Sweet Basil’s Cafe

Very small and cozy restaurants, feels like you are eating as guest in Someone’s house. Good tables and good options for wines for alcohol lovers. Good options for vegetarians, Panini sandwich and wraps were really good. Must visit.

The food is wonderful. Cut and cook once orders. The berry pie is the best. The chef’s mother– in-​law bakes with fresh berry’s from her garden. Absolutely wonderful.

I had the Cubano Classic, which was amazing! The pickle and mustard really made the sandwich amazing.
Coleslaw was also not mayo-​based so I liked that a lot as well.
All in all a very solid restaurant to eat at!

Let’s make sure you first understand what you are walking into… the space is small, there are few tables and the kitchen staff is small making every dish from the beginning so it will take awhile for you to get your food. That said, the atmosphere is fun and cute. The waitress was delightful and very friendly. The chef/​owner was clearly proud of his restaurant and rightfully so. We visited on a Friday night and enjoyed the live music.
We started the meal with olive plate which came with plenty of olives. My husband had the Creole Shrimp, which at first glimpse of the menu was a little shocking to be $ 22, but it came with 20 shrimps in it and he didn’t even finish the rice/​sauce. Worth every penny. I had the crawfish ettouffe. It was delicious and more food than I could eat. Great evening all around.

Over priced for the quality of food. The crab melt wasn’t as good as we thought. Oh well. Yummy clam chowder

This place was decently good, old antique tea house kind of feel, the waitress was nice but not quite tentative. The salmon chowder was very tasty though. Not sure I would go out of my way to go back but I’m not disappointed we went.

We have had a house in Tolovana/​Cannon Beach for years and had not tried this place until last weekend 1÷16÷16 and we can’t believe it took us so long to come here.
We tried what another Unilocaler recommended The Seafood Jambalaya and the Pork Shank Osso Bucco. They were both fantastic, absolutely delicious it was such a treat to come here that evening.
They also had a live band playing that evening which was an easy listening Blues style which made for a wonderful atmosphere.
It’s off the main street on the north end of town, well worth searching out.
We are looking forward to our next visit here.

No. Just no!
I came here for lunch on a Sunday while visiting from California. Unilocal has this as a tapas place so I was shocked to get there and see standard soup, salad, and sandwiches on the menu.
Second, the place is small and kitchy and not in a good way. I sat at the table under the counter by the kitchen. That counter had a fan and tons of kitchy stuff and it seemed dirty like it never gets dusted.
To get to the restroom, you walk through a small room about the size of a pantry and open another door to get to the sink and toilet. I was grossed out to discover that they use that little room right by the restroom to store food. Granted it bagged tortillas in a box so it’s not like germs can get in there but it’s a bit gross and I’m not sure what else they are storing in there.
They only had 4 people working the entire restaurant. One cook, one dishwasher, and two waitresses. Waited forever for my food. The dishwasher takes dishes out of the dishwasher and puts in a countertop dish rack from the 1950s. They have deep freezes in the dining room.
I ordered the crab and artichoke sandwich. It had temperature inconsistencies in that the crab was cold in places with hot artichoke/​hot cheese. Beyond that it tasted OK and the price was very good for real crab and the portion size.
Last, i heard the waitress tell a table of 4 girls that she couldnt split the check and that they «have to work that out themselves». WHAT?
I don’t know. I get that this is clearly a mom-​and-​pop operation but I’ve seen it done better many times over elsewhere. Cannot explain the Unilocal rating.

