CJ’s Cafe

Great service & food at reasonable prices, however, contrary to the listing on Unilocal,they were closed at 7:40 Sun night.

Delicious, fresh food. Nice décor, clean
bathrooms, fast service and friendly staff. Prices compare to local Denny’s or Coco’s. French Dip sandwich was delicious and the size was enough for two meals. Cinnamon toast was made from actual Cinnamon Swirl bread.

Great food and service. We’re here at Arroyo Grande on a small trip decided to give CJ’s a try. I ordered the CJ’s breakfast, the French toast were great I would definitely recommend. The coffee was just perfect for my taste.

The breakfast here was average… Just like you would find in any local diner… There was nothing on the menu that was a real signature dish… However the service was great.

You need to write your name down for a table so don’t just stand around like me. Staff is friendly, kind of slow. I had to call them over and they called someone else. We weren’t sure if we should go up to the counter to pay or the check would get picked up, so we just walked up there so the process would be faster.
I ordered a breakfast burrito and MMM. So yummy! There’s a ton of stuff in there and a decent amount of avocado. Usually a lot of places skimp out on avocado and charge so much but this place did pretty well with that.
One thing I’m not sure of is their OJ. I asked if it was fresh squeezed and was told yes, but I also saw a machine, like the soda fountain. I think it might have been fresh, but I’m not 100% sure.

The breakfasts here are delicious and huge! Dad, my son and I come here about once a week for breakfast. Dad and I typically split the 3 egg Denver omelette and add a side of bacon and it’s more than enough food for the two of us. We convinced my son to try the French toast today and he ate his whole meal (he rarely does that with pancakes). All in all a great local diner with huge portions that are absolutely delicious.

solid good food and people. Consistently prepared. I like this place for breakfast the best, but probably only because I’m in the neighborhood in the am. oh, and the garlic cheese fries.
and the veggie wrap, surprisingly.

Great home style cooking & atmosphere. Had the corned beef hash & eggs hash was a little bit greasy but still good. Apple cinnamon muffin excellent. Service quick & friendly. I bookmarked it for next trip to AG

Stopped in Arroyo Grande on our way to San Luis Obispo for a quick lunch and was pleased at the quality of the food and service at CJ’s. Chain restaurants are okay, but how I love local independently owned eateries! Great food at fair prices with friendly service and lots of local personality. My son had the roast beef sandwich which was delicious and huge! I had the fish and chips and loved every bite. Cod makes the best and this was delicious. Their early bird specials are $ 11.99 and come with soup or salad, steamed vegetables and dessert. A lot of food for a good price. This place is worth a visit — I’ll be back next time we’re in Central Coast!

We eat breakfast here every Wednesday morning. Great breakfast some of the best omelets I have had. In fact all their egg dishes are fantastic. They have some great cooks there. Large portions good biscuits and gravy we have not had anything there that we didn’t like. Great waitresses and other staff. Good for any meal of the day. If you like good food at good prices give it a try. Locals hot spot can be very busy but even when it is busy we have never had to wait long.

