Cafe Intermezzo

This seriously was the best place for salads in the Bay Area! Large portions! Delicious! Friendly employees! I wish wish wish they would bring it back or do a food truck/​pop up! I miss this place so much!

Who burned down my favorite place? Hope it comes back soon or gets copied. Chef salad, pastrami, poppyseed mixed in. Healthy, good, stomach filling…

Hoping you resuscitate from the dead soon. If not, may I suggest a pop-​up in the meantime?

It is pretty much impossible to describe Café Intermezzo and have anyone who hasn’t been there believe you. Excellent people watching, thick wood tables, a cozy vibe, a line that goes out into the street, refills on fresh strawberry lemonade, delicious fresh oatmeal molasses bread, good prices, and Huge Amazing Indescribably Impressive Salads full of all good things and lots of it.
When I talk about it, friends believe I am exaggerating. My eyes get misty and people think I am having ecstatic visions.
A lot of what I’m saying is echoed in other comments here. I too find myself doing internet searches to see if there are updates. I listen avidly hoping to hear a rumor that maybe somehow sometime the future there may be newly hatched plans for Intermezzo.
I leave this review in the hopes that like a grain of sand it will contribute to tipping the scale toward the possibility that Café Intermezzo will reopen.

The best place to get salads from! SO SO SO DEVASTATED about the place closing! PLEASE OPEN ANOTHER LOCATION AND COME BACK ASAP!!! This was the best place to grab salad from for a steal! so cheapppp and sooo good! their bread was so yummy!!!
:*-(
please come back!!!

Loved this place so much. The salads were the greatest thing. I wish so much that they would get it together to figure out how to reopen this place.
Also, I think I’ve found the Poppy Seed Dressing recipe!

Another update… The dream is not dead! There is still a chance they may be back!

Only the good die young.
Intermezzo was the best sandwich place in the bay. Fresh, delicious bread. Huge salads.
BLTA was a great sandwich. Same goes for the chicken salad sandwich.
Chef’s salad was enormous and enough for 2 – 3 meals. Tons of fresh ingredients. Croutons, avocado, cherry tomatoes, lentils. Poppy seed dressing was the best. Really inexpensive for the massive amount of food you get.
Needs to re-​open ASAP.

Students and faculty at colleges and universities aren’t solely connected via academic, social, nor sporting events. We are connected by some things more powerful; that being, the subconscious sensorial interactions retained while cultivating newly stretched gray matter. Tactility, smells, sights and sounds that surround campuses (ergo: neighborhoods, streets, buildings, etc) producing a geographically and culturally unique memory recall.
So I can’t believe the place I ate at for over 10 years of my life, is alas, no more.
I was so looking forward to eating here on my next trip down to Berkeley. It just won’t be the same. Berkeley in general will not be the same.
Apart from a personal loss in hopes of reliving a portion of what I strongly recall of my academic past, what I am more disappointed in is that future generations will no longer experience the same poppy seed dressing elation as I have. One may laugh, but these salads added greatly to the overall Cal experience. Fine greenery, which I have no preponderance of doubt, many an ode has been authored surrounding.
I’d feel less anguish had it been the Greek Theater or Campanile that had been destroyed. What a crying shame that no one has plans to phoenix the Intermezzo for future generations.
No sir. I will not collect wood for your burning Viking vessel, nor offer an «RIP». Get your act together and rebuild. It’s your duty.
If not for the alumni, then for the sake of Harry, Mary and Grace’s offspring.

Dear Café Intermezzo,
Please come back or at least sell your poppyseed dressing recipe to some other food place so the rest of the world can appreciate and enjoy its delicious-​ness. I don’t care what other people say about your location or large quantities – your salads are freaking amazing.

