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Categories: American (Traditional), Breakfast & Brunch [Edit]
Neighborhood: North OaklandMon-Sun. 7:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
"Good food cheap is the birthright of all bay area residents, and this new gem doesn't disappoint. Located right on the water in a…" read more »
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Well, I've got mixed feelings about this place. It's just a short walk from where I live so I keep going there. I have not yet had a home fry there that was any good.(undercooked every time)
I get the BLAT (BLT with avocado and a glass of ice tea these days). It's a bit pricey for what you get but it's a pricey neighborhood.
Will continue to go for the BLAT.
Whole experice is easily made negative by unruly, undisciplined kids
Music is still awesome (win).
Potatoes still cost extra (epic fail).
Service was great (win).
Proportion of omelet filling to egg was ridiculously off. There must have been an entire canned ham in there - not very appetizing to work around (fail).
Waits can still be very long during peak breakfast/brunch hours. I think in the future I'm going to leave Rockridge Cafe to the people who really appreciate it. I just don't love the whole package.
The food is good. Yes, it is. And I will admit, the first time I ate at Rockridge Cafe (many years… Read more »
You know you're in a good diner based on the breakfast potatoes, this is a scientific fact, and Rockridge Cafe has awesome potatoes!
Besides the potatoes, check out the ricotta pancakes and the migas. The migas are interesting, they're spicy breakfast nachos that will blow your mind. To top it all off, the coffee here is decent! I expect diner coffee to be pretty bad, it's the nature of the beast, but Rockridge Cafe has decent coffee. Score!
I noticed a review that complained of poor service from the staff. Maybe this reviewer went on an off day because I have always found the staff to be pleasant, attentive and easy on the eyes.
My omelet was amazing! The veggies were crisp and seasoned perfectly. The breakfast potatoes weren't greasy or undercooked, it was pretty yum. And they had the great bay area coffee that I moved up here for.
Had a great breakfast Sunday morning at the Rockridge cafe. Menu was interesting and the place was bustling. I had the vegetarian omelet which was fresh and cooked to perfection. My husband had ricotta pancakes with lemon zest sauce that was also yummy. Would go back in a heartbeat
Spent $35.00 today for breakfast for 2. The bacon was overcooked and leathery. According to the menu, the Eggs Benedict were supposed to be made with prosciutto. They were instead made with tasteless ham so tough we couldn't chew it. The poached eggs were so overcooked they were like hard boiled eggs. The hollandaise sauce was solid , and there was only a tiny bit of it. If you're going out for breakfast, Mama's Royal Cafe is much better, and the service is friendlier.
I spied the place the morning of our "Airbnb" stay.
We drove by and I blurted out -"THERE That's the perfect brunch place!" screeching the car to a halt and parking like the Flintstones.
Boy was I right. I love the hell outa this place. Clearly everyone does.
The diner counter was lined up with a body on each perfect vinyl and chrome stool, the window seats boasting with happy customers feeding their faces with Pumpkin pancakes and Rhubarb waffles, Chicken Apple sausage, and ohmygawd everything else imaginable and unimaginable.
The other wall has some nice art, and lots of booths. The tables are quickly cleared and refilled. The service is excellent, the quality is what you want and it's priced right.
I sure hope I get to go back there sometime. This area is really cute with lots of interesting shopping.
Easily earns the Death *1* Star. Diner that is way past its prime. After reading the mixed reviews, I decided to give it a shot. Went in at 2pm on a Saturday. The place looks like a downtrodden 70s joint. What a dump! Blah beige paint with some paintings along the lengths of the walls. Old everything. Old tile floor which was dirty with all kinds of food and napkins on it. 1950s looking tables to sit at. They have a counter that seats six people.
Greeted by a busgirl, I guess. She threw two glasses of water at us, and asked if we wanted to drink anything. No friendly greeting, and she just had the attitude of "I could care less".
Waitress showed up after 5 minutes and took the order. Last time we saw her. We had a California omelet, and some pancakes with bacon. The omelet was ok, and the pancakes tasted like they were from a box.
