Oceanside Cafe

Yayyyy the bowling alley café!
I was hanging out at the courthouse for a two-​week trial, and the judge and his clerk turned us on to this place. Actually, they made it seem like the bowling alley café and Doubletree were the only places to get lunch (which we discovered wasn’t the case). But a solid recommendations for getting some food away from the food court at the mall.
Homegirl that was serving us recommending I do get the hashbrowns inside my breakfast burrito, and I wish her happiness for the rest of her days for that because it was delicious. What a great breakfast burrito. It filled me up the entire day. Unlike the other review, mine came out perfectly heated both times I ordered it (yep, I’ve eaten here twice), so that person must’ve come on an off day.
Quick service, decent diner breakfast. Not a bad choice for lunch around the courthouse.

Wow, very disappointing breakfast. Ordered the Huevos Rancheros, cheese was not melted, no ranchero sauce, hard tortilla shell… not what I was expecting and I sent it back. The chef said «I’ve been doing it that way for 30 years». Maybe that’s why he’s ended up at a bowling alley café.
My brother ordered a breakfast burrito and it was cold. The tortilla was not placed on the grill, cheese also not melted… service was subpar.
On the way out I saw two guys leaving, and I asked them «How was your meal?»
One guy responded «Awful. I ordered steak and eggs and the steak tasted like stiff leather.
So if you like stiff leather, cold food, small portions, bad service, unmelted cheese… I’d totally recommend this place to you.
I personally will never be back.

Oh for gosh sakes, it’s the BOWLING ALLEY café!!! You go there to eat breakfast and lunch at the bowling alley! It’s a stinkin’ riot! You can always park free right by the ocean and walk off your breakfast down by the beach and nobody asks you to move your car. The patty melt is great and it’s a really good (and not expensive) breakfast. The waiters are always nice (but a bit overworked) and you ALWAYS see interesting people here. I’ve noticed no difference since it changed from Michael D’s. Helpful hint – always have breakfast if you can. If not, have a patty melt. One other thing – DEMAND the potato salad.

There are some nice features about the new Oceanside Café that Michael D’s didn’t have.
They do not, however, make it better than Michael D’s.
The new floors and new tables are nicer than the old stuff. I miss the benches, though.
Some of the menu items are pretty similar. There are a few differences. They no longer have a ½ sandwich and soup deal.
I had ordered a sandwich with turkey and swiss. (I don’t remember the name.) i asked for cole slaw. I loved the cole slaw. The sandwich was fine, but not memorable.
Jeff asked for a tuna sandwich. Instead of fries or cole slaw or potato salad, he asked if he could get onion rings. The waitress agreed. He got a little cup of onion rings. The perfect amount.
My iced tea wasn’t filled, unless I asked. I wasn’t too happy about that.
It is a little sterile. The food wasn’t as good as I wanted, but for a quick bite, it works.

Good diner food. No breakfast after 2.

Sure, it’s a café in a bowling alley, but I had a surprisingly good meal here! My fiancé and his family have a weird tradition where they’ve gone to the bowling alley café in their hometown for years, and when he found out there’s one at the Santa Monica lanes, he was thrilled. The food is your standard diner menu, but I was pretty surprised that it was as extensive as it was, with wraps and lots of salads. I got a tuna melt with cole slaw on the side and the sandwich was much better than the side. That’s what I get for going to a diner and not ordering French fries, I guess!
Most importantly, the service was really quick and friendly, even with lots of orders going out to the lanes at the same time. I’ll definitely be back!

Great breakfast at affordable prices.

I was meeting my mom, who randomly decided to walk from downtown to the beach with her friend. They were running late, so I decided to pop in to the Oceanside Café with my bf to grab a quick snack. (We’d just finished running 13 miles and were famished.)
My expectations were super low. All I wanted was something starchy and salty to replenish what sodium I lost on the run. The coffee was super weak, but it didn’t stop me from downing 3 cups of that shizz.
I ordered chili cheese fries and he ordered the chicken tenders. We were the only patrons there at around 3pm, which I guess makes sense. The server kept popping in and out of the café and the main bowling alley, so service was a little slow. We weren’t in a rush, so it worked out, but I probably wouldn’t be so forgiving had I been on a schedule.
The chili cheese fries were surprisingly tasty. I half expected Dennison’s chili on Ore-​Ida fries. You know, it probably was just that, but they dressed up the dish with melty cheese, chopped red onion and diced tomatoes. The chili was nice and spicy. The super crispy (without being burned) fries, combined with the veggies, was like a strange cross between nachos and chili fries. Even the chicken tenders were really tasty with their dish of store bought barbeque sauce. In retrospect, it was probably exhaustion and extreme hunger that made everything taste good, but I didn’t get sick and the servers were nice, so I’m gonna give this place a solid 3.

