1810 South El Camino Real
San Clemente, CA 92672
Sometimes you just want a straightforward breakfast joint. In recent years boozy brunches, healthy options for the first meal of the day, and places that focus on locally sourced ingredients have become all the rage regarding breakfast eateries. Most of these restaurants are fine, but sometimes I'm just in the mood for good, solid, not-too-fancy breakfast foods. After we walked on the San Clemente Beach Trail, I wanted a no-frills meal at the nearby SC Cafe.
This spot is off the beaten path. It's situated right next to the Northbound 5 offramp and next to Surfin Donuts on the bottom floor of a small non-descript office building. Parking is definitely at a premium at SC Cafe, as they have about five or six parking spots available to their customers. The parking situation kept us from visiting earlier, as we could not find a place to park about a year earlier. However, we were more determined to eat here this time, so we parked a quarter mile away and walked to and from the restaurant.
I don't know much about the origins of SC Cafe. They have no website, and I could not find anything about them in the local press. However, their Yelp page reveals that they have been in business since at least 2007 and have a pretty impressive four-and-a-half-star rating with over 200 reviews. This is the true definition of a local place. We arrived at half past 11 on a Sunday and were met with about a ten-minute wait for a table.
The inside features a beachy vibe, with six booths, a smattering of tables, and counter seating for four. There's also a patio in the front of the restaurant, a holdover from the pandemic times. The menu is a good size for such a small place. Breakfast options include egg basics, griddle offerings, Baja breakfasts, and SC Cafe favorites. As they are open until 2pm every day, there are plenty of sandwiches and Mexican fare to choose from. We, of course, veered towards breakfast. Let's check out what we partook of after our not-very-strenuous beach walk.
First, we'll look at Katie's meal, Nicole's Mix ($13.95 + $2 for avocado and sour cream). I'm still determining who Nicole is, but she has to be a fan of spinach, eggs, and onions mixed with hashbrowns and topped with jack cheese and avocado slices. Katie called this delicious. She enjoyed the alternating crispy and tender parts of the hashbrowns and the very liberal amount of cheese they used here. However, she felt that the eggs were indiscernible as they got pushed to the side by the other ingredients on the plate. Nonetheless, she would get this again on future visits to SC Cafe.
I have recently been on a real Chilaquiles ($16.95 + $2 for two eggs) kick. I can't get enough of this traditional Mexican breakfast dish. However, the one here is a little different than most. The tortilla chips are not fried in red or green salsa but in a jalapeno-cilantro sauce and then topped with chicken, avocado, crema, and cheese. Even though this was not traditional, I found it tasty. The flavorful sauce was not too spicy, went well with the rest of the dish, and kept me interested from my first bite to my last. I had planned on only eating half of this and taking the rest home for dinner later, but it was so good, and my willpower was not the best, so I did end up eating all of it.
As is my routine when eating breakfast out, I always like to pair savory and sweet. That meant I had to try the Short Stack of Chocolate Chip Pancakes ($6.95 + $1 for the chocolate chips). These were solid pancakes on their own, but they were made even better with the suitable amount of chocolate chips they provided. A perfect companion to the savory part of my meal.
I was stoked with our food at SC Cafe this early afternoon. But is it drive-worthy for the rest of OC? Sadly, it's not, but if you are in the area, or since they are so close to the freeway, driving through, SC Cafe will give you the fuel needed to jumpstart your day. This is a no-nonsense breakfast spot serving up some solid food with a competent crew serving you. It's easily in the top 5 breakfast restaurants in San Clemente and will be in our rotation of places we hit up after our walks on the San Clemente Beach Trail.
Out of five pool noodles (because the city of San Clemente was founded by Ole Hanson in 1925, and his name still adorns the Beach Club, which features a pool that I'm sure has seen its fair share of pool noodles), five being best to zero being worst, SC Cafe gets 3 pool noodles.
SC Cafe does not have a website, but you can find out more about them by clicking here to visit their Yelp page: https://www.yelp.com/biz/sc-cafe-san-clemente?sort_by=date_asc
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