CowBella Cafe

If I could rate NO STARS, than I would. Racist! We had 9 people ready to eat and sit separately as the place is small. Owner remarked that they r not suited to serve us (Japanese American) as they r only a deli!!! An order of food is an order of food. Not sure what era she’s living in. I will tell many to not go there. There were only 2 customers there, not surprisingly. HORRIBLE.

Worst experience ever! I was appalled at my experience today at this café. Everywhere else was more than an hour wait and we found this place with no wait at all… now I know why. Horrible service. Older white lady said some comments to our table for cleaning it for her for us to sit on. Thought it was a nice favor. She got pissed because she spilled some coffee and told us that it was our fault because we needed to wait for her to clear the table. Ok? She then starts getting mad because other guests were seating themselves but they were waiting for 10 min to be seated. She yelled and mouthed off to many of the guests which is totally unacceptable in any «professional» environment. A mother had to take out her autistic son because her yelling was scaring him. Don’t go here ever

My parents were visiting from out of town so we brought them to Julian and this looked like a cute place to grab lunch. Also it was dog friendly for our pup. Score!
Well, we waited forever in the outside seating area before someone noticed us and asked for our order. Two salads and two sandwiches. Twenty minutes later the waitress comes out and asks what kind of sides we want with our sandwiches and what kind of salad dressing we want. We asked if they had balsamic vinaigrette, she replied, «um. We have ranch.» Ranch it was.
Our food came out. Salad was chopped romaine in a pie pan with some tomato slices. My sandwich bread was stale and the top bread was ripped in three pieces. The ingredients on the sandwich were a combination of two menu items, not what I ordered. There was a small bug crawling around the bread. Did I mention it was stale. The entire experience was gross. Don’t eat here. We stopped the bleeding and ran in to pay the check not wanting to wait for the waitress to personally handle the transaction. Went elsewhere for pie. One star because they gave our dog some treats.
Totally underwhelming gross boring food. Especially for the price. Go somewhere else; you’re going to wait anyway.

STAY AWAY!!! My family came to join the other half of our party at this café and were immediately told that they could not accommodate a party of seven during their lunch rush after we asked if we could move the tables together. We understood, and were discussing amongst ourselves how we would split into two tables to fit inside. The very rude server told us that this was not OK, even though the place was only half full??? My mom asked if she wanted our business or not, and the server began yelling at her and saying that we should call her manager because she «doesn’t make the rules», and makes minimum wage.” She was literally shoving his business card in my dad’s face, and my mom had enough and stormed out. Another party of three walked in waiting to be seated, and the sever continued yelling at us as my dad said she should seat the people who walked in. I have never encountered a more incredibly rude server in my life… needless to say, we walked out. You’ve been warned!

Feel bad for the people that run this place as they need a restaurant makeover. They’re trying but don’t know how to do it. Place is TINY and when you walk in it is not clear if you place an order at the register or sit and get waited on. The menu was a piece of 8.5×11 paper.
Took a long while to take our order. The older lady and younger girl were having a ferocious discussion at the cash register and we could hear parts of it. Mostly about how they were losing money because the younger one couldn’t add. There was a table waiting outside and those people left when no one got to them.
I had a BLT with old bacon :-(burned.
Smaller pulled pork tacos were meh. Hubby said mine were much better.
Waitress was extremely inexperienced and they were out of the mixed berry pie and didn’t take it off the board… :-(

Sad trombone sound. Freezer burned fries that were undercooked. Not worth what we paid. Neither if us were happy with our meals. The au jus that came with the roast beef sandwich was just bullion and my veggie burger was also freezer burned to the point of being dry. A huge disappointment.

Ok sandwiches. Too, expensive for simple sandwich

Whatever You do don’t eat here. Everywhere in Julian is an hour or more wait and we wandered in here… there was barely anyone in there and no mention of a wait so thought we scored. We waited over an hour for our food without anyone mentioning the wait. When it came my burger tasted like fish so I returned it to the kitchen and my fiancée’s sandwich was so small he ate it in 2 bites. Despite them taking my burger off the check we still paid $ 17 for his tiny sandwich and 2 sodas. Then we spent another 2 hours at another restaurant so I could eat and because my fiancée was still hungry. Really ate into our day!!!

Definitely a tourist trap. The apple burger was a nice twist but needs more work. I expected so much but it was a busy weekend and we wanted a short wait to eat. My bad. I should have known better and should have checked the Unilocal reviews. Plus it was so hot inside the café and I couldn’t wait until we got back outside. I also agree with some of the other low rating reviews.
I would recommend other places.

I’ll start with the good. The service was warm and friendly. And they give coloring books for the kids. And the slice of apple pie was good (they claim homemade).
But the bad. Oh, the bad. The food is overpriced and something you’d easily be able to make at home. Frozen french fries warmed in an oven, stale bread and lunch meat. $ 10. No thanks. The «house salad» was literally romaine lettuce with some crumbled tortilla chips on top, with a dollop of dressing from a huge tub. And the chili was from a can.
We won’t be back, sadly.

Tomato Basil Soup was very tasty
Took nearly an hour for the food to come out. The Older woman was nice about giving us some fries for the kids since we were waiting so patiently. We got free refills on the drink. The first server we had was really nice. The floors weren’t sticky, the tables were clean.
However, it’s ten dollars for all the sandwiches which aren’t that great. The cheddar tasted like plastic. The sourdough bread was stale on the bottom and really chewy. The salad was nice though. The grilled cheese was done on a Panini press and was kinda pathetic looking.
They are very accommodating and understanding to those who have children. But they need to fix their high chairs.

Wow! Some rough reviews. Well, I was only here briefly and had an sandwich that wasn’t on the menu. It was great, and something that I’ll definitely be making for myself at home. It’s a very down home kinda place with friendly service.

If it wasn’t for tourists, this place would be done. The ladies working were good people, but not the best servers. The food was pretty good, but the owner (s) are cheap, cheap, cheap.
Everything is nickle and dime, charges for splitting entrees, charges for take out, no splitting checks, automatic gratuity for parties of 5, drink orders are take out only, etc, etc. If I had seen all the rules and charges to eat here, I probably wouldn’t have.
Lunch of hamburgers for me and my wife, and chicken fingers for my son came out to $ 40, so about $ 50 with tip for 3 sandwiches!!! This from a place that uses aluminum pie tins as plates. I’m surprised they didn’t charge me to use my credit card…
Next time I’m in Julian, I’ll keep looking.

Surprised to see all the negs here after what I found to be a pleasant experience supported by a good meai. Yes, it’s tucked into a corner of a building several steps off the main street, but the place was clean and nicely decorated Julian-​style. The fact that the proprietor — a very bubbly and friendly woman — took the orders, set the table and served the food that she just finished cooking herself was a bit charming. Certainly different, but not a bad thing. She even filled up our water bottle for the hike we were going to next.
The tomato/​avo/​cucumber sandwich was surprisingly delicious. My companion only had good things to say about the tuna-​stuffed tomato. The meals are served on pie tins. I thought that was kinda funny and fitting.
Anyway, for an out-​of-​the-​way little café in the middle of BFE Julian this place all around met our expectations and then some. Looks like the owners took note of the bad reviews and made improvements!

Stopped in today for lunch, and to my surprise the food was really good. Today’s special was a half sandwich with choice of soup or salad, and a slice of pie for $ 10. I ordered a roast beef ½ sandwich and Caesar salad. It was the perfect size and super yum. I was so full, I ended up taking the pie to go. My hubbie ordered the burger with fries. It was so big, he had a hard time trying to eat it. It came with everything on top. He said it was really good. My mother in law ordered a half turkey sandwich and a cup of the soup of the day (chicken noodle). She loved her meal.
Don’t come in here to sit and eat if you are in a rush. The service is really good, but this little café gets busy and there are only 2 people working. From sit down to paying and leaving, it took over an hour. Fair warning.

This was a terrible, terrible decision. Nothing was worth it. I had ordered the tuna melt with a cup of chili, the sandwich was absolutely disgusting. I could make a better tuna melt myself with better tasting tuna from the can (the kind for humans, not cats). Seriously, their’s tasted like what I’d imagine a cat is fed. I skipped on the pie, and just walked across the street to Mom’s where I know I wouldn’t be disappointed.

It’s a trap! Not even really a café. More like an office space turned dorm room kitchenette with some appliances.
This tucked away (whatever the opposite of gem) spot basically takes advantage of naïve tourists that do not have the time to wait for a table at one of the full service restaurants along Main Street. Unfortunately, we didn’t know any better at the time either.
The good: local Julian pie.
The bad: the rest of the menu.
The ugly: my sandwich was made on a George Foreman grill.
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A couple of sandwich presses and electric soup warmer kettles. I’m sorry that I couldn’t get a photo of a microwave or a countertop hot plate burner.
I can’t echo the other sentiments about rude customer service because we didn’t experience anything negative from our waitress. She was pleasant and polite, so good onya for that.
We took a field trip to Julian and got bamboozled with grade school cafeteria food :-(Some treasures are hidden and great to find. This one is fool’s gold and should remain buried.
Noooooooooooooo!!!1!!! [double fist shake towards sky]

Went with one of my friends to Julian to experience apples for the last time this season. We tried going to Julian Café for lunch, but there was a 45 minute wait. Walked around and found this place and had no wait.
Good news: the food’s edible. Cleanliness standards were acceptable, and I’m not hunched over a toilet 10 hours after eating.
Bad news: every one of these reviews is still accurate as of today. They’re still using their Foreman grill and all of the food tastes like they just bought bulk hamburger patties, fries, etc. from their food supplier and heated it all together.
Food took a while to come out, probably because they only had one Foreman grill that I could see. I got the Apple Burger, which I thought would have been chopped apples in the beef patty. Turns out it’s an apple slice on top of the unseasoned/​marinated patty. I tasted more of the toppings than the meat itself, sadly. The water also tasted weird, almost like their filtration system was broken (or possibly just using straight tap water – I wouldn’t be surprised).
After we finished, we asked for the check since we didn’t want to stay. While we waited, we heard the wait staff gossiping with each other as they were serving customers. That is shit you expect on Kitchen Nightmares before Gordon Ramsay fixes the restaurant, man. Maybe they’re angling for their own episode?
Anyway, we’re probably going to wait for a table at Julian Café next time instead of being so impatient.

If only not leaving any stars were an option. This place is disgusting. I took my dad there for Father’s Day since every other place was packed, and it was horrible! While it appears charming when you walk in, the service was terrible!
When we got our food, the burger my dad ordered looked gross. It was your typical pre-​packaged burger patty that looked like it had been cooked on a Foreman Grill. Come to find out, it actually WAS cooked on a Foreman Grill. When I got the bill I was shocked…$ 40.00 for terrible food with terrible service!
Prior to waiting to the bill, me and my father had to sit and listen to the waitress have a ten minute conversation with a friend of hers that stopped in, and probably used the «C» word in describing another girl more times than I could count. My poor dad was horrified.
Overall, stay away from this place. Not only is the food overpriced, but it’s disgusting and the waitresses have mouths worse than sailors. No bueno!!!

Stale cold bread, slow service. Turkey, coleslaw, just not very good at all. Industry standard iced tea. Tourist trap, they know you are only passing through, probably only going there once, its done up real nice and sweet and cute and charming… but you have a mediocre to well below bar dining experience there one time, then never go back.
Not recommended.