Heavenly Cafe

Great lunch today, except the portions were too large for our taste. Not expensive, and excellent service. I would like to see them add some smaller portion options to the menu.

This is NOT closed, same location, new operators, better food and amenities.
Here is a link to the open Heavenly Café.

Let me tell you all the hype about the hollandaise sauce is definitely true. I was looking for something with crab for breakfast, their half order of crab eggs Benedict was perfect.

CLOSED
Unfortunately Heavenly Café has closed it’s doors.

This is supposedly the «best breakfast» in Scotts Valley. If that’s true I would rather just skip breakfast and wait for lunch.
I’m hoping I came on an off day or something. The place was totally empty, yet it took around five minutes to be seated. I ordered the french toast, which was mediocre at best. It didn’t come with fruit or anything on the side.
The whole experience was just below average. There was nothing exciting or innovative about their food. I’ve had better food in a school cafeteria. Our waitress was absent throughout our entire meal. She reappeared to bring us our check. The dining area was large, empty, and cold.
Other people seem to enjoy this place. so perhaps I just came at the wrong time.

Solid place for brunch. Came here after a big hike and ordered the crab melt (tasty!) with a side of fries (eh, nothing too special about the steak fries) and tried a few other things… the special belgian waffle (i would highly recommend) and the chicken apple sausage and eggs (the sausage was fantastic!) with a muffin (which was meh). They also give you an option for coffee, dark roast and light roast. Friendly service, albeit a bit slow sometimes. Overall a great place I would return to in the future.

Awesome place for breakfast and dinner. Would highly recommend the Eggs Benedict and bread pudding. My husband always gets the blue cheese burger or the gyros.
Great food and service is always friendly and welcoming.

Delicious breakfasts and very family friendly. About two years ago, this was the first outside restaurant where we attempted to take our newborn twins along, for a first breakfast out. I was afraid of how it might go, and being «those people» with the screaming squirmers receiving all the evil eyes. I’ve gotta say, we were so wonderfully received in this family-​friendly place, and we continue to bring the kids as they learn to interact with the outside world. So anyway, this is probably not the place to go if you don’t like a lot of kids around during your brunch.
Delicious food. I’m also hooked on the eggs benedict. Family enjoys the oatmeal. Service is consistently decent and very friendly. (Excellent for Santa Cruz area.) As others have mentioned, they are extremely busy many mornings, and they try to not seat more people than their servers can handle.
We’ve tried dinner there and it was really good. I’m sure we’ll be back in the future as we look for dinners our toddlers can terrorize. Thank you Heavenly Café!

This place was pretty good. We were staying at Henry Cowell — got in late the night before, had no supplies and needed breakfast.
Scramble had lovely fresh spinach, sausage, mushrooms and a nice blend of cheeses. Three stars.
The service was really friendly, but a little bit slow. The coffee was fresh, tasted pretty good and they kept it filled up. Three stars.
Biscuit in the biscuits and gravy was freshly baked and delicious. Three and a half stars.
Everything else was super bland and my partner’s steak was pretty flavorless as was their gravy. Two stars.
I’d totally eat here again. It wasn’t tilt yer wagons good, but it did the job just fine.

I love this place for breakfast and lunch. Food is great, but be prepared to wait if you come during the breakfast /​lunch rush.
we tried dinner on a couple of occasions, without satisfaction. Service was slow and the food was very bland. I will try again in a few months when they have a bit more practice.

One of my favorite weekend destinations is Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. My parents and I go hiking there once every couple of months, and we would always pass Heavenly Café along the way. Having noticed this place many times, the three of us finally took the plunge and decided to stop here for brunch.
One thing we’ve noticed is that the parking lot has always has tons of cars regardless of the time of day. This is a good indicator of the popularity of the restaurant. The interior of Heavenly Café is very large; there are two indoor seating areas and a smaller one outdoors. The waiting area is a bit small, but it’s not really a problem as seating is generally very fast. The diner is located right next to the woods; as a nature lover, I really enjoyed the atmosphere. Heavenly Café is apparently good for families as I saw many people with kids.
There were many choices on the menu, and it was very hard to decide what to try. Per family tradition, my parents and I all ordered different items to share, and all of us enjoyed every one of them. I should mention that the prices are a bit steep, but this is pretty normal for tourist-​oriented restaurants. I’m aware that some other people have reported slow service, although we personally didn’t run into any problems.
All that having been said, I think Heavenly Café is a great place for a weekend meal. I hope to have the opportunity to come back here to try the other dishes.
– TL;DR version –
Highs: Great atmosphere; large menu selection
Lows: The waiting area can be crowded; somewhat pricey
Bottom line: Heavenly Café is a cozy roadside restaurant good for any number of people.
Final verdict: 4.6 stars (rounded up to five)

