Jalama Beach Cafe

Sign on the door, posted yesterday, says this is now permanently closed due to major rent/​lease problems.

Well this is a disappointment! Used to eat here regularly, but now know why we stopped. I ordered Bacon Egg, Biscuit and Gravy… Bacon way over cooked, eggs not scrambled well, Biscuit (Grands) and a white gravy, that tasted like flour, lastly the home fries… I got 8 little nuggets. Wow! Next my wife ordered the Jalama Breakfast Burger, when it arrived it was a Jalama Burger, missing it’s egg and Bacon… and before it was corrected, of course my meal was cold. The server was fabulous as always, but the food was a major disappointment.. think it will be a long time till I return, if ever!!!

Informal. Clean. Good food. Good, friendly service. Decent prices. Menu with plenty of variety and healthful choices. Haven’t used the bathrooms yet, so can’t comment or rate cleanliness or usefulness of those.
Jalama Beach Café is an informal, good place to relax and enjoy a meal.

My friends and I enjoyed my Sunday morning at Jalama Beach Café. Awesome service!

ALWAYS good food and great service. My wife, son, and I ate here last week; I had one of the dinner specials (bacon-​wrapped shrimp). God I love bacon; I’d eat cardboard wrapped in bacon. But thankfully, the shrimp was much better than cardboard. We eat at this café a few times a year, and have always had great meals here. It is on one of the «main» streets in Lompoc, so its easy to find and I’m pretty sure the place gets a lot of visitors and tourists… but most of the patrons are local folks who live in town. And we know that the owner had the food concession for years at Jalama Beach County Park. The burgers they made at the shack on the beach were to die for– big and juicy, handmade and grilled to tasty perfection. So… this fancy storefront in town had a reputation to uphold. And they do; if you like burgers and fries, seafood, or café-​style fare, try this place. You won’t be disappointed.

This is a twofer review… we enjoyed dinner so much we came back for breakfast on our way out of town. JBC is an excellent value café with exceptional flavors in everything we tried.
–Dinner. Wife had the sauteed tilapia with veggies and rice pilaf. Perfect combination. Each was seasoned nicely, had great flavor & was cooked perfectly. I had the chicken jalacruz with ½ lb of tender chicken, ortega chiles, chorizo, diced tomatoes and their special tequila lime sauce. Unbelievable flavors. Broccoli was not over cooked and delicious. Baked potato with butter and sour cream was very tasty.
— Breakfast — wife had the Green shroom Scramble with fresh spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, red onions, shredded potatoes scrambled with jack & cheddar cheeses. It was HUGE and wonderful in flavors. My choice was the Puerto Jalama omelette with chorizo, lots of cheddar & jack cheese and green chiles. Oh my gosh… DE-​Licious. Topped with sour cream & homemade salsa that was sooo fresh and tasty. Glad I chose the hash browns.
Service was friendly and attentive. Love this place. We’ll be back next trip to the area.

Good place for a family atmosphere and good dinner!

My husband and I frequently come here for lunch and occasionally for dinner. It’s clean, the service is prompt and friendly, and the food is consistently good. Their side salad is great (not just iceberg lettuce) and their fries are always perfect — crispy and not too thick. I’m not a fan of their potato salad. The potatoes are cooked to mush and soaked in mayonnaise, but if that’s your thing, you’ll love it! My only other criticism is that their dinner prices are a little high.
This time I came, my mom and I got their pasta dinners. So good and very generous portions!

Slowest food service ever
We showed up for lunch when there were only 3 other tables, and it took over 45 minutes to get 2 burgers and a greasy grilled cheese sandwich. We ended up needing to tell them to change the order to go because we were out of time. Food isn’t too bad but don’t come here if you are in a hurry.
Over all, I don’t think I will be back.

The menu says fresh squeezed OJ. So I order it only to see them poring if from a minute maid OJ bottle you can buy at the store. I don’t come to eat food to pay for things I can make at home.
They eggs were ok. The waffle was greasy and doughy. Not crisp.
The other people whom I was with had sandwiches and both complained about how soggy and greasy they were.
50 bucks for 3 people was a bit outrageous. Maybe we’re just use to the other places around town.
People were nice. Place was clean. We were seated quick.
Don’t care to go back really.

Amazing rueben with a side of deep fried pickles it’s a taste bud orgasm; and you can’t go wrong with their heavenly rich and generous slices of cheesecake oiiiiii

Good service not so great breakfast. The eggs are dry and the meat is tough but the staff are very friendly and the lunch items are good

When we found out were were coming down here for a work trip, my coworker started raving about «the kobe beef place»! Kobe beef in Lompoc? …um, okay? Kobe beef at a restaurant called Jalama Beach Café in Lompoc with a gift shop in the front part of the restaurant? I’m confused. The likelihood of me ordering Kobe beef from a diner in Lompoc is about the same as me ordering sushi in Phoenix. I don’t even remember what I ordered. It was decent standard diner type food. But the service was great, and meal was reasonably priced.
Apparently, Jalama is the Chumash (the local Native American tribe) word for «bundle». Jalama Beach is the name of beach a little further down the coast, but I don’t understand how it’s related to this restaurant in Lompoc. I’m just confused by this place.

