Counter Cafe East

Counter Café! You old sailor you! Perfectly poached eggs, natural sausage, farm to table freshness! You did not disappoint! If your desire is flavorful slice of Austin with food that warms the soul and arouses the senses then this is your place!
Looking forward to coming back to try something new!
Sorry fellow Unilocalers I totally forget to mention the cute hostess who was digging my beautiful wife! Ha! This place fed our bodies and our egos!
Kudos to CC!

Delicious! The counter Benedict! Poached eggs, good sized slice of pastrami on a nice warm brisket and home fries. Fully recommend across the board. Also got a breakfast taco w potatoes and cheese and bacon!!! Also amazing.
Not to mention, their spicy sauce, the yellow bird, was probably the best sauce I’ve ever tasted.

Short wait but they have self serve coffee to hold you over. The burger was awesome and the sweet potato fries might be the best I’ve ever had! Also enjoyed the crab cake Benedict!

Wonderful food and friendly service.
The menu here has a nice variety for the folks who can’t decided between breakfast or lunch, and either way you lean it’s fantastic. I’ve had the pleasure of ordering their veggie hoagie on more than one occasion and it’s delightful, especially paired with some incredibly fresh fries. Plus, they serve pitchers of mimosas and belinis on the weekend. Dayum this place hits the spot.

I have yet to find a place for brunch that hasn’t made me drool just thinking about it. Counter Café East is no exception! I recently came here with a group of my friends (6 of us) and we only had to wait 15 minutes after we arrived at 12:30 on a Friday afternoon. I was just surprised we didn’t have to wait longer; A+++
In addition to their menu, they have a special board with breakfast and lunch options and info on an early bird meal and happy hour. I decided I wanted the Pecan Apple French Toast… but I was too late to the game. Sadly, I found that the special was crossed out by the time we were giving our waitress our orders! I got a Joe’s Special instead and it was great; two eggs how you like them, on top of a hash with sausage or bacon and toast or a biscuit.
And oh, the drinks… I usually am one to get black coffee, but I was feeling a little frisky this Friday afternoon so… hello, mango mimosa! It was brunch perfection, and I convinced my friends to take a ride on the wild side, too.
I liked the ambiance here and the set-​up; the food is prepared behind the bar, like a diner. You can watch the cooks as they work, if you want. There’s also booths and table inside and outside on a patio. The café shares a building with the post office and I realized they share a bathroom, too. But it was well taken care of and clean!
I’ll definitely be back.

I luuuurrrrve the Counter Porrige. Heavy cream topped with red quinoa, toasted nuts, fresh berries, and maple syrup. It’s heavenly. It’s a fun menu with lots of options for the limited diet set. Fresh, local ingredients, a cool diner vibe, and plentiful delicious hot coffee. Yum.

For being the breakfast place in the hip, East area, I guess I expected better. I had crab cake Benedict which are served on top of biscuits. The biscuits were a bit stale, and the crab cakes were just so-​so. I swapped out the normal side for fruit, which was good.
It looks like they make some massive pancakes there that I probably should have tried.
Service was fast and friendly.

Breakfast tacos were amazing. I got the counter benedict which was great. I liked the biscuit instead of an English muffin. We also got the quinoa with berries and cream. If we lived in austin, this would be a go to breakfast joint

The BEST PANCAKES IN TOWN and the Counter Porridge isn’t too shabby either.
Since dogs are allowed on the side patio, we love coming here for brunch when the weather is nice out. However, i will tell you that if you don’t get there before 10:00 you’ll be waiting for a table for quite awhile.
The service is friendly and very relaxed. You’ll find that despite the long wait, you won’t feel rushed once you get to your table.
I hear the burgers are amazing and hope to writing a follow up review on some lunch items soon.