I am still devastated and in mourning. Is Intermezzo really gone for good? I’ve loved these salads for years and have raved to many but most of the time my words fell on deaf uninterested ears who have never been (and may now never get to experience) how great these salads are. Me and husband’s usual order: Veggie Delight (no sprouts) with poppyseed dressing and a BLTA. I also grab an extra Veggie Delight in a to go box to take to work with me the next day for lunch.
Both the husband I were regulars. In fact we talked about driving to Berkeley just to visit Intermezzo for dinner the day their establishment burned down. And then later that morning a friend, who introduced this place to me years back forwarded me an article stating the unfortunate news knowing that I loved this place as much as she did. We went through the series of emotions together: first disbelief/​denial, anger, then we expressed our shock to our friends via linkage of the said article to our social media sites and then still in shock, we came to terms with the cold, hard facts. We had our moment of silence mourning the loss of our favorite to-​go places and now we are just hoping and praying that they will one day be resurrected back to life.
You’ve been good to us, Intermezzo. I will miss you dearly, my friend.

I’m seriously gutted to learn of its news. Mourning the death of anything is a process and does take a toll. My most regular go-​to place for my young college years is gone and will live on in thousands of folks’ hearts.
I will miss the fun memories, the great salads/​sandwiches/​food/​cake, and my regular table. Rest in peace. I say goodbye and appreciate you for all the comfort and warmth you gave to me.

I still can’t believe you’re gone like that.
Engulfed in flames.
I will miss your chef salads.
A single bowl amounting to a whole month’s fresh veggie intake.
I will miss your poppy seed dressing.
The sweet and nutty goodness completing the salads.
I will miss your vegetarian chili.
Hearty with a layer of gooey cheese warming my Winter afternoons.
I will miss your prime location.
Never a dull moment people watching by the window.
You’ve been good to me and to many many people alike.
Please come back soon!

Nowhere else can I say I have engorged myself in such delicious ruffage! The salads here are gigantic… so big, you could probably feed an entire continent with one. They are as big as they are delicious… massive amounts of awesomeness in a salad bowl.
For $ 7 you can get a salad to feed two people. I have made the mistake of trying to eat one myself, but failed. If you’ve never felt full on a salad, I bet you this place can change that. Share one with a friend or get dressing on the side so you don’t waste this deliciousness.
They also have sandwiches but I can’t seem to stray away from their salads. The chef salad is amazing, as is the one where you can get marinated tofu on it. The salads come with an entire egg, half an avocado, lots n lots of beans, and other healthy garden yum yums. Salads come with a delicious fat slice of their bread, which is sweet and amazing (sauce fiend tip: dip it into your salad dressing as well!). Their lemonade is rad as well, highly recommend you try a glass! ps– try the poppy seed dressing… SoOoo good!
One of the best spots in Berkeley, hands down. Friendly staff, best bang for your buck in terms of how much food you get, fast service, and most of all, scrumptious food!
ps– has anyone ever consumed one of their salads all on their own? lol.

OMG my girlfriend and I shared a Chef’s Salad and could not even finish it!
Great value here, I would definitely come back, the home made wheat bread is off the hook.
The only downside to this place is the lines, cash only, the tables never get bussed, and finding a seat is a bit of a challenge, but it is well worth it for the food.
You know the food is great when you will come back even with the above complaints!

Where else can you get you a large salad box topped with just about everything? Café Intermezzo offers exactly that along with a thick slice of their homemade honey wheat bread and a slice of fruit. Quality has gone done a little bit. Occasionally I find withered greens in my salad or eggs with slight discoloration. However, I really can’t complain seeing that each Intermezzo salad can be divided into at least 2 meals.
I’ve had their sandwiches, soups and most of their salads. My favorites have been their veggie delight (or chicken salad if you’re getting the chef’s salad) which has red beans, garbanzo beans, sprouts, croutons, cherry tomatoes, a hard-​boiled egg and an avocado half. You chose to have your dressing on the side or tossed in. I recommend getting either their famous poppy seed dressing or the herbal vinaigrette. Both are equally good, depending on your taste buds. Keep in mind that the poppy seed dressing is made from mayo, which is why it is so creamy. The herbal vinaigrette has the perfect balance of sweet and tart. Get dressing on the side if you decide to split into many meals. SALADS are HUGE!
Their soups are somewhat mediocre,. Although, I think their veggie chili and curry udon are pretty good. They taste great with the honey wheat bread.
Sandwiches are GIGANTIC too… making them kind of hard to eat. Honey wheat bread is used and the slices are so big that it can be hard to take a whole bite of the sandwich. I’ve gotten it with their chicken salad and blt. Both are delicious… just big, like everything else there.
Personally, I really like their honey wheat bread. You can purchase a whole loaf of bread for $ 5 (i think) or a bag of their bread ends for only $ 0.50!!! I think that’s pretty amazing in and of itself.
I’ve been coming to Café Intermezzo since a freshmen at Cal and I still think this is probably the tastiest, healthiest deli around Berkeley. So definitely pop in for a nice dose of your daily veggies. ;)

Who knew a salad place could be so amazing?! Big portions for a relatively cheap price plus it’s healthy and delicious. Who could ask for more, especially as starving students?
I ordered the Chef’s Salad — it’s enough for 2 – 3 meals (and only $ 7.75)! Very colorful and packed. Everything from kidney and garbanzo beans to avocado and tomatoes — the poppy seed dressing is a nice touch to it too. A slice of bread is also included, and it’s just as tasty. I was worried it would be dry (seeing that it looked almost like wheat bread), but it’s semi-​sweet and not dry at all. When I couldn’t eat anymore, I packed the remaining salad in a to-​go box and it looks like a full meal — as if I didn’t eat anything and was taking it all to-​go!
Now I definitely see why everyone loves this place, can’t believe it’s taken me this long to finally try it out for myself!

On the final day of our trip together, our little group decided to stroll through Berkeley and check out the scene. After cruising through campus and checking out the cool architecture, we decided to drop into Café Intermezzo for a bite to eat before setting off for the airport.
My friend and I shared a soy iced coffee and their massive pastrami sandwich. The drink was really refreshing and really liked that it was sweetened with honey instead of sugar. The sandwich was so damn big that I had to take the rest home, but it was pretty damn tasty. It was a total steal at only $ 6.50 and was made with very high quality ingredients.
There are lots of unique places to get your healthy grub on in Berkeley and while I haven’t given them all a try yet, Café Intermezzo would be a definite favorite. If I were a CAL student, this would definitely be a place where you could find me. Great food, great value, and great prices seem like a great combination to me!
Food: ⁸⁄₁₀
Service: ⁷⁄₁₀
Price: $
Atmosphere: ⁸⁄₁₀

Ate lunch with a friend there today. She’s lived in Berkeley for three years and never had the mammoth Intermezzo salad! I’m going to suggest that it be part of the campus tour and covered in orientation. My Club Salad w/​Ham & Turkey was delicious as ever and my lunch mate enjoyed the Mix Greens.
I have to say the the workers there must either be paid or treated well, because they are so helpful and just have a positive attitude. I tip my hat and my change to all of them for being so nice and charming! They are always great!

It went from Café Intermezzo to Café Mattina, but now it’s back to Café Intermezzo again. Everything is still the same, except maybe Mattina is a little sad she doesn’t have a café named after her anymore.
Anyway, I absolutely love this place and always get the veggie delight with poppy seed dressing. I don’t usually call any menu item from any restaurant my regular because I love to explore menus, but this is definitely my regular order. This is the place if you’re looking for big, filling, fresh, fine salads.
*OK, an edit is needed since people have been asking. I don’t know if this is entirely true, but what I heard is that Raleigh’s lost their liquor license by serving to people underage, so they leased it to Manny to become Manny’s Taproom. Café Intermezzo is also owned by whoever owns Raleigh’s, so Manny named it Café Mattina after his wife. But recently, Raleigh has recently restored its liquor license and Manny’s lease has ended. Consequently, Café Mattina has been restored as Café Intermezzo.