Al's Cafe Good Food
Category: American (Traditional) [Edit]
Neighborhood: Bernal Heights3286 Mission St
(between 29th St & Valencia St)
San Francisco, CA 94110 (415) 641-8445
- Price Range: $
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: No
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: No
- Good for: Breakfast
44 reviews
Alameda, CA
"Yelping right on the spot with my cell phone! This place is clean, food is great, service is quick and right on with everything. Price is…" read more »
29 Reviews for Al's Cafe Good Food
This is an okay place if you don't care what you want to chew, taste and swallow. They provide caloric matter. The hamburger here is something barely recognizable and it appears in odd places - in the gravy, in the eggs, on your plate at the end of the meal. Sure, if you are going for pancakes or bacon and eggs, it's fine. But something has gone terribly wrong in the creativity area - they create some pretty horrendous omelets and sandwiches. If it were cheap I would be willing to choke it down more often, but it ain't. One check in the good column: you can always get in. Be cautious.
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This place serves up, good old-fashioned generously portioned diner food in an old-school setting. The core of the wait staff are all family members, and you can often times catch them bickering amongst each other as they busily run about their chores, which I think adds to the character and personality of the place. It's an old-school diner enviroment, which is hard to find these days, last of a dying breed (particularly in SF).
The food is awesome (although somewhat overpriced for diner food). You have to try their homemade salsa, which, is THE best salsa I have ever had in my life. They should seriously bottle that stuff up. I always get breakfast there, so I can't speak for their lunch/dinner items, but the breakfast is outstanding. You will definately leave full after a breakfast at Al's.
Check it out if you haven't been. Keep good, authentic old-school diners alive!
Great place for a hungover brunch. Highly recommend sitting at the counter (constant soda refills plus the occasional wait staff fight.) The food is pretty average and a bit pricey (you're gonna spend about $15), but you'll never have to wait for a table, unlike practically every other brunch joint in SF. There's a shit-ton of stuff on the walls and everywhere else to stare at while you wait. The gals are super appreciative of your patronage and will remember you. You may even get a story or two. Get the hot links breakfast, it will change your life.
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Every time I go here I feel like I fell into a John Waters movie. There is never a line for brunch. I dare you to go there in the afternoon and order hot cereal.
I wanted to like this place, I did.
It wasn't bad - it was just very average. There's nothing wrong with being average, right?
I guess what miffed me a bit was that my eggs benedict was $11, which I found a bit pricey.
The waitress was friendly and I loved the Hollywood memorabilia on the wall.
If you're in the mission and want some breakfast or brunch this isn't a bad option.
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A unique treasure, a blast from the past, a dying breed. Where have all the funky, family run diners gone? Al's holds on, and still serves up a tasty, greasy heap of goodness. My favorite breakfast potatoes in town (somewhere between homefries and hashbrowns -- what are they?!?!?) and housemade salsa with an authentic kick.
A great place for large groups, especially if you have a squalling infant or two. They'll stick you in the back, by the lifesize Mae West.
And my very favorite waitress of all time, the glamorous and stylish Ms. Jean, always has time for a hug and a chat, even when the place is packed. And I'm glad that it still gets packed. When it's gone, I'll mourn this place for years, like I do that venerated New Dawn of yore.
I wonder if most people walking by on Mission even notice that Laurel and Hardy are the faces prominently displayed on the signage for Al's Cafe...
http://www.youtube.com...
Walk into this authentic old-time diner and step into somebody's idea of a glamorous past... the owner has attempted a classic Hollywood-type diner with movie memorabilia in every nook and cranny of this place. Autographed movie-star photos fill the walls, and there are celebrity look-alike dolls on shelves in the back. Everything is rather faded, and the place feels a bit musty and rickety, but it somehow survives in a "Sunset Boulevard" kind of way.
I've walked by this place many times, but it's always closed since they're only open until 3PM on weekdays. I happen to be in the neighborhood today, so I thought I should give it a try since it's too kitschy not to. Orange formica and plastic red flowers are all around. It turns out to be a solid greasy spoon, sort of like a roadside diner on Route 66 somewhere past Kingman, Arizona, circa 1946. Works for me especially since I'm a movie trivia sponge. I can actually appreciate an autographed picture of Kim Novak next to my table.
I tried the $8.25 Big Burger with Cheese (see photo), and it was good dive food. Sure, they used American cheese slices. However, the meat, all eight ounces of it, was fresh, and it came on a soft French roll with a pile of fries and a cup of their meatball soup. The soup was more like a cup of ground beef, but I didn't mind. Hearty stuff here...they don't kid around with the cholesterol.
