I was recently invited to try the Big Kitchen Cafe by Josh at Polidigitial. He arranged for Jake and I to come by one Sunday morning (well… afternoon) to get some breakfast grub. In all of the years of living here and of hearing about the Big Kitchen, I’ve never been! Alyssa used to go here a lot since she used to live about 2 blocks away but somehow I just never managed to make it over. Now I know that I need to come here more often – the food is just too good to pass up!
After a short wait, we got situated in a little booth and started looking at the menu. They’ve got a little bit of everything here – sweet treats (muffins, coffee cake, french toast, pancakes), eggs n things (omelets, frittatas) as well as “specials” from favored guests. They also serve lunch, but Jake and I were definitely in the mood for breakfast!
We had a coffee cake brought out to us first while we were looking over the menu. I was still looking at the menu and Jake really wanted to dig in and urged me to take my photos of the coffee cake NOW. I don’t blame him – it did look super delicious. One bite confirmed that it was as delicious as it looks, too. It tasted just like a homemade yellow cake but with lots and lots of cinnamon topping goodness (and cinnamon bits in the middle). Very moist, sweet, and melt-in-your-mouth tasty. I ate about a quarter of it and thought, “I don’t think I really want pancakes now…” but you’ll see I changed my mind.
One thing Josh insisted that we both try was the orange juice. I thought, “Orange juice is something I have to try? Really?” After we both got a glass of OJ I could see why – you can tell with one sip that this is fresh squeezed no nonsense orange juice. Very pulpy and very fresh. I had to stir my glass of OJ several times to redistribute the pulp just so I wasn’t “eating” my orange juice. Very good!
It took Jake and I forever to decide what to get. He ended up getting some sunny side eggs, bacon, sausage and sourdough toast for his breakfast (with home fries, too, they were just also on a separate plate). He asked for 2 bacon and 2 sausage and our waitress explained it was one big sausage patty – we didn’t really know what she meant by “big” until the plate came out. Holy cow, look at that thing! They sure do put the “Big” in “Big Kitchen”!
As for me, I ended up getting an omelet. Which was weird, because right before I ordered it, Jake and I had a discussion about omelets. I said, “I always want to get an omelet, but then I’m disappointed with it when I actually get it. I always think I want it!” But after having the sweet coffee cake, I didn’t want to just eat pancakes anymore. The cream cheese, chive and avocado omelet sounded so good that I had to get it – despite everything I had just said! I added mushrooms and sausage to my omelet for more tastiness. This was also HUGE – it took up half of my plate!
Here’s a look inside my omelet. I think the different with this omelet is that the filling was inside the folded over omelet and not cooked into it – which I really preferred. A lot of times omelets seems to have very little ingredients with just a few items tossed in – at Big Kitchen, they stuff this thing full! The cream cheese was also so, so good in the omelet – it added a nice, creamy element that I loved. And it had tons of avocado in it! Oh, man. It was just so good. I had been eating toast with this and some of the home fries and I ate maybe a quarter of this.
After we had ordered I decided that I really still wanted to try some pancakes and we ordered one pancake for us to share.
Wow. Do you see this thing? It’s as big as the whole plate! And they give you a bowl of melted butter! On the menu it tastes, “If you eat a whole pancake, the 2nd pancake is half off. I don’t think I could ever eat 1 whole pancake here. It was good, too – fluffy and delicious after we smothered it in butter and syrup. Yum!
The other cool thing about Big Kitchen is the myriad of items plastering the walls – all kinds of photos and knick knacks give it a really homey feel.
Jake and I really enjoyed our breakfast and can say for sure that we will be back for another breakfast visit!
Big Kitchen Cafe
3003 Grape St.
San Diego, CA 92102
(619) 234-5789
Hours: 8am – 2pm Daily
The food looks delicious and plentiful.
Those are certainly big breakfasts! I always think I want something sweet and bready, but I almost never end up ordering pancakes or french toast. I think because I want to eat something substantial (like an egg dish) and not something carby where I’ll be hungry later.
That coffee cake looks so good, though…
The coffee cake was like having dessert for breakfast. But man, it was still warm when we got it and it was so good! I love breakfast foods and yet during the week I mostly eat cereal or something quick. So sad.
Love this place…great food and great people …. love Judy :)))
hi mary – i’ve always wondered about that place…wow, that was a huuuge pancake!
and that sausage patty….yes. i would love to have that!
looks like a great spot for breakfast.
Hi CC – It is a good spot! Careful of going on the weekends though, it gets crowded. If you after 12 it shouldn’t be too bad (they close at 2). We’re planning on bringing an out of town friend here – it was that good!
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