101 Cafe

My husband and I have lived in Oceanside for 32 years and have passed this place several times, we decided to try it out this morning after having a craving for chicken fried steak. This place did have chicken fried steak and it took me only 2 bites to realize it was not steak but ground beef, which I do not eat. Yuck! About 3 bites later I just couldn’t put myself through this anymore. Well, at least I still had eggs, potatoes and toast, wrong. The potatoes had no flavor and the toast was burnt! My husband couldn’t get past the fact that nobody greeted us when walking in as he observed workers greeting all the white customers. Then when our «food» was brought, we received no «you’re welcomes» when we responded thank you. We were not checked on once which really angered my husband as he waited his whole meal for someone to check on us for an opportunity to ask for orange juice. It never happened. I overheard a waitress telling a customer that her co-​worker is running late and tried to be understanding but when I noticed our server checking on her older tables and not us, I was on my husbands side. Then when paying, the waitress said «cash only» and directed me to an ATM. How frustrating! It’s 20 016! How do you not take debit?! Just one more thing to piss us off. What a waste of time and money. My husband is sure the whole place is employed by racists, he might be right. We left no tip for our server which we’ve never done!

Great REAL malteds., not a milkshake w flavor added but real malt yum. ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ burger special hits the spot. Stays open later than posted!

Whenever I stay in Oceanside I want to come here. The Pile Up is my favorite dish and I love the casual family environment. The waitresses always take great care of us! It’s cash only here but don’t worry, it’s on every page of the menu and they have an ATM on the premises in case you forget. I would recommend this place to anybody!

First time here with my fiancé. I ordered the French Toast and he ordered the chicken fried steak… BOTH WERE YUM YUM YUUUUUUUUMMY!!! Service is great, food tastes great, and it’s a lovely quaint little café. I’ll definitely be back!

The best diner I’ve ever been to! My fiancée and I go down there at least 4 times a year and every time we go into the 101 the waitresses remember what we want! Sharing a ABC omelette!!! This place is comfortable and homey makes me feel at home every time!!!

I ate breakfast at the 101 Café in Oceanside, CA on 12/​28/​2015. I’ve eaten there several times before. My cousin and I had their Denver Omelette ($ 10.19 each) while my aunt had their Centerline (whatever that is) for $ 9.59. Good food and plenty of it. Our server, Chandra, did a fine job as well. Warning: cash only and limited hours. Plus, I took photos.

Our food was good. I had an omelette with mild chillis and Swiss cheese. It was really good.

I ordered a patty melt but changed the rye bread to sourdough and they charged me extra. I also ordered a small side of gravy to go with my fries and they charged me .50 for a teaspoon of gravy. Not very happy. We spent over $ 25for lunch including the tip.

Suuuuucccckkked. The pancakes were tough and flavorless. The bacon was hard as a brick. How a cook or server could put that plate out is beyond me. The best part of the meal was the Dr Pepper.

Huge portions, delicious food, dog friendly patio! Definitely returning! Eggs Benedict and the Denver omelette were delicious!

In the 8 years I lived in Oceanside I must’ve eaten here 50 times. We loved it! Good food, great servers and it was just blocks from my home there. I loved the 50’s diner feel to it, and it’s only a few blocks from the ocean as well.
I haven’t been for a year or more now, but still love this place. Next time I’m on the coast, I’m popping in for Chicken Machaca breakfast!

Im a HUGE breakfast freak! and when it comes to good diners, all I know is Dennys lol. But boy let me tell you, this gem has been around for a very long time and is a very iconic restaurant to the Oceanside community.
Its a very small diner with outside seating as well, so bring the pets too!
Their menu ranges from as far out to burgers but they always stay in the breakfast area so you dont get so overwhelmed to what to eat.
I normally get the Spanish scrambled eggs with corn tortilla, I had it with beef this time and didnt enjoy the quality of the beef. It had more fattening parts to eat that was hard to chew. I only wish they were more carful with that part, otherwise this wouldve been a killer dish!
I tried their new raspberry coffee cake which is to die for!!!
They brought it out nice and warm, and good enough to share if your stomach lets you ;)
Theres always one to two waitresses working here and service could be a hit or miss depending how stressed the waitress is.
Overall, the prices are affordable and its a neat historic place to kick off your day with some tasty food!

I would love to give this place 5 stars because the food is amazing and I love the friendly servers. It just seems always a bit dirty and the booths are in need of repair. But if you can get past the visual aspect the food is totally worth it.

We came in here at exactly 1:55. They clothes at 2. They still seated us and the
food was delicious. I had an awesome patty melt.

Stopped by for breakfast, very good… Waitress dropped off the check and said that it is cash only and that there is an ATM next door if we need it.
THAT info should be up front BEFORE you order BUT then you might not come in and order.
Also makes you wonder why this place is a cash only business… Think about it…

The best fresh roasted hot turkey sandwich with real homemade mashed potatoes!!! A must try !!!

I’m no shake connoisseur, but my chocolate milkshake was mediocre. It wasn’t blended very well, but maybe they’re special secret is to have small chunks in it? Who knows. A couple different websites said that Café 101 had «the best old fashioned milkshakes ever!» From my experience, not true by a long shot.
However, the building itself is pretty interesting: it’s supposedly the oldest café on US 101 on the West Coast. The mural on the south-​ish side of the building (Wisconsin Ave.) is really cool, especially with the palm trees.

My first time here. Classic old diner, and a gorgeous model T parked outside.
Place was busy and had only one, but amazing, server. Kelsey.
A great job done by her, she handled everything so professionally and efficiently.
And compliments to the chef.

THE RESTAURANT CLOSES AT 2PM!
Thought I’d put that out there after witnessing at least 10 people pulled into the diner only to find out that it was closing. How upsetting would it be if you drove all the way down for a roadtrip to the one place you want to try but realized it closes in the middle of the afternoon? Thank goodness we got lucky and made it the last min. I would have never known!
Now that you’ve finally got through the crazy traffic on I-​5, parked your car at 1:50pm and took a nice profile pic at the famous wall art, time to dive in to the food! I had the pile-​up breakfast plate– scramble eggs with all sorts of bfast meat and then topped with gravy. Oh man it was heart-​attack-​worthy kind of good. I could easily have another cup of gravy just by itself. My friend devoured his burger in less than 5 minutes. I would never find out how good it tasted.
The history here is incredible. Definitely a must-​stop for a coastal road trip. And how about my 101^th review for 101 Café? :)

OK, this place is just too cool for school. This place has been there since the 30s!!! still there, now a 50s vibe, 50s music, yer downright delicious diner food. The cheeseburgers looked enticing, but I stuck to my controlled food plan and had the tuna salad. Carol S. had the chicken salad.
The lettuce was crisp and fresh, everything was beautifully presented, there was a HUGE bowl of blue cheese dressing on the side. Carol liked but didn’t love her grilled chicken, she said it didn’t taste chicken-​y enough. But I loved my tuna salad and really dug into that blue cheese dressing with big hunks of blue cheese at the bottom.
The server was so nice, her personality was great, just talking to her and seeing her upbeat attitude makes me want to go back.
The nostalgic photos on the walls were fab, showing Oceanside in the 1950s. There’s lots of light, it’s on a corner with good parking. Hey, what could be bad?
A new favorite place to hang,