Izzy’s Cafe

This place is OK. My boyfriend and I come here sometimes to eat breakfast or lunch. The omelettes are pretty good and so is the club sandwich. A lot of times the fries taste old and gross instead of freshly made. The service is ok. Overall, there are better choices.

This morning, I found myself in El Cajon and hungry for some breakfast. A quick Unilocal search turned up Izzy’s Café.
From the street, the restaurant looks fairly nondescript. Parking on the street was plentiful and I was quickly inside finding a seat. The décor is pretty typical of a family run café with walls covered with miscellaneous Americana. It feels homey like a visit to your great aunts house in the country.
The staff here was first class. I got some of the best service I’ve experienced in a while. Jackie took the lead in taking care of me but it was a team effort. I felt the love like only a good old school café can deliver.
The coffee and food was good and hearty. I ordered the Special Omelette with country potatoes and coffeecake. The coffeecake arrived appropriately with my coffee. It was sweet and buttery with a strong dose of cinnamon. The day’s omelette came with bacon, avocado, spinach, mushrooms and cheese, all of my favorite omelette fillings. It was well balanced with the right combination of egg and filling to keep everything together.
I will happily return and want to see if their barbecue is on par with the breakfast options.

I was really looking forward to trying this place out. I understand holidays are busy but no one acknowledged me. Later I realized I was not the target demographic and left.

I didn’t know they were open for dinner on Thursday and Friday and they really don’t do much to advertise it. Great local café and our waitress Rosie was spectacular!

My daughter and I sat outside on the patio, we had a small dog with us. The outside waitress Gail never ask us anything. She avoided us for over 20 minutes. Then a waitress finally came out to serve us. And we told her what had happened. She was very surprised. The food was very good. But the service was not so good.

My date and I chose this place for breakfast based on the outstanding reviews here on Unilocal,and we accordingly ordered the brisket and eggs. We were not disappointed. Deliciousness! The service was fantastic as well. We’ll be back.

This is my favorite place to eat breakfast. The pancakes are amazing!

I love coming here for breakfast, the place had plenty of room this morning to seat. It reminds me of a hometown southern restaurant. I recommend the brisket with eggs or the country fried steak my wife and I had today.

Yummy food great service, had the cream cheese French toast amazing!!! Best place for brunch comfort food. Love this place can’t say enough good things.

Inhad to give this place a try with such awesome reviews. Came in one weekend morning, got off street parking, place is small, cozy, and cute. Everyone seems very busy and if you are not a regular you may get ignored. Once we got a seat i looked over all of their delicious Bfast options I was stuck in between french toast or the California Omelette after several rounds of eeny meeny miny moe, I decided to get the omelette simply because it had avocado (my fave).
Food took a long time to prepare maybe because it was a busy morning. however I saw many customers get their food before us that had arrived after us. Once I finally got my order there was no avocado on it.
I let my waitress know that they forgot the avocado and she said they ran out someone was supposed to get it earlier but never did. –_​– then she said if i wanted to order something else instead. After waiting for that long i said no its ok, but i think they should tell you if they have the ingredients or not before they make your order. Food however was good.
Probably won’t be returning.

PROS: Quite friendly wait staff, cute retro-50’s décor, very good brisket and smoky bacon, several comfy booths and east count b’fast places are minimal, so having it there at all is a bonus to some degree.
CONS: Expensive — $ 32 with tip for 2 basic breakfast’s/coffee, dried-​out eggs — ordered both over hard and scrambled (both dried out & inedible) nasty strong decaf — although they said they’d just brewed it (sent the eggs and the decaf back) fruit (melon) tasted like it was going off and somewhat of an unwillingness to wholly understand my request for no BROWN on my over-​hard eggs — in other words I was schooled by my waitress on ordering my eggs properly and they still didn’t get the broken yolks, NO BROWN part. —- not sure we will return, unless we’re desperate.

I walked in and stood there for a few minutes, no one acknowledged me. So I walked through the restaurant and sat myself at the patio with my co worker– waiting for about 6 minutes. No one came and took are order. So we went and asked for a menu. The Waitress didn’t even apologize… My co worker who is African American felt like we were being ignored. (we were). I left and will never return because the atmosphere was VERY uncomfortable!
Customer Service 0 Stars

Fantastic breakfast and service! My boyfriend and I just found our new breakfast spot!!!
I had Dr. Paul’s Special and he had the Cinnamon Roll French Toast. Absolutely delicious! Make sure to get the coffee cake instead of a biscuit. Such a treat!
The service was personal and each server was very attentive. Keep up the great work!

Sometimes when I walk into this place I think I am in the twilight zone and have walked into the midwest in the 60s or 70s. I think I look like an alien to the workers there as well as the patrons there in that I do not have lilly white skin. Service was not good today for me and I was ignored. Possibly because I was by myself.
The food was just passable today. The brisket was a big disappointment. I have gone here several times and the bbq has been very inconsistent. A few times I came it was good but I have completely given up on the ribs which they say are baby backs but they are spares. The brisket today was sliced really thin and dry and they gave me cut up tiny little scrap pieces of brisket to fill up the plate. Maybe they were running out but the last time I went it was far better. I did come the last time with my elderly caucasian friend so hopefully that wasn’t the reason I got much better service and food.
The country potatoes were lack luster and had black bits of burnt pieces of onion and green peppers. Also the potatoes looked like they were sitting around awhile. Definitely a whole lot better last time.
The eggs were slightly overcooked but at least the english muffin was good which they served me as the last thing.
I really like this place but the inconsistencies in service and the quality of the bbq leave me disappointed as I know that they can serve good food with just a little more attention to detail.
I know who I will bring with me next time as my dining partner…

Very good, first time here I had the pancakes. Excellent service even tho it was very busy!
Second time here is right now, I ordered the Club House and it was AMAZING. We just so happened to get a waitress on her first «dinner» and even still she was really good ! Overall great experience and would recommend it to anyone that wants good, affordable and good service.