No one came around to fill my partner's iced tea. Finished and waited a bit for the server to bring the check. Never came. I finally got up and went to the register, and she came to me there. The people that work there just have a attitude like a customer is intruding on them. Poorest service I have seen in a diner, in a long time.
The very flowing and gushing reviews must be fake, or are done by Rockridge residents that feel anything open in the Rockridge area must be great.
With mediocre food, and very poor service, no repeat ever for me!
ps: for a real diner experience, with great and friendly servers, really tasty food, and a nice clean and beautiful decorated place try the Lakeshore Cafe on Lakeshore Ave.
I used to live in Rockridge 20 years ago and it was a favorite place for breakfast for us college students looking for really good food for reasonable prices. I guess I wanted to relive old times. WRONG!
First of all, it's kind of grubby and they probably haven't updated the place in 25 years, which is fine, but it's a bit unappetizing to sit down at a table and see the jam that may not have been refreshed for a month.
I also made the colossal mistake of ordering the tofu florentine, as another Yelper describes in perfect gory detail. This is California and I've been eating tofu dishes for the past twenty years and this was a first for the "wow! are we in rural Kentucky right now? (no offense to Kentucky...chances are you might be able to find better tofu there now...at least better than this!)" moment of receiving a large plate of barely griddled raw tofu with bits of unripe tomato and a few strands of sauteed spinach topped with a little cheese (which was the only part worth eating! I feel sorry for the vegans). That was it. No seasoning, no potatoes, no onions, just a big plate of barely cooked tofu. Gee, I wonder why no one likes tofu. This was nasty.
However, I was starving, so I ate as much as I could and then left the rest on the plate. The waitress asked if anything was wrong, but clearly, as other people have expressed and as this experience demonstrated, this kitchen is not interested in its customers or customer feedback.
Also, I ordered an English muffin instead of the usual toast, which came dry with a packet of butter, which I left. The first half was pretty good (yeah, Thomas'!) but when I picked up the second half of the muffin to discover some grease, cheese and tomato plastered on the side of it, I was over it. Again, really? No one can be bothered here to think about the customers.
Definitely pass on this one.
Rockridge Cafe is in my top three breakfast places ever. They have their faults, but here's why I love them: fantastic scrambled eggs, yummy home fries, great blueberry muffins, really solid hamburgers that you can actually get medium rare, crisp curly fries automatically served with ranch, tasty fresh generous sides of spinach. And on my lunch break, they get me in and out in half an hour. And they're nice enough, too, although not ebullient.
Try the: scrambles, ricotta cakes, vegetarian club, baby burger with curly fries.
Don't come in expecting: a gorgeous seating area or dirt-cheap prices. This is a neighborhood diner and they actually ask you to pay for the quality of the food.
I'm getting hungry just writing this!
All sugared up after a recent East-Bay Cupcake crawl/quest, we decided to give the Rockridge Cafe a try for lunch/protein before heading home.
We did not choose poorly. I had the special ciabatta provolone & bacon cheeseburger. It was amazing! It was flavourful, the provolone was on the good side of generously gooey, and the ciabatta, lightly toasted. I was shocked, this was a 5 star burger folks!!
Mademoiselle had a very yummy chili (I tasted it!) and a good looking club sammich .. So I'm not sure about all these swooping statement from grumpy folks about "diner beyond its prime", but I was very happy here and sure as hell will be back! Go Rockridge!
4 Stars!
The Ricotta Pancake special is sooo delightful on a Sunday morning. Or a Saturday morning. Or any morning really. They're that tasty.
Come early to beat the rush and before the specials sell out!
Wow, what a miss. A friend and I stopped by here today since we were in the area. He had breakfast which looked very average and I had the pesto and avocado club which was very bland. Pricey for the low quality. Service bordered on unfriendly/disinterested...I couldn't tell which for sure. The restaurant definitely needs updating on food and decor and the bathrooms were dirty and smelly. Not what you would expect from the Rockridge area, very disappointing.
My gf has a real love affair with the Ricotta pancakes....she has been mentioning this place for months. This morning she had a craving, so off we went.
Parking, sucked. Not as bad as it could have been though, only had to park a block away.
I was warned that there may be a long line. We must have gotten there at just the right time though because we didn't have to wait at all.
