Mystery Diner: Lumes delivers breakfast of champions

BATAVIA – Breakfast is for champions, and Lumes Pancake House in Batavia made me feel like a winner.

The Batavia location is one of several throughout the Chicago area. Located behind the Walgreens on Fabyan Parkway and Randall Road, Lumes strives to deliver a wide variety of menu options to loyal customers day in and day out.

As soon as you walk inside, the host greets you and – if there’s enough tables – gives you a choice of where you’d like to sit. (The only answer for me is in a booth, near a window.)

Not even two minutes had passed before my waitress came over and offered me coffee, which I politely declined. I’m more of a juice person with my breakfast so I ordered a medium, freshly-squeezed orange juice. Nothing beats orange juice that comes straight from the orange. My waitress also said Lumes makes freshly-squeezed grapefruit juice.

When frequenting a breakfast and lunch eatery such as Lumes, you are bound to find a boatload of options. It can be a little overwhelming for some. That’s where my phone came in handy.

I opened up the Foursquare application and found some one-line reviews from other patrons.

More than one suggested the gyros omelette, a dish I couldn’t really picture in my head.

Knowing my love for gyros and my love for omelettes, I had to go with the suggestion.

I decided to order breakfast sides (hash browns and pancakes) instead of tomatoes and pita bread, which was listed on the specials menu.

The omelette was filled with delicious, fresh gyro meat, five eggs and feta cheese.

The pancakes and hash browns were both above par for me, too.

The eggs were cooked just right, while the cheese and gyros rounded out the dish.

Finding something different and realizing it’s as delicious as the more basic dish you were going to order in the first place is a great feeling.

• The Mystery Diner is a newsroom employee at the Kane County Chronicle. The diner’s identity is not revealed to the restaurant staff before or during the meal. The Mystery Diner visits a different restaurant each week and then reports on the experience. If the Mystery Diner cannot recommend the establishment, we will not publish a review.