioned establishment with a long counter" until you want to sit at the long counter... I walked in as a solo diner and there were 6 or so people waiting to be sat. I made my way to the advertised long counter which was empty. I assumed everyone waiting just wanted to sit at a table or a booth so continued to sit down and asked a gentleman behind the counter if it was ok to sit there. His reply 'sure'. After waiting a few minutes an older gentleman comes through and tells the guy behind the counter, not me, that "we're not doing the counter he can wait like everyone else" like I was a criminal that had to bypass some maximum security checkpoint to steal this seat. Food smelled really good and I'm sure it's good judging by the reviews but this encounter has left a bad taste in my mouth. Edit 05/16/19: I'm concerned that there's no response to my review yet most reviews singing your praise get a quick high five. This gives the vibe that you do not care. Not a good look and definitely won't be back now. -1 star.

Jason Kems

Always friendly staff and great service. Food is tasty and timely. Craft beers are a nice touch.

Chris Wagner

Owner truly cares about their patrons. Always excellent food and service with a smile!

dave brazelton

Awesome cinnamon rolls and hot beef sandwich. Rustic decor

Easton Wade

Great historical place to eat and great family atmosphere. One of the best places to get a tenderloin

Sandy Rubio

My son lives in Winterset, so we have been to the Northside cafe several times in the past. On those times, we really enjoyed the food, in fact, the tenderloins and hot beef sandwiches are fabulous! Unfortunately, on this last trip, we both ordered "Specials". My husband ordered the steak de burgo and found it to be somewhat gristly and permeated with way too much garlic. The sidewinder fries that came with the meal were wonderful. I ordered the meatloaf special and it should have been called "onion loaf" since among the onions, there may have been a teaspoon of hamburger. I'm not a big fan of onions, so this definitely didn't work for me. We were quite disappointed and may not return.

Samantha Angell

$33 for me and my daughters to eat. I ordered a $10 chicken quesadilla that literally comes with 3 triangles... my kids got more food than I did. Chicken was super bland and just not good. My daughter ordered a hamburger kids meal... for $8 i was expecting a lot more than just a burger and a few fries that were nasty. I'm also curious as to why both of my kids ordered soda but one came in a small glass and the other came in a large glass? The only good thing of this server. Although I do recommend that they ask if the food tastes ok instead of saying "the food is amazing right?"..... no, the food was not amazing. We were starving so there wasn't much choice. I saw a lot of people saying that the portions were huge.... well either we got screwed or they got lucky that day.

Joan Paup

Interesting historic cafe..good food .. nice people!

Tiffany Marshall

Great comfort food !!And very filling !!!

Bully Yay

The Northside Cafe is simply wonderful. It has that small town charm and the food was delish. I'd never tried a Tenderloin before and it was worth every penny. Plus, they filmed scenes from the popular movie Bridges of Madison County here. I highly recommend stopping by and trying the food, seeing the spot where Clint Eastwoods character and Meryl Streeps character met. Dont forget to order and Old Fashioned Cherry Coke while you're there as well.

Larry Chipp

We have always had great service and meals here. Wonderful huge tenderloins and great biscuits and gravy.

Mari Hughes

Very good. Super nice staff.

Robert Passmore

We had a very good pork tenderloin sandwich there and we had a awesome waitress

Dixe Hansen

Good food, fair good prices, great atmosphere & I ♡ the cup with picture of Clint Eastwood sitting at the counter from the movie Bridges of Madison County. While I was young child my aunt and uncle ran the pool hall just few doors down, and I lived with them for few years after my mom's passing -we often eat at the North side dinner. I ♡ the fact that the dinner hasn't changed in its overall appearance.

Tonya Fier

How do you serve breakfast in a full service Cafe and not offer eggs over easy? Very disappointed.

Mom Feary

The food was well prepared and served hot. The host provided a quick history of the building, including the stool made famous by Clint Eastwood in Bridges of Madison County, and town. I good stop in a historic place.

Tom Riggs

Good food and service.

Sam Hutchison

Excellent

Jeanette Burlbaw

Wonderful everything

Amy Payne-Johnson

Good place for comfort food. Nice atmosphere.

