The Ramos House Cafe
31725 Los Rios St.
San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675
With all the recent world events going on, Valentine's Day seems like it was about ten years ago. In reality, of course, it was only less than two months ago from when I'm writing this review. Katie and I are not really too into Valentine's Day. We prefer to stay home usually, as most restaurants are too crowded, have limited menus, and try to rush you out so they can turn over tables for the other waiting patrons.
We decided to break our Valentine's Day restaurant moratorium when we found out that we were both going to be off during the morning portion of the day before Katie had to head up to Westlake Village for an overnight business trip. We figured brunch wouldn't be too crazy, and I knew exactly where I wanted to try, the legendary Ramos House Cafe in San Juan Capistrano.
Situated on the oldest street in California, Los Rios Street (1794), the Ramos House was constructed in 1881. It was home to one of the founding families of San Juan for a long time. The Ramos House Cafe began its current life as a restaurant and residence when Chef and Owner John Q. Humphreys opened for business in October of 1995.
Ramos House is open every day from 9am to 2:30pm, except on Wednesdays, when they are closed. On the weekdays they have an ala carte menu, but on weekends, and on this Valentine's Day they have a brunch menu, where it's $35 a person, no matter your age, so you might want to leave the small kiddos at home when visiting Ramos House on weekends.
The easiest place to park in this sometimes challenging area of town is in Los Rios Park, which has a gravel lot, but usually has plenty of parking and is a short stroll to the restaurant. We arrived at 10am and only had to wait about ten minutes for a table to open up. This is patio seating, but they have plenty of heaters warming customers up on chilly mornings. We were also joined by the house cat, Mr. Pickles who lazily slept on a chair at our table for most of our meal.
The menu at Ramos House Cafe is not going to shock you with a dazzling array of selections. The brunch menu is pretty compact, with six small plates and 11 big plates offered, and you get to choose one of each on weekends and holidays, like this particular Valentine's Day. Let's see if the food at Ramos House will be love at first sight or a blind date gone wrong.
I thought for sure that Katie was going to start with the lentil soup as her small plate option, but she threw me a curve by getting the Small Basil Cured Salmon Lox. She claims that she has dreamt about this dish many times since we visited Ramos House. Thinly sliced salmon is the base of this and is layered with diced hard-boiled egg, red onions, and capers, which provided a nice flavor boost. This small plate is rounded out with toast points and basil. Katie loved the lightness of this dish, which did not overcompensate by adding something that would take away from the fresh salmon. She was a big fan.
I went the sweet route with my smaller plate selection and had these Cinnamon Apple Beignets. They were good, but I expected a bit more sweetness and missed the apple portion of this, as it was not very prevalent. I thought the sauce lining the plate was a little drab and did not add enough in my opinion. I do give them credit for serving these nice and hot. I'd probably try their Nutella-banana french toast on my next visit.
Entrees were out next, and Katie got the Bubble and Squeak, which I learned is a British breakfast dish that is traditionally made with potatoes and cabbage. I'm not sure if the cabbage was included in this one, but the potato was here in the form of a very well-done fried potato patty on the bottom of the scrambled egg, bacon, onions, and vinegar tomatoes. This was an excellent breakfast plate. I liked the contrasting textures and the flavors kept things interesting throughout the short time this was around.
Similar in presentation to Katie's choice, I had the Crab Hash. Another winner. The crab cake was fresh and not filled with very much filler. It incorporated into the eggs and bacon wonderfully, but what tied this all together for me was the dollop of citrus cream that I used in alternating bites. Another plate I enjoyed immensely from my first to my last bite.
As an added bonus with the brunch menu, we got to each have a Buttermilk Biscuit with Apple Butter. I was a little let down by this. I thought the biscuit was a tad on the drab side, while the apple butter consistency was too runny, and I'm not sure there was even any butter included in this.
Even with the few minor missteps this morning (the beignets and the biscuit), both Katie and I really enjoyed our Valentine's Day brunch at Ramos House. It's not only well-executed and quaint food, but the whole feeling of the place is also one that will bring you back for special occasions and when you want to have the feeling of a little mini-vacation for an hour or two. This entire area of San Juan Capistrano is like stepping back in time and visiting Ramos House is just like visiting someone's home for breakfast, which you basically are doing. Service was warm and hospitable, and all the overall-clad young servers really seemed happy to be at work and share this place with their guests. A feeling that I definitely could agree with while writing this review.
Out of five mulberry trees, (in honor of the tree that you will dine next to on the patio of this very restaurant), five being best to zero being worst, The Ramos House Cafe gets 3.5 mulberry trees.
For more information about The Ramos House Cafe, check out their website by clicking here: https://www.ramoshouse.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment