Swami’s Cafe

This place has a lot of healthy and even many vegetarian options. They have soyrizo and mock bacon which is rare to find a place offering that unless you go to a vegetarian only restaurant which is something I appreciate. I had the Swami’s scramble and shared it. I enjoyed it and would come here again since they have so many things to try out.

We went to Swami’s in Escondido a couple weeks ago on a Sat. at 7 when they said they opened but it wasn’t open. We waited, then when we got in the mgr (I guess) said she was training a new employee. She gave us coffee but it was a long time before she took our order. She never came back to offer us more coffee either. I finally had to get up and go ask for more coffee. Food finally came and it was ok.
Today, June 24^th we went down at 7:10 and the place was still locked up. We waited but nobody came to unlock the door. I looked through the window and saw no one. An employee was out cleaning the sidewalk but no one inside. We finally left and went to another restaurant. My husband said that is the last time we will try to go to Swami’s. It is obvious they don’t care about customers. Grace

Swami’s is a great place to hang out after work. Unique cocktails and a great selection of custom made drinks. The staff is great and very friendly. I will be back again.

This is a must try. I prefer the other locations based on the quality of service, but the food is pretty good. Parking can sometimes be a pain on Grand Avenue, but don’t forget about the parking behind the restaurant.

Swami’s offers a pretty large breakfast and lunch menu with many vegetarian options at very reasonable prices. I seriously love their food here.
The only thing that keeps me from coming here more often is the service. Their service isn’t HORRIBLE, but it is really never good. Each time we come there’s always something — the service is slow, or they mess up an order, or forget something, or are short-​staffed, or etc… This has been an ongoing problem and I’m not sure why they haven’t been able to figure out the service end of their business yet. If they could improve their service, they would be 5 stars.

Good was ok… Our server wasn’t. Asked about a couple of breakfast options and his curt response was «don’t know I haven’t tried it». Seriously if you’re serving and you don’t know if it’s savory or sweet go ask … Won’t go back for mediocre food and bad service

Great place to eat. We both ordered and devoured our omelets! sitting outside by the waterfall, relaxing atmosphere and great service from our waiter Edgar, I will definitely recommend this place.

Tried to give this Escondido Swamis location another shot, but it still yielded the same results as the last couple times we tried to eat there!
The customer service is just horrible. They are super slow and don’t even acknowledge you. I myself have worked in the restaurant business as a waitress, hostess and bartender and this is just unacceptable!
You should attend to your customers before 15 minutes goes by! A simple, «we will be right with you would have been great.» And to add to this the place was not busy at all, which made the situation even worse!
I’m really bummed about this because I love the original Swamis and would drive out to Encinitas to enjoy their delicious and healthy food! Swamis Escondido you disappoint again and we will not be returning.

Loved this place… there is something for everyone… fresh, healthy choices… smoothies, wheat grass shots with variety of interesting toppers, salads, wraps, burgers. The acia bowl was a vibrant purple topped with fresh fruit, granola and coconut… the corned beef hash and eggs were delish… great food, loved the out door patio area with water fountain and firepit. Multiple visits during our short stay. You wont be disappointed.

3 ½ stars really. Visited Sunday 5÷22÷16 around 10:30. Our first experience at Swami’s. Not sure if we’ll return.
The good: (1) great location with a great atmosphere. (2) They have a really nice outdoor seating area. (3) Our server Tony was great and engaging. (4) Food was put out pretty quickly (5) Plenty of parking on the back side (6) great price for the food
The bad: (1) The hostess didn’t seem happy about our request to be seated in the back patio. Her excuse — the servers were too busy in that area. There were several tables open. They should have assigned more servers to the area to accommodate the high demand for the awesome patio (2) the eggs benedict was ok, not fantastic.

Where do I begin … The food was tasty. But we ordered food, then waited. Other people came in and got there food before we got ours. We had to tell the bus boy to check on our food. And he brought it and it was cold :(my French toast was super thin too ! COOKS NEEED TO NOT SERVE PAPER THIN TOAST… We found out that our waiter was sent inside and must of forgotten about us. Very sad. I mean we had to tell them to get our food. Get us utensils and get us warm coffee ! Seriously? We sat in the corner and I swear we were treated like we were on time out. Probably won’t come here again. /:

Swami’s is a local place that offers a good value for a substantial serving of food!
I love the place specifically for breakfast and the Californian-​Mexican style egg dishes. Their breakfast potatoes are the some of the tastiest around and they have the best prices on fresh squeezed juices. I usually go for the orange or watermelon, 12 oz for $ 2.95 or 16 oz for $ 3.50!
Swami’s was named after the beach nearby at it’s original location in Encinitas. It was one of the first places I ate at when moving to California, so the place and I have a history together. Swami’s has multiple locations around the county, serving North County in addition to San Diego. The newest are very modern with lovely water and plant features on the terrace.
My husband and I favor the locations (which are most) that offer a pet friendly patio. We love to get our fur babe out as much as possible. The most recent visit was during Unilocal Spring Break. In honor of the festivities for the week, I choose to order a breakfast shot after finishing my savory dish. This involved drinking a combination of alcoholic and non-​alcoholic beverages that resemble eating pancakes, with a bacon strip on the side. What a sweet way to end the morning!
#YSBSD
#PetFriendlyPatios
#BreakfastShots

The place was really nice and service was fast.
However. I think they need to practice their poached eggs.
I ordered the lobster Benedict, and my sister ordered the eggs Benedict and we both shared avocado toast.
The lobster on my lobster Benedict was alright. It was dry and tasted more like it was mixed with artificial crab. Not my favorite :(
Our eggs were poached for way too long and ended up being soft boiled. Which was sort of a let down because we look forward to extra runny yolks when we order Benedicts!
It’s our favorite brunch dish. So it was a bummer.
The avocado toast was the tastiest of the items we had. I also had the fresh squeezed grapefruit that was really good!

Had the garlic chicken omelet. Tasty chicken and the omelet was cooked just right. Sourdough toast was perfect, golden brown and not too dry. Cottage cheese though sat under the heat lamp.
Pleasant hostess and server. Very clean restaurant.

Came this morning while visiting my best friend for a couple days. One of the first customers in this morning. Coffee was weak. I had the eggs Benedict with turkey. Presentation was nice, but tasted a bit bland. Got it with turkey and it was not the business. Fruit and potatoes were tasty. They give you large portions of food. Décor is cute. It’s clean and good service. Parking on the street, down town Escondido.

It really depends on what you order here.
Some items are ok, some really not that great.
Also portions are much smaller than other breakfast places, this is more of a place to meet up with friends and enjoy a light meal.
Very busy location, but service was friendly and the food came out quickly.
Not much in terms of flavor, I prefer their lunch items over the breakfast foods, but it all needs quite a bit of seasoning and just seems a bit rushed.
Ok, but not worth going out of my way for.

Opening night of Crusin Grand, 15 – 20 min wait for outdoor seating. Not bad at all! The hostess took my boyfriend’s name and cell number and encouraged us to walk around Grand and she’d call us when our table was ready.
We never got a call. After 20 min we went back to check in and they directed us to a table on the back patio. When we told them we had our dog with us, they assured us it was completely ok to walk THROUGH the restaurant with our dog. Heads up Swami’s…the Heath Department would strongly disagree with that! We walked around the outside of the bldg anyway…
As with every visit to Swami’s, we waited 15 min before anyone acknowledged we were there and finally came and took our order. (We are typically tolerant of the wait time because the food is always good.) We waited over 30 min for our food to arrive, and as soon as the server stepped away, I realized the dish in front of me was not what I ordered. No one came back to check on us, so I got up and walked around to find & tell the server about the mix up.
I specifically told him that I am highly allergic to mushrooms and that the dish I was given was loaded with them. He came back to the table with me, said he would take care of it, but left the plate of doom in front of me. He eventually came back and said they were working on it and I asked that he remove the wrong dish from our table (which at this point was now a cold slab of steak with melted cheese on top and a bed of mushrooms underneath it.)
When the right dish was finally brought out, the steak slab with melted cheese looked oddly familiar, and was cold to the touch. When I lifted the steak up, there were STILL mushrooms underneath. It was rather obvious that they took the plate back to the kitchen and put the same steak on a different plate.
Glad that they didn’t kill me, but fuming mad that someone would have been so ignorant to not only ignore an allergy alert but also break a health dept rule, we asked to speak to a manager. After five min of waiting, no manager had appeared. We asked for the manager again and five min later were told, «the manager is unable to come out of the kitchen because he’s very busy cooking.»
So what you’re telling me then is the THE MANAGER is the one who not only could have KILLED a customer, but also now doesn’t have the time to step out of the kitchen to address the situation!!! You have got to be kidding me!!!
The food at Swami’s has officially become NOT worth enduring the lack of management & employee training, the understaffing, and the waste of time that we used to look past. That will be the last time we ever give Swami’s our business.

I had eggs Benedict from here before and it was so good I needed to get it again! I was so excited to pop open the eggs so the yolk would run… But it was too cooked :(I was so disappointed. Aren’t poached eggs supposed to have a runny yolk? The eggs Benedict was too dry. The sweet potato fries were really good though.
Overall, they have a great variety of breakfast and lunch foods. Servers are okay. I usually get to go orders and they get my order right only HALF of the time…

Amazing food and great prices! I have been to Swamis more than once but I visited yesterday for lunch and ordered the spicy shrimp tacos and they were WONDERFUL. Swami’s breakfast burritos are also really great and their chicken quesadilla is better than any quesadilla I’ve had anywhere else. I really like that they use fresh ingredients and whole wheat tortillas — makes me feel like I am not sacrificing my health or my wallet for the sake of good tasting food when I go out to eat!
Only complaint I have is the service: every time I have been to Swamis I have had 3 or 4 different people wait my table and sometimes have had to wait up to 45 minutes for my food to be delivered to my table when there were just two of us ordering. Other than that I have had great experiences!
Thank you Swamis for always going above and beyond my expectations! I will be back!

In typical Swami’s fashion, their Unilocal page is screwed up.
Swami’s move two doors down, and apparently that justified getting rid of their old Unilocal page and it’s years of reviews.
To read those reviews for Escondido Swami’s go here
Review —
Ask most people from Escondido what they think of Swami’s and their response is usually «It’s always something with that place». True to their reputation, they moved to a new location on Grand and changed their name from Swami’s Café to Swami’s on Grand. Of course, they forgot to tell anyone or update any of their social media sites. Even the staff is confused by this weird transition.
The Food
Swami’s is the best breakfast option in Escondido, especially when it comes to vegetarian options available like fake sausage, ham, and bacon. Food looks good, tastes good, and seemed to be reasonably priced. Service has been suspect in the past, but at this new location it was pretty attentive. One reason for better service might be because the new location has new management in place (much to the chagrin of the staff).
Highlights
— San Diego Chilaquiles
— Acai bowl (get the small)
— Green Omelette
— Croissant Breakfast
— Kids Pancake
— Kids options are really good and affordable.
Tip
— The new location’s patio, especially close to the bathroom, STINKS of rotten produce. They have their food storage in the back of the patio and it SMELLS just like the back of a Vons. Just walk through the back entrance and you’ll know what I’m talking about. They need to fix this issue.