I’m a huge fan of there breakfast menu and my go to lunch meal is usually the Kobe gourmet burger. Service is also always punctual and smiling.

I always go in for their Salmon burger. I haven’t tried anything new yet but I’m sure they’re all just as tasty! Fries are good too.
Their burgers sort of fall apart while eating though, not sure what it is! But that fact doesn’t ruin the burgers for me, I still come in.
I recommend this place to everyone

Fish night tonight! This restaurant did a very good job with the rainbow trout, and the rice pilaf was a delicious complement. But I think that their fish and chips had too many chips for the price you pay.
I have to give props to the servers here: they definitely did a good job covering their tables.
Not planning on trying the Kobe burger; otherwise, there are a good variety of dinner entrees and pies.

Thinking this was a fast food place we expected to order and be gone we didn’t expect to be here so long. My ck in time was well after we arrived.
The waitress was friendly enough and helpful enough until our orders were received. Then we didn’t see her again until the end of the meal.
I don’t care how good food is a 30+ minute wait for burgers, French dip or whatever they call it and a bowl of chili is crazy!
The waitress never checked on us after we got our order.
We we weren’t offered drink refills until we were finished with our meal.
They were extremely quick to clear our plates and and get us our ticket though.
The place was freezing cold they had cold air blowing and temps outside were sub 60 Degrees.
On a positive note they were very nice but that doesn’t make up for the service.
If the wait is going to be that long bring chips while we wait tell us it’s going to be awhile. Goodness gracious great balls of fire it wasn’t that busy there were empty tables no lines of people waiting to be seated.
We are good tippers when the service is good. You guessed it no tip and we let them know why. Call us Scrooge —however — Servers shouldn’t ignore customers they never know who those customers will be!
Ooh I guess I should comment on the food the «hangries» got the best of me.
The Tri-​Trip was tender the chili had a good flavour with chunks of meat although mostly beans not real meaty. I tasted the Mans burger and honestly it was a burger and it dripped all over and was über messy. Does that make for a great burger? I don’t think so. So food was ok but seriously nothing that deserves 4 – 5 stars.
Maybe they deserve 3 stars but since I was sooo stinking cold, waited so long for the food those stars just kept falling away and just couldn’t find them to replace them. Oops. r

When they get it right, they knock it out of the park. I think they actually have the best burgers in town when they do. But, yes, I’ve asked for my burger medium and got it well done. It’s at least still juicy. When it’s a Kobe burger they will fix it if it isn’t cooked right. I last ordered the California burger and it was pretty awesome. I really like to wash it down with a nice cold beer — my favorite is some the Naked Blond. It’s just down the street, which made me a little less appreciative of the place until I tried some other places that weren’t nearly as good. Service is friendly if a little slow.
My husband loves those kobe burgers. He also says he doesn’t know why I bother to ask for a burger to be cooked a certain way when they can’t really do it most of the time. What can I say? When I was a kid you could still get a juicy, pink-​centered quarter pounder before they started selling E. Coli and pink slime. They make fresh potato chips called «Jalama chips.» They’re OK and all, but I think their seasoned fries are better.
Probably the funniest thing that ever happened was when my husband asked for crêpes (with French pronunciation) and she said, «Oh, you mean craypes, honey?» We couldn’t stop laughing and still have a giggle over that when we make them at home.

Quirky café style with gift shop kind of place.
It was a kind of slow, tuesday night. We seated ourselves and quickly had drinks. Food was solid, but not terribly memorable. Overall, we left with our bellies full and an A-​ok kind of feeling. There are not tons of unique options in Lompoc, so this is a place that we would try again.

3 strikes – you’re out. Third disappointment in a row here. I gave up on the substandard kobe burgers due to their dryness and toughness the last two visits. Decided to get a regular burger with avocado and bacon. I ordered it medium. Out came an overdone, dry, sorry excuse of a hamburger patty. Even the «jalama sauce» or avocado couldn’t bring the burger to an acceptable moisture factor. I doused the burger in ketchup and ate it with the same amount of joy as a cup of instant ramen.
The waitress had taken specific orders of doneness for three of the same burgers but proceeded to slap the orders down as if no one had even ordered a specific temperature. I’d like to say that all the burgers were overdone. To add to this calamity, the cold, lifeless fries had apparently been cooked quite a while ago. The only enjoyable element was the 90-​minute IPA on draft. Never again.
I should open a restaurant in Lompoc. Apparently, you can be successful with the most amateur of skills and passion…