honey’s cafe / kearny mesa | san diego, ca

Update: This restaurant is now closed.

I don’t get to go out for breakfast very often and when I do, I expect it to be awesome. I’ve had some good breakfasts lately, but I guess my streak had to end somewhere.

I was out one Saturday morning on my own. I had a few errands to run (namely, to get a box to hold some cupcakes I was baking for my friend, Stacey) and I wanted to sit, eat breakfast, and read for a bit. I went by Keith’s Restaurant first since it’s my go-to breakfast places and I love, love their hash browns. I pulled into the parking lot and the line of people was out the door! Whaaaaat. I was in no mood to wait. But I should have been. I really should have been. Instead I headed over into Kearny Mesa / Clairemont since I was going to stop by my favorite cake decorating store, Do It With Icing. I decided to stop by Honey’s Cafe for breakfast instead. Honey’s Cafe used to be a joint called “The Good Egg”, which had pretty good breakfasts back in the day. I gave Honey’s Cafe a shot.

There weren’t many patrons inside the restaurant and there was no waiting. I was seated quickly at a table that already had a carafe of water on the table and after ordering some coffee, the whole pot was left at my table. That’s kind of cool. No waiting to refill your own drinks.

I waited a bit for the waitress to come by and take my order. I think she was in a bad mood that day, or just unfriendly, I don’t know, but she just kind of stood there and stared at me. I told her I wasn’t ready to order yet (they have a really large menu) and then she just walked off. Um, okay.


I finally decided and it took her awhile to come back around and when she did she said, “You ready now?” I gave her my order and then she left without another word.

I ended up ordering the Biscuits and Gravy ($9.25). They look good, don’t they? If I have learned anything from all of this blogging, it’s that looks alone don’t make a good meal. The biscuits were not cooked right, they were incredibly dense and had a gluey feel in my mouth. When I eat biscuits, I expect fluffy, light biscuits, not dense and heavy with a undercooked kind of flavor. The gravy didn’t have much flavor to it either and wasn’t seasoned very well. Just a really basic white gravy. The home fries here are all right, they potatoes are peeled so there isn’t any skin and the potatoes were browned. Some bits were kind of creamy, other bits of potatoes were quite dry. It was so-so. At least the eggs and the sausage patty were fine? For something priced this high, it should tasted a heck of a lot better.

My waitress was absent for quite some time. She never came to check on me (maybe she figured it wasn’t necessary since I had my own water and coffee pot?) and it took a long time to get my check. The service I received didn’t make the experience any better and I have to say I wouldn’t ever want to come back here. Oh well. Better breakfast places are on the horizon!

Honey’s Cafe
7947 Balboa Ave
(between Convoy St & Mercury St)
San Diego, CA 92111
(858) 565-4244

Honey's Cafe on Urbanspoon


8 thoughts on “honey’s cafe / kearny mesa | san diego, ca

  1. Boo… poorly made biscuits and gravy always make me sad. And, I agree – poor service will turn me off a place more than the quality of their food.

  2. Oh yeah, service can make or break a meal! I had good breakfast this weekend. I had my hash browns. All is right with the world again.

  3. I’m having a problem with the loan sausage patty sitting on top of the potatoes. The waitress being absent for a long time is a big problem. That’s unfortunate since I’ve passed this place a number of time and wondered about it. I’ll continue passing by without try it.

  4. I LOVE Keiths too!! I love their chicken fried steak and gravy! And their hash browns (extra crispy) is pretty dang good!

    I’ve seen Honey’s but never had chance (or desire to stop in). I like the carafe of water and pot of coffee on table thou. Have you been to original pancake house down the street?

    How was the coffee here?

  5. hi mary
    that sux about the S%&^@! service. we went last winter (using the 2 for 1 coupon) and we liked our food and the service was pretty good. we didn’t have that waitress though, but a guy. he was very friendly to us and even gave us more coupons for our next visit. we’ve only been there once.

  6. Hi Faye –
    Keith’s hash browns are my absolute favorite! I have been to the Original Pancake House quite a few times, the dutch baby pancake is awesome and I love their coffee. The coffee at Honey’s was just all right.

    Hi CC –
    Yeah, the service was really unimpressive. Glad you had a better experience!

  7. That’s too bad about the biscuits and gravy. I’ve had quite a few of those. I think I got eggs benedict a looong time ago here, can’ remember too much about it. This place might be related to Brian’s in Hillcrest (off washington). The menu is extremely similar. They both had the hamburger with peanut butter here.

  8. Hi Dennis –
    Jake totally swears by peanut butter burgers. He likes the one at Bangin’ Burgers, but with bacon on it. I… couldn’t really get into it. Honey’s menu was really huge but I really felt a lot of it was overpriced.

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