The Apple Tree Cafe and Coffee Bar

This place is the real deal. Their coffee is the best I’ve had south of Chicago. I didn’t try anything else, and their ambiance leaves much to be desired, but I will be back for the Sixx AM

I love this place.
You have to try to to come here. They close by three and I usually stop in en route from Chicago to St. Louis, so sometimes I’m a bit late. And sometimes, if I do make it, the pies are all gone.
It’s true that this is a simple spot without pretensions. The service is friendly and efficient, the design is unspectacular but comfortable, and the menu is standard for a breakfast/​lunch counter kind of place. But the food is good (and sometimes excellent) and prices are quite reasonable, but the pies are simply incredible and worth a trip on their own. I’ve had all the standard fruit pies, and some spectacular chiffons and merengus as well. The crust are crusty yet light, not too dense, and always finished perfectly. There’s a light hand on the sugar bowl here– the fruit flavors surmount the sweetness for a luscious balance.
It seems like no big deal to the local clientele, but I’ve had hipster pie all over the world and this is some of the best. It’s classic American baking at its very best, worth going out of your way for.
And the coffee ain’t half bad either.

GO FOR THE COFFEE!!! They now have a coffee bar and if you’re from out of town and want a REAL espresso or latte then go here!!! Girl knows her stuff about REAL espresso. Also all the Americanized versions as well. Not cheap but, oh the nostalgia!

As much as I love smalltown diners, I always keep my expectations low in the hope I will find a new treasure and be taken completely by surprise. This was my approach for The Apple Tree Café in Pontiac, IL. My first rude surprise was that they don’t serve breakfast all day.
I have to note that when you order a sandwich you will get EXACTLY that. No sides, just a sandwich on a plate. I got the grilled ham and cheese and a cup of chili. The sandwich itself wasn’t bad. Plain white bread with a good amount of salty ham and american cheese well melted. Not a big sandwich and not real special but servicable. The chili was more like soup, very thin and despite the obvious presence of cumin, fairly bland. Regrettably no hot sauce was available to kick it up. Also no onions or cheese were offered when I ordered which would have helped. Coffee was standard diner fair, slightly burnt.
Maybe I’m overly sensitive to this, but a diner should always have apple pie. This one didn’t. Instead I ordered the rhubarb pie. The waitress did not offer ice cream with it and didn’t ask if I wanted it heated. What I got was a cold piece of mostly mushy pie on a plate. The flavor was tart and uncomplicated, but not in a good way.
Overall it was just a bad experience that left me wishing I had just eaten at the many fast food places I had passed on the way into Pontiac. How sad is that?

This place is great if you make it to Pontiac during the lunch hour and is worth a trip past the fast-​food restaurants near the freeway.
They are very popular with the locals. Their lunch specials are low-​cost, tasty and served very quickly. The pie selections go fast. It’s not fancy food — basically like your Midwestern mom would cook if she’s in a hurry, but is meat-​and-​potatoes filling. Tasty, but not creative. I like their meatloaf and their hot gravy sandwiches. I’m giving them 4 stars for their lunch specials. Even though they served canned vegetables, they also include a piece of fresh-​baked pie.
The building itself is also a throwback to the old days. They have a beautifully restored punched-​tin ceiling, about 18 feet high — one of the best I know of in the area. They have both counter and table seating. In a nod to the days of old soda fountain shops, you can order your Coke products with cherry or vanilla syrup.
The coffee is decent, but nothing special. I go here a lot when I’m visiting family in the area — if we’re in town at the right time.

I expect a small-​town, family-​run restaurant like this to be more laid-​back, but I also expect at least some degree of efficiency. Service here was very slow and disorganized when we visited in November.
There were three women behind the counter, but each one seemed to have a separate function. It took over 5 minutes for one of the women to notice us and bring us menus after we had sat down, another 10 minutes for another girl to take our order and pour us coffee. This was after the lunch-​time rush, too, so it wasn’t that busy.
It took another 15 minutes for our tuna melts to arrive, which were served to us not by the waitress but by the cook himself, who had to walk all the way out from the kitchen and search among the tables until he had found the one that had placed the order.
Our sandwiches came without any fries or any other side dishes or garnishes. Apparently you have to specify whether you want any sides, but the girl never asked us whether we wanted any fries or side dishes when she took our order.
By the time we got our sandwiches, we had already finished our coffee. The girl finally did come back to our table to refill our coffee and bring us water, but only after we had almost finished our sandwiches with nothing to wash them down.
Finally the girl came back to our table and asked us, «Do you want any dessert? Oh, by the way, we’re out of pie» (which was the only dessert listed on the menu, so why bother asking?).
We ended up paying over $ 6 each for a simple sandwich no different from one I could have slapped together in my kitchen for free and in half the time. We were still hungry after this «meal,» so we ended up having another, much nicer lunch for about the same price at DeLongs Casual Dining and Spirits on Mill Street.
Skip The Apple Tree if you ever find yourself in Pontiac and try DeLongs or Baby Bull’s on Reynolds Street instead.