Kay's Orcutt Country Kitchen
135 E. Clark Avenue
Santa Maria, CA 93455
We had the whole day to hang out in Santa Maria recently. My friend was having his wedding up here, but the ceremony did not get underway until 4, so that meant we had plenty of time to check out our surroundings on this early fall weekend. We had plans to see the Santa Maria Museum of Flight, and maybe if we had time, we would swing by the Santa Maria Town Center for some shopping. Of course with all of this planned, we had to start our day with breakfast.
I had bookmarked a breakfast restaurant in Orcutt before we left OC. Orcutt is an unincorporated area of Santa Maria, which is an oil town. This community is named after William Warren Orcutt, who not only was an oilman, but he also brought the fossils at the La Brea Tar Pits to the attention of scientists. Old Town Orcutt has a small-town feel to it, even though there are 35,000 people living here now. This main commercial area has an old west kind of vibe going for it, without being too hokey.
We pulled up to Kay's Orcutt Country Kitchen at 10:30 and had about a fifteen-minute wait. They were kind enough to have coffee outside for those wanting to eat here. Kay's has been around for over 14 years now, and word has definitely gotten out about this restaurant that's only open until 2pm. There's a nice heated patio here, but we were seated in one of the rooms near the front of the restaurant. This restaurant is housed in a building that dates from 1904, and it has been restored while Kay's been in charge. Walls are adorned with lots of photographs of local history. The menu is what you would expect from a breakfast joint; scrambles, omelets, and pancakes, but there's also a small selection of sandwiches and burgers here for those not wishing to partake in breakfast. We were here for the first meal of the day though, so let's see how that worked out for us.
Katie will start us off with her choice this morning, the Garden Scramble ($10.95). This veggie egg dish included sliced bell peppers, red onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, and spinach, then topped with avocado and cheddar and jack cheeses. Katie liked the fluffiness of the eggs, which with the fresh produce really made this omelet a winner. Her choice for a breakfast bread was a homemade biscuit. This was a very good biscuit. It was buttery and not dry at all. This made us wish that we had ordered these biscuits with some gravy.
I did not have a hangover, but I could not resist the allure of having this Too Much To Drink Last Night Omelette ($10.95). Inside this omelet was diced up chicken fried steak and bacon, then it was topped with cheddar and jack cheeses and smothered with bacon and sausage gravy. I'm surprised I have never seen an omelet with chicken fried steak in it before. Predictably this was a delicious omelet. The gravy was full of flavor but did not overshadow the insides of the omelet, a very hard balance to achieve. The cheese did get a little lost here though. You get your choice of either hash browns or home fries with this meal, and I went with the hash browns, which were just okay. I should have maybe gone with home fries instead. For my bread option, I had their seasonal muffin, which just happened to be Pumpkin Spice. This was a pretty good muffin, which did not go overboard on the cinnamon and nutmeg, like other, "pumpkin", items tend to do.
Kay's Orcutt Country Kitchen was a great way to start our day in Santa Maria. The breakfasts here are pretty good-sized, so make sure you bring your appetite. We did not think the prices were way out of line for this much food. The service we received from our waitress Kristen was personable and she really made us feel at home, even though we were probably one of the few parties that were not from around here. If we are back in the area again, this is a definite place for us to hit up for breakfast. Of course, after all this food, we predictably skipped our plans to go to the museum and went back to our hotel for a two-hour nap before the wedding. So much for the best-laid plans.
Out of five oil rigs, (since Orcutt is an old oil town), five being best to zero being worst, Kay's Orcutt Country Kitchen gets 3.5 oil rigs.
For more information about Kay's Orcutt Country Kitchen, go to their website here: https://www.kayscountrykitchen.com/
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