Owl Cafe

Closed Permanently? A ‘FOR LEASE’ sign is prominently displayed in front of the building. A phone call to the listed number said the number is changed to a ‘415’ area code (city of San Francisco and SW Marin County). Could not reach anyone at that number. We visited on a Monday, 2÷16÷16 at lunchtime, and Unilocal said it was open (although it is not unusual for a Restaurant to be closed in a Monday). Can someone else confirm?

Really was looking forward to going there, childhood memories and all. Just a heads up, they are closed (temporally) per the sign.

We go to Owl Café every once in a while for breakfast. This place is a landmark in Cloverdale. It has been here forever. We have always enjoyed our food but it seems a tad expensive for breakfast fare.

I hadn’t been to the Owl Café since the 70’s and have been eager to try it again since returning to the area. It was good then but has not aged gracefully. A large restaurant, but only had 4 – 5 tables taken which we attributed to the late hour we were there. When we sat and found the table covered with black gritty dust, that should have been the first sign to run! We ordered breakfast, thinking eggs would be a safe bet. Wrong! They were definitely not fresh, but had the consistency of Fisher Price eggs — rubbery and clearly not fresh. The hashbrowns had obviously been made ahead of time with a half hearted attempt to rewarm them on the grill before serving leaving them cold & chewy. The toast was stale bread toasted so little it had no color & was ice cold. A Bloody Mary was flavorless, tasting like watered down tomato juice. The coffee was actually pretty good other than being served in a thimble-​sized cup with no warm-​ups or refills offered. A bowl full of creamers was brought about 5 minutes after the coffee and only after we had to go up to the counter & ask for it. It looked like something had been spilled in the bowl and all over the creamers, there was only one I felt was ok to use.
It is really sad to see a restaurant with this much history & potential slack off to this point. The staff was lounging around and obviously did not care to put the effort in to provide good service or a good meal. I truly hope they get it together before they end up going under.

I had a very delicious breakfast here! The eggs, bacon, and hash browns were cooked to perfection.

All I can say is frozen and microwaved food. This restaurant has so much potential, too bad the owners don’t spend a little money and revitalize the historic café. The outside is unwelcoming, maybe plant a few flowers?

Nice outdoor eating area. Plenty of parking, good food and friendly staff. Breakfadt all day, love their veggie benny.

Me and my daughter ate here for lunch. I had pancakes which were very good and she had the patty melt and onion rings. The patty melt was very good but the onion rings were chewy and rubbery. Service was good but they did not except credit cards due to the machine was down. I’m sorry to say that I would not recommend this place.

I was on a 6 hour round trip drive and had to stop for lunch on the way back. I’d never followed the sign to Downtown Cloverdale, so I thought I’d go see what there was to see. I’m a big fan of greasy spoon diners, especially those that look like they have some history, so the Owl Café it was.
Unfortunately, the experience was somewhere between «ick» and «meh.» Awful service, sub-​par food, dirty counter, and **ridiculously** overpriced. The fries were good, I’ll give them that, but that’s about all.

Avoid.
Dreadful frozen food. Funky smell to hamburg patty. Dirty, orl and worn décor.
Yikes!

The Breakfast Fare is a special treat. My bride enjoyed the Eggs Benidict with Ham. Home made Hollindase Sauce, WOW! I had the #1 acclaimed menu item Corned Beef hash, no not that canned crap with the thumb print on top. This Corned Beef is cooked to perfection and then pulled apart there. The second day we went My bride had the the shrimp omlette, she didn’t talk to much as she was too busy enjoying her meal. I again had the #1 menu item Corned Beef hash. I met the chef, what a cool local guy who enjoys his job. The young ladies who served us were knowledgeable and full of smiles. Real orange spiral and fresh parsley on the plate, Home made Apricot and Berry Jam with your toast (english muffin in my case). This place is a must stop in quaint little Cloverdale. BY THE WAY, The name of the place is DANN’S OWL CAFE.
ed s. ⁹⁄₁₉₂ ⁰⁰⁵⁄₀₅ needs to ride with his face shield down as he has swallowed to many bugs!
Shawn S. 5÷7÷2009 this isn’t San Francosco. nuf said.
Corinne W. 7÷7÷2012 right on Girl.
Leo S 8/1/2011He’s right on the spot

Our waitress was adorable and very friendly :) the food was pretty good. My boyfriend said it tasted like it was home cooked and he liked it. We had breakfast.

