Hawthorne Street Cafe

My friend and I decided to go here since Cup and Saucer was swamped on a Sunday morning. Now I wish we'd waited for C&S. First off, there is no access for the disabled to this building!! My friend has cerebral palsy and we had to get up a flight of stairs to get to the place. Once we got in, we were seated quickly, but the waitress was brusque and disinterested. I ordered eggs benedict and a marionberry pancake; the hollandaise sauce was cold, and the pancake was TINY compared to what we Portlanders are used to (maybe 4"" across and thin, more a crepe than a pancake). The home fries were covered in some sort of weird Indian spice (cumin? curry? tumeric? saffron? who knows?). My friend got the tofu scramble, and the tofu was squishy and gross. To sum up: The restaurant is cool in the sense that you can look out the huge windows and watch passersby on Hawthorne, but the food & service stinks, and they need to get a ramp for people with disabilities. Pros: Great view of Hawthorne freakazoids and hipsters Cons: Small portions, lousy service more

After reading some negative reviews online, I was hesitant to take my visiting family there for Sunday brunch. I decided to anyway, and was pleasantly surprised. I tasted the mango crepe, eggs benedict, and my partner's veggie omelet. Contradictory to previous posts, the food was actually pretty good - simple, fresh, and cheap compared to some other restaurants I've been to in Portland. While I wouldn't consider it cuisine to die for, I would definitely recommend it to someone looking for some cheap sunday brunch in a homey environment. Pros: Cheap, Fast, Homey Environment Cons: Medium-sized Portions more

I should've known by the lack of a line and the many tables available, on a Sunday morning, what I had in store. The server was clearly inexperienced or maybe new and I gave her the benefit of the doubt. She had no idea what kind of coffee they served and when it was brought out, it was cold. I got up to ask the gentleman who seemed to serve as a manager and the host if I could have an expresso instead. He was shouting at the servers and acted put out when I asked him and jestured for me to ask my server. The food was delivered quickly, but came out looking completely unappetizing. The potatoes were cooked with Turmeric (?) and the cheese on the scramble resembled Velveeta. The waitress would come and go without checking in on us, mind you she had less than 5 tables. The manager was clearly angry and frustrated and didn't make any attemp to hide it. Uncomfortable, awkward and pretty much unpalatable food. The restaurant could use a good cleaning and a revamping of wait and cook staff. I love food, am truly not that picky, and will eat in a hole-in-the-wall if it's good. Trust me on this one, save yourselves! Pros: Location, location, location Cons: everything more

I had heard great things about this place so I was very disappointed when I finally went for breakfast. Service was TERRIBLE - I think the wait staff was competing to find out who could give the worst service. Food was ""ok,"" but it didn't make up for the length of time we had to wait (nearly 50 minutes after we ordered!) and the terrible service. Cons: Terrible service, long wait times for food more

Something tells me dr_god's review is somehow biased. Unless we're not talking about the same restaurant that is... I am more along the lines of the other folks here who have posted reviews about high prices and mediocre meals. My wife had a pretty decent meal (minus the gnat in her eggs). My sister in-law had a scramble and honestly I've never seen a smaller main dish ever. We brought it up to the waitress and she got Moe, the owner. He brought a menu and then in a very argumentative manner showed us how it says it only comes with 2 eggs. When we explained that the last time it had been different he went on a tirade about how bad his cooks are and how they don't listen to him and then just walked off. Weird! On a positive note it came with marionberry coffee-cake, which was good. I had the high protein breakfast, which was oatmeal w/peanut butter and fruit. The fruit was all out of season and as such pithy and not good. The oatmeal was decent, but nothing special. Overall the food left little to write good things about. I will say the wait staff was friendly to our 10 month old, bringing him bananas and a cool toy to play with. The waitresses were all nice and I'd say one of the best parts of this restaurant, but it's hard to praise the service when the owner is such a jeerk. Pros: Kid friendly and great atmosphere Cons: the food and the owner more

My date and I just finished breakfast, and I left a little disappointed. I had the crepe special with the fruit of the day - peaches, it came with a half order of florentine benedicts and house potatoes. For almost $9, I thought I didn't get very good quality or quantity. The crepe was tiny tiny tiny and the florentine had obvious frozen spinach and no sauce which made it kind of gross. The curried house potatoes were okay - kind of odd because they weren't curried enough to really hold on their own, but didn't taste right with ketchup either. My date had 2 buttermilk pancakes which he deemed to be slightly glorified bisquick pancakes and the gyro omlette which he said was pretty good. Overall though I would say it is quite overpriced and I don't think I'll be going again. Pros: cute restaurant, outdoor seating w/dogs ok, good service, nice owner Cons: overpriced, below average quality more

i think that the person who posted the review that was talking hella shite about the cafe works for that coniving cup and saucer cafe where everyone is a snob and wants to steal the busniess away from the good places. Hawthorne cafe is awesome and BTW, the potatoes are yellow becasue they have curry on them (yummy). Whoever posted the bad stuff about the owner and the potatoes is either stupid or works for cup and saucer and wants to steal the busniess. Pros: Its awesome. Good people and Good food and a nice place to read a book Cons: People who work at cup and saucer try to ruin it for everyone more