The staff looks like they've been here for years since the service was kind of robotic. A server gave me two different checks, and another needed to be coaxed to give me a refill on my Diet Coke. But in a way, it all fits the greasy spoon mindset I should have expected here. I just noticed it's open on weekends until 4PM, so if my arteries can take it, I may just come back. A roadside diner in the Outer Mission...cool.
FOOD - 4 stars...a good, greasy-spoon-style burger...who can argue with that?
AMBIANCE - 3.5 stars...old-time Hollywood meets Mission ghetto
SERVICE - 3 stars...seem to be doing it by rote now
TOTAL - 4 stars...we need to encourage these small diners to survive, don't you think?...or else, we must live with execrable places like Mel's
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This was my experience:
I looked in the window and thought, "Gross!". Then I walked away with a normal digestive tract and a complete and utter lack of curiosity.
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A pretty decent breakfast joint. This place has an older cute atmosphere with the historic memorabilia on the walls and the friendly servers. The food is pretty generic yet tasted delicious and the portions are good in size. The seating can get a little cramped and the servers are a little more home/laid back style. Perfect for an early morning recovery in the mission.
Memorabilia from W.C Fields, Shirley Maclaine, and Judy Garland - check.
Bacon as crisp as a new 5 dollar bill - check.
Older waitresses that call you 'Angel' and 'Doll' - check.
Me hearting Al's - check.
Come here on a regular basis for breakfast and damn good, my favorite is Chrissie's special which is the regular's way to order it cause this isn't the name on the menu.
You want an egg white organic sundried tomatoe omelette, stop reading and go away. This is a greasy spoon diner where the service is pretty good by the support staff. The regular servers, who are the founder's daughters, can be cranky, but the extra spunk is what makes this place fun, plus the daughter' s fit in with all the decor on the walls.
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Classic greasy spoon. Really, the food is good. Its not exotic, but solid and filling and tasty and reasonably priced for HUGE servings.
Family run and quirky by sisters a nephew and the occasional 3rd generation family member pinch hitting.
The no cash thing always annoys me and my husband runs up to the atm at Safeway to get cash if we don't have any on hand.
They have awesome pancakes and we are pretty fond of the corned beef hash but everything I have had here is good.
It's a place where you become a regular pretty damn fast.
This is one of my favorite greaspoons in SF, and unlike a lot of other places like it, you never have to wait!
I've never ordered anything except breakfast, but the Philly Cheesesteak omelette keeps me coming back. It's a great hangover cure and delicious to boot.
Ambiance is perfect for a greasespoon, with lots of odd tsochkes everywhere. The service is solid, and your coffee cup will never come close to being empty.
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What better place to nurse a hangover than Al's! The food is good and greasy. I like to get what I call the "French Special", French Toast with a side of French Fries; it's the life ending special (or the diabetic relapse). But this place is good; as greasy spoons go it's one of the best. The homemade soups are really good, although I don't know why they keep on pushing the homemade salsa in an American diner. Sandwiches are good, but why get a sandwich when there is a bevy of breakfast items. The special burger on the back of the menu is the way to go if you're going for a burger; it has everything on it and then some. The coffee is excellent and they bring a whole pot of it to the table even if only one person is drinking it. The coffee mugs are unique and plenty, it's always exciting to get a different mug every time I go. I've gotten a few of them twice, but it's rare.
The staff is friendly and quirky. Mama (as everybody calls her, even the staff that isn't related to her) is wonderful. She calls everybody baby-doll. She does extensive window displays for the current holiday and loves it when kids go over and gawk at it. They have a good memory of people that come in and will sit and talk with you if they aren't busy. Mama is a little hard of hearing so sometimes she'll think she's whispering but will be quite the opposite.
The Hollywood motif hasn't been updated since it opened. I think there is a signed picture of Henry Winkler when he first started playing the Fonz. If you look closely you'll find a picture of Mama and her daughters amongst the photos.
I see a lot of people complaining about the payment system they have going on.
1) You always pay at the register if you need change.
2) They don't accept credit card, get over it. Bank of America is two doors down.
3) The receipt always comes with Andes Candies, which are great to hold on your tongue while sipping coffee and having the minty chocolate goodness melt in your mouth.
4) I just leave an even amount on the table and walk out, who needs to get change on a ten dollar meal? The service is worth the extra dollar over what you'd normally tip.
In closing, it's not just a clever name; Al's really does have good food.
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this place get's three stars just for the throwback decor. As far as neighborhood jewels this place is one of them. You have to love the overwhelming 50s memorabilia (including the 80 year old pigtailed "waitress"). Unfortunately the food is straight out of the same era, simple greasy spoon type of stuff but with current day prices. If you live in the hood this place is definitely worth going on the occassianal sunday for a huge helping of breakfast basics, but buy your coffee on the way, theirs tastes like it got filtered through a burnt sock...