The wait staff was prompt, nice, attentive a the right times and patient.
My gf got the corned beef hash, with a side of ricotta pancakes. Lucky for me she always let's me try her food. The hash was so good that I wished I had ordered them for myself.
The pancakes deserve their own section. See, I am a pancake hater. They ALL taste like flour to me unless I do them myself with my own speacial recipe. These however, were a little bit of heaven. No flour taste, the warm maple syrup added just the right amount of sweet. Even I would order.
Now for me, I HAD to try the banana challah french toast. It came with a single egg, and 2 sausages. When it came it looked like a small amount of food for the $9 and some change it cost. Now, don't get me wrong...the french toast was good, and the egg was literaly PERFECT. It just wasn't a wowing dish or meal like my gf's. Who knows? Maybe the grass is greener on the other side?
I even got a chance to check out the bathrooms. Clean, well stocked, working locks....A-OK with me!
Overall, I liked this place and will more than happily go back again the next time my baby has a ricotta pancake craving.
This is my 2nd time eating at Rockridge Cafe in 2 weeks. My BF & I was coming back from Concord early in the morning so we wanted to try some breakfast, close by the freeway. So I looked on Yelp & found this cafe. The menu was pretty boring. Only a few items stood out in our eyes. The BF had 2 eggs, sausage & potatoes.. (very boring & nothing special to write about) he hated it! I was debating between the Ric Special or the Cornmeal Waffles. I was pretty starving so I picked the Ric Special which consist of 2 ricotta pancakes, bacon or sausage, & 1 egg. the meal was alright. I loved how they made my egg fried over easy, very good. the ricotta pancakes were soft and light. If only they can add some lemon zest into it.. It would be great.
2nd visit: today. We happned to be in the area today. So we just went back to give it another try since the ricotta pancakes are good.
BF had the Ric Special w/ a side of chorizo. Ric Special was consistent & the same. The chorizo was alright but salty. You are better off dipping it in ketchup to drown out the saltiness.
I went with Cornmeal Waffles w/ honey butter! OMG I was so disappointed when this came out. It was only 1 Waffle! ARE YOU #$@&ing SERIOUS? One freaking waffle for $6.50 The waffle wasn't good. It was dry around the edges, cold. The honey butter was not even room temperature.
I would never come back here again. Some items on the menu are cheap & the combos are the only way to go, to get your money's worth. I can't believe they been around since 1950's? They need to update the menu & price. I see a chicken stir-fry as an everyday-daily special. If I want chicken stir-fry I will go to a Chinese restaurant for that. Not at an american cafe. I hope the owners read this review & fix some of the items.
Shame on us for even giving this place a 2nd chance. What big mistake. I just can't get over the fact that we paid $6.50 for 1 cornmeal waffle!
oh how i miss not living in walking distance of this place. i used to eat here basically every morning. now this place is lines out the door packed every weekend so keep that in mind when gooing here. this place isnt huge but well worth any wait. anyways i got hooked on this place because week day mornings its not so crowded and i can get in and out of here within 30 mins tops. the food is just so good. ricotta pancakes are my love!! lol... i know it sounds weird, cheese in pancakes? gross.. but to my pleasant surprise, this is the ONLY way i will ever eat pancakes. they are so creamy and yummm!! omlettes are great too! ohh are their hamburgers for lunch are crazy huge. i dont think ive ever finished one! this place is THE cafe to go to around this area!
Cute place, but i wasn't impressed.
eggs benedict.... I think it was 9.50.... that's what I got... and all that I got... oh sorry... and a single wedge of orange as well.
but it wasn't that good.... very citrusy or lemony hollandaise...which also leads into something else...
I get a flimsy fork and a butter knife on a small plate(again.. only big enough for 2 halves of an english muffin and a orange wedge......
The problem is that cutting an english muffin with a butter knife is no easy task... which means I press harder on the fork to hold the muffin AND plate in place, which results in the fork bending.. annoying
Not a great experience.... not somewhere that I think i'll go back to... sure... the pancakes weren't bad.
I am a fan of Rockridge Cafe. Over the two years that I lived in the Rockridge area, I went to Rockridge Cafe for breakfast countless times.