Really cute, old-​timey diner. The good was great, the service was quick and friendly, and it was clean. Not very busy, a total of 4 other people came through during the time I was inside. Not spectacular, but good for what it was. I’d come back.

Nice old school diner. Nice, friendly waitress and clean dining area. I had Linguica and eggs with hash browns and Toast for a reasonable price. Cooked perfectly. Also got Chicken Gumbo to go and just finished it. It was awesome!

We were passing through Cloverdale on our way to Oregon and needed breakfast. I saw the Unilocal reviews before we went here and I was worried, but I thought how bad can a breakfast joint be? I wanted to like this place because of its cute retro exterior and plus i like owls. But honestly, the place is pretty dilapidated inside. The ceiling above our booth looked pretty droopy and there were ants crawling along the divider between our booth and the next. Ants can happen anywhere, I know, I know. The food was edible. And our waitress was friendly enough, and if you have a couple of unruly kids, at least you won’t feel too bad in this place like you’re disturbing someone’s nice breakfast. But anyway, if I could do it over again, I would’ve convinced the kids to wait 15 more minutes til we got to Hopland. There looked to be a couple of good breakfast places there.

The service was great. We ordered pancakes, country fried steak, corned beef hash and our food came out really good. The people in there made sure that our food was great and the refills just kept on coming. I like this place and prol come back here again if I was in town.

Went in for breakfast during a trip. The corned beef hash was good, but everything else was greasy and bland. The place was very dated, and looked dingy. The ceiling tiles were stained and bulging, and the place just didn’t give the appearance of cleanliness. Breakfast for the 2 of us came to almost $ 30. Yuk.

Really Really Really Bad. Food, atmosphere, service all bad. We fell for the signs, we should have known better when we looked inside.
Most expensive salad we’ve ever paid for (including Switzerland). She was charged $ 6 for one leaf of lettuce cut in four pieces, three small slices hard green tomatoes, ¼ cup diced canned olives, a few strands of sharp onion, and watery dressing served on a small 6 inch dish.
I tried the $ 8 fish and chips which turned out to be three fishsticks and soggy fries.
Do yourself a favor and try someplace else. One star is far too high, but based on what you get I would rate it five $$$$$

The two of us ordered omelet breakfasts. We realized the plates were mixed up as soon as we started eating, so we just switched with each other. Both omelets were a bit undercooked — a little runny. Other than the mix up, waitstaff were friendly and price was about average. Omelets are served with hash browns and toast.
When in Cloverdale again, we’ll try another restaurant.

I love small diners. I love truck stops. I love greasy spoons. I love crapholes in the middle of nowhere with sloppy food and shady characters.
But this place… I want to give it many negative stars.
Coming back from the Mendocino area, my friends and I stopped here on a Sunday morning. We were in a festive mood and eager for some small town breakfast goodness.
Instead, what we got was some of the most uninspired, cheapest, low-​rent, no flavored food I can remember ever eating.
I got the biscuits & gravy — the gravy tasted like heavy flour & water. And considering biscuits are flour heavy already, this was like eating paste on top of dry paste. No taste. No flavor. Army food is better than this. I passed the dish around the table just so people could experience the horror.
Two people ordered «chicken tenders». What they got were costco chicken nuggets that makes McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets look like the high end of life.
Other plates of food came out the same way.
We still joke today about what a train wreck this place is.
I understand supporting small business, but I highly suggest staying far, far away from this place.