Big Basin Cafe

This place reminded me of my college campus cafeteria, in a good way. The menu is quite varied with affordable prices. The service was OK. You order at the counter and then wait for your name to be called. Would eat here again.

So much food selection! Amna provides friendly, attentive and efficient service. Thanks Amna!

Been waiting for 15 minutes just to get ONE coffee drink! Mocha. She says she is «slammed». This is not new. They are ALWAYS «slammed» quite a bit. Some things never change and certainly NOTHING changes here. Good coffee and VERY POOR service. Tired of this. Management continually does not make improvements to help customers. Not coming back.
Going back to Blue Rock Shoot.

Had higher hopes for this place to be honest. Visited this afternoon after seeing some of the glowing Unilocal reviews + after seeing such large crowds of people at this spot while passing through the Downtown Saratoga area.
I wasn’t impressed with the coffee, and I definitely wasn’t impressed with the ambiance/​mood of the café.
The place looks fairly messy, and doesn’t really have an «it» factor at all. It’s a hodgepodge of random art, mismatched tables and chairs, couches, magazines, etc. I really enjoy coffee shops with a certain character or vibe, but this one just seemed confused. There is a good amount of seating (with access to outlets, in case you want to work) but that’s about it.
I ordered the iced coffee and self-​added soy milk. It tasted good, but not great — quite average and standard. I felt like it was diluted pretty quickly while I was drinking it.
Wifi works pretty well, so again it definitely is a good spot to work. But it doesn’t feel cozy, cute, or one-​of-​a-​kind and maybe their specialty coffee drinks are better than the plain iced coffee. Who knows, but I definitely think Sue’s Gallery + Café will be my place to go to when I’m in the area (it’s also in Downtown Saratoga).

I ordered three sandwiches, muffins, and tea, and stood waiting while 10 – 15 other customers picked up their food and drinks. I was given my tea and continued to wait. When I asked if my food was close to being ready, it took five minutes for someone to tell me they had no record of my order. I was told the system didn’t record my order and I’d have to pay for it again. After a few minutes of back and forth as I obviously refused to pay twice, they wrote down what I ordered on a paper bag and took it to the back and made the sandwiches.
I was in this café for 45 minutes to get three underwhelming sandwiches. No one apologized. I’ve given 2 stars instead of one because their muffins are delicious.

This has been my go-​to coffee spot in the area for awhile. Great espresso drinks and drip coffee, nice staff, good ambience (even after the ownership change).
That aside this is also one of the best places to purchase coffee beans in the area. Cheaper than most places, and the beans are always freshly roasted. Much better value than the corporate chains.

Big Basin Café is one of my favorite cafes. Located in downtown Saratoga, it’s a quaint little spot that offers delicious quick eats, desserts, coffee, and free internet. The interior of the café has a homey feel to it– there are couches, paintings, and little knick-​knacks. Admittedly, the coffee is a bit on the pricier side ($ 2.75 for iced coffee), but the food options are affordable ($ 5 for ½ a salad, around $ 7 for a sandwich). Overall, a wonderful little spot to eat fresh food, enjoy coffee, watch movies, or catch up with friends!

I have to agree this place has amazing food, but you should definitely steer clear if you’re on a time crunch. I’ve headed down here for lunch several times and while ordering is fast, actually getting the food is a bit of a slow process.
I love their turkey and avacado sandwich, and it’s a very quaint café. Just learn from me and don’t go if you only have a 45 minute lunch.

I usually love this place, but my last experience was not a good one. The guy served me a burned bagel, and asked «Is this OK with you?». Then he raised his head and saw me. I don’t know it was my age or my skin color, he said: «You asked for a dark toasted bagel, right?»

I like it! A loft… I mean A lot! Yes, the environment is really artistic warehouse trendy cool. The smell of fresh cooked home cooked beans is great and the service is friendly and efficient. It’s what you would expect in California and more certainly in a place like Saratoga! I actually ran here from home and back 14 miles just as a inspiration point for gourmet coffee! The snack and dessert treats look awesome but i stayed away with some hesitance… but did run here as a goal for that mixed coffee drink I had… to go! :)

Great food specially deserts. This is the first place we found vegetarian lasagne. Will surely come here again.

Big Basin Café is the best coffee shop in Saratoga. The kids love the almond waffles with berries and eggs. They also offer an open breakfast with eggs, veggies, and toast that’s to die for. The homemade quiches and pies are delicious. I love their soy chai with cinnamon — hands down, my favorite anywhere. At lunch, they offer a quinoa salad and really amazing sandwiches (the bread is fab). The kids love the hand decorated Mickey Mouse and Minion cookies. We haven’t tried the gelato yet, but are looking forward to it. The staff is really sweet here, too, but you do need to be patient when you order food that needs to be cooked.

