Stray Cat Cafe

Great vibe, décor and food! A bit hard to find parking, but if you’re commuting or passing through, a great place to stop in the morning. The waitress was attentive and dressed in a classic waitress outfit-​a nice touch.
Nothing fancy or leading edge, just a good basic breakfast.

Place was a cute 50’s style café. It was a pretty good find for lunch in downtown. I had the tuna melt, which was fresh, but not anything exceptional. It was a bit pricey too, at almost $ 10 for a relatively small sandwich.
The service was great though, and makes it a worth while place to visit at least once. the large windows let you peer out and see the interesting characters that fill downtown. Also, I believe the onyx lounge next door is owned by the same owner. When the café is open, they use the lounges kitchen and vis a versa. Wish they used the kitchen at the center of the café for that real 50s vibe.

I’ve been here twice … First time was pretty good. Waitstaff was friendly & the food was good. Unfortunately my second visit sucked! The place was almost empty. I was told to sit anywhere, which I did. No one brought a menu so I got my own. No one EVER came to my table. Did I mention the place was almost empty? After 15 minutes I left. No menu, no water. No nothing.
This seems to be a recurring theme here. I doubt I’ll be back.

NOT my type of restaurant.
It is a basic, diner-​style food place that will just get the job done.
I’ve only had breakfast here. Their breakfast burrito is pretty tasty but it won’t knock your socks off.
The waitresses are particularly friendly and kinda cute.
Want a quick meal? Stray Cat it is.

This experience is for service only.
Despite the not so great reviews, my husband really wanted to check this place out since there arent a ton of great breakfast places in DT (yet). We walked over there about 10am on a Saturday and walked in to be greeted immediately, which was nice. They asked us to take a seat and they would «be right with us.» We waited a couple of minutes and then got up and got menus ourselves since nobody came to give them to us. And then we waited and waited and waited and though there were only about 5 other tables full in the restaurant, we had absolutely zero attention. No water, no coffee, nothing. I have no idea what the problem is here, but if someone comes in to sit down, they should be given menus and water pretty soon after they sit.
Nothing on the menu looked very appealing to me either, so after several minutes of waiting, we got up and left. Very sad to say that we will not return.

Meh. That’s what I left thinking about this place.
The food is uninspired and for the most part, tasteless.
The orange french toast had a strange, stiff texture with no orange flavor.
The chili omelet didn’t have a chili taste. left me wondering what I ordered.
Even the beef sandwich was on the ho hum side.
There was an error made on our bill and it took forever to get that fixed.
So much so, that my friend wished she never brought up the problem
because it meant putting more money in the meters!
If you’re hungry for breakfast — go to Syrup Dessert down the street.
It’ll be much more worth your time and money. I had been hoping Unilocal
was wrong in its rating, but this time it was dead on.

The staff were friendly and helpful to replace missing place settings or dropped utensils. While they were happy to fix an overcharged item on our bill, it took the waitress 10 minutes or so to wait for the computer to be «free». And even after explaining to her that we’re kind of in a hurry to beat the meters, three of us had to leave money with our fourth to run outside to drop an extra quarter to avoid tickets.
The food was a disappointment. The orange French toast didn’t taste very orange-​y and the bread was dense and not at all fluffy. And one of my pet peeves are mushy, grayish looking strawberries. Macerate them, please. But these looked like sad, previously frozen strawberries. The blueberries probably were too, but at least the bananas tasted fresh.
My friend’s chili omelet was meh as well. The chili was dull and lifeless brown sauce, hardly resembling chili unless it came from a can and the eggs in the omelet dense and bland.

Letztes Frühstück in Kalifornien und leider ein ziemlicher Griff ins Klo. Manchmal merkt man schon beim Betreten, dass das nichts wird, im Stray Cat Café fühlte ich mich von Anfang an unwohl. Das mag daran liegen, dass ich außer eines weiteren Tisches der einzige Gast war. Oder an dem nicht funktionierendem Wireless. Oder der unoriginellen Frühstückskarte. Ganz sicher lag es aber an der von mir bestellten Eierspeise/​Omlette mit Paprika, Zwiebeln und den anderen üblichen Verdächtigen. Was sich in der Speisekarte scharf und würzig angehört hat war das geschmackfreieste Essen das ich seit langem gehabt habe. Wer immer schon einmal wissen wollte, wie das Nichts schmeckt, hier wird es serviert. Auch tonnenweise Salz brachten kein Fünkchen mehr Intensivität und ich muss vor mein letztes kalifornisches Frühstück frustriert eine Zwei Minus setzen.

