Corner Grind located in downtown Elburn is the best coffee shop in the Chicagoland area. When walking into the small rustic building you get met with an aroma of coffee beans and freshly baked goods. Your ears are soon filled with soft music, the sound of the espresso machine, and the small chatter among the other customers. Walking up to the counter you're greeted with a friendly welcoming smile from a Corner Grind employee. While taking your order there are two large chalkboards behind the counter to choose a drink, a breakfast item, or lunch items. Then you have two small chalkboards describing this week or month special, one to your left describing the new monthly specials for drinks. To your right a board filled with the exciting new lunch specials for the week which include two sandwiches or salads and a soup of the week. Once you've ordered your drink or food, can to chooses to sit outside at a table, in a relaxing wooden chair, inside at the countertop, or table. To receive your drink or food you're called up to the counter to get your order. Taking your first bite out of your Italian sandwich your taste buds are met with an explosion of flavor. Filled with so much meat the tomato and lettuce are overflowing on the sides of the soft french baguette. To help your sandwich go down you take a sip of your hot cinnamony honey bunches of oat latte. Your soon then filled with an eternal warmth from the heat of the latte. Finishing up your experience at Corner Grind you're sent off with a kind farewell and a need to come back. Corner Grind is the best because they want your experience to be as memorable as it can be. One thing I would love to see Corner Grind do is to extend its week-day hours. High schoolers that attend Kaneland, get out of school at 2:50. By the time I get out of the school parking lot and arrive at Corner Grind their closed. As a high schooler, I would and as many others would go to Corner Grind after school to get a drink or sandwich and utilize the environment to study and debrief from the long day at school. Even if the extension of business hours were just for another hour Corner Grind would have a lot of business for that hour due to the loyal customer base. Even without this change Corner Grind is still the best coffee shop in the Chicago land area. read more

Went here for the first time and our last. Figured we'd help support a local, mom n pop business. Walked in, dirty tables and rude employees/owner. Never greeted with a hello or welcome, just a blank stare like "what do you want". Ordered a latte that was subpar at best. After paying, never a thank you for coming in or have a nice day. We REALLY don't see this lasting long. Too bad as downtown Elburn doesn't have a selection of coffee shops. read more

What a wonderful find! The pumpkin spice latte tasted like it was made with real pumpkin, and the French toast latte tasted just like French toast, with neither being overly sweet. The staff was friendly. read more

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Probably my favorite coffee spot in the area. Their lattes are usually my go to. But I recently had their drip black and it was top tier. Their breakfast sandwiches - with bagels are probably one of the best kept secrets in the Kane County area... Haven't been to brunch in a while because of them! The service is great and the ambiance is great as well. It's a great place to meet up and have a chat. read more

No. Why? Why do I do this to myself. I vowed to never return and we did. We were having a garage sale and my kids wanted lunch that wasn't McDonald's. They chose Corner Grind. I was like fine, whatever, if that is what you want. We got 3 sandwiches and 1 drink. It was just about $50. Two "Hot Chick" sandwiches $13/each and a Turkey BLT $13.50. The Hot Chick is described as Fried Chicken Sandwich with Chicken Patty, House Made Cole Slaw, Pickles, Hot Honey, on a Brioche Bun. Okay, the "chicken patty" should've been my warning. That's exactly what it was a chicken patty not an actual piece of chicken. It was like paying for a fancy McChicken sandwich from McD's. It was sweet from the honey, not really anything hot in it. We, honestly, sent my son to buy them and told him he needed to go up and say he wanted Two Hot Chicks. I'm sure he didn't. The Turkey BLT was fine, but a little lacking in the amount of turkey. Not the same. Again. I promise to never go there again. read more

