The Hi Spot Cafe

This has got to be one of the finest spots for breakfast/​brunch in the city. We always have great service, and the food is pretty amazing. Expect a wait on weekend mornings, as the word is out. Even if it’s raining though, these guys are worth the wait.

Excellent brunch in a charming location. Noisy and crowded but worth the wait. Love the «green eggs and ham» and the fruit cups are always expertly prepared.

Pros —
Service was prompt and efficient for breakfast.
Food was tasty out of a quite eclectic menu. In other words, if you don’t like curry in your eggs Benedict, you are down to customizing a regular egg through an extensive options menu.
Cons —
Like a Porsche, the options add up very quickly. A regular omelette with ham and onion, a sausage side and a latte, came up to $ 21.70, with tip, that’s a $ 25 breakfast.
At 9am, the techno/​trance music was blaring from the speakers, forcing customers to shout when trying to have a conversation. Not quite the calm and relaxing breakfast I was looking for.

Super atmosphere — small tables throughout an old house. Honestly I forget what I ordered (I’m sorry — not helpful!), but do remember it was delicious. The ambiance is so great — very sunny, windows everywhere, sound level low so easy to catch up with my friend.

Overpriced and overrated; chopped deli meat, raw onions and Sysco hashbrowns a corned beef hash does not make. An hour wait on top of it all takes this place off of my list. This was third extremely underwhelming meal here. So long.

Extremely slow internet! I came here to sip a latte and check emails and the Internet was soo ooo slow. It took a minute or more to fully load a page. I wish I could give a better review but this was so annoying.

Hi Spot is a good solid breakfast spot where nothing was incredible, but everything was pretty good. The coffee is good, but pretty much what you’d expect at a dinner. The Sammy Sue sandwich was good with nice thick sourdough bread, egg, lettuce, tomato, and delicious bacon. The bacon here was outstanding, fairly thick cut and very chewable, almost more like pork belly. The bengal benedict was nice with some curry sauce on it, but I could have used more spice and seasoning to bring it out. I ended up adding tobasco sauce which did in fact enhance the flavor considerably. The potatoes were a bit disappointing and a little mushy. Service was good though not outstanding. It was incredibly warm inside on a fall day which was odd and I wish they had the outside part open because we ended up waiting a while to be seated.

THE most delicious biscuit I have ever eaten and I’m from South Carolina!!! Get yourself the savory biscuit of the day. Breakfast was outstanding. We just had 3 eggs prepared our choice. Really cute setting. Place is in a cute house. Super family friendly if you have well-​behaved city kids — not kids from the suburbs who are going to scream and destroy things. A MUST if you’re only in Seattle a few days. It’s near Viretta Park so you can check out Kurt Cobain’s mansion afterwards.

Talk about homemade! This cute restaurant is inside of an old craftsman style home, which I would assume dates back a few decades or more. There is a quaint little café at the entry where you can grab a coffee, tea, or baked good while you wait to be seated upstairs. The tables are all fitted inside of the small rooms of this old house. An unused door separates a dining area from the kitchen. The tables are mismatched, and they have seating in the old «back yard.» We happened across this restaurant while searching for a breakfast place on Google, and I am glad we did. The food was great (portions are a little small compared to most American restaurants) and the staff is very real, raw, beautiful people and great at what they do. It’s always nice to see the owner walking around, bussing tables and taking orders with the rest of his team. Cheers to a great café!

You will wait to get in, but this is one of the few times I would say it’s totally worth it. The menu oozes with originality and decadence. The Green Eggs (pesto) and Ham is my favorite dish, by far, available. Did I mention the little bakery downstairs? Fresh Cinnamon Rolls and coffee right at your finger tips, made in house. I have been coming here for years and this has and always will be my favorite breakfast spot to impress friends and out of towners, alike.

Excellent weekend brunch, great eggs, pancakes and juices. Really nice outside space, helped by the great weather. Service was really friendly and the menu has loads of great choice. We’ll definitely be back!

I work at the preschool near The Hi Spot, so sometime’s I’ll walk over to get lunch. I’ve had a few of their salads, which are okay. The best food items are their scones! Oh my goodness, there are so many! You cannot go wrong with whichever scone you get, but make sure you get them early because most are gone by my 11:30 lunch time. You must also try their cinnamon rolls! YUM!
The staff is the friendliest I’ve ever encountered. I have a bad habit of slipping my card into my purse instead of my wallet after purchases, so when I would walk over to get lunch with only my wallet, there were times that I didn’t have my card! The staff there has been so lovely as to always write me an IOU on those occasions! How much friendlier can you get?
The one negative thing I can think about this place is that I used to be able to order my lunch ahead of time and have it ready by 11:30, but now they’ve told me that they’ll start on my lunch at 11:30 because that’s when lunch officially starts.
Still, I’ll definitely frequent them!