This restaurant could be considered expensive in my opinion, but after going and eating at this place. I think the pricing here is fair and matches well with the food portions. Seaside towns and restaurants typically tend to be more expensive, but I still found this place to be somewhat afford for those travelers on a budget.
This place has a unique rule in that nothing in the kitchen is premade/​prepared, meaning the head chef cooks everything fresh. There is also a note of this on every menu, so they properly warn customers about the wait for food might be longer than usual. The service here was great and the old lady is really sweet. They have a fair pricing for their dishes ranging from $ 14-​$ 35. Of course the more expensive dishes have seafood in them etc.
I ordered the chicken pot pie ($ 17) and it was delicious! The crust was baked just right to be flaky and crunchy and the portion size for this dish was quite fair. The peas, carrots and chicken packs a ton of flavor was not bland at all. My siblings ordered the seafood jambalaya ($ 23) and that was great as well. It has a bit of a spicyness to it so beware. The gumbo was also a good dish as well ($ 12).
I would say this place is more of a romantic couple dining area so big tables for families can be difficult. They have a bar seating area and live music too. My sister wanted to eat dessert here, but I would not recommend their berry pie ($ 7). The dessert in my opinion was not worth $$$ and could be skipped.

My husband and I went here based on Unilocal reviews and were not disappointed. This cute café is perfect for any time of day.
It is tucked on the first main block at cannon beach. It is next to a dog store. There is parking off street, but there isn’t much. The café itself is small and has two seating areas. The restaurant is decorated romantically with paintings and a display of wine.
The menu is diverse. They warn you that everything they cook takes time as they focus on quality, so if you are looking for a quick meal, I don’t suggest this place. This is for relaxing and enjoying life and eating good food. The prices are above average but are worth it as you leave feeling like you had a hone cooked meal made by an expert chef.
I ordered the yellow cury salmon fillet served with rice and vegetables. It was a balance if spice and flavor. I love thai and the clash with a seasoned and grilled salmon fillet was epic. My husband had the jambalaya and devoured it.
I recommend this place for couples and anyone who loves good food and is over the cliché beach restaurants of seaside!

Another wonderfully authentic surprise in a touristy town. Give Jon and his lovely food a chance to wow you. My hubby, who spent 7 years in New Orleans, declared Jon’s Jambalaya some of the best he’s ever had… better than Lagasse, better than Prudhomme, just plain fabulous. And my pork shank osso bucco was rich. delectable comfort food at its best.
I love finding places like this. They aren’t trying to cash in on the tourist cow… they are just putting out solidly good food and offering it to the community. Count me in!

Cuban sandwich was excellent!!!
My husband had the crab roll. And loved it. While we were leaving we heard the waitress say she adds avocado to her crab roll… Try it and let me know!
We live in SF but if we were ever in cannon beach I’d dive right in here for dinner.
Only negative was that they had low inventory on a lot of their beers, so we had to order 3 before one was in stock.

Thoroughly enjoyable. Service was conscientious and reasonably quick. Food was obviously prepared with great care.
Would absolutely come again.

What a great place we came upon after figuring out what to eat. The place to crab a quick bite and some vino!
My crawfish dish was delicious. Hubs love his pork shank dish and salmon chowder with some apple cider. Yes and I ordered the Argentinean Malbec glass of wine and sulami/​charcuterie plate.
The server was pleasant and all around the place was very satisfying. We would come back because its that great!
Give it a try even if its just to drop by for a glass of wine! There is outside seating and its lovely.

Solid 3.5 for me. Food was alright. My shrimp roll missed the mark — plenty of shrimp, which was awesome, but nothing about it was really outstanding and I felt like I could’ve made the sandwich myself. My sister’s pulled pork grilled cheese, on the other hand, was fantastic — stuffed with plenty of soft pork, without the gooey cheese being too overwhelming. I stared longingly at her sandwich as I ate my own.
Service was pretty nice though, and Josh is a great waiter. We forgot our hat after our meal and he also came running after us to return it. Other notes:
— The café bills itself as natural, wild, and organic, e.g. the herbs used in the food are grown by the chef himself.
— Décor is super homey, loved that part! When you walk in you feel like your grandparents just opened up their kitchen to everyone.
— Keep in mind that the food will take a little longer than at most places because the small team does everything themselves.
— Sweet Basil’s and the wine bar next door are owned by the same people, so there’s additional seating in the adjacent room.