Must have been an off day when we arrived. Nary a smile to be seen behind the counter, it was all business. Ordered, found a seat and waited for some indication our sandwich and coffees were ready. The cook was kind enough to bring out our meal, but where was our coffee? I found it sitting on the counter and it had been sitting on the counter out there for as along as it took to prepare our lunch, some time actually. I was told it had been called out three times, but neither of us heard anything. Well, sad to say... the coffee was pretty thin, the latte wasn't bad, but the sandwich, now there was the rub. I could go into detail, but suffice to say we picked at it here and there, gave a taste and decided we just couldn't eat it. Literally, 27 dollars went right into the trash bin next to the door on our way out. Gee, I know this all sounds harsh, but I really hate throwing away money, including tips. No greeting, no smile, ugh the food. It seemed like no one even tried even a little bit. read more

We were on our way to check out Ream's Market, a 25 minute little road-trip, and decided to have lunch here. Busy place, good food, pleasant and cute. Not much room inside as it was over 90 degrees and not pleasant to be outside. Both the chicken salad sandwich and Thai salad were really good, fresh ingredients, tasty. We were a bit bummed - my husband wanted his sandwich in a baguette and they were out, although was not yet rush hour lunch. I order the Thai salad because I'm both menus (online and in the store) states that it has edamame, it did not. The place was nice, service was good, and it was the highlight of our mini road trip (Ream's was a let down) read more

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This cafe and sandwich shop was a nice discovery while out in Elburn today. I really like the bread they use for their sandwiches. It's a simple sub or baguette but it has a great chew that just made me devour the one that I ordered. I got the Yardbird which comes with a tasty herby chicken salad, bacon, lettuce and tomato. The sandwich was super tasty and they didn't skimp on the chicken salad. Also ordered an iced vanilla latte which was good. The service was great. They just do counter orders and the friendly barista had my drink out fast and the sandwich a very short time after. The place is cozy but didn't feel cramped and I wouldn't have minded sticking around to eat if I wasn't in a rush to get back home. I'm definitely keeping the Corner Grind in mind next time I'm hungry out west. read more

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Great little coffee shop with the best fresh bakery made on site. Excellent menu items for breakfast or lunch. The cinnamon chip scones were unbelievable! read more

Great coffee Great sandwiches Friendly service Pastries are the best. Prices are good too read more

Nice place, nice people, coffee is fine, but they need to rethink the punk rock at 8:00 am. Not the best start to the day.

We used to love coming here for everything especially sandwiches and salads. Once it was sold things just went south. We try it occasionally to see if things have improved and sadly they are only getting worse. My $14 salad today had stale croutons, old grilled chicken and lackluster dressing. It tasted like a bagged salad. My son's salad had Italian dressing that had so many herbs that it made it inedible. This will be our last visit. read more

If you're looking for a CONSISTENT CUP OF COFFEE COME HERE !!! My coffee is made JOYFULLY every time almost and I rarely get a bad cup. Worth your money worth the drive absolute unit this place read more

Wow...sad that a place can fall apart so rapidly. I tried calling this morning to place an order for baked goods, called five times nobody answered the phone so I just stopped by, walked in and there was nobody behind the counter, waited a moment but nobody ever came up front then noticed a sign that said "sorry no baked goods today" so I left. My previous visit was bad but this is just ridiculous. I'll never step foot inside this place again. This place started going downhill a year ago when the ownership changed but it's fallen to the point of no return. I was the first to review this business many many years ago and loved it for many years but sadly this is not the same great business it once was. Probably won't be in business too much longer based on the what ive seen. read more

