John’s Ocean Beach Cafe

Easy Four stars. the Duck Benedict special was great! Easy atmosphere, and walking distance to the beach.
I enjoy coming back and trying breakfast specials. Definitely worth a shot if you are in the area.

My heart sunk when I saw John’s had closed. I’ve been coming here since I was a kid with my parents and had enjoyed continuing to visit with my own family. So happy to read they will have a space in the new development!

End of an era. No better pancakes have ever exsisted… a quest for replacment begins. Thank you to all of those that comprised Johns Ocean Beach Café.
NOT FADE AWAY

This was my favorite place for brunch in all of San Francisco. Their Benedicts were amazing. No fuss, no drama, just amazingly tasty food. We’ll miss you.

Used to be a great place to eat we came here every sunday to try all the different omletes. Now it looks like thry dont care about the customer experience With all the fine dinning and new breakfast spots popping up everywhere! This place is now bottom of the barrel!!! Spend some money and get new tables and chairs!!! Kitchen Nightmares !!!

Went there for breakfast great service great food. Little hole in the wall old place cute not everybody’s cup of tea. Would go there again.

Giving this place a second chance (because it is close by) was one chance too many. Where do you start? The stale mouldy odor that hits you when you walk in? The lumpy red booths that are held together with duct tape? The dingy walls that look like there are a few layers of grease on them? The food — basic, frozen french fries that were a tad bit still frozen. Spotty service with the waitress flying by saying she’ll be right back — and isn’t. You can get a much better meal at half the cost at Irving Street Café. Too bad, I wish there were some decent quality places in the Outer Sunset, guess I’ll have to hoo in my car next time.

Staff is friendly and chatty, but sadly this place disappoints. I wanted deep fried diner French fries. I ordered a plate and they came out nice and hot, but when I bit down, the fries tasted like raw potatoes and they were frozen in the middle!
My best friend and I were eating here with our young children and I quickly advised her to not let her son eat the fries. I asked that the fries be refried, and the server obliged, but she came back a few minutes later saying that the grills had been turned off and they were closing soon…
The fries were taken off my bill, but my friend still had to pay for her sons fries. 1 star for the staff, –4 for my upset stomach
**** the fry cook did come out and apologize for the raw fries. He contacted me and I did forget to mention this. They get another star for reaching out.

This review is in regards to the actual cook/​owner Tony. After eating about half of our breakfast my girlfriend bit down on a piece of glass inside a potato. After alerting the waitress she was immediately apologetic (very sweet women) but that was not the case with Tony. Tony preceded to tell us there is no glass in the kitchen that could have even got into the potatoes and said «open your mouth so I can see it», so unprofessional. He then told us there is nothing he can do for us and as he walked away pointed at us and said to the waitress «Bill!» and we were charged full price. I can’t help but to let everyone know about this incident in hopes that Tony is not supported by our amazing community here in the Outer Sunset.

Location to zoo and beach is awesome. My husband and I shared a plate of Apple-​walnut pancakes served with candied Apple walnut butter they make here to go with pancakes. Delicious. Also shared an order of corned beef hash with poached eggs — very good. Waitress was suggestive selling the special fruit plate. Seemed a bit pricy until she brought it out — a huge platter of watermelon, honeydew, cantaloupe, grapes, pineapple, and three small plums. Plenty for both of us to share. We would definitely visit again.

Don’t be fooled by the aesthetics of this place. The service is great and the food is delicious. The bacon was cooked to perfection!!! They literally have over 15 different kind of omelets.

5 stars because I have either been rolling on molly, drunk from the night before, emotionally wrecked, or delusional from studying all night every time I’ve been here. It has been an amazing experience every time! The cash only part sucks because who even carries cash these days hahaa
I love the eggs Benedict! Yummmmmy! It always gets my all sleepy so I park my car at the beach and nap for a bit after. This place is REALLLY good! I recommend it!

When you walk in there, I do not think you expect much. Its cluttered, kitchy and kind of crazy, but I was too hungry to wait. I for one really loved this and it became one of my faviorte places to eat in SF.
The coffee is amazing.
I had the tuna melt, and I really enjoyed it. First time I had one with alvacadoe. It was a perfect tuna melt with great fresh french fries. My coffee cup was never empty from the second I walked in the door to the second I walked out. The waitress was amazing and she helped me figure out where else I wanted to visit, and the things I may not of known about when I got there.
I wish I could of gone back!