My friend and I decided to stop in for Sunday breakfast, she had been there before and wasn't impressed but had heard it changed owners and was willing to give it a shot. Our waitress was nice and so was the rest of the staff except I think the owner was there and we were also greeted by him standing at the front counter yelling at the staff to clean something up - and to be honest it really put me off. Anyway, I got the #6 omlette and my friend got the #6 tofu scramble. The service was FAST - and when the waitress set the food on the table we found out why. My friend literally gasped and said ""Whats this!?"" Her tofu scramble was a kids portion-and looked no where near appetizing, and had ZERO flavor. The english muffin was an english crouton, the mimosa's were okay, but very small - and honestly not worth $4.50. On a lighter note, at one point we were laughing so hard at this breakfast catasrophe I thought they would ask us to leave, (which actually would have been welcomed)- but atleast this place provided a few good laughs and tears. Our country potatoes were yellow - like neon yellow, but only on the outside and were underdone and my omlette was not fluffy - and was completely over done. However - what ever white creamy sauce/ cheese stuff was combined with the sundried tomatoes and artichoke hearts on the inside of my omlette was delicious and I see potential - but really, get some cooks in there that know what they're doing. Pros: Nice service, cute and quaint atmosphere Cons: Bad food!! more

I saw the ups and downs but thought the restaurant had improved with new owners. The food was over done, burnt pancakes and shriveled sausage for me. Then pancakes on a cold plate, butter, and syrup right out of the refrigerator makes for cold pancakes. My wife said her hollandaise over the eggs benedict was the worst she has ever had, like it was a package mix. As we left there was a long line waiting to be seated. We asked each other, What for?"" Pros: Lots of light, Interesting People Cons: Poor food, Small tables more

My husband and I couldn't differ more on our breakfast: he likes omelettes; I hate eggs. Hawthorne cafe, it is. He loves the Farmers Omelette. I haven't tried it, but it's the best looking omelette I never wanted to eat. So this is the place where you have to LISTEN to the SPECIALS. I go for the ""special"" crepe that is stuffed with cream cheese and the super yummy fruit de jour whether it be apple, mango, pear--doesn't matter, it's all superb. And it is definitely special, but it's not temporary as you expect most specials to be. I count on it being there for me every Sunday morning so listen to the specials! The new owner is a super nice guy whose food is so much better than the previous owner's. Sometimes change is good--in this case, it's great! Pros: Accomodating, Excellent food, Excellent service more

I am part of a group of 4 50+ folks who go out almost every Saturday for breakfast (there a LOT of places in Portland for breakfast). We all liked the Hawthorn Street Cafe very much (July 23, 2005 visit). Lots of interesting specials, but I had the Hawthorn platter. I loved the Marionberry coffee cake. I was a little trepiditious about the service when I read the reviews here; but our wait staff was really friendly and helpful. We were there from 9:00 to 10:30 and there wasn't much of a crowd there. Pros: Food, Service, Price more

Prior reviewers were so negative, I have to wonder if we are talking about the same place! My husband and I visit there as often as possible. The marionberry coffee cake, with a homemade side of sauce is delicious, a must have specialty of the house! Eggs benedict and omelettes are our traditional fare. Mo, the owner, is courteous every visit, makes efforts to greet us by name, was chivalrous with my mom during a visit, and shows us old fashioned courtesy every time. The kids love going there, he accommodates service dogs with a fresh water bowl and a grin. We always visit weekdays, so haven't waited. The staff there have been consistently, refreshingly, amicable. Enjoy! Pros: price, quality, casual ambiance Cons: parking more

I completely disagree with that out of town person. I've been to the hawthorne cafe on a busy day and the line moved quickly. The owner was a very friendly man and greeted me and my friends nicely. The staff is quite busy but nobody there was rude at all. This is probably the best breakfast place to go to. Out of town people don't know what they're talking about. I've been here plenty of times. Pros: food, service Cons: the line more

In a city that prides itself on breakfasts Hawthorne Cafe should take itself off the list. My out of state family and I were greeted by a rude hostess and an even ruder owner. We waited over an hour and it wasn't even that busy. Once we were seated it took them over 15 minutes to deliver a side of toast. Food was good but not worth the stress. I was embarressed that this was the place I took my holiday vistors. Pros: the food more

If you like this district, this place is a great spot to start the day with breakfast. Good, unique omlettes and friendly but busy staff. Not sure I would go out of my way to eat here, but I might. Front looks scary, they need to plant some grassa as I won't eat on dirt ground on old picnic table. Especially to get an eyeful of Hawthorne's famed ""I try to hard to be an individual that I am surrounded by people exactly like me in black/70's plastic baseball hats/bell bottoms/dirty hippie dreds/80's mod look"" neighborhood. Not that big of a deal. But a real good breakfast in this ""hip"" area of town. more

My girlfriend is a Portland native. I am a New York native. She took me to the Hawthorne Street Cafe for breakfast on a Saturday. I enjoyed the casual atmosphere and the food. The menu has a good selection of choices for breakfast. The fruit was fresh and the atmosphere was very comfortable. Pros: breakfast food more

I live nearby the cafe and know several people who have worked there. Not only is the owner a very poor businessman, but I have been routinely dissappointed with the food that their kitchen sees fit to serve. On multiple occasions the employees' paychecks have either bounced or been late, and just this morning I was served an omelet that had peices of eggshell throughout. I suggest you take your business elsewhere. The wait staff is helpful and apologetic. The kitchen/management needs restructuring. Pros: location, menu (in theory), service Cons: inconsistency, often loud/ very busy more

unique and creative menu. Great orange juice, the BEST eggs benedict you have ever eaten!!! the service is great and fast, all in a quaint, old house; all in all incredible breakfast. You have to try it! more

The adventure of finding the bathroom (keep walking toward the back and it's tucked behind a screen) and the casual service may mislead the first time visitor into thinking this is ordinary fare. Unusal variety of menu and excellent preperation for more than reasonable prices. more