Diners are a slice of Americana. They are the food equivalent of the corner bar where everybody knows your name. It is where you get your local news and gossip and a sense of community, and if lucky, comfort food.
When moving to the serene California Central Coast after a life in LA and Detroit, I knew that my meal options would likely change in the small town of Arroyo Grande. Trips back to LA revolved around how many unique/​authentic ethnic meals I could squeeze into my visit. In Arroyo Grande, the cultural diversity is limited. Nothing against Caucasians mind you, I happen to come from a long line of them. Sure there was plenty of local tri-​tip (too much really) along with lots of OK Mexican food and a few good Thai places, maybe some iffy Chinese, and one decent Korean barbecue (thanks Sizzling Gogi), but there wasn’t an old-​school diner that had grown on me yet.
As a kid in Detroit I loved sitting at the counter at Sander’s w/​my dad. I never wanted to sit at the boring tables. Those were for serious adults who had long since lost any sense of humor. The counter had all the communal interaction and banter that goes with diners. It truly intrigues me (on a cultural anthropology level). American diners are unique. Back in LA, I had a few of these go-​to diners like Nick’s down by the cornfields below Chinatown; Chili John’s and their horseshoe shaped counter in Burbank; Suehiro in Little Tokyo with their formica counter and $ 6 daily specials like miso pork, open ’til 3:00 am; Zakuro and their horseshoe-​shaped shabu shabu & sukiyaki counter (RIP); or the tall counter at Falafel Arax in Little Armenia with their measly 3 tables, standing over shawarma & falafel wrapped in warm pita. Even the old Otomisan in Boyle Heights with their 7 stools, 3 booths and Japanese diner food like katsu curry had the right feel. I knew many of those waiters and cooks by name and we often became good friends over the years.
On the Central Coast I stumbled around a few homestyle diners like as Boy’s (a Santa Maria hangout for my work staff), Kay’s Country Kitchen in Orcutt, and the Rock & Roll Diner in Oceano (btw they have solid Greek food for this Detroiter used to having late-​night Greek food).
Then, one day, on a whim, I tested the waters at CJ’s Café. I must have driven by a hundred times, but the signage never stood out Off the bat, the atmosphere felt right for a local diner, though more of a wrap-​around counter would have been perfect. It was definitely a place for the locals, and even more since the Girl’s Diner down the way was closing (RIP Girls)
The menu is standard diner fare (patty melts, tuna salad, burgers, pork chops, breakfast all day, daily specials, soup), There were a few omissions; meat loaf? maybe grits? a spaghetti Bolognese? But they hit most of the points of a diner.
*As for rating, I didn’t want to rate them since I still go here, but throwing caution to the wind, so here it is. The diner gets an overall 4 of 5. The food quality is a 3 (a-​OK). Owners and staff bump it up to a 4 b/​c they are a 5.
OK sometimes the burger is cooked way beyond medium or the over medium eggs run. But if the owners, Glenn and Kathy are there, they will make it right. There are few diner pros on staff. Most are local kids right out of high school (or still in it) and are good kids. CJ’s has a few gems with diner savvy and I bow before them in gratitude. They know the kitchen lingo to get you what you really wanted all along.
Besides the owners and energetic, friendly staff, the guys in the kitchen will go «off menu» without a hassle. If you want spaghetti topped with their chili, cheese and onions instead of marinara, just ask. If you want a specialty sandwich, just specify how. You want a San Diego style «California burrito» with chicken, cheese, fries, salsa, guacamole and sour cream? Maybe sub tri-​tip for chicken? They have the ingredients? Sure, why not?
There are many dishes I miss from various places and the nice folks at CJ’s (wait staff and kitchen staff alike) are happy to roll up their sleeves and do the best they can to recreate pretty much any meal as long as they have ingredients and you are patient and accurate in describing it. I’ve had Cajun-​style shrimp Po’ Boys, Peruvian Saltado de pollo, Carne Asada Fries, a Cincinnati Five Way (chili spaghetti), fried chicken and waffles. It’s all there, just ask nice and make sure you thank them for indulging you in your tip.
At the end of the day, it just feels better to spend money at a local establishment that is not a chain or owned by some corporate ownership group. Glenn and Kathy live in this town and have a stake in it. They are good people and I’m happy to go out of my way and pass any number of chain restaurants to patronize their location. *Especially if they ever added meat loaf to the menu! :-)
4 stars (3 for food, and 5 for service averages to a 4)

Usually the food is good but I had the albacore tuna melt for lunch Monday and have been running to the toilet since then. Always afraid to eat tuna at restaurants after my friend almost died eating a tuna sandwich at Jocko’s.

Cute little place with great food and excellent service. The chicken fried steak and eggs was so good. The steak was crispy and the gravy was thick and very tasty. Way more food than I could eat! My husband ordered the chili Verde omelette which he loved. Will visit again when in the area.