The vegetarian reuben tasted like sauerkraut on bread, and my wife’s «sweet basil crab roll» was just a sub with crab and mayo. It didn’t stay together well and also didn’t have much taste. Besides that, the coleslaw was very good and the salmon clam chowder was a homerun.
The service was not only slow, but just not good. Fortunately the wait for food was actually not bad at all. We ate and stared at an unbussed table for a half hour. The waitress walked past our table a few times after we were done eating. We finally walked up to the register after 15 minutes and got our bill. I’m thinking our waitress is one of the owners. She wasn’t rude, but wasn’t very personable at all. I recommend finding someone who has waited takes before and using spice in the food.

Great food, vibe, and service. We ordered the crawfish étouffée and the seafood gumbo, which were pretty similar, but the étouffée was much more expensive… Still, they both tasted great!
Peach pie for dessert was delicious, as well.
We even came back the next day for a lunch of salmon and clam chowder and the veggie melt. Both were great, but I have to say I preferred the chowder. Overall a great experience.

What a lovely find! I love this little, cozy café and all it’s charm!
We went to watch the sunset on Cannon Beach and stayed until it got dark. By then it was nearly 9pm and we were now looking for dinner. We contemplating driving back to Portland and hitting up one of the restaurants but that would require us to wait even longer to eat. This was one of the few places that was opened late that Unilocal steered us towards.
It was a Saturday night so they have a live jazz band performing — what an added treat. We were seated in the other room but can see the band from the wall openings.
The food is cajun-​creole inspired. We browsed the menu and right away I found pork osso buco and it had me sold. My cousin decided on the seafood jambalaya. The food took a while to come but we were able to see the chef behind the counter cooking our food while we waited.
The pork osso bucco was so tender and flavorful. It was so good! I wanted to go ham on it but stopped myself because I can see the couple at the table next to us eyeing it from the corner of my eye and didn’t want to embarrass myself. LOL. My cousin loved her jambalaya. It came packed with seafood!
The portion was huge — we asked for them to pack up our other half to go. We planned on eating more of it when we got back to our hotel but when we got back we were still full and couldn’t stomach any more food. Unfortunately, our room did not have a fridge or microwave so we ended up having to toss it out. :(

Evening started out w/​excellent service from Josh/​Topher (inside joke). Highly recommend coming early. A few of the dishes were sold out after an hour of opening. The part before us ordered the last of the osso bucco pork, which looked delicious.
Started w/​bacon wrapped dates w/​manchego, a salumi and olive platter. All was excellent, especially the bacon wrapped dates.
For entrée I had the seafood jambalaya. It was wonderful and plentiful. Quality ingredients. Veggies were not soggy and just the right amount of kick where you can enjoy your food still.
House salad was great. A wonderful blend of veggies including carrots, sunflower seed, zucchini, celery, bell peppers and alot more.
Love the food and the service. Wouldve given 5 stars but they were out of the dish we came to try.

First of all, the food we had was DELICIOUS. It was very well made, the menu was put together very well, obviously by an experienced chef. We had also read the disclaimer about the wait time on the food coming out and we were ok with the wait.
We were a group of four with a baby and a dog. Now, when we met the hostess waiting to be seated, we offered to take a dirty table (it wasn’t that dusty) since it was explained to us that they weren’t expecting people to be sitting outside in February (understandable, I thought maybe then they would have the chairs stacked so no one can seat there). However, I thought we were met with a scowl (my husband said I probably imagined it, so I let it go) after we sat down for about 5 min and we were accidentally being ignored because of the crowd. So I went in and the waitress saw me and offered me menus since we hadn’t gotten them. (That’s fine, I understand how busy a person can be when the restaurant seemed short handed)
Then after a while, we sat there looked at the menu, I saw the same waitress again. I asked «We are ready to order now, or should we wait to order?» she gave me a truly not so nice smile and said «you need to wait». From then on, the atmosphere seemed off. We weren’t in a hurry so we were ok with waiting. But it felt like we weren’t being treated as nicely as other customers.
We ordered two stuff Portobello mushrooms, a cubano and a shrimp roll. My goodness, the food was amazing. Next time when we visit Canon Beach, I would be more inclined to visit again if the wait staff was more friendlier. Otherwise, I probably will label it as one of these places that you have to visit at least once for the food, because its definitely a delicious a hole in the wall.