Eric Hepner

Boasts of being a filming location for Bridges of Madison County, and they still have quite a bit of memorabilia from the film. Service was...interesting. While quite friendly and competent, our waitress' vocabulary consisted mainly of "awesome" or "oh my gracious." Menu is a bit limited and prices were quite a bit higher than I expected from a small town diner. Food was good, however. Overall, an interesting experience that was worth it once.

Natalie Bohling

Stopped in while at the Madison County Bridge festival. The hostess took our name and number but couldn’t give us an estimated wait time. Waited for an hour and finally got a table. When we were being seated, I noticed six tables plus the entire dinner counter/bar space was open. Not sure why we had to wait if there was so many open tables... Very limited menu. Had the hot beef sandwich with potatoes and gravy. It was cold, bland and way overpriced. $12 for a lunch portion at a small town cafe?! Ate a few bites but threw out the rest. Service could be better. Waitresses were standing around chatting or just stacking glasses instead of waiting on tables. We had to refill our own soda.

james clinkscales

Old building in charming downtown Madison County. Very popular with locals and us who were visiting. Country menu with incredible flavor. Pork loin sandwich was The Best Ever. BLT was filled to overflowing with crisp bacon. Friendly attentive service.

Pati Rogers

good food the host had the personality of a ROCK!

Nick Nizzi

Very enjoyable place to eat.

Shelley Irvin

Great staff, food tasty but bit pricey. Cool atmosphere.

Karen Bailey

Great food and fun to be a part of movie history!

Sydney Conrad-Cook

Love this family owned restaurant. The food is good, the people are amazing. Try the cinnamon rolls, they are delicious!

Nina Atkin

The lobster pot pie was incredible, service was super friendly and helpful and one of the wonderful owners gifted me a book of poetry inspired by the bridges. I'd travel back to the Northside Cafe from Australia in a heartbeat ❤️

Pam Mccullough

Good food. Great service

General Fire & Safety

Wonderful small town cafe with great dishes and unique cafe feel that you don't get in a larger city. Walter and crew do a great job of making you feel at home so stop in to see them and sample some of their menu items! Bruce McCann General Fire & Safety

Mike Coverdale

Comfort food. Not fast food. Fun historical cafe.

Carla VanZuuk

Hand patted buger with crynchy edges and homemade thin crispy delicious onion rings...the food was diner divine in a historic environment. I'd drive to Winterset just for this but I also checked out Hogback Covered Bridge!

Claudia Howell

Fantastic! Owner also gave us history of the building. Erin very patience with 6 of us deciding how many tenderloins to order (5 was too many). Best onion rings ever!!!

Kevin Wickett

We were there on Saturday. They were very busy and real efficient. Great people,Great food, we had our food in less than 25 minutes.And then desert, Apple crisp with ice cream.Very satisfied

Sandy Johnson

Really good food and friendly atmosphere. Largest cinnamon rolls in the world!

Tina Mallory

We were out in Winterset hiking and decided to stop by afterwards to grab a bite to eat. Amazing food and an even better atmosphere. It was easy to see why it came up first in our search for eateries in the area.

Pat Ruege

We were traveling through town, and looking forward to eating at the cafe. We have heard great reviews! So, we were very disappointed to arrive at 3:10 pm, to see a closed sign on the door! Not sure why, in the summer, it would have been!!

Dean Smith

Very NICE place....food GREAT.....all around a GOOD place to grab a bite...homemade!!!

Jim Karl

Fantastic food and great service

Diane Dembosky

Bridges of Madison County movie was shot in Winterset, IA. This is the restaurant that Clint Eastwood is eating at the counter when a "disgraced" woman comes in to eat, but with all the states of disgust, she leaves. Her purse and Clint's coffee cup remain at the counter along with a picture of the scene....for you to recreate it for your memories of this great little find of a restaurant! Great food, HUGE portions, very reasonable pricing!! PS.....Check out George Clooney and John Wayne's connection to Winterset!!!

Kevin Buchwald

Good meatloaf, my wife ate a whole hamburger it was so delicious (usually she only eats half)

Nancy Muir

The food and service was excellent!

Charles Werry

Our meal was very good, but they never came back after we were served to check on us or to see if we needed our drinks refilled.