First of all, when the waitress asked if we wanted beverages, I told her we were actually ready to order food and her reaction was… oh ok. I felt like it was a huge inconvenience that we were ready. I said ‘is that ok?’ And she’s like, yea.
Second, it took 10 minutes to get our water & diet pepsi… only because I went up to the counter to ask. If the place was super busy, I could understand, but there’s like maybe room for 30 patrons, & it was half full.
Third, my salad showed up (after my fiancée got his sandwich) with avocado & cheese… which I had specifically asked them NOT to put on… and the waitress repeated back to me, so I know she wrote it down.
My fiancée ordered a chicken salad sandwich which lacked favor… and the only reason this place got 3 stars is because when my salad was finally correct, it tasted pretty good… but really, how hard is it to mess up a salad?

I have to say, albeit being at a bowling alley, I was a fan of Michael D’s. Moving on.
The new remodel of this place does not fit a bowling alley café. Not that there’s anything wrong with a nice little spot, but it just seems weird. Especially since the stool area next to the register is exactly that same… so it just doesn’t fit.
The service was great. He was very attentive, but seemed a little nervous. Like he was new at this, but he did a great job.
The food left a lot to be desired. The soup was lukewarm and lacked flavor, but it looked delish! All 3 of our meals were meh.
I’d give them a few weeks to sort out any suggestions, if any, and give it one more shot. If they don’t knock it out of the park for visit number 2, visit number 2 will be my last one.

We only ate here because we were waiting for the cheaper bowling at 9:00, and I really like retro diners. This one doesn’t have the charm or comfort that other bowling alley diners do. Other than some flowers on each table, that’s about it in terms of décor, and the waitstaff’s personalities are just as cold.
The $ 8.00 nachos came complete with Velveeta-​like nacho cheese, greasy chili with not much meat or beans, and not much else. Sure, I would expect fake cheese at a place like this, but not for $ 8. I’d be afraid to order any non-​bar-​type food after that. It took a pretty long time even though we were the only diners there, but hey, we were waiting out the clock anyway. After hearing about good bowling alley café food from friends, I was disappointed.

I was a regular when it was called ‘Michael D’s. When it was your typical
bowling ally diner with good food and fun, old fashioned personable waitresses to match. It WAS a diner filled with a certain charm and warmth that was created by it’s staff and kitschy décor. Sadly, Michael D’s’ lease ran out along with his entire staff. The new diner, called ‘The Oceanside Café’ has been taken over by the AMF Group that runs the bowling ally and now also controls the Café. The menu has stayed exactly the same except for now it’s a blue menu rather than the old school ‘white’. The one and only new addition is a ‘Pizza Section’ not previously offered. The café was closed for months as they had many hurdles to jump due to it’s location in Santa Monica where they take ‘Building Codes’ very seriously. I paid the new Café a visit last week and was so unhappy, and here’s why. Gone are Gina, Jamie, Keri and Lorna, those waitresses with character and dimension. Gone too was ANY sign of kitschy décor… an empty, sterile room. The new Café had as much warmth as an operating room or deep freeze. The waiter (who I instantly named ‘Robot’) and waitress (clueless) had the same amount of character as the blandness that permeated the little room. It’s not
really fair to judge the food by one visit but suffice it to say my ‘Basic Burger’ was as lackluster and void of flavor, much like the environ around me. My burger which I ordered RARE came out on a big spongy bun WELL DONE. Much to my surprise the texture of the meat was that of RAW meat… It literally was soft and mushy and oozed an unpleasant grayish juice that stained the bottom bun and did little to stimulate my appetite. The burger was served with your typical garnish with fries and after two bites I couldn’t take a third bite of that soft, gray mushy mystery meat. Robot ask if I liked it and as usual I replied favorably, after all, he had nothing to do with the burger. As I said, you really can’t make a judgment call on one burger alone, so, give them a try and maybe after time things will improve at ‘Oceanside Café’. It would make me happy if someday this diner warms up to the neighborhood and it’s customers and lose that coldness and ‘lack of character’ feeling that most corporate run restaurants often suffer from.

at the bowling alley, new and hopefully improved.