You need to have the mashed potatoes here. This is more than just a recommendation. I almost wet myself over these and I have had a long history of mashed potato eating.
The staff here is adorable--the first time we came here all the ladies had their hair up in pigtails and our waitress (Doris... Gladys) called my boy, "baby-doll." Here's your soup, Baby-doll. These ladies are lifers.
Indigestion be damned, I can't get enough of this place. This is my favorite new hangover cure.
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good greasy breakfast place.
i like all of the different coffee cup.
old grumpy lady server was awesome.
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The breakfast is dependable diner fare. The staff are friendly and entertaining. The coffee mugs are a constant delight. It's simple unpretentious, and never too busy. Great!
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The hot beef sandwich and the hash browns with biscuits and gravy were just like we remembered from the 50's as was the ol' waitress and cook. The service was personal.
The prices were in line for the day and age, maybe even on the low side.
The restroom was dicey.
This place is so bizarre. The first time I went it really rubbed me the wrong way, but I tried it again (about a year later, yikes!) and I don't feel as critical now.
It is a veritable time and geographical warp to small-town, 1950s, kitchy America -- right down to the old, white-lady servers who call you "honey" and the life-size stand-up of George Burns on the wall. The holiday displays in the window and the creepy stuffed Disney characters are another story. . .I'm not quite sure where those come from.
The omelettes are quite good, as is the coffee. The service is a bit strange -- it seems completely decentralized and prone to error. A guy at the next table over ordered soup, and the waitress yelled across the dining room into the kitchen area, "Hey, gimme some soup!!" I ordered a spinach and cheddar omelette, and I got a shrimp and avocado omelette (um, ew?), and then I ended up with a bacon, spinach, and cheddar one. I ended up just eating the latter instead of sending it back again. Good thing I'm not a veg. And good thing I love bacon.
Be warned that it's cash only.
It's nice to be able to walk in at 10:30am on a Saturday and not have to wait in a line of hungover hipsters for your weekend morning grease fix. Can't do that north of 24th Street. (Have I mentioned that I love my neighborhood?) I'm sure I'll be back.
Al's offers standard fare that will sit like a lump in your stomach for hours. The breakfast market in the southern Mission was ripe for the picking - I'd recommend Toast over this place by a wide margin.
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This is exactly what a small American greasy spoon diner is. There's a bunch of short order cooks, a gruff but sweet counter lady, and a menu filled with eggs, patty melts, club sandwiches, and other standard diner fare.
I had a perfectly great lunch experience here. The cook and counter lady were both very nice, and the food was exactly what I expected. It was a tad more expensive ($10 for patty melt, fries, and drink) than I could wish for, but hey, I can hardly afford to buy a house on their street, either, so whatever.
I'd like to give them 3 1/2 stars (they're not really 4 star worthy in the final analysis) but I thought I'd pull the average up a bit. It's not fancy--Toast or Savor look like the freakin' Ritz if you compare menus and average clientele--but every neighborhood needs a place like this.
I really wanted to like this place. It has fun old-timey Hollywood diner decor, and a wide selection on the menu. However, I've been twice, and both time the food was very mediocre. I had tasteless meatloaf one time, and bland eggs the other. If they really had "good food," I'd go all the time. Oh, well.
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I've eaten at Al's several times over the past few years and it's a classic greasy spoon with a vintage Hollywood look going on. I've enjoyed their Chicken Fried Steak many times. I would normally give it a good review but I just had breakfast there this morning and had a horrible experience. Here's why:
_When I walked in with my friend, right in front of everyone, the waitress was literally coughing over two plates of food without covering her mouth or anything.. her germs were spewing over these plates. Maybe she was sick, but come on... cover your mouth please. I'm glad those were not my breakfasts.
_The food was pretty good and greasy.. the way I like it. But, when I got the check and was ready to pay I put out my credit card and waited and waited and waited and waited... you get the idea. They were not busy at all either - maybe 6-7 tables going at the time. Finally the grumpy drink lady simply walked by and loudly tapped on my card and just grunted "cash only" and quickly walked away. Not, "Sorry, we only accept cash" or "We don't take Visa, just cash guys. Sorry." or something other than the grunt. It was like Selma from the Simpsons was just talking to me.
So, Fine... cash only. No big deal. so, I put out cold hard cash and again and waited and waited and waited and waited... was I supposed to beg for them to take my money? Finally I went up to the counter myself and paid... it took a while for the cook to notice me. It would have been so easy to just walk out... but, I would never do such a thing.