I’ve had some amazing food at Heavenly Café. Mostly you can’t go wrong with their delicious breakfasts, which are so well-​known to locals that it gets crazy busy on weekends, so go early, or expect to wait.
We went for dinner a few nights ago and my wife loved her Rib Eye steak, while the rest of us had burgers and grilled cheese. All very good, with good service.
Truthfully, I’ve had a «not so great» burger there once.
Call it an «off day», but it showed me that there are mortals working in that kitchen.
They’re making magic on most days, but mortals none the less.

Heavenly Café is a great place to stop for a meal after a day of fun hiking in the San Lorenzo Valley near Santa Cruz.
Our group was hungry after hiking around Loch Lomond and needed a bite before heading back up to San Francisco.
The staff were all very friendly, even though we had to stopped in when they were getting ready to close. (They close at 2:45pm on Sundays).
The menu at Heavenly Café has something for everyone and also offers beer and bloody mary’s. Mostly Sandwiches with a variety of sides (fries, salad, potato slad, chowder) as well as classic brunch fair.

I’ve been here a few times but during off hours, when it wasn’t so busy. We know better than to come here during a breakfast or lunch rush… there can be a line out the door and a long wait.
The inside smells sticky like any other breakfast place. The menu has extensive options between breakfast, lunch and now dinner on certain days. We’ve been here for breakfast and lunch and both times, there was plenty to choose from whether you are a light eater or a heavy eater. Portions are huge for the money. The coffee is pretty good.
If you are looking for american food in a casual environment where the smell of old syrup beckons your nose, this place might be for you.

I would have given Heavenly Café 3 stars if not for the unpleasant experience also described by Dirk G. in his review. The wait to be seated wasn’t bad at all, but once we were seated we waited a very long time for our server to come over to our table. We placed our orders and also ordered their somewhat famous avocado pie, asking for it to come out before the meal.
We then had to wait another extremely long time before our server brought the avocado pie out, even though it appeared to be pre-​made and the most he probably had to do was maybe put whipped cream on the top? It’s been a couple weeks since we ate there but I would say we probably had to wait 10 minutes before our order was even taken, 20 – 30 minutes for the pie, and 30 – 40 minutes (total) for the food (it came out relatively quickly after the pie).
When our server brought the food, he told my mom he had just found out from the kitchen they were out of the Texas toast, which is what her French toast was supposed to be made with, so they had made it with sourdough bread instead. She expressed her disappointment because the Texas toast was the whole reason she had ordered the dish, but he didn’t offer any solution other than an apology.
He later returned to the table and said the avocado pie (which I believe cost $ 1.25 — it’s very small) was «on him» because of the mistake.
It’s too bad, because the food was good (especially the pie), but the problem with the order should have been brought to our attention right away so my mom could have made an alternate choice from the menu. Barring that, once the mistake had been made and the incorrect food placed in front of her, AND she had expressed her disappointment, the server should have asked if she wanted something else at that point, even though the rest of us had our food. Barring THAT, the server should have gotten the manager to comp the much-​more-​expensive French toast – the order that the kitchen got wrong – NOT the $ 1.25 pie.
Cute location and food I wouldn’t have minded eating again (I got the pesto scramble and really enjoyed it), but service definitely knocked it down a notch or two.

Place gets crowded during the weekend
My order — Hot Tea — they gave me Cold water for tea (–1 star)
I chose the mini breakfast which came with eggs (I subsituted eggs for fresh fruit) a wheat toast and breakfast sausage. This was hearty and filling for me.
The service was also fairly slow (–1star).
Overall it is a fairly quaint and decent breakfast joint.

You can get a half order of eggs Benedict here, thank you Heavenly Café for offering this! Not to mention the hollandaise sauce is quite good.
They also have smaller size breakfast options for those with smaller stomachs or smaller budgets. But don’t worry you won’t walk out hungry as you can get a giant omelet, or biscuits and gravy etc. They also have lunch food and I suspect they might be greek owned since I saw a gyro on the menu that I must try.
They also have dog friendly outdoor setting but that section was closed when we went by, likely due to rains earlier in the week so do check before making the trip over.
good stuff!