Report card
Ambience — ⁵⁄₅
Service — ⁵⁄₅ — Self Service ;)
Variety — ⁵⁄₅
Taste — ⁵⁄₅
Value for money — 4.5÷5
What an outstanding place. We discovered this spot tucked away in Saratoga, a while back, when we were heading back after a hike on the Castle rock. Beautiful ambiance, I must say!!!
They have such a wide selection of salads, sandwiches, waffles, pastries, quiches, chocolates and cakes. We tried their quinoa salad which was excellent and their quiche which was pretty good. Can’t wait to go back and try a lot more.
As far as cakes and coffee goes, they have some nice light flavors and some seriously rich and decadent options. No matter what your cravings, they will satisfy them. Their stuff is really good, and I was pleasantly surprised with the number and variety of the vegan/​vegetarian options they have!
Overall the food was great and the experience fantastic. I will definitely be going back here often with friends and colleagues (and I did most recently).

Great place to stop after you’ve been hiking or visiting the local gardens like Hakone Gardens. They have pretty much everything you could want. The coffee and pies are exceptional. Lots of fruit in the pies and they are vegan.

Good ice creams, coffees, and cakes. The live music (double bass and guitar) playing on a warm Saturday afternoon was a nice touch. Great place to stop by while strolling around ‘downtown’ Saratoga.
We ended up ordering ice creams on a beautiful sunny afternoon — vanilla, pistachio, apricot sorbet, and raspberry sorbet. The pistachio ice cream surprised us with lots of whole pistachios inside — probably at least 20, which was very unusual (in a good way).

I like this place, even with though I’ve had the worst cappuccino ever here. (To be fair, the guy offered to remake it… but it took 10 minutes to get it to me and I didn’t want to wait another 10.) Their lattes tend to be fine, haha!
It’s the kind of coffee shop that all the locals go to. It’s nonjudgmental.
I like to grab a slice of their lemon poppy seed cake and a latte and sit by the window and pretend to get work done.

My cousins and I desperately wanted coffee and we were in the area. This café was the only one open so we decided to check it out. Right when you enter the place you already have that «Friends» café feel. There were couches on one side and other tables on the other side.
The lady who helped us with our order was the sweetest! I am guessing she is the owner because she sure seemed and acted like it. It looked like she was the only one in the front taking orders and making the drinks. You can tell she knows how to make coffee with the way she carries herself. I wish I remembered her name!
If you’re looking to try some lattes I most definitely recommend the chai latte. Seriously the best chai latte I’ve ever had yet and I’ve tried a lot of chai lattes before. The foam on the latte wasn’t gross either like others I’ve tried. It was just right.
I will definitely come back again for my coffee fix if I’m in the area.

Good vibe, great lighting in the evening if you are trying to get some work done.
Organic coffee and delicious pastries. I like how the selection of sweets is multicultural. From Mexican Tres Leches, Russian cookies, Peruvian cookies, to and all American apple pie!

I ordered a medium latte. They seemed to forget my order. I had to remind them after like 10 minutes. I watched other people getting their coffee even though they came after me while i was waiting. Totally disappointed.

Dont get a sandwich here! My panini’s bread was dry and TINY. Way over priced for what I got. And if im not mistaken, you’re supposed to melt the cheese on a panini? Not the case here. Wife got a turkey AVOCADO wrap, guess what they forgot? The Avo. Came with stale tortilla chips? Wtheck?
I cant speak to the coffee or pastries/​pies

I love this place! Only organic coffee in town and seriously the best! Yummy vegan tamale pie and vegan fruit pies as well.

The coffee is excellent. I had a vanilla latte and it was done perfect. The carrot cake muffin was ok. They have a great location and lots of outdoor seating. I will definitely be back to try other items on the menu.

I was really looking forward to a yummy bagel! Unfortunately they only had plain left, which is probably my fault because I got there after 12… But, the plain was still good. I prefer the cream cheese on the side, but they put it on for you here. The Latte was really delicious and the coffee cake was pretty good too. Looks to be family run. They have really nice outdoor seating in a great downtown location!

Very relaxed, easy and quiet crowd. The outdoor seating is nice, even by the street. Lots of friendly people around, contributing to a generally relaxing atmosphere. On top of everything else, they make a potent espresso.
The only reason I’m not giving them the last star is because of the relatively small bank of food options. Not to say that what they serve is bad (it’s great, don’t get me wrong), but my personal preference is that they would have more choices.
Overall, a good choice.