Stray Cay Café is the corner café, 50’s influenced, hipster joint that serves food out of the Kitchen from Onyx and is owned by the same proprietor. The interior is simple with some local art on the wall, lit by a handful of spots. The lighting is otherwise florescent, which would be unpleasant without the softer lights. I plan to tell David next time I am at Onyx that he should just shut the florescent lights off if he can get away with it. He will probably read this review before I get a chance… If you haven’t met him, David is the cool owner of these joints and he is very approachable and he wants to hear from you. If you don’t find him, at some point he will come talk to you so no worries about hunting him down.
I will update my review after I try something other than the breakfast wrap, but this is what pulled me into Stray Cat. I needed something fast and portable. There was only one employee in there when we (the Wife and I) walked in, and she was friendly and fast. She quickly got hit with 4 tables/​to-​go orders including ours and flossed them all just fine. She was polite and apologetic about the wait (which was not long anyway).
We grabbed our eats and gobbled them down as we ran to an appointment but we will be back for sure. That said we might go to Onyx instead since we can get a Bloody Mary there.

I came here early on a Saturday? Sunday? morning with my bf for breakfast. It was almost 9 am when we arrived. There were a handful of other customers there. Despite my make up being smeared and smelling like vomit (had an adventure the night before) we were greeted by the staff and quickly seated. Luckily we were seated by the window were we got to see the downtown residents out with their pets.
The food was good. It was not «OMG THIS IS SOOO GOOD.» The prices were not too bad either. I’d say the prices are like those of a Denny’s or something. There were a few items that caught my eye from lunch and dinner menu. I am planning on returning to Stray Cat (clean and sober this time) to try other items on their menu.

–good for breakfast, bacon was well cooked (not too crispy or floppy). Breakfast potatoes were flavorful. Portions are only OK, not huge.
Wait staff was cute and nice– very casual and fun.
Interior decoration is boring, music was KROQ style (weezer/​killers)
Prices are a little high (10 bucks for breakfast) but a Unilocal check in gets 10% off

a-​ok café with a hipster twist. Nothing really interesting except for the super cool vintage shop next door. hehe.
mehhh

I got FOOD wasted!
It was not before long and this Macy’s day parade float was wrapped up like a present. Ohhhhh what was waiting for me inside? I opened it up and it looked inviting. It had frilled rib eye, fresh jalapeños, sautéed peppers and onions, cilantro, jack cheese, topped with their own special salsa, and chipotle dressing. Plowing this thing down made me feel like a UFC wrestler. It took some work and every bit was worth it. In the end it was not too spicy. It wasn’t until the second half that I started sweating.
Love,
MEAT ME

Bleh. I came here with a LivingSocial deal to grab lunch, and ordered the skillet scramble. I asked if there was any gluten in it, and my waitress told me there was because of the potatoes! There is no gluten in potatoes, so I asked her if there were any wheat products at all in the dish, as I figured that would be the main offender. Turns out there is a flour tortilla in the skillet scramble, which could have ended up in my meal had I not probed her more! So anywho, they’re not very allergen-​savvy, I can tell.
So I ordered the skillet scramble, and got excited for the eggy, meaty, breakfasty delight that I anticipated. Ten minutes later a scramble arrived. And it was missing half the ingredients! I poked around my plate – the sausage looked cheap, and the ham looked like it had come from the day-​old cold cut counter. The eggs looked like they had come from a carton and had been watered down. There was no bacon, no jack cheese, and no potatoes, despite the fact that I had told my waitress potatoes are already gluten-​free! As I bit into my scramble, there was a curious crunch – a hard, flavorless gritty thing appeared to be mixed in. Upon close inspection, it appeared to be a BACON BIT! Kind of grossed out, I finished my meal anyway. It was bland and only about half the size it should have been, given its cheerless cheeselessness, poopy potatolessness, and sorry excuse for a bacon substitute.
I won’t be back. It’s too bad, given its fabulous location. The food is cheap and unappetizing, and given the weird ingredient situation I was presented with, who knows how they’re cutting corners back there? Ew.

I pass by this place to each day to work so for lunch I stopped by. The waitress was friendly and nice. I sat down and ordered the chicken sandwich and tomato soup.
The tomato soup comes with cheese on the bottom which isn’t on the menu. So if you can’t eat cheese or are allergic to dairy that will be a big problem, the soup is good so be sure to tell them no cheese.
The chicken sandwich was pretty good which I did enjoy.
I had a good lunch so I came back the next day. This time I ordered the fish sandwich and the tomato soup again without cheese. I finished the soup but the fish sandwich was not that great. I took a couple of bites and that was it. The fish didn’t smell fresh which had a bad odor and they piled on the onions which didn’t hide the smell of the fish not being fresh.
I may go back but never eat fish.

This place has a great vibe. It’s totally casual, cheap, and tasty.
Simple as that. If you live nearby, it’s worth wandering in for a coffee and eggs.