Nice place, and packed for brunch — but my cousin and I was able to get seating at a communal table at the corner. We were still comfortable.
Atmosphere: Nice, clean, colorful, and with vivacity. Feels as it nothing says good morning like this place does.
Price: For the kind of food and casual setting, maybe it’s a little bit more expensive than it should have been by a few bucks — but there is no denying in the quality of the ingredients. Still generally reasonable.
Food: A bit generic American, a bit Southern, and a bit Texan. Maybe it’s not a creative menu, but they do execute it well. Beware of the spicy levels of the dishes — the menu is mum on it. T
Service: Friendly and knowledgeable — it was the waitress that inquired if it was ok if the food was spicy that made me alert of some hidden ingredients — and thankfully so. Luckily substitutions are allowed to make a dish much more palatable, but this place should do better and have the common courtesy to warn customers on the menu as well.
Ordered: SOUTHERN POACHED EGGS ($ 11) that consists of stone ground artisan cheese grits (excellent, but a bit spicy), topped with braised collard greens (spicy but substituted this with non spicy spinach since it’s similar in flavor with the collard greens) with bacon and two farm fresh poached eggs. I actually enjoyed this dish, as it was hearty and good tasting.
And if you want coffee, there’s always the coffee shop next door, with less of a crowd and more space and comfort to continue the morning discourse.

Get here before 10:30AM because things get busy. It wasn’t a terribly long wait and the whole interior was quite lovely. The food came out a little slow (probably due to high volume, but we always had a bottomless water and coffee on hand).
Food was excellent. Definitely try the biscuits and gravy for an appetizer (it’s very filling, but shareable). The hollandaise sauce for the eggs benedict had a light acidity that really made the whole thing come together. It’s a little expensive, but I think it was worth it.

We stopped in around 9:30 or 10am on a Sunday morning expecting to face a fierce crowd of brunch-​goers. We waited about 5 minutes for two spots to open up on the counted, which isn’t bad at all for a popular place.
The inside is decorated like a casual (but fresh) café, the kind of place you’d expect to see associated with Whole Foods. From the counter we could see the grill guys doing their thing, and they certainly worked hard to keep up with the order volume. Our waitress was great, our food was out within about 10 – 15 minutes, and she stopped by several times to check if we needed coffee refills or anything else. (They don’t have coffee except for drip coffee.)
Pretty much everything on the menu (and coming off the line) looked amazing, so I don’t think you could go wrong, but I had the hot cake and had no regrets! It’s fluffy and HUGE, and the bacon on the side was perfectly cooked. They serve it with pure maple syrup — the way it should be. My friend had the breakfast with a biscuit and gravy.
Normally «cafes» remind me of grease and surly waitresses, but this is a fresh, happy place and a far cry from the Waffle House. You won’t be disappointed.

A great spot when you want breakfast at 11:00 a.m. on a Thursday! This is a cute restaurant with an upscale diner vibe but, very welcoming and plenty of parking in their shared private lot. We ate at the counter top but, they do have booths and some outdoor seating as well.
Our server was really nice and we chatted with a guy next to us as well so, I definitely have to say that this is a friendly place. I ordered the crab cake benedict and it came with home fries. Overall this dish was good but, could have been a little lighter on the lemon in the crab cake or hollandaise. It was very hearty with the crab cake and biscuit so be hungry when you order this item. Also no breakfast potatoes are complete without Yellowbird sauce and they serve up all the varieties.
Their price is a little bit higher but, the location is great, the food is delicious and the portion sizes are great. Think greasy spoon without the heart attack!

Arrived with an also pregnant friend and both of us were hungry. We were told it would be a 30 minute wait. 1 hour later we were hangry. We asked where we were in the list and she looked at the list and then seated us. Shrug.
With an hour wait, this food better be amazing.
It was good. I got the sausage Benedict. The hollandaise was lemony and creamy. Real hollandaise. Not a cream substitute that some restaurants use. The sausage was on a biscuit which I liked. My friend got the Joe’s special. Hers was ok, too. The service was not good, which after the over promised and under delivered wait, took away from the food considerably.
When we were seated our waitress asked us what we’d like to drink. We asked for water and ordered our food immediately. It took 15 – 20 minutes to get water.
I finally started to look around to see if I could just get water myself and another waiter asked if we’d like water. So then we got water.
15 – 20 minutes after that we got our food, which we scarfed. With our food arrived the check from the waitress who had been ignoring us and she promptly went back to ignoring us. It’s bad form to drop the check so early and I had to beg some other waiter for a refill on our waters.
Someone who was bussing our tables brought our cards back after we paid, but didn’t know which table they went to and seems to be wandering around trying to give other people our credit cards. Lovely. The buser was actually warmer and more responsive than our waitress. They should hire her instead.
It’s a good thing we had three hours to kill on a rainy Saturday but we will not be returning.