If I rate only on the breakfast burrito I’d give it a 4 star rating. But there’s more to it.
We’ve been there several times on our way up to Skyline Boulevard. Each time they are obviously short handed. Today there were two people working the front which is nuts on a very busy day. It’s Saturday and its in the summer it should not be a secret that it will be busy. The owners need to do better but maybe they figure since they’re the only game in town over grab Starbucks they don’t have to. But many businesses fail for just this reason.
But the burrito was great, the tomatoes were amazingly fresh. The egg, bacon, avocado and salsa were really delicious. The tortilla was very good as well.
They have a lot of pastries that looked great too.
I had a disappointing Cappuccino. Not sure how this can be since they use a machine, maybe not enough coffee. But it was really lacking flavor.
All of the people waiting for food were not too happy. It’s a great place so I hope the owners improve on customer service or people will quit coming.

Slow down and relax. This is Saratoga, not Palo Alto.
This isn’t Starbucks, or Peets, or Philz. This café doesn’t handle volume well. event when there’s no line at the counter, it can take 5 or so minutes for my cappuccino to get made, and sometimes I even get my empanada before my coffee.
The empanadas are good. The dough has a great texture, which holds together but crumbles when stabbed. The filling is moist, and the hot sauce adds a nice kick.
The beans are roasted in-​house, and it shows. The coffee does taste excellent when it arrives. I just wish they would pick up the pace some more, especially when it gets busy on the weekend mornings.

They have bomb ass organic iced coffee. It’s perfect on a really hot day when you’re feeling all sluggish and don’t want to do anything! by the time you have that coffee, you’ll be up and running again. At least that’s how it is for me, haha. I love the ambience too; so raw and laid back.
Screw Starbucks down the street. Come here instead for better drinks and food. :)

Their gelato shakes. Enough said. I tried one here today (the Tony Bushoni) and oh my lawd, did it tingle my taste buds! It was just the right amount of sweet and it was rather filling too. Which I saw as a good thing.
I’ve come here before for the espresso blended shakes and those are delicious too. Very strong! Perfect for coffee fixes. My family and I approve!
We’ve always received friendly and helpful customer service here too. Bonus points. Overall great atmosphere :)

Coffee: 5; fantastic
Price: 2; A little high, could’ve gone down the street and purchased an iced coffee from Starbucks for cheaper.
Experience: 0; it took over 3 minutes to get a «hello.» I don’t mind waiting for a good experience and I also don’t mind waiting for good food. However, some type of acknowledgement is all I look for, and I didn’t get it — at all.

I don’t know how this place is still in business and 3.5 stars?! Ummm, I don’t think so!
My friend, Sindy and I wanted to grab breakfast after some hiking at Sanborn Park. Not many places to choose from in downtown Saratoga, but found this place on Unilocal so we stopped by. When we got there, there was plenty of people sitting outside so I figured it was a decent place.
I was debating whether to order a sandwich or breakfast, but the Organic Almond Waffle caught my attention. It came with eggs and berries, but I added a side of bacon. Also ordered coffee. As I was placing my order, the cashier seemed flustered and I was surprised that he didn’t ask how I wanted my eggs cooked so I assumed it was going to be scrambled.
Both of us ordered the same thing, but one came out much faster than the other. As I got my dish, I realized how unappealing it was except for the fresh berries. The eggs were scrambled, but looked like they were cooked way in advance. The bacon looked like the ones that were already pre-​cooked and just microwaved. The waffle was not hot and the syrup was super thick like honey. Coffee was lukewarm that I couldn’t bear to drink it.
My friend ended up waiting 10 minutes for the same food and her iced coffee. I was almost half way done when she got her food. Then she told me that they probably gave me the wrong order as they just called my name now. So I stopped eating my dish and my friend just brought over mine. I was expecting it to be hot and fresh, but it was actually worse as the inside of waffle was cold so I didn’t eat it all as I wasn’t sure if it was cooked all the way.
Then I went to get refill of new coffee as the first cup I had was not drinkable. There were 4 self serve pots of various flavors and surprisingly, they were ALL empty! How can that be?! Doesn’t anyone check it?! So I told the lady making the espresso drinks that all 4 were out. She told me to wait.
As I stood there, 4 other people came for coffee and I had to tell every single one of them that all the pots were out. They were shocked and annoyed as I was. 10 minutes later, we finally got a fresh pot. They had a sign that refills were $ 1, but that was a joke! Who would pay that much for a refill? My first cup was not even drinkable so I wasn’t gonna pay for that.
Overall, I was so disappointed that I wish I would have got my money back for the whole thing.

