Doelger Cafe

Doelger Center! What a great space and place for a party or special event. I grew up in Daly City and what they did with that area is somewhat remarkable. Go Daly City!

this review is for the café; not the hall for large groups… Has one of the best BLTs in SF area! get it on Sour Dough and enjoy! and the cost? 5.00! Other sannies are good also, by my go-​to is the BLT. Eat it.

Went to a birthday party here today. Layout was good for seating and buffet line. Windows with a view of patio area was good to watch the kids playing with bubbles outside. Only thing was felt rushed to help hosts clean up by end of party.

This is a decent (albeit bare-​bones) place to have a party.
Located in a senior citizens center, Doelger Hall is in a quiet, grassy community with plenty of parking. There is even an adjacent playground, as well as outdoor benches should your party need to spill outdoors. The hall has a fully functioning kitchen, which is ideal if you are catering (or cooking) yourself. There is a sound system but we didn’t use it, so I can’t comment — but I did see speakers. The piano was a nice touch — a group of kids got a hold of it and thankfully they knew how to play so they kept the music going :)
The party I attended had 20 medium sized tables, each of which sat around 6 people or so. And there was plenty of room for more tables. The bathrooms are outdoors but closeby, which could be inconvenient for guests with small children if they prefer their children not go outside without supervision.
Doeler Hall is located less than ¼ mile from Westlake Shopping Center, which makes last-​minute shopping trips convenient.
I love that the walls have floor-​to-​ceiling windows so there is light coming in from all angles. And the view of the grass and the trees makes for a nice ambiance :)

I rented this place for 5 hours for $ 640.00 ~ basically for a 3-​hour party, because it takes one hour to set-​up your party and then they require you to clean the place up one hour before your rental ends (mandatory) even if you have tons of help and would only take half hour to clean-​up. Sure enough, it only took us half hour and still had half hour completely wasted because of their mandatory rule!
Now, forget the cost, but oh my my the attitude of those ladies who work in the office are extremely nasty! The minute you walk in the office to inquire about the rental of the hall is already appalling, like we don’t want your freakin’ business! What do you want? You’re bothering our office gossip here! We work for the city, so F U ATTITUDE! The way they talk to you is so disturbing — no respect whatsoever, nothing but major attitude (the body language, tone of voice). I had no idea why I didn’t back out then. Make sure you read the contract and all the hand-​outs clearly. Apparently, the full payment is due two weeks before the party or they’ll rip you off for another 50 bucks. I thought the full payment was due like a day before the party since they already took the deposit out of my credit card. Anyway, I noticed the deadline ONE day before the due date and do you think those wicked ladies gave me a break after my pleadings? Heck NO! Note that the contract I signed did not specify the late fee amount. They specified it on like a 10-​page handout besides the contract, that’s why I said, read everything carefully. Btw, their own workers (the ones who are assigned to watch the party in progress) hate those admin ladies also! One of the guys said, «Yeah, we’re usually cool here. The only problem around here is those ladies in the office. They’re pretty anal about everything!» Also, my neighbor who’s a senior and usually dines in the café mentioned that those ladies think they own the place. Geez, don’t they work for the community and should be nice?