I also love Rick and Ann's, but the wait there is often ridiculous, so if I wasn't in the mood to wait, we'd often go to Rockridge Cafe instead, since the wait is much more manageable.
Reasonable prices and generous portions, yessirree. I particularly like the ricotta pancakes.
rockridge continues to be my favorite neighborhood in the EB, and the rockridge cafe did not dissapoint. we came here for brunch on a sunday. it was crowded, but we were seated at a table within a couple minutes.
i had a hard time figuring out what to order because everything looked so good, but i finally decided on: the half grilled cheese w/cup of potato leek soup, a side of home fries, and a glass of mimosa.
the mimosa was really good and very decently priced at $4. the orange juice used, was freshly squeezed. the home fries were very good too, definitely "fresh". the grilled cheese was deliciously buttery and perfect when dipped in the soup. and the potato leek soup was so good that i was dipping everything in it. i also had half of a blueberry scone. it was very good and is only .75 cents more if you substitute it for toast.
everything here was good and fair priced. definitely a place to come for brunch on a sunny afternoon.
4.5 and I'm rounding up.
Pluses:
Varied menu (within breakfast and burgers)
Breakfast anytime
Very competent service
Decent food
Comfortable space and chairs
Real local art on the walls
Neiman ranch meat for the burgers
The service was perfect in every way. Upon entering a sign told me to take a menu and seat myself. Just as I got settled someone brought silverware, a daily specials menu, and water. The server came shortly to get my drink order. And she was ready to take my order when she returned with the beverage. The food came swiftly and was as I had ordered. The waitress brought more napkins swiftly when I requested them. She asked about a refill on my iced tea right after I drained the glass. When she brought the bill (just after I was done) she asked if everything was OK. No fawning or telling me her name and life story and pulling out mine - just good old style bringing food and making sure all was right. No muss no fuss and when another table vacated the bus person took away the dishes and the waitress actually carefully wiped off the chairs and there weren't even any kids in the party. A generous tip is clearly in order.
Back to the food The burger was as moist and juicy as my preferred "well done'" can be and the plate was arranged nicely The only drawback was the too thick breading on the onion rings. Fries next time and I hope they are as good as o remember from my college years several decades ago.
Dude, if you haven't had the croissant french toast, then you are missing out on life. Seriously.
Rockridge Cafe is everything I look for in a diner. I come from NYC where diners rule the world, and unfortunately, SF and East Bay sorely lack them. So when my boyfriend and I found RC, it was a miracle.
Go, eat, enjoy!
Good, solid breakfast food. I got the ricotta pancakes w/ eggs and chicken sausage. It was delicious although, I gotta be honest, the ricotta pancakes were not all their cracked up to be... pretty good, but not great.
The service and coffee were great. Definitely a great place for a solid breakfast.
I have been to Rockridge Cafe a few times now only to be underwhelmed.
While the service is efficient as another reviewer put it, the food is pretty bland. Most of the food is stuff I could have thrown together easily at home.
When I go out to eat, it's because a place is making something at least *slightly* higher in quality and/or taste than a quick, easy meal at home.
Rockridge Cafe made me wish I saved the money and just went to the local Safeway.
All in all it's "fine", I guess, but I won't be coming back simply because I'm interested in food that's a bit more desirable.
wow this place is not worth the hype. or any hype. i'm sure there's a reason some people out there are fans, but for my money, i will never eat here again.
we got breakfast here on a weekday morning. not crowded. i got the basil omelette, which was waaaay cheesy and creamy (and when i object that there's too much cheese, it's a problem), the tomatoes and other ingredients were sub-par. the omelette itself was pretty rubbery--just like i make at home!
but the REAL problem--my boyfriend ordered the tofu florentine. the tofu was unseasoned. like, it was just sauteed tofu. NOT EVEN SALTED. now i eat tofu a lot, and i know, as does everyone familiar with it, that it is not the tastiest thing to eat by itself. it absorbs seasoning. it requires seasoning!