A nice location, nice setting. But wow, can you be that slow and not go out of business? My 3^rd or 4^th visit … I have waited as long as 25 minutes for a Café Late ! Today a bit better less then 10 minutes. … Still — owners please walk to SB or P’s and see how to be efficient and quick.
Update — taking one more star off, again another try and we ended up walking to SB down the road because of the ultra slow service.

Coffee and breakfast is great. But I didnt like the way my latte was made — no latte art, no microfoam. Obviously barista had no idea what she was doing :(
Coffee itself is good though — good roast, good taste. Really wanna come back when another barista is in charge.

Where do I begin?! Yes, my review of this place ISN’T four stars. Read it if you like to know why or just totally ignore it… up to you :]
So my friend read about this place and said we should check it out before our hike today, so I thought why not? I like places like this. We get there and it is busy and full of people with people sitting outside. Some even had their dogs with them. I thought! how cool. Well my first thought is, okay this place is small, but a nice coffee shop. I get to the counter to place my order and the girl there was nice. Her name is Elza. My boyfriend and place our order «for here». Not knowing how long the wait was for our drinks. So…@ that point I am thinking okay, so far four stars, but let’s see how the hot chocolate and my bagel is.
I get my bagel first before my drink and it is slightly burnt. I have a picture of it. So that didn’t go to well with me, but I didn’t take it back cuz I didn’t want to waste more time here than on my hike so I kept it. Next, I didn’t get my drink right away. They make all the orders separate. Like the person behind me could get their drink before me and not their food, but yet I got my food and not my drink. That to me, isn’t right! You either make the persons order all @ once or let them know. My friends already got all their drinks so they were half away done. So I was still waiting for my drink. I went up to the counter and told one of the girls if it was possible to make my drinks to go since it was taking a long time, I was already done with my bagel, and I didn’t want to keep my friends waiting. She didn’t give me the best attitude or facial expression back, but said okay. Then when the drinks were called, it was made for to stay. So I said to another girl this time, NICELY, «Oh these were to go» and her response back to me was, with MAJOR ATTITUDE, «Well they could be to go then!» I was shocked with her response so I said back, still nicely, «it’s okay, I’ll just take them.» And now she comes back, different attitude, not as rude, but still with an attitude, «are you sure?» I just said yes as quick as I could. I didn’t want that to effect my morning. I know that place was busy and all, but you do NOT need to give your customers attitude. If something went wrong with you, don’t take it out on us!
I WON’T be back! This place was a waste of time. My hot chocolate wasn’t even hot to warm. I’d rather go to Starbucks. Those girls NEEDS an ATTITUDE adjustment! SorryNotSorry, it’s the last day of the weekend and you’re stuck working. It’s life!

I came early on a Sunday morning to explore «Downtown Saratoga» and stumbled upon this quaint café.
I ordered a caramel macchiato and service was super quick. Looks like a great place to grab breakfast too — they’ve got a bunch of sandwiches and salads available as well.
Super laid back with an older retired crowd on Sunday mornings reading the newspapers and talking about what’s going on locally. I love the small-​town feel that this café (and this city for that matter) have.
Definitely stop by if you’re in the area!

I’m now a fan. Consistent outstanding coffee drinks with excellent breakfast options.
I have been here dozens of times and it is consistently great coffee. They’ve made huge improvements here and it shows.

I wanted to love this place. We just moved to the area and I didn’t want to give my money to Starbucks for a change so I opted for this independent-​owner shop.
Quaint, good menus.
I ordered a soy chai latte, a vegan turnover and a toasted Asiago bagel with cream cheese.
The turnover was given to me at the register. The chai came a few minutes later.
The bagel didn’t come. And it still didn’t come just shy of 10-​minutes later.
I went up to the register and asked for it and the guy, Edgar, just said «oh yeah. Ok.» So I waited another 5-​minutes and nothing. So I went up again and spoke to a girl asking for the toasted bagel. She went in the back and came out with a multi seed bagel. I told her it was wrong, and I had ordered a toasted Asiago with cream cheese.
Another 5-​min later, she delivers a cold bagel with cream cheese smooshed in between. I said «you forgot to toast it. Never mind.» My child was hungry and we didn’t want to wait anymore. It was kind of getting ridiculous. There’s hardly anyone in here and I wasn’t ordering duck confit for g*d sake. How hard is it to split a bagel, throw it in the toaster and smear cream cheese on it? It shouldn’t take 15-​minutes. Ridic.
Looks like Starbucks will continue to get my business.

Great place to get a simple quick breakfast, a sandwich or BIG salad for lunch or lite dinner. May need to have some patience when there is a burst of orders. They have a small kitchen.
Very laid back plea sent environment. Music sometimes on weekends. Wifi & A/​C recently upgraded ‚
It’s our togo place for simple relaxed meals and coffee