Decent prices, great service and good food. I haven’t been here in a few years so I thought I would give it another try. We came here for a late breakfast today. My SO and I were seated right away and they brewed a fresh pot of coffee for us which I thought was nice. Our waitress was very nice.
SO had the Craig’s Scramble (egg whites, fruit and a blueberry muffin). I had the Smoked Salmon Scramble with home fries and a strawberry/​chocolate chip muffin.
I thought it was funny that they charged 25 cents to make my home fries extra crispy but for a quarter extra, as long as I am happy it is worth it.

Just off of the highway between Santa Cruz and San Jose is the Heavenly Café. A friend of mine raved about it but I just found it ok.
First, there was a bit of a wait, which is fine but it annoyed me that there was a weight because the whole restaurant wasn’t open because there weren’t enough servers. I hope that this isn’t normal, but it seemed like bad business to me. Normally, I wouldn’t weight half an hour for breakfast.
Second, the menu is big and there are lots of items. I tried one of the specials on the board. It was an omelet and I can’t remember exactly what was in it, but one ingredient was tomatoes. The tomatoes and other items really sweat during cooking and the inside of the omelet was a wet mess. It also didn’t have much cheese, feta I think. I should have ordered it without tomatoes (I know better) but I had hoped they knew what they were doing to avoid a gross mess. The potatoes were decent, but nothing to write home about. The coffee wasn’t bad, but it was decent diner coffee.
Third, the avocado pie. I don’t know how to describe it. It’s weird, but not in a bad way. It’s a tiny pie for $ 0.99 about 3 inches across. it’s a crumbly graham cracker type crust. It’s green like avocado but sweeter and tarter. It definitely had the flavor of lime or other citrus. I’ve never had anything like it. I would have come here just to try the pie. The rest of the food was just ok.
Fourth, the service was good though they were short staffed.
If you’re in the neighborhood I’d say to give this place a shot. I don’t know if I’d return, but I wouldn’t refuse.

We were with another family on our way to drop off our kids to camp in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and were looking for a place for brunch. One of our friends heard about this place, since it was along the way to our kids’ camp site, we thought it would be worth a try.
It’s a roadhouse café, located at the bottom of a bend on Mt. Hermon Road. It’s frequented by both locals, as well as visitors who are on their way to and from Roaring Camp in Felton. Motorcycle clubs also stop here as well. There’s two dining areas inside the café, with a bar in the back. From the entrance to the café there’s a ramp to a tree-​covered area, where there’s tables for outdoor dining.
The first time we visited, it was for mid-​day brunch before we dropped off our kids to camp.
Here’s what we ordered:
–Cheese burger with cheddar. This came with a side of fries. Pretty good sized burger.
–Chicken Pot Pie (
): This is of their specialties. The chicken pot pie arrived hot to the table. The crust was very flaky, and the filling was pretty rich.
–Smoked Salmon Sandwich: The smoked salmon was actually chopped instead of sliced, and served with toasted sliced sourdough bread.
–Grilled Crab Sandwich (
): One of the specials of the day, served on grilled sourdough bread. Think tuna melt, but with crab! A generous serving of Dungeness crab, with melted jack cheese. So good, and so buttery. Came with a side of fries.
–Joe’s Special (don’t remember the exact name) (
). Made with ground beef, sliced mushrooms, and fresh spinach.
A week later, we came back here after picking up our kids from camp:
–Super Club (
): basically a grilled club sandwich. Cheese was nicely melted, and the meat in the sandwich was nicely warmed.
–Mini Breakfast: One egg, sausage, and choice of muffin, scone, or pancake. Got this for my daughter. The pancake was large, and fluffy! They used a Grohlsch beer bottle to serve the syrup.
–Turkey Sandwich: Can’t comment, didn’t try it.
–Grilled Pesto Chicken Sandwich: Same comment as above
We wanted to save our stomachs for dessert, since we were planning on driving down to Santa Cruz, and getting ice cream at Marianne’s. We did see an interesting dessert special they offering: Avocado Pie for $ 0.95. Not only was that an interesting dessert, but also pretty cheap!
The staff who works here are mostly young, but very friendly, efficient, and attentive. I thought the food was OK, but I do love the local feel of this place, and how it’s a good reflection of it’s surrounding community. It would be an out of the way stop if you’re going to or from Santa Cruz, but it’s worth a stop if you’re in the area.