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Das Tea Room

Photo Edward Biamonte

Cafe Roswitha's tilapia entrée with green beans and salad. It's shown here with a slice of sunshine cake.

Springfield tea room Café Roswitha is living a double life. It’s wearing the tea room costume and projecting the tea room atmosphere. It has the tea room quaintness and the tea room’s preferred side car accessory: a shop. But Café Roswitha is out of the ordinary in the tasty little world of iced tea and quiche and decadent desserts. It has a menu even smaller than its tea room cousins in 417-land, and the options (although they do include the requisite sandwiches and crispy-cute little side salads) also lean toward German fare and steaming hot comfort food. How many other places in town serve spätzle? Yum! The restaurant keeps it simple with only five regular menu entrées, plus a quiche of the day, a German dish of the day and a chef’s special of the day.

I visited Café Roswitha for lunch one afternoon with some 417 Magazine coworkers, Art Director Cassie Darst and Advertising Designer Megan Johnson. Our server seemed a little scattered; when we asked him questions about the menu (ones he should know the answer to, like “What’s the soup of the day?”), he seemed like he didn’t know what to do. As a matter of fact, retrieving the answer to the soup question took three trips to the kitchen to ask. But maybe he was new to the job, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. The service wasn’t superb, but it wasn’t so bad that it would keep me from returning to the little eatery that looks like somebody’s cozy living room (a living room at Christmas, actually… complete with evergreenery and a variety of ornaments).

Cassie had the chef’s special, which was grilled tilapia that day. Megan ordered the smothered burrito, which was filled with meat, beans and cheese and covered in salsa. It was served piping hot in a tiny casserole dish with the same side salad. Megan said she really liked it.

I ordered the chicken cordon bleu, which was small, but that’s okay; it was plenty of food, and things like that always seem to be bigger than they ought to be. I’m a big fan of this dish and don’t get to eat it often, so I was excited that it tasted so delicious. The chicken was tender and juicy, and with the ham and swiss cheese, it was terrific. But I was disappointed by the veggies on the side. They were peas and tiny cubed carrots, the kind you buy frozen (and that’s how they tasted). It was just sort of blah, which was a disappointment after the great main dish. On the side was an orange slice and crisp salad with balsamic vinaigrette. The salad itself was fresh and simple—the perfect complement to the super-crispy, Parmesan cheese–crusted, garlic-covered bread. (Yes, it had all those delicious adjectives.)

The dessert menu had a variety of pies and cakes, and I opted to go with the sunshine cake. It was taxi-cab yellow with taxi-cab yellower icing on top and in between the moist lemony layers. If you’re a lemon-lover, you’ll adore this. The icing was mega-sweet (the main reason why I typically don’t like icing), but it wasn’t simply a sugary flavor. The lemon icing was actually tart (the main reason why I adored this particular icing). It was my favorite part of the meal.

About Reviewing

Reviews are written by our editors as a service to readers, without advertising consideration. Visits are as anonymous as possible, and all expenses are paid by 417 Magazine. New restaurants are allowed four weeks to establish themselves before a first visit. To comment, please use our new Dining Feedback section on 417mag.com.