Mystery Diner in Shorewood: Happy Place Cafe has fast service, family atmosphere

The Happy Place Cafe website says it offers “a careful balance of excellent food, fast, courteous, and efficient service, and a clean, attractive, and unique family atmosphere.”

Our family has found that to be true.

Happy Place Cafe also offers a wide variety of entrees, sides and toppings (where else can you pick sour cream for $1?). And you can order breakfast items all day.

Here’s what my family and I recently enjoyed via carryout.

The appetizer combo platter for $10 includes cheese sticks, onion rings, potato skins, breaded mushrooms, zucchini and cauliflower. All items arrived hot and tasty.

The potato skins had plenty of cheese and bacon, just the way we like them.

We saw the chicken waffle only on the online menu. The combined flavors of the waffle and chicken were outstanding.

We also ordered the raspberry-chocolate chip pancakes for $9.75. The pancakes were not overly sweet, and needed neither butter nor maple syrup. The chips were packed inside the pancakes and layered on top.

The raspberry mixture was nicely tart, which cut down the sweetness of the chocolate chips. The portions were generous enough to share. We absolutely would order them again.

To go with the pancakes, we picked four strips of bacon for $4.24. The bacon was a nice mixture of crunchy and chewy, perfect to please almost anyone.

We also ordered four sausage links for $4.24. These had great flavor and the right balance of salt and seasonings.

The Mediterranean wrap deluxe for $9 featured gyro meat in a wrap, a really fun idea. The wrap was nice and tight, and full of vegetables.

A side of rice accompanied the Mediterranean wrap deluxe. The rice was perfectly cooked and seasoned just right.

The lettuce-forward salad I ordered with the wrap was really good.

We also chose the BLT club deluxe for $11.25, which came with bacon, lettuce, tomato and mayo.

The BLT was very flavorful. The bacon was crispy, just the way we like it. The onion rings were perfect. The mushrooms were delicious, but a tad undercooked for my personal flavor preference.

Chicken noodle soup came with the BLT deluxe. Very good, it had a homemade flavor and texture.

Our carryout also came with a side of bread, which we all shared.

A variety of condiments and sides came with our order, too: crackers for the soup, butter for the bread, sour cream for the potato skins, and maple syrup for the chicken waffles and raspberry-chocolate chip pancakes.

The staff invariably are friendly and professional, whether we dine in or do carryout. The food always is packed up neatly, and everything is hot.

We will order from Happy Place Cafe again.

• The Mystery Diner is an employee at Shaw Media. The diner’s identity is not revealed to the restaurant staff before or during the meal. If the Mystery Diner cannot recommend the establishment, we will not publish a story.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Happy Place Cafe

WHERE: 1150 W. Jefferson St., Shorewood

WHEN: 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday and Monday

INFORMATION: 815-666-1447, thehappyplacecafe.com