It was Saturday morning, I was meeting a friend for breakfast, by the time I got there, he was already waiting at Stray Cat.
Decision made.
We both got the Gritty Downtowner and I was happy to have my grits and bacon.
Was it decent? Yeah.
Did we enjoy our breakfast? Sure.
Was it any better than a Denny’s? Only just.
It’s a great centralized spot for breakfast with some downtowners, but I’m not hurtin’ to go back.

Nice petite café, with a nice selection for breakfast and dinner!
Finding a nice place for breakfast in L.A. is very hit and miss. You might find a gem or you might find a landmine. Stray Cat Café, luckily was a gem. Although parking might be a hassle (street parking is $ 3 an hour), Stray Cat Café had a nice assortment of breakfast which included pancakes, omletes, and waffles.
Many of the dishes were not expensive at all (around $ 6-​$ 10), but still tasted very excellent .
I got the orange flavored french toast ($ 7.50)(there are more than just oranges on it such as: bananas, strawberry s and nuts). It was tasty, although I was expecting more orange than other fruits.
The service was great, and there are many more items on the menu to try. I would come back here anytime!

Although it’s nice to both live and work in downtown LA, I’ve exhausted my favorite neighborhood restaurants to the point where I occasionally struggle to decide where to go to refresh the palate with something new and amazing. I had one of those nights tonight, after my list of several nearby dinner suggestions generated a lukewarm response… and then I checked Unilocal,and I was immediately drawn to the breakfast photos at Stray Cat Café.
Wait — it’s 6 pm on a Saturday night, and I’m salivating over photos of breakfast diner food?
What can I say? I love breakfast. Since I now had my heart set on eating breakfast for dinner tonight, we called just to double-​check that we could still order from the breakfast menu… Success! — we were informed that they serve breakfast all day, except for the waffles and eggs benedict (served until 3 pm, as clearly noted on their menu). Dinner location decided.
Upon entering the storefront, staff immediately greeted us, asked if we were joining for dinner (ha — in my case, it would be breakfast), and invited to sit at any table we liked. We eventually settled on the Orange-​Flavored French Toast and the Mexican Cheese Steak. It took a small bit of time for our meal to be prepared, but it was so worth it.
The cheese steak was pretty big at 12″, and came sliced in two. Since it looked so appealing, we ended up sharing and so I had half… I’m sure it isn’t the healthiest of options from the looks of it, but it tasted amazing in all its greasy, unhealthy glory. It had a mild touch of spice, and although I love spicy food in general, we decided that this was just the right amount of spice to complement the full flavor of sandwich.
By the time I finished my half of the meaty, yummy, mildly spicy sandwich, I treated my french toast more like dessert. It’s probably weird to eat french toast in conjunction with a cheese steak sandwich, in retrospect. The cheese steak did so much more to hit the spot, but the french toast was delicious and fresh tasting in its own right. Oh, and the dish used green raisins instead of icky regular raisins. :)
I also noticed that the menu prices for some of the items seemed to be a little lower than what I saw for the menu on their website… e.g., the orange-​flavored french toast was $ 7.00, vs. the $ 7.50 listed online.
The restaurant was clean and well-​lit, and there was only one or two other small parties there when we first arrived; however, several more people had walked through the door by the time we left, and the tables were quickly filling up. The music was slightly loud, but not obnoxiously so. I did love their alt rock music selection… it was the kind of music that they would play on KROQ over the years. People-​watching is good from the tables by the windows… there are so many people walking dogs in downtown these days…
I want to return here to try more of their delicious food! Finally someplace new and amazing to work into my rotation of favorite neighborhood restaurants, especially when I reach my mid-​day breakfast cravings. Highly recommended.

What a nice place to be and enjoy the food. I’ll go back asap… with friends!
The service was flawless!

My husband and I were on our way back to LAX on the Metro — got off at Pershing Square stn to eat at another place I’d heard of. Shit! It was closed on Mondays (FAIL on my part for not figuring this out). It’s raining, we’re starving and getting grumpy carrying all our crap around looking for somewhere to eat. Then, just as I’m consulting Google Maps for the 50^th time on the phone, we notice we are standing in front of a diner. At this point, we probably would have settled for a Denny’s but instead, we found a gem.
Sean got the Meat-lover’s Philly Cheesesteak (although it was 9am) and I got the breakfast burrito. The cheesesteak was HUGE and really, really good. The breakfast burrito, really good with fresh ingredients. It also came with homemade red salsa which was SO tasty.
A comment on the service too — I rarely have service this good anymore. From the moment we walked in, all the staff was so helpful and nice. They found us a table where there was room to put all of our junk, were very quick with the refills, etc.
Overall a great experience and would go back again.