The Cookshack
- Price Range: $
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: Yes
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: Yes
- Good for: Brunch
10 Reviews for The Cookshack
Food is damn good...esp. the eggs Florentine or Benedict. Omelets are fluffy and delicious. My only complaint is the waffles are small, soggy and not very tasty. Well that and they are only open one day a week.
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Good stuff here. Back to basic American breakfast food staples. Food was good and you can customize an omelette or egg scramble the way you like it. Also the complimentary coffee cake was really good.
Wait staff was very friendly and the food came out fast.
Vegetarian Rating: 4/5
Lots of vegetarian options, though vegans will be out of luck.
With breakfast burritos the size of beavers and skillets that will feed two this place is going on our "can't think of anything else for breakfast" list.
We went to the Cookshack about noon and had no problem getting a table. The food seemed to have a "down home" type feel to it, but was a little bland. This probably explains why they have like 50 different hot sauces on your table.
If I had out of town friends (or even friends for that matter) I would definitely bring them here. It seemed like most people would find something they liked, but I think the vegetarians would be limited. And the decor (log cabin-y) is airy and spacious.
The staff was cool though, but seemed confused as to who was working what table. The owner seemed nice and really wanted to make sure the customers were enjoying themselves.
I recommend splitting a skillet (its called something else, but I forget what) and individually pick something like pancakes, french toast or a waffle. The skillet has eggs, potatoes, bacon, sausage and other things shoe-horned into a skillet. It's good for two and you can pick other things to put in your skillet.
I suggest you go and see what you like. I'm not a huge breakfast person, but I think people who need syrup and egg products in the morning will appreciate it.
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The air just right for the Sunday brunch casual and homey.
The FREE coffee cake just sweet enough for the house brew coffee.
The omelet was Big enough to fill your hunger Sunday morning tummy.
The blueberry pancake with fresh blueberry was caught my eye that I'll defiantly to order it next time.
To sum it up, yes I'll go for next Sunday brunch again.
* best free coffee cake ever*
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okay i freakin love this place but i'm slightly biased because my best friend in the whole world owns it. so we go on sundays and say hi to him and sometimes he sits down and eats with us. but that's the kind of guy he is. he might just sit down at your table for a few minutes and eat with you too. it's just that kind of atmosphere.
the omelets and burritos are huge. just massive. the pancakes are my favourite -- ive never had pancakes i love so much. and the free coffee cake is the best. we always ask for seconds because we're annoying like that. and i feel entitled because it's mark's restaurant.
to offer some insight into why it's open when it is, the restaurant used to be open all the time but mark got burnt out and closed it. he uses the kitchen and office for his catering business (they do weddings, the rose bowl, etc). by popular neighborhood demand, they reopened it again but he vowed only to keep it open on sundays for breakfast so he would like what he's doing.
but now it's a special sunday treat. i do wish they were open a little later than 2. i don't get up very early on sundays. i usually get there towards the tail end of everything when they've already ran out of blueberries.
personally though, i like mark's other food better. the food he actually cooks himself. maybe if he actually cooked the food for the cookshack the breakfast burritos would be more flavorful ... i just think the potatoes in them are a little bland. or maybe i just don't appreciate a good potatoe when i taste it. i don't know.
some of the hot sauces they have are to die for! i don't even like hot sauce. they're not the usual kind ... he has to get them from somewhere special ... i don't remember the backstory.
mark decorated the place himself -- every decoration has some sort of meaning -- you can ask him about it when you go. tell him ellyn told you to check it out. :)
Yeah, what Aaron L said.
Why else would a place be open only 6 hours a week? Must be good! Yeah, not really. But I have to say the big chunk of free coffee cake was nice (which earns them an additional star). Otherwise, the breakfast foods aren't anything particularly amazing--but maybe that's because I didn't order any of the specials?
The wait staff's a little weird but I wouldn't say they're hipsters. No smiles and few words, but they get the job done. It did appear that they can be smart asses, but only if you're asking for it....
Patrons are typical Pasadena / San Marino suburbanites; families, couples. However, I did see a chain-jangling, greasy-banged, skinny-jeaned trio of scenesterati stroll in with aviators on right before I left (at 9:30 am).
The actual 'shack' is nothing to look at, at all. Plastic patio chairs outside, ugly granny upholstery inside. I would say 'go there for the food' but the food would have to be good for me to say that, so uh, go there if you live close and you're hungry and it happens to be a Sunday between 8 am and 2 pm.
"So this place is only open for 6 hours on Sunday??" I asked.
"Yes. So you know it must be good, since everyone goes there," says my idiotic friend.
"OK, let's give it a try," I foolishly reply.
[Then we eat. And have coffee. And eat.]
"Well that sucked. I could've basically made the same quality breakfast at home, and not had to deal with the actor/model/hipster/bro/moussed-hair-douchebag who acted like it was a rare luxury to have him serve us." I fumed.
"Yeah, I guess there's a reason they only open for 6 hours a week. Too busy running the Abercrombie and Fitch store at the mall the rest of the time," my idiotic, apologetic ex-friend mumbled.
[in this dramatization, the role of idiotic friend was played by myself. And the role of me was also played by myself. Written by myself. Directed by Brett Ratner.]
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There are 168 hours in a week and this place is only open for six (6) of them on Sunday. Of course that makes me want to go and sample what everyone is raving about.
You sit down and get comp'd coffee cake. Buttery sweet. Good stuff. Whatever you order in this place expect it to be a large portion. I watched some 11 year old kid devour a small cow. Reminded me of my youth -- oh no that was last week-- I'm still like that.
I didn't order any of the things that were recommended but still very happy with my huevos rancheros. Pancocks were good too. Coffee was good and came in big cup.
The only downer was our waiter seemed to be out of it. In fact he pretty much said so. So there was some arm waving to get his attention. Even after all that he didn't remember whether we had gotten our food and then gave our bill to other guests.
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I would eat at cookshack more often if....
1) I had more friends on this side of LA to eat with on sunday morning
2) woke up early enough to beat the crowd
3) there was not a huge crowd
but..... for a place that is only for only one meal a week, #3 is a guarentee.
I love the service they offer and holy crap, is that free coffee cake in front of me? Cookshack is definetely one of the best brunch deals around the area: beats all the diners, beats the raymond on fair oaks (super snobby and expensive and did i mention snobby?), and mareston's in pasadena (expensive, crowded).
eggs benedict, all the way.
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I wasn't going to tell you about the Cookshack. I didn't want to have to compete with you for a table. But now I don't live in the area so I've got nothing to lose and you've got everything to gain.
The Cookshack is only open for Sunday breakfast. The food is simple, cheap, and great. The coffee mugs do not match. They put down a piece of coffee cake right when they seat you, without asking. The outdoor seating is perfect on warm mornings.
Dress comfortably, read the paper, tip well, and feel your hangover peel away.
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