i convinced my bf we needed to send it back. it was inedible as it was, and without any sauce whatsoever to boot. i am pretty sure florentine--even tofu ones--are supposed to have a sauce. so, though we rarely ever send anything back, we had to tell the waitress. when i said the tofu was unseasoned, she just nodded. um, that's a BAD thing. but, she was very amenable (actually i think she just didn't care) and took it back right away. i think this is an instance where the chef doesn't understand an ingredient and assumes that people who eat tofu must just not have tastebuds.
so instead, he got the avocado quesadilla. it looked ok. but, the avocado was buried under a tortilla somewhere. weird, because avo should have been the star of the plate...well it's because it was pretty much rotten. when the waitress saw, i heard her go ask the chef and heard him say something about a crappy avocado. wow. at least it was removed from our bill.
the coffee was fine. wish i'd ordered the ricotta pancakes or something.
never, ever again.
When we used to throw ragers at the house on Lawton, I would wake up the next morning impossibly hungover and needed to walk (and not get into a car because I have horrible motion sickness) to the nearest breakfast place and drown my alcohol in greasy, delicious food. I used to go to Crepevine before I decided to give Rockridge Cafe, and once I tried it, it took forces of nature to get me back to Crepevine.
Rockridge Cafe is a much better deal for breakfast than Crepevine is, and I didn't walk out feeling like a Fatty McFatterson. But don't get me wrong, they still give you a crapton of food.
Now, onto the food:
The Rockridge Breakfast with the scone. Oh man, that scone was delicious. On the mornings when I would have to go to work, I would eat breakfast here, and grab an extra scone to go as a snack. Those scones are something to write home about.
I like the Hacienda fries. They are simple, but well executed. Delicious.
The two egg breakfast with the chicken-apple sausage was another favorite of mine. On the days when I couldn't justify spending an extra 2.50 for meat, I would get just the eggs and the home fries. Totally filling, and satisfying to boot.
Pumpkin waffle was good, but it wasn't as worthwhile as their savory breakfasts. Maybe I've just lost the taste for waffles in the morning?
I've never tried the sandwiches or burgers because I am a breakfast fiend, and why bother getting them if you can have breakfast food instead?
Four stars. i wish I still lived near here so I could cure myself from drunken mornings with cheap breakfasts.
You've heard that customer gripes get communicated more than a happy one. But, I wanted you to consider my experience when thinking about going here. This was my second visit in a couple weeks. I went back because the food quality was very good albeit a busy place. Yesterday was such a less than satisfied experience that I am going to try another place per our Yelp community feedback before coming back to this one.
We arrived at 10:30am and expected to wait which took 30 minutes, got seated by a Latina, who was unfriendly to all customers. We sat for another 10 minutes to get our order taken and followed by 20 minutes before any food arrived. The food quality was really good, like before, but was less enjoyable based on the whole experience.
These folks clearly have a good establishment, but they got too busy for their own good and had lousy staff.
A perfect breakfast of ricotta pancakes, over-easy egg and and a few bites of my partner's (not-so-cajun) cornbread is already making my Saturday. For those down on Rockridge Cafe, you should perhaps think of it as Rockridge Diner, and take your bougie desires elsewhere. This place has a no-nonsense diner attitude that I dig.
I am very disappointed by this place and I am not sure what all the hype is about the ricotta pancakes. If I did not know they had ricotta in them I never would have guessed. They tasted like basic, Denny's style flapjacks. We were so excited to go there this morning, based on all the good reviews and we were left baffled, wondering why everyone loves this place. ;-0
First off, they were out of muffins and scones and it was only noon on a Wednesday.
Then, we ordered the fruit & yogurt with a side of eggs and we shared the ricotta pancakes. Ok, the fruit was a mess. I have a serious strife with places that serve a bowl of cantaloupe and melon and call it fresh fruit. Furthermore, there were pieces of fruit in it that we had to guess what it was.
The eggs were the only good thing, which were scrambled just right.
On a good note our friend rather enjoyed his bacon scramble and said the chocolate milkshake was divine, I wish we woulda had his dining experience!
This is a review by a vegetarian
The waffle was not nearly crisp enough to withstand the level of moisture from the raspberry-rhubarb sauce. Also, the sauce was a bit of a letdown.