Recently Corner Grind was sold to a restaurant conglomerate. I've been a customer since the previous owners opened it. Lately, it's gone to shit. I asked for the new owner's contact info when I was at Corner Grind a few weeks ago, wrote to them and never heard back. My main beef is that they are no longer making the CG signature home made glazed donuts. I was SO disappointed that day and while some of the changes such as the new tile behind the counter are nice, but that's not why people come in. I don't understand why you would change some of the reasons why customers come in to Corner Grind, namely the sweets. For the longest time I've been able to look forward to the donuts, almond bread, cinnamon rolls, and blackberry muffins and to know they're no longer part of the menu is so sad. When you go in nowYour coffee is amazing but what goes with coffee but a special, reliable, original home made sweet? The reason I'm writing today is because I stopped in again today to treat myself and again was very disappointed at the sweets selection. I don't care for scones so i chose the long john. Luke, I have to tell you it didn't look very pretty but I thought it would taste better. I was wrong. It was iced cold, like it had just been defrosted or taken out of the refrigerator. It was hard, stale, and flavorless. Now you know that just down the street Jewel makes their donuts daily and they're about 1/3 the price of yours. There's a Starbucks inside Jewel that will warm up their sweets and if I really want a treat, I can go to Cocoa Bean where their almond croissants are to die for. I haven't been to Dear Donuts yet, I want to patronize our Elburn businesses as much as possible but I must tell you you're giving me no other choice based on my last two visits. As one of the original Corner Grind customers, I don't want hot beef sandwiches, biscuits and gravy, or any other food that I have my other favorite restaurants for in the area. I want Corner Grind glazed donuts, cinnamon rolls and the almond bread. Your egg sandwich on a bagel is now close to $10 but this email isn't about prices. Yes, I'm just one customer but I would suspect there are more of us that are disappointed in the direction it appears you're taking our little townie bakery. I hope you want the feedback from locals and that you will reconsider bringing back what made you famous in the first place. It's the comfort factor, the feel (like the discarded hand drawn menu board) of the place, the home made sweets, and of course the coffee. read more

The Corner Grind - Coffee & Tea Near Me - Elburn, Illinois

I used to give this place a great five star review. But relatively recently it was purchased by new owners. They took the prices way up and the portions if anything got smaller. Paying $14.50 for a cold cut sandwich is outrageous especially in Elburn. I can find better prices in New York City. And they didn't stop at the sandwich prices. I used to go there and buy multiple pastries including donuts. Now a simple doughnut is $2.50. So $10 will buy you four donuts plus tax of course. Yes, I'm sure they will use excuses like the price of flour and sugar is gone up and labor is more expensive. But not 50%. Flour and sugar make up the majority of a doughnut, and they are very cheap even with inflation. Probably $.10 a doughnut. My friends and neighbors have also written this restaurant off their list, along with the other owners restaurant, obscurity brewing which is also out of control on prices and poor service. Sadly, I've seen this recipe before, business will slow, and we will be out of a another restaurant in Elburn and coffee shop. read more

So I'm going to put a negative review on here today even though I have a positive on here as well and do like this place. Today I ordered a breakfast sandwich at 10:26am. At twenty minutes in I asked if a sandwich being brought out was for me. One of the baristas said mine was next. I made the comment of I've been waiting 20 minutes for a simple breakfast sandwich and that was too long. He responded I've waited longer at other places. My response was I shouldn't have, to and that was way too long. Well my sandwich came out of the kitchen at 10:52am. Twenty-six minutes for an English muffin with egg, cheese, and sausage. My suggestion is, don't go there if you're in a hurry to try and get to work , and do expect a little attitude from the barista. It reminded me of the old Ed Debevics snarky remarks. Except it wasn't part of skit. On a sidenote, it was not that crowded internally. I get it if it would've been crowded. Because there is times, I've seen a long line and have literally just walked out of there, knowing it was going to take forever. But I only had two in line ahead of me. I sure there was on-line orders, but still 26 minutes. Geez !!! read more

Great place for breakfast and lunch. Excellent coffee, great sandwiches, amazing pastries. Service is always top notch! read more

The Corner Grind - the counter of a restaurant - Coffee & Tea Near Me - Elburn, Illinois

Love the corner grind sandwich! Never had anything I didn't like from the place from breakfast to lunch!