This was this places 2^nd chance. Big Mistake! There are about 6 open tables and a 20 minute wait?! What? Which really ended up being 30. They were only seating parties of 2 at tables for only 2 which is insane to make everyone wait with so much open space that never ended up being filled anyways. As I sat there I watched behind the counter as they dump the left over liquids and food into the same buckets as the dirty dishes. GROSS!
We finally are seated and the waitress walks up asks what we want and starts to walk away in the middle of my order. She acted as if she was already sick of hearing us talk. I had to crank my neck and raise my voice just to finish. Then she comes back and asks «Sorry what did you want». Seriously?
By this point we are pissed. Well about 30 minutes goes by and we finally get our food. My wife’s hamburger is cold and the cheese is already hard along with our fries. My sandwich was good but it’s something I could’ve made at home without being treated like I’m making someone go out of their way.

There are several really wonderful things about this place that I love. The fun vintage atmosphere, the beach location and the coffee shop/​diner feel of this place and the nice German lady waitress are it’s best features. The breakfast food is also very good.
HOWEVER. The omelettes are ridiculously SMALL and they charge $ 4 for an iced tea! What a ridiculous rip off. It’s just flavored water! What could be cheaper to make than an iced tea? My husband and I went there and had a nice breakfast, except for the tiny omelettes! But when the check came, we couldn’t figure out why the bill was so high. We looked at it and realized that we had been charged $ 8 for iced teas!
This guy is obviously very greedy and his greed is going to result in his place going out of business. It’s very sad. Because The Sunset needs places like this. I hope he doesn’t end up like Joe’s Cable Car Restaurant, closing from his greed.
Oh and to add to the negatives, the fact that it’s a cash only place. In 2014? Really? This is a day and age when many people only conduct shopping and eating with their debit cards and credit cards. This guy needs to wake up and get into the 21^st century. I’ll be when people walk in and see that it’s cash only and get ready to leave, this guy points out that there’s an ATM somewhere close. But does he realize that some banks charge you as much as $ 4 to use an ATM that’s not theirs?

I just about loved the blueberry pancakes here. Little crispy on the edges and nice and fluffy inside. And the cinnamon butter was an excellent topper.
The corned beef hash was good, but I prefer my corned beef shredded and not cubed. That way it gets a better sear.
Great option in the sunset. Needs a fresh coat of paint too.

Gotta have the corned beef: the real deal not the canned stuff!
Friendly staff, delicious & quick (although the wait can be long on the weekends) breakfast food.
CASH ONLY (with an atm inside I believe) n not the cleanest décor but order the corned beef omelette, corned beef hash, or any of the pancakes n you n your tummy will be so delighted.

CASH ONLY
When I first walked in, I noticed a smell but it might be because the place is dated with the pictures of famous stars such as John Wayne and yellow table tops with red booths but after awhile your nose becomes acclimated with the smell and it’s time to dig in and eat.
Ordered:
Omelette with the Chorizo (I know it came with avocado and sour cream on top but I can’t remember if it contained onions, bell peppers, and tomatoes or not).
*All omelettes come with a side of potatoes and toast (4)
I would say that my omelette was pretty tasty and the chorizo came in big chunks so that was a plus, I really liked the side of potatoes but I did not enjoy my toast since it was smoothered with butter. I had to mask all the butter with lots of Smucker’s jam (which they lay on the table for you), I really wish they lay off with the butter, one swipe is enough.
Good portions as well!

This is for Tony!!!
I’ve been to just about every breakfast house in SF, but for Johns Café it is the best breakfast spot in town, hands down. The waitresses are always friendly and talkative especially Rita (= sweetheart). Tony the chef always makes great food. From «corn beef hash» to «patty melt» to «greek benedict» to «baked apple pecan crisp hotcakes», everything is great!!! When business gets crazy its ALITTLE (its never that bad as it looks) crazy, like anywhere would be but don’t go anywhere they have a great turnaround as well.
I would recommend this place to any real San Franciscan and especially to any sunset cat.

I come here exclusively for the Egg’s Benedict because it’s one of the best in the city, that’s all I care about as I ignore the outdated décor inside the café. Once the waitress asks me how I want my eggs cooked (soft or hard) which makes me feel like I’m eating at a steakhouse, I’m reminded once again that at John’s they know what they are doing when it comes to Egg’s Benedict. Since I’m a fan of the classics, I always get the traditional which always impresses me when it comes with real Canadian bacon. Canadian bacon just has that cleaner flavor without the heavy saltiness of ham, and being a thicker cut, always gives a more solid texture to each bite. The home fries they serve with the dish are somewhat mushy and nothing to write home about, but they are satisfying enough so you don’t have to order a side of pancakes or French toast which I have yet to try here.
There is hardly ever a wait, even on weekends, and free parking is always available in the area.
If the weather is nice, you can walk 1 block to the beach after your meal to spot some nice waves and check out the surfers freezing in their wetsuits, or hit up the San Francisco Zoo afterwards just across the street.