marie’s cafe | north park / san diego, ca

After we went to Heaven Sent Desserts, we walked around North Park for a bit trying to work off and digest some of our tasty desserts. We peeked at a few restaurants menus and inadvertently found a Steampunk Party until we made a final decision to visit the tiny diner on University Ave. known as Marie’s Cafe.

I noticed Marie’s Cafe a few times while driving by on University Ave., but I hardly spend any real time in North Park. Marie’s Cafe is a little 50’s diner. It’s got purple and pink walls (?), tons of Hollywood related decor (lots of Elvis and Marilyn Monroe) and they played a bunch of 50’s rock n’ roll before moving onto classic rock. One side of the restaurant is all bar stool seating in front of the kitchen, and the other side is all big plushy, red booths.

The place was fairly empty on a Thursday evening and when we walked in, we were told to seat ourselves. Since we just ate a bunch of dessert, Laura and I were both unsure of what to eat for dinner. We knew dessert was insufficient as an only meal and after some waffling we both made our meal choices.

I got something pretty classic and diner-ish: a Patty Melt. I requested my Patty Melt to be on sourdough bread since most places use rye bread and I absolutely cannot stand rye bread. I once got a sandwich and they forgot to change the bread for me and I figured, “Well, let me just try it.” I took one bite, spit it out, and requested they fix my sandwich. Caraway seeds are the bane of my existence!

Here’s my “artsy” shot of my patty melt. Yeah. So. This sandwich… they used red onions which were only partly caramelized, the bread wasn’t grilled all of the way and the meat was kind of greasy. Now, I usually like diner food but this sandwich didn’t quite do it for me. I wished they had used regular onions and grilled them a bit longer and taken a bit more care in really grilling my bread. The fries were pretty good – they tasted almost extra crispy, almost like the ones at Burger King (but not quite). In the end, the sandwich just mostly tasted greasy with partially cooked onions on it.

Ah well. Marie’s Cafe didn’t quite do it for me on this trip. I might be willing to come back after I’ve tried a few other places in North Park first and see if they do better the next time around. They serve breakfast all day  – maybe that’s the thing to try here?

Marie’s Cafe
3016 University Ave
(between 30th St & Ray St)
San Diego, CA 92104
(619) 220-0142