gone downhill here's my corner grind sandwich on stale bread hard as a rock you can't tell me the person making this sandwhich couldn't tell the bun was stale! I asked for no lettuce or onion and it was loaded...ugh come on! it's a sandwich not rocket science.... last time I ordered an Italian sub and they put sweet salad dressing on it not Italian and when I called they said they were out of Italian dressing but offered no compensation nor mentioned it when ordering...at least today the comped the food because I called after spending $50 on 2 Sandwiches a salad and coffee I shouldn't have to go back for them to get it right... read more

The Corner Grind - Coffee & Tea Near Me - Elburn, Illinois

Haven't enjoyed this place since they changed ownership. Everyone is still perfectly pleasant and it's a cute little spot, but the food and coffee quality aren't nearly as good. We've given it a few tries recently hoping it was just a blip during the transition, but unfortunately it just isn't what it used to be. read more

Be prepared to wait. Do not come here with the expectation that it will be quick and easy. I have been two Saturday mornings over the past six weeks. I have waited over 30 minutes for breakfast sandwiches both times. The food itself is great, the coffee great, the place cannot really get it together when it is busy though. read more

Something changed. Was a wonderful, friendly, quaint place. I used to drive 15 miles each way whenever I could. Won't be going back.

Costco bakery items tasted better. We used to go here as a family every weekend. It felt like a warm hug! The homemade cinnamon rolls were everything! The crispy balsamic BLT had me skipping in the door. The staff felt like family & everything was absolutely delicious. They sold to new owners recently & you can tell it was just a money grab. Will never go back! If anyone knows if the original owners have another bakery/business, please lmk! Would love to support! The food is gross! The bakery items aren't even homemade, and if they are // this business won't last another year. Check out reams next door for bakery items and snacks! It will be missed!! read more

I'm sad to say it as well, but this place has done a complete 180 since they changed owners. I've never seen a restaurant shift so dramatically in terms of food taste, quality and value. It was a favorite and we went weekly. Now I just can't give them any more tries. Prices went up and quality and quantity went down. And I know food costs are soaring, but it's not in step with other restaurants or personal food costs. To me it's greed. They saw a successful concept and wanted to come in and take it over and make as much money as possible. I miss the old Corner Grind. Service is still fine, but it's a carry out place so service isn't as important as food quality. When something isn't broken, don't change every thing about it. There are a lot of people saying this same thing. read more

Get back to the way it used to be which was a mult-year successful business model and a highly enjoyable experience. While it may be simplistic to grade, Corner Gride was an A+, the coffee (bakery/deli) shop at the top by which I measured all the others, worth going out of one's way. And it was an excellent value for the price paid. While still good, it's somewhat less than that mark. Plus, and this is also significant, I don't want social issue / political preferences staring me in the face everywhere I go, on either side of the issues. Just produce an excellent product; I'm not buying your politics. And from my experience that alienates the people who may not agree with you. In this case, don't bake flags into your cookies (imho). read more

My family were HUGE supporters of corner grind since the opened. My wife and daughters went there weekly for there coffee and delicious sandwiches. My son and I especially loved the quantity and quality of the meat on their lunch menu and was always a great experience Ever since corner grind switched owners it went DOWNHILL. You used to get a giant sandwich with a lot of meat, now you are paying even more for half the amount! There bakery items have gone down hill. The staff is a mix between some with attitude and some who are very nice. Total flip in the quality of food since the change of owners and very disappointed . read more

The sandwiches, coffee and pastries are absolutely amazing! 10/10 each time! The service is always pleasant, plus it's a great area to get some work done! read more