Lauren B

Small dinner menu. Overpriced Food.

Linda Pound

Great food, great service and they were very busy.

Jake King

Great service and food.

Crystal Hanson

Read the reviews, thought we'd give it a shot. I regret this decision. The food is ok but WAY overpriced. They are riding on their fame from the movie too much. Two sodas, one lemonade, four tenderloin sandwiches and a burger, all with coleslaw or kettle chips, came to $76 BEFORE tip. We can get a tenderloin 2x the size in our small-town for less than the $14 we paid here. And if you want fries, those are an additional $3. Each extra topping is 50¢ to $1. When it came time to pay, the server stood over me while I selected her tip, which I found to be very rude. Overall, would not recommend. And yes, I am meaning for this review to be for the Northside Cafe in Winterset. Go to Pizza Ranch or Subway and get your money's worth!

Jessica Steele

Food was ordinary and over priced. If you want to spend $15 on a fried sandwich and canned coleslaw it is the place for you. The overall experience was very lack luster.

dj short

All I can say is wow this food is truly amazing!!!

Vegard Berget

Remember Clint Eastwood in ‘Bridges in Madison County’. This is the Café

Stuart Klingbeil

Awesome cafe and was featured in The Bridges of Madison County also.

Nancy Davidson

Very nice place to eat. Good service. Homey aosphere

Al Prosser

Nice place in nice town. I had an omelette this time,I kn ok w the French toast is good too.

Melissa Landon

Cannot say enough about the service, the coffee, the food and the historic atmosphere! My new favorite restaurant!

Diane England

Hot beef sandwich. Yummy

Scott Wood

Feel-good food in the town square of Winterset. Be sure to try the daily "Iowa Comfort Food" selections from the menu and a slice of whatever dessert they are serving. Everything is tasty and reasonably priced. Staff is extraordinarily friendly and attentive. And don't forget to get a selfie sitting at the bar stool occupied by Clint Eastwood in "Bridges of Madison County" while you're here.

Mary Marsh

Great food, friendly service. Would go back next time we are in the area.

Carol Wedin

Great hamburger and loved the people and ambiance.

Jack Corlis

Food is always top notch. Must go to place if in the area!

Brendon Uhde

A must, great food,nice people

Don L.

Locally sourced beef and ice cream, and homemade apple crisp. I don't know the official definition of what constitutes "locally sourced", but I do know it was delicious!! The half pound hamburger my wife and I split was delicious and prepared exactly as requested. The apple crisp was good, but the ice cream was indistinguishable from homemade! Oh so good!

Rod Carns

Great place to eat, never had a bad meal

Amber Christiansen

Holy Tenderloin! This place rocks! The decor is very small town, well preserved feeling with great (and I mean the best I've ever eaten) tenderloin sandwiches. Prices are reasonable, service is great and the atmosphere is rocking. HIGHLY recommend.

Charles Bischof

Ate lunch here for the first time. My wife had the grilled pork loin and I had the Rueben. Both were excellent. The Rueben was made with pastrami instead of corned beef which gave it more flavor. My wife's pork loin was served on a homemade bun which she liked because it wasn't as thick as some commercial buns. Our only complaint was that it was cold in the dining room.

Alan Wilson

Food is pretty good. Greeter needs to find a different job. Not a friendly welcoming person. Ignore him. Only reason they got 3 stars.

Lavonna Skeans

Grear nostalgic place. Good food and service. Loved the memorabilia!

Dawn McCray

Loved the venue. Having seen the movie about the Bridges of Madison County, it was fun to sit in the same cafe that was shown in the movie. The food was excellent, and the waitress was absolutely the best ever. Prices were about 20% higher than they should have been, but it might have been worth it to keep the place in business.

diane ercse

Large downtown restaurant. Good for large groups. Great food. Local brews. Beautiful downtown area. Good prices. Historical community with lots too see in a small community.

Matt Rewerts

This place is the epitome of small town America. Good food, wholesome family operated service. Highly recommend.

Anita DeLoach

The food and service were great, the owner told the history of the area and it was our final stop on The Bridges of Madison County self guided and developed movie tour.