I don't get why a place that is packed to the gills for a Sunday brunch service plays music. Everything is loud and kinetic enough.
If the weather is nice, walk 4 blocks to the Temescal farmer's market and graze among the prepared food stalls.
It had been a while since my last visit to Rockridge Cafe, and after walking by recently and noticing that the "Stroller Parking" had been removed I thought things might have changed for the better. I'm not sure where people put their strollers now that the chain is gone - maybe they just let them roam the neighborhood while they go in for breakfast.
Inside nothing had changed, in fact the interior is looking decidedly tired and dated and could use a remodel one of these days. The menu was larger than I remembered with a lot of tempting options and creative things like banana stuffed French toast, ricotta pancakes with a citrus sauce, cornmeal pancakes with a honey butter sauce.
I don't understand the ricotta pancakes - I mean I understand ricotta pancakes in general, in fact they can be really good, but these were just kind of basic Bisquicky pancakes without any discernible ricotta. Not bad, but I'm looking for some real ricotta action.
On the plus side, the poached eggs that came with the corned beef hash were done perfectly - as well as you'll ever see a poached egg done. The hash itself was a decent rendition with some fresh green chili and a good portion size, but was a bit bland and didn't leave a huge impression on me - at least it wasn't the over-salted cat food version you find at most greasy spoons.
So I'm kind of left feeling just like I did before, i.e., it's okay but pretty forgettable. There isn't a lot of competition in the Rockridge area for breakfast, and the Rockridge Cafe has been around a long time, but beyond that I don't really understand the lines and the devotion to this place. It's not bad, but it's just not that amazing, and you can do much better for the price.
What do expect from a place that has "stroller parking"? Well, not much except lots of screaming… Read more »
Three words: real maple syrup. Another three words: solid, good breakfast. There is nothing wrong with this place that I can tell. On the other hand I wouldn't go there expecting perfection or to be impressed.
Breakfast is as good excuse as any to walk around Rockridge. The place was cute, definitely a hangout for the locals. Service was fast and friendly, but my florentine benedicts were drenched in an ocean of hollandaise sauce - which is good, but in moderation. The sauce was overpowering and I have no idea how the actual dish tasted.... Maybe I'll get it again next time - easy on the sauce. We were in a hurry, so no time for ricotta pancakes this time... Will be back to try those.
Cute, and quaint. The staffers were pretty nice, and the place was a decent size; pretty consistently full. I ended up getting the avocado quesadilla with a side of spinach; which sounded very appetizing when I first ordered, but when it came, I found myself a little disappointed. The fresh salsa that it came with was probably very fresh, but it was very wet.. the salsa soup drowned my tortillas and the whole thing ended up very sopping wet. The taste wasn't very impressive... it just tasted like tortillas, salsa, and avocado. The spinach, however simple it was, was very fresh and good.
If I were to come back, I wouldn't get the avocado quesadilla again, my bf got the Turkey Sundried Tomato Sausage sandwich which was pretty tasty... it came from their specials menu, so I'd probably take a better look at that next time. In the end, after they charged my bf's credit card, they brought it back and left it on the table, without a "thank you," but isn't a thank you pretty standard nowadays...??
A couple weekends ago, a friend and I were walking along College, looking for a good breakfast spot. I was shocked to find that there don't seem to be many, but I suppose quality counts more than quantity, and Rockridhe Cafe is exactly that -- quality.
There was a bit of a wait, but that is to be expected. They told us 30 mins, but after leaving for 10 mins we had already missed our table. The hostess was nice enough to give us the next available table, though. I had the spinach, bacon, goat cheese omlette. It was delicious and certainly large enough. I'm thinking I'll have to go back for the ricotta pancakes, especially since I have yet to find another really good brunch spot in Oakland.
You can tell a good restaurant when your group is being loud and probably really obnoxious, but the service is still friendly and top-notch. I felt right at home at Rockridge Cafe, and they made me some mean ricotta pancakes. I'm even gonna use the whole "I don't even like pancakes!" gambit to convince you to order them because they are really delicious! Just a hint of citrus, mushy in a good, melty way, moist and so full of flavor there's no need drown anything in syrup. My friend's basil omelet was also tasty. Eggs perfectly done, not a fan of bacon but whatevs that's not their fault.