Joes special is awesome
Love their Bfast tacos & salsa
Counter Porridge: YES!
Specials are delicious, but limited amount, so come early!
People are awesome
Music is awesomeThis place is awesome

While they do not have the charm of the original location they do have more seating which is a plus. My service has been a bit spotty at this location which drops them a star but all in all you cannot go wrong here.
They have become one of my favorite weekend breakfast locations because of the Joe’s Special. Home fries, spinach, sausage, scrambled eggs, and covered with grated Parmesan cheese. Add yellow bird sauce and sliced tomatoes instead of toast and you are good to go.
Feel like really treating yourself? Get the blueberry pancake. They are the size of a plate and 1 can be easily split between 2 people. Every bite has an explosion of blueberries in it since they drop fresh blueberries in directly on the grill. Didn’t think anyone could give Kerbey Lane’s blueberry pancake a run but Counter Café definitely does.
The sandwiches and other lunch offerings look good and while the entire menu is available all day I just stick to breakfast. Maybe one day I will branch out.

If given the choice between sleep or food before noon, sleep will always be king. However, my hubby is an earlier riser and loves his breakfast, so I make sacrifices: D Boy, am I glad to have gone to the Counter Café. The atmosphere is cheery and comfortable, the service is efficient (not overly friendly in our particular case-​not a dealbreaker though), but their food is fantastic!
We ordered… a lot. Biscuits and gravy, a breakfast taco, a side of cheese grits, and a Joe’s special. The sausage gravy was among the best I have ever had, and the biscuits had a great texture. The breakfast taco was nothing special, but made especially wonderful by one of the sauces they offer. My husband thoroughly enjoyed his Joe’s special, and while not my favorite, the non-​traditional cheese grits were nothing to scoff at.
If you’re looking for a great casual place for breakfast, don’t miss out on the counter café!

45 minute wait for a table for 7 on a busy Saturday lunch. Seating is pretty limited so I recommend coming with smaller groups rather than large ones.
The blueberry pancakes were large and delicious even though I’m a self-​proclaimed waffle lover (sorry pancake snobs). Definitely a must order here, though. But they won’t leave much room in your belly.
I also ordered the joe’s special which a eggs, sausage, spinach mixed on toast and potatoes. It was very good, especially the Parmesan that was sprinkled on top. Toast was okay, and potatoes were a bit bland, though.

SOLID breakfast!
Cool little place in that is connected to a post office in East Austin. We walked in and there was plenty of seating inside and out. Our server was awesome! Didn’t catch her name but she was one sure of an upseller. She offered great suggestions and additions. She was funny and never let our coffees and waters get halfway empty. The four of us in our party all enjoyed our food. The pancake was DELICIOUS and was enough to share with the table in addition to our entrees. Highly recommended.

I got a really good vibe from the hosts, servers and cooks. I liked them, a lot. Unfortunately I did not feel that way about the burger. It wasn’t bad, just unremarkable in my opinion. Additionally, I have no idea why it’s $ 13. The meat was very plain tasting and it’s served with cheddar, a leaf of bibb lettuce, a slice of tomato and a slice of red onion. That’s it. They offered a side of mayo which I got but also didn’t have much to it. Plus the bun to meat ratio was way way way off. I’ve had a lot of burgers in my day and for me, $ 6-​$ 8 tops seems a much more appropriate price for this type of burger. It came with a choice of side. I got their regular fries which were ok.
Probably important to note that the times I’ve driven by, had coffee next door, or on this first dining experience, I see people waiting for a table so plan accordingly. I came solo so only waited about 5 minutes tops. For inside they have seating at the bar and table service. They also have an outside seating area as well.
Again, the vibe of the whole crew and the place would bring me back here and I’d try some of their other stuff. Their collard greens, cheesy grits and poached eggs look great. As did their curried chicken taco with feta (this was on the special’s menu the day I was there). I just know I will not be getting their burger again.