Definitely not he same as it used to be. Basically scaling back on the amount of ingredients and upping the price. Service was par at best. $61 for (4) people to eat a disappointing lunch. Placed an order via phone & paid. They said it would be about 20-25 mins. I showed up 30 mins later and gave them my name. They asked if I paid via phone & if so my order would go on the shelf. There was no order on the shelf so I continued to stand there for 10 more minutes while the kids working the counter said nothing. You would have thought they would maybe check with the kitchen at the very least...? Then someone from the kitchen came out to put an order on the shelf & walked past me. On her way back to the kitchen she looking at a bag behind the front counter and my order had be "sitting" there this whole time. I ended up bringing lunch back to my co-workers and the Chicken Caesar salads were chintzy. Definitely NOT what were were used to getting from the Corner Grind. There was barely any chicken in the salad and what was on the salad was small dried pieces of chicken. Lettuce was wilted & there was no butter included for the bread it is served with. We were all taken back by this & one of my co-workers called to make them aware and asked to speak with a manager. There was no manager available & so he spoke with an employee to pass along our experience. The employee responded with "I have been hearing this more lately".....(huh?) I would NEVER tell a customer that! They did offer to credit back the card but as of 2 hours after the call, this still was not done. read more

Ordered the vegetarian sandwich (bread, various vegetable, red pepper hummus). When I got it, there was no hummus. I asked for a cup of it, but was told they ran out. I paid $11.50 for some pieces of lettuce and bread. read more

The yelpers are right and this place is a local gem!! Delicious and Robust Coffee.... CHECK!! Tasty Treats Who Like Sweet... CHECK!! Fresh Real Meat Sandwiches.... CHECK!! I brought my laptop to go ahead and get some work done while I had coffee and a sandwich. Seemed like a great idea but the only negative is that the inside is a little small and if you have to take any conference calls, it's going to be next to impossible to avoid the background noise. The staff was also super friendly and made me feel like I was a regular even though it was my first time there. Exactly the type of service I want from a coffee shop!! :) read more

Actually amazing coffee. I've gotten lattes and black coffee and it is good. I've heard the food isn't bad either. Just wish they had unsweetened almond milk ;) read more

This adorable place in ELBURN is unpretentious and welcoming both in decor and staff. The coffee concoctions are unique and flavorful. The tea blends are loose tea that come in small white metal containers that are easy to stack and store. The food items for breakfast and lunch are varied hot and cold sandwiches using all different kinds of meats eggs and ingredients that make your mouth water, All on great breads to choose from. The only suggestion I'd like to make is that they change their rewards card procedure of getting one star per visit Its fine to get one star if you only get a cup of coffee, but when you spend $40 on coffee and sandwiches you should get more stars? Maybe a star for every $10 you spend in a single visit? Having to have 12 visits just to get a free cup of coffee seems a bit cheap. Barb & Dave read more

Love the atmosphere, great customer service. The coffee and food were great, and the kids loved the smoothies!

So very disappointed. Quality and service has come crashing down. The food is steadily poorer. Calling in the car on my way in is either not answered or greeted with a rude "use the app" before a hello. Used to be my favorite treat to take a ride with my daughter to get a baked good and coffee. I've tried twice now since the change. There won't be a third time. read more

We had the Italian Sub 2 days in a row for lunch It was very good, the meats were very good quality. Tomatoes, onions, itl dressing, and lettuce were also. Banana peppers were a nice bonus. My only critique would be- they should tuck the tomatoes, onions and peppers in the side of the sandwich. It's like there trying to make it look pretty but impossible to eat that way read more

Cool little coffee shop right in downtown. Good coffee and good place to complete some studying or work

i know people say that everything has changed recently but i absolutely love the new adjustments to the place. all the employees are kind and willing to recommend food and drinks. my all time favorite place for unique coffee specials and the perfect place to get coffee with a friend! :) read more

The Corner Grind - iced latte (special) - Coffee & Tea Near Me - Elburn, Illinois

We just strolled into the corner grind at 10 am on Sunday, Valentine's Day. They were very busy, but well organized and efficient. We each had a breakfast sandwich which was awesome. The coffee was awesome. The muffin was awesome. The Corner Grind has a great thing going. Please support this small business. They are awesome all around! read more

The Corner Grind - a cup of coffee on the dashboard of a car - Coffee & Tea Near Me - Elburn, Illinois

Tony and Ann would be so disappointed in what the new owners have done to Corner Grind. Profit over quality and service.