I think the portions are on the smaller side, so big eaters order more! Mannn I gotta try the coffee cake and that insane croissant french toast that Jen C. raved about.
This is the second in a never-ending series of pancake reviews. THESE ARE THE BEST. They're RICOTTA pancakes. I can't speak for anything else on the menu, because truth be told, I don't want anything else on the menu. Just the pancakes, sir.
They're light and fluffy with a hint of almond extract perhaps? Dunno what voodoo they do here, but they're workin' some serious magic with these pancakes. And they heat the syrup so you don't have to pour cold syrup on hot pancakes. That's one of my biggest culinary pet peeves.
Pancakes, pancakes, pancakes!
So before a wine tour w/ fellow yelpers, me and Matt decide to take a side trip to this little cafe a couple blocks form the Rockridge Bart Stop.
This quaint location reminds me a sleepy town back in the east coast. Despite it being in a major city like Oakland, it was quiet and the place was full of regulars.
1) I was seated immediately at the counter.
2) Anything they have on the menu can be ordered, despite it being 9:00 in the morning.
3) Very fast service, w/ coffee and water refills w/ out even asking for it.
4) Burger was moist, cooked how I asked for it, patty was huge, fries were a large serving as well.
5) Reasonably priced considering how big it was ($10).
Overall a good experience. Three wineries and countless "tastes" later, I was very glad that I came to this cafe first.
My sugar mamma (yes, you read that right) brought me here for breakfast cause we were hungry and needed sustenance to help her move a bunch of furniture. Actually, I arrived late and their packing was done so all I did was mention I was hungry.
We came here and she had their avocado quesadilla, which despite the little pepper icon on the menu was not spicy at all - and quite cheesy with a mound of salsa on top. At my recommendation she ordered the sauteed spinach, and that was downright yummy.
I had the corned beef hash with two poached eggs and it came with a blueberry muffin. In retrospect I should have exercised some caution at such a meal but I was tired, and the coffee hadn't fully set in by the time my meal came. The muffin was a tad dry in the bottom, but the dome (the top) was tasty and sweet. The hash was lighter and less crispy than I am used to, but it went well with the eggs. I can't remember the last time I had poached eggs (maybe never?) but they were a pleasant change from the standard scrambled variety.
Service was quick if not too friendly and all the waitresses are all of the cute, slightly punk rocker girl subset. And you can have plenty of people watching in this fun Rockridge neighborhood.
Hands down the BEST coffee I've ever had in a breakfast cafe. The omelets are huge. I'm a big eater, but I could barely finish half the omelet and potatoes. At first, I thought that the place was little pricey for breakfast, but considering I've had the leftovers for 2 more meals its pretty economical and being able to swap avocado for bacon made me very happy...mmmm meat candy.
I pasted the café already several times during the week and it looks good from the outside. So this morning we pasted by and had a late breakfast. There was a waiting list but we decide to sit at the bar.
Atmosphere was basic but fine, coffee not bad for a Peet's junk.
The food was delicious; I had an Egg Blackstone with bacon and tomato and thought it was damn good.
My wife had a cheese omelet with Serrano Chilies and Italian sausage. And I can tell you as her private garbage can that this was jammie.
We are coming back for sure.
Prix Fixe Menu $28 with wine
Neighborhood: Gourmet Ghetto
Sea Salt Open New Late Night…
Berkeley, CA
Neighborhood: Lower Hills
Category: Breakfast & Brunch
Neighborhood: Rockridge
Category: Diners
Neighborhood: Claremont
Category: Breakfast & Brunch
Neighborhood: Lower Hills
Category: American (Traditional)
Neighborhood: Temescal
Category: American (Traditional)
i love breakfast foods, and i especially love them…
Rockridge baby yeah! It's not just for yuppies…
The best way to start the day in the east…
Some of my favorite dining destinations in the…
My local dry cleaner, watering hole, deli, cafe,…
I'm no SF snob. Honest. I went to Cal and lived in…
Rockridge is a wonderful neighborhood. If you…
Circling out from Deep East Oakland: includes…