Really awesome wait staff
Vanessa is one of my favorite servers
Great breakfast
And Kathy is the kindest owner
So nice to enjoy with my very sweet friend and tennis Dana
Lou
Happy at Homecare Inc
805 249 8818

I will rate this 4 stars but at the beginning it was going to be 1 star. We sat at the bar and it was busy but we sat there for 15 minutes without a acknowledgement from anyone. Once our order was taken it didn’t take to long for our food. We had a bacon cheeseburger and a chili burger it was very good. The hamburger had one of thickest piece of hamburger meat I have ever had. The house salad was cold and crisp. Seems to attract a lot of locals.

Awesome food, the chicken fried steak rocked, we thought it may have been a fluke, so we went back and tried it again the next day. Nice staff and clean restaurant.

Service was good and food was good. No complaints whatsoever. I really like the traditional diner feel to the place. I would love to come back because all the food that I didn’t get to try looks so good and I want to taste it all.

After a road trip to Arroyo Grand during the wee hours of the morning, the kids woke up with hungry stomachs so we hopped on Unilocal for advice. My son originally wanted to hit up one of the national chains, but seeing how many choices we had to choose from so far as local diners — I pushed for something local.
When we pulled up at 8:30am and the place was full (but we had no wait — yay!) we knew we’d chosen well. I went with the Ortega omelet which came out exactly as I’d hoped. I asked what the waitress prefers between the home fries or the hash browns and went with her choice, the latter. I also did as she suggested and mixed it with the omelette for a perfect mixture with every bite. Eggs were fluffy, cheese was gooey, ortega chiles were flavorful! These breakfasts also come with a muffin which I don’t usually eat but I grabbed a muffin thinking of a 3pm snack by the ball field.
My growing son wound up going with steak and eggs once he saw that on their daily specials. My daughter went with the 2 egg combo breakfast and it has everything she wanted. The perfect amount to fuel her up before her softball tournament. While they didn’t win the tournament, it was their highest scoring game in a while and I’d like to think this had something to do with it.
Our Three-​thumb review is 3 thumbs up. I drove here looking for tasty food that would match what we were craving and found just what we were hoping for. My 11-​year old daughter wasn’t crazy about the butter on the toast but mowed through her eggs and bacon and her chocolate milk. My 14 year-​old son ate so fast and so much that it put him in a food coma and it took him a while to recover. But that is a testament to how good it was because usually he eats about ¹⁄₅ the amount of food for breakfast.
We plan to return to the area soon and know that this will be a tried and true fave!
#ThreeThumbReviews

We enjoy breakfast, lunch, or dinner here quite often. We don’t typically order off the dinner menu, ever. Only because our toddlers are picky and we love the salads, wraps, or burgers! The portions are always perfect. Plus they serve breakfast all day. BREAKFAST ALL DAY! The staff is friendly and accommodating. It’s our go to spot especially because we have 2 small children and love good diner food.
Things we love and suggest!
Breakfast– french toast. Western Skillet. Breakfast Burrito. Pancakes.
Lunch/​Dinner– Chicken Strip Salad. Chicken Caesar Wrap or Salad. Chicken Strip Melt. Any Burger.

We came on a Sunday morning with a party of 5 during the brunch rush (around 10 am) — we were seated promptly in one of the booths with an extra chair. The service is mostly young ladies, all of them very nice and prompt with coffee refills, requests, etc.
The vibe is classic old hometown diner — comfy booths, lots of natural light, and friendly waitresses in aprons. The food is pretty much the same — cheesy, carby, and satisfying without really taking any risks.
I ordered the Huevos Rancheros (~$ 10, w/​corn tortillas or toast). The plate I received looked more like a chili dog (which I also would have been ok with), but I eventually found my eggs underneath a heaping pile of tomato sauce, peppers, and *cheese*. So much cheese!
Too much cheese, actually, but the overall dish was tasty. Definitely the gringo-​iest Huevos I’ve ever had (they came with a side of hashbrowns), but they were alright. If you request jalapenos expecting pickled slices, you might be surprised by having an entire fresh one, seeds and all, mixed into your breakfast. Kind of intense! :-O
I’d return in the future, though I definitely wouldn’t go out of my way for this one. If you’re in the A.G. area and need a cozy brunch with a couple friends or family, though, check it out. With breakfast and lunch served all day, there’s something for everyone.