Dialo’s Cafe
1924 M-139I seem to have been in Benton Harbor a lot recently. It’s been both for work and for pleasure. On the work trips, I usually try to find some place new to eat. I’m always tempted to just order a pizza from Silver Beach Pizza but I know if I just look a little harder, there are places tucked in to a corner somewhere that I haven’t been able to find yet.
I was in Benton Harbor for work last Wednesday. I knew I was going to have some time to stop for a sandwich so I started looking around. I somehow stumbled upon a website of a BBQ place I had no idea existed. The menu looked great and they do counter service carry-out so when I got to my lunch break, I headed to the south east side of town.
Dialo’s Cafe is on M-139 which is also known as Scottsdale Road about a mile north of the interchange with I-94 in Benton Charter Township. This small brick building has been many restaurants over the years. It was a Wing Heaven as recently as 2015 and became the resurrected Dialo’s Cafe in early 2016.
The parking lot is really tight. There are a couple of spots right in front and some more along the side. No matter where you park, you really need to go all the way around the building to get yourself turned around.
The restaurant seems to have sit down service for dining in, but there is also a counter along one wall with the menu written on a chalkboard. There was a woman waiting for me when I walked in. She asked if I was doing carry-out and asked for my order. I noticed when dine-in customers came in, they just went to a table which already had menus on them and she would go to the table to take the order.
I ordered a BBQ Beef Brisket Sandwich and picked fries as my side. I also wanted to try the mac & cheese so I ordered a small side of that as well. The cost was right around $15 which I paid for on my card then took a seat at one of the tables in the dining room to wait for my food to be packaged up.
I had some things to do before meeting back up with my co-worker so this was going to be an eat in the car day. The lady who brought my food warned me that the box was stuffed full so to be careful when I opened it. I thought she was overselling it, but no, she wasn’t.
I started with the fries since they were the easiest to eat en route to the rendezvous point with my colleague. The fries were the kind of fries I love. They’re fresh cut with a deliciously greasy golden brown, crispy outside. The fries are pretty thick which makes the inside of them super soft and flaky. I started using some of the BBQ sauce from the sandwich on the fries but these are the kind of fries I really like without sauce.
The next thing I tackled was the Mac & Cheese. I ordered the small portion and it was quite small….small enough I could eat it at a red light. It was a small portion, but it was just enough to give me what I wanted….a taste of a tasty, cheesy, home made mac & cheese.
I ordered the brisket sandwich because I don’t usually put sauce on brisket so I figured I could eat it in the car. That’s not the case with this sandwich. The slow roasted brisket is served on a Hoagie roll with lettuce, tomato, onion, and Dialo’s house made BBQ sauce. had to stop alongside the road to tackle this sandwich. The meat was delicious on it’s own. It was tender, juicy, and slightly salty. The sauce that was drizzled on top was very sweet. It had a strong ketchup taste with more sweetness and more vinegar added. It was a tasty sauce, but I didn’t really think the meat needed it. I would have been fine without it, but I’m not mad it was there.
I had never heard of Dialo’s Cafe before I went looking for another place to eat in Benton Harbor and I’m not sure why. The place serves up delicious BBQ and soul food…most of it home made. There are a lot of places that will put hours and hours into smoking BBQ but then half ass the sides. That’s not the case at Dialo’s. Everything you get is going to be special and something that someone has spent a lot of time making.
SW Michigan Dining 
Dialo’s is a gem. Great smoked meats and (as noted) no half-assed sides. They do it all right. Several choices of soul food augment the BBQ. Support this locally owned restaurant.