Great place to have breakfast in madrona Seattle. The breakfast is delish and plenty to choose from. We came here twice and both times ordered the Pacifica omelette which has smoked salmon and capers with a yummy dill sauce. Mmmmm

ONLY negative is that there’s about a 45 minute wait every weekend, but they have a decent amount of downstairs seating, so grab a coffee and bring a book/​friend. It’s packed because it’s worth it.
My husband and I almost exclusively use Unilocal reviews to select where we eat, so we were drawn to the good ratings here. We split a breakfast burrito and french toast. Wow, it was phenomenal. As a result, we’re here about 3 – 4 times a month. I would say most of those trips are for the breakfast burrito.
Definitely a good place to bring friends or family. Really pleasant experience, even if it’s a little busy.
Their lattes aren’t that bad either, if you’re a foam lover like me.

Great food, friendly & quick service in an old three story house (I think?) in Madrona. Not particularly large portions, but they will get the job done. It also helps if you ditch the toast. You can upgrade your toast to a gigantic scone or cinnamon roll for $ 1.25. What idiot would not take that deal? Who are you, crazy person to my right?!
On busy days you can get a drink at the espresso bar or even a pastry while you wait. It’s all well and good. The only reason I knock a star here is that they have super weak coffee. Maybe the espresso is better, but I like endless coffee with my breakfast. Hot, strong coffee. I have only had coffee this bad at seedy diners and auto body shops. And coffee is 20% of breakfast for me. So there, 4 stars.

Hi Spot has always been my top favorite place to grab breakfast or brunch. The atmosphere is cool — it’s in a house — and the servers are always polite and genuine.
My go to eats there is the Sammy Sue. Their breakfast sandwich is so good and comes with a side of fruit which keeps it decently healthy. Good coffees, always tasty scones and cinnamon rolls too! Definitely a must for the weekend ritual!

I have only been here 1 time and I had a fairly good experience. The place looks like it was converted from a 3 story home into a restaurant. You really cant tell there are many people inside, until you get inside, most of the customers are on the 2^nd floor, which is where I sat.
Pricing is ok, from $ 9-​$ 13 dollar plates. These dishes do have a very homemade look/​taste to them.
Just know that this place is only open 8.30am –11.30am (3 hours MON-​FRI and 8.30am-2.30pm SAT & SUN. It’s not open very long!
The food here is good I give it a 3 star because I was expecting to get blown away (since it’s only open 3 hours a day) but I was not blown away.
If you want to eat in a place where it looks like a home, but just not your home then come here.
Although I see that some of their baked goods did look very yummy, but I did not try them… My review is based solely on coming here on a saturday at about 9.30am. It was Very busy at that time.
Overall I would only come to this place if I was in the area. Some people love this place, but I just thought it was ok. Just not enough overall to lure me back here. It is good though!

Excellent, fresh breakfast food at reasonable prices.
We kicked off our first full day in Seattle with a trip to the nearest brunch place. Although we had to park a couple of blocks away, I found that the food here was well-​made.
I ordered a tofu scrambler. Because if I see something with tofu, I’m going to order it. It was pretty good; I like the dressing, though I wish the tofu had been more seasoned. At the very least I can say for sure that it was healthy.
I also had a cappuccino, which will be a recurring theme during this trip. Coffee, and more coffee. Not sure how to review coffee, other than it was tasty and piping hot. There was a nice heart draw in the foam on top as well.
My wife had the green eggs and ham, which she loved. Pesto and eggs might sound like a bad idea, but that’s definitely something that I’m willing to replicate when I get home. The home fries were crunchy and also well cooked.
For a neighborhood brunch café, The Hi Spot definitely hits the spot.

Cute little neighborhood in Madrona. This place looks like someone’s home turned restaurant. Kinda liked that in contrast with the fancy modern hipster spots in other areas. 20 min wait on a Sunday at 1230pm. They were out of cinnamon rolls by then :/​I got the spicy corned beef hash. It tasted alright, but not enough meat. It’s probably about 2 out of 5 star spicyness to me, which was a bit over what I would personally enjoy. Brunch entrees were pretty big portions and about $ 11 each. Not too expensive. Overall, it was ok. Nothing wowing.

The Reuben is very good.
Almost everything else is just average. The staff here appear to be in a permanent state of ambivalence. It takes a while for the cook to prepare the food, but it’s consistently average. Often I get food TOGO because then I don’t have to deal with the staff.
Try the Reuben.