Swinging By Side Street Cafe

Side Street Cafe

1799 Newport Blvd. Suite A105

Costa Mesa, CA 92627

It was the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and frankly we were tired of turkey sandwiches. Not being big shoppers, we needed to get out of the house and get our blood flowing. We decided to get up early, eat a good breakfast and walk the Back Bay Trail. So Katie left it up to me where to eat, and I chose Side Street Cafe.

Side Street is located right on Newport Boulavard. It has a homey/local feel to it. You can sense that a lot of the people who eat here are regulars. On busy weekends, I can imagine that you would have to wait for a table, since there are only fifteen tables inside this tiny cafe. This weekend most people were battling it out at the mall, so we got a table as soon as we walked in. Here is what we got.

I started with a Cinnamon Roll. We liked this big and dense roll. The frosting was very good and plentiful. We tore through this very quickly.

Katie had the Sampler. This consisted of one piece of French toast, one pancake, eggs, and potatoes. Katie felt that the French toast was cooked well, but she would opt for the stuffed French toast next time. The pancake was okay, it soaked up a lot of syrup. The eggs and potato were solid according to Katie, and she liked that the potaoes were cooked crispy.

What we have here is the S.O.S. I am not sure how it got it's name, maybe someone got lost in this massive helping of food. This big portion started with biscuit, covered with ground beef and onion, and then topped with gravy. This was also served with potaoes and eggs. I liked the size of this plate for the $9.50 price tag. I did have to add a bunch of Gringo sauce to make this taste like anything. Before I added the sauce, the plate had a mild, almost bland flavor. Not the best gravy I have ever had.

Side Sreet Cafe is fine for breakfast. If you are in the area, it is a nice choice. I liked the laid back feel of the place, but the food that we had did not really standout. Maybe we got the wrong items, but I would still be open to trying other things on their menu. Service was good, and the value for the money was good as well, because of the sizes of the plates.

Out of five parking meters, (because some side streets have meters, and I could not think of anything else), five being best, to zero being worst, Side Street Cafe gets 3 parking meters.

For information on Side Street Cafe, click here: http://sidestreetcafe.tripod.com/index.html