_After this my friend and I were about to leave we were putting our coats on by our table while checking out the vintage Hollywood pics on the wall. We had stood up for about, I guess, 60 seconds when this same sever (Selma from the Simpsons) literally nudged me away from the table with her body so she could clear it. No, "excuse me" or "pardon me", just a push. The place had plenty of open tables so I don't understand why she was in such a hurry to clear our table.
_Finally, after sharing mutual shock with my friend, we both noticed how dirty the windows and the fan blowing air onto the cooking area was... layers of dirt, grease and plenty of cob webs. I was about to hurl.
Now, I may sound like a priss when I write this, but I really don't expect much from a cheap greasy spoon. I tip well (20%) when the service is good and the place is enjoyable. All I want from Al's is basic hygiene - please don't hack your flem on your customer's food. It's gross and unsafe. Next, please show a little respect and courtesy to your customers - revolutionary idea, huh.
I'm not sure if I'll be back there after today.. I wanted to share this to see if anyone else has had a similar experience.
Two stars. Yeah.
I have been here on several occasions, since I work in the neighborhood. My guess is that they are simply riding on the coat tails of the campy decor. The place is filled with early 20th Century Hollywood memorabilia. It's actually a lot of fun if you like kitsch.
However, I came here not to be at a swap meet but to eat. In this respect it's your standard greasy spoon diner fare.
Really greasy.
It's cooked inconsistently and with an uninspired hand. Emboldened by their own marketing, the prices are sky high. It costs as much as a New York Deli, except it's not Deli food and it's not good.
Actually, when I think about it, it's kind of sad that you can go to IHOP and get better food for less money.
Still, sort of fun as a novelty, and if you want breakfast and you're in the area, it's not going to kill you.
I eat here way too often, which is more of a testament to the scarcity of breakfast in this 'hood than any real love of the place. They never cook the eggs right -- sometimes they're raw on one side and overdone on the other -- and the service can be cranky. But the homemade salsa is great, and the younger waitress is a sweetie.
It appears that once you go south of precita on mission street the hope of finding any 'decent' breakfast place is out of the question....that brings me to Al's......
after being tired a tad hung over and hungry my friends and I just wanted some cheap hearty breakfast food somewhere new- well this was new to us, the menu was pretty much all beef or pork (whatever its a red or white meat world anyways, I have to just live in it) and the prices for this hole were outrageous- I ordered the cheapest thing on the menu (2 eggs toast and hash browns $5.25 coffee $1.75) let me put it this way my cream lasted 3 refills of coffee...pretty weak...my other friends ordered lunch items that were all about $9.50 ("fish & chips" which translates to Gordon's fish-sticks and fries and a hamburger that looked like the frozen meat patty variety- the bathroom was oddly confusing and they had one of those roll towel things from the 50's however I don't know the last time it was changed and it freaked me out to think about it-
I will not be returning to Al's anytime soon, food was passable but not for the price-
Given its location, this low-frills diner has a decor as odd as its name. Celebrity photos and Hollywood memorabilia share wall space with a black-and-white mural of classic movie stars, a motif suited more to the Castro than Bernal Heights. Ordering anything more complex than eggs and hash-browns is having too much faith in the kitchen's capabilities. It's over-priced for what you get, and definitely not worth the trip if you're in any other part of town.
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so my friend who shall remain named josie is a confirmed yelpster and she's been tellin' me that I need to get up on here and contribute......well, she's very persuasive....i figured I should start with something that I know well.......almost every weekend, i find myself at least once dragging my hung-over brain down the hill to Al's Cafe aka that place with the good eats sign.......is there anything remarkable about the place? nah......but that's what i like about it......no fru-fru shi-shi for me.......what i'm generally craving on my way down is a grilled cheese and fries.....they do both just right.......and you get to start off with one of their daily homemade soups......they generally rock......if they've got the navy bean, i'm all about it......the burgers are good too.....omelettes......hahbrowns......all their breakfast stuff is done well......mmmm pancakes......so at the end of the day, it's a really nothing extremely special kinda place......but then you have to factor in the ambience and staff.......wow......i could sit in their for hours watching eddie, and his two sisters, joy ann and jeannie, run around the place alongside their occasionally changing support staff and the colorful locals/regulars.......dusty pictures and statuettes of 30's and 40's icons like chaplan and laurel and hardy adorn the walls and random shelves......i'm pretty sure the decor has not changed since 1963.......obviously, haute cuisine, al's is not, but it generally does the job with a little extra to boot......k.......done.......how did i do?
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