Review: Mission Beach Cafe

In case you thought we only give fawning reviews and talk about our favorite places, here’s our first tale of woe.

For some reason, I want to like particular restaurants. Perhaps because of their menu, décor, or something else that catches my eye. Because of this, and because sometimes even the best establishments can have an off night, I give places the benefit of the doubt and will often revisit if I feel it has potential.

Mission Beach Restaurant is one such place. We first stumbled into this café located on 14th and Mission because we were running some errands in the area and it looked new and interesting. After waiting forever to have our order taken, then longer for the food, and more time again because the order was wrong, we weren’t in a rush to come back.

A couple months later, I caught an article in 7X7 Magazine that awarded it Best Brunch in San Francisco. We love brunch, so decided to give MBC another shot. We got the egg sandwich which was raved about in the magazine. It came out cold.

In June, a couple months later, chef Ryan Scott of Top Chef fame who has a strong restaurant pedigree besides, was named head chef and once again we headed back. (I know, we sound like restaurant masochists.) We went again for brunch, and had a similar experience. The service was bad and the food took a long time to arrive. The appetizer (a “meat” quiche that only had a couple specks of ham in it) came after the entrees, and to top it off, the food was mediocre.

We’re applying our restaurant version of the three strikes law - Mission Beach Café is officially off of our list.

The Verdict:
Don’t bother unless you’re feeling charitable or have the patience of a saint.

Not Recommended Because of:
Poor service, repeated bad experiences

Bar Stats:
No seated bar, beer and wine


Information, photos, and map for Mission Beach Cafe

Mission Beach Cafe website