Dixie Hansen

I ♡ they food, the restaurant is basically the same as it was originally. They have even added the sovereigns from "Bridges of Madison County" from Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep. Just adds to the atmosphere.

Daniel Readinger

It was a 5 star for me

Henry Pigeon III

Excellent pork sandwiches

Lori Wagler

Came from out of town & chose this place to eat because of the good reviews & history. We did not have the same experience as people reviewed. Our waitress was not informative about the menu or specials. Expected to learn a little history about the place as well as about the movie scene. Other reviews claim this experience along with photos at the end of a counter with barstools. We did not see a counter with barstools. Sadly, this restaurant was a huge disappointment with a limited lunch menu that is way overpriced for sandwiches & fries. Yes, I was in Winterset. I was touring the John Wayne Museum.

Susan Lipp

Great restaurant: wonderful folks, antique surroundings and yummy food.

Naomi Gunderson

Food was delicious and reasonable. Staff was friendly and very attentive. Great dining experience in true Americana setting.

Kelly Coffman

It just isn't the same since the old owner passed away. It seems that they are trying to make it more up to date and trendy. The food was good but too expensive for a small town cafe. Next time I'll do pizza ranch.

Diane Harris

Wonderful food, sweet waitress

Sherelyn Wilson

Fun to go eat on the Square. Food good. Come eat. Specials.

Marilyn C

Had lunch here after we did a tour of the Bridges - great food & excellent server. Save room for dessert - the featured pie that day was Cherry & it was exceptionally good - truly homemade. All 4 couples HAD to have their picture taken at the counter made famous by Clint Eastwood in the movie "Bridges of Madison County".

Ket Quang

The monument burger & tenderloin were surprisingly good, but not for the price tag. The onion rings were extremely salty and kind of overwhelming. The service was friendly, however the wait was longer than we should have had, given that it didn’t appear to be busy. Overall, the experience was less than okay. Three stars only because our waitress was nice.

Sharon Bakley

Great food... and service

Stephanie Novak

Very good food and generous portions.

Terry Cone

Great food and excellent customer service and very friendly servers.

Trish Hoffman

Off the beaten path!. Really enjoyed our meal here. I had roasted chicken and my husband had the hamburger. The homemade apple was wonderful

Ok Landshark

Great food, great service, excellent atmosphere.

Brian Zachary

Every bite is delicious

Denise Lewandowski

Excellent food!! Friendly and helpful staff!!!

Leah Hamilton

Delicious omelets, historic cafe, and wonderful service! Would recommend if in the area for breakfast!

Phillip Voight

Excellent waitstaff, who are friendly and accomodating. The cook, Hayley is our favorite!! BREAKFAST IS THE BEST!!

Randy Nurnberg

Mighty fine tasty food choices!! We shall return.

Deb Whitehead

Great food and friendly people

Mike Green

Good food

Sue W

Nice little place! Good food and good service. Ask owner about Monuments Men connection!

Mara Gerke

Really good home cooked food

Jerry Beal

We go there all the time and love it every time!

Emma Cat

I am giving this place one star based on price. Food is good but how do you spend 35 dollars on lunch not including tip. This lunch consisted of two sandwiches, two cups of coffee, and one piece of pie. You don't even get a pickle with your sandwich. A side of chips is like 2.75.

Y Plymell

Was disappointed the only gluten free options were salads and a rice bowl meal. Food was good as was service.

Marea Collins

Very nice and friendly. Prices a little high for small town but its good food

Debi Martens

Lovely impromptu lunch with over 10 in the group and they served tasty food with a welcoming smile!

Janine Cope

Absolutely fantastic . Staff so attentive, polite and efficient. Food delicious. Coffee delightful. Clean. Five star. We visited from South Yorkshire England. We will be back

barry

Really nice home - town cafe with an upscale menu. The pork tenderloins are HUGE! (and delicious). Comfortable booths or nice spacious tables so that seating is not cramped. Everything here is homeade including the mashed potatoes. The pie looks wonderful but I was much too full to try it. Next time I am trying the jerk seasoned burger with pineapple and red peppers. Yum!

Jeff Priddy

Good tenderloin. We went just before closing so I think it would have been a better place at s different time.