Dr. Manhattan: «There is no future. There is no past. Do you see? Time is simultaneous, an intricately structured jewel that humans insist on viewing one edge at a time, when the whole design is visible in every facet.»
Alan Moore — Watchmen
There use to be more places like this. These old cafes… I miss these old places from when I was young. These old places had character. Like the old donut shop I started going to when I was 3. The rickety screen door which didn’t quite close properly. The scent of fresh donuts and apple pie which wafted out into the street.
Izzy’s. Doesn’t look like much from the outside but inside are treasures from the past and delicious scents. Inside is what I have spent my life looking for since they blew up Jack and took fried apple turnovers off the menu at Jack in the Box. Fried apple pie. Flaky crust. Unique flavor of fried pastry dough. Filling with equal parts apple and sweetness. They call it a fried apple pie but it tastes just like a Jack In The Box hot apple turnover. Best fried apple pie I have ever had. Another thing Izzy’s makes better than anywhere else are the country potatoes. Crispy outside and and creamy inside with rich potato flavor. Brisket was tender and had a bit of smoky aroma. Pulled pork was melt in your mouth tender. Sauce had a bit of tang to offset the sweetness. Pork ribs were very tender and had nice smoky flavor. Peach pie had the same delicious fried pastry flavor plus the peach filling flavor.
Izzy’s. Place is a gem. Delicious fried pies bring me back to days past when donuts and apple pies were available beyond the rickety screen door of the nearby donut shop.

Barbecue for breakfast?!? YESSS! I must admit I was a bit apprehensive about the idea but after ordering the pulled pork with eggs and hashbrowns, Lawd have mercy I haven’t had a breakfast like that in my entire life. I annihilated the entire plate. Hubby got the southern scramble which was also amazing but nothing on what I had. However he was somewhat disappointed since we decided upon this location because they serve grits. As they were serving us we were informed they were out of grits. The waitress said to come early since they are very popular. (Before 12pm)
Not to mention the service was some of the best I’ve ever received. Greeted as we walked in, given seating options, multiple servers and waitresses constantly refilling our beverages and checking in with us just enough.
The only down side about this place is I live in Oakland. Whenever I visit the San Diego area I will be making a stop at this lovely establishment.

I got my introduction to Izzy’s Café from Omar S at his UYE. I fell in love with the pancakes. Sure, I could try other items on the menu, and maybe one day I will, but why mess with perfection? These pancakes are light and airy. They are melt in your mouth fluffy. They are fill up the plate substantial. They come with a mound of butter on top. I’m kinda drooling just thinking about them.
So I brought my son and his little buddy who has been sleeping over because they’re both bored apart. I’m just a glorified chauffeur nowadays. It was a Saturday morning, so we had to wait about 25 minutes for a table. As we were going to our table she asked us what we wanted to drink, that was nice because it speeded things up and the boys were thirsty. They were able to choose their food fast. Hunger must’ve taken over.
Our server was very friendly and sweet. She didn’t bat an eye when I ordered like someone who hasn’t eaten in days. And wasn’t phased when I cleaned all my plates either! I like no judgement in a food server :-) I was a bit sad that they ran out of the deep fried pies again. I’m gonna blame this on Soo H since he left around the time we got our table. I bet he took all the pies with him on the way out, that rascal.
Everyone was happy with their food. I must say the country potatoes were especially delicious, I’m happy I tried them after reading Margaret A’s review. I mean, hey, I really needed that third plate of food. And no one mentioned the sausage patties last time I was here, I got them this time. They were also tasty, better than the links. I also appreciate that they always come around to top off your coffee. It’s the little things that make a gal happy.
There is plenty of parking here. They have a lot in the back, plus there is street parking as well. They have a small covered patio with about eight tables outside. There is a small amount of bar seating too.
The menu here is pretty extensive. They are mostly open for breakfast and lunch. I’m told they are open two nights a week for dinner, Thursday and Friday. They’re closed on Sunday’s.

Mr. GOOD LOOKIN IS COOKIN’! I haven’t even gotten my food yet & I’m so loving this vibe. Corner breakfast brunch diner. Waiters are friendly & the décor is just too cute. Feels real homey in here :)
With the smell, I definitely have to come back for their barbeque!
Per recommendation of my gorgeous waitress, I ordered the southern scramble with country potatoes (with reviews I need to try their hash browns but went with the potatoes just cuz of the name of the scramble haha) & biscuits! I also ordered the Sweeney stuffed French toast lol cuz I wanted something sweet. I work early mornings & decided why not! Go big or go home
Foods here! & everything is as delicious as it looks! Glad I came here to check it out. I was debating to give another good place I’ve tried for breakfast once another taste. Maybe next time ;)

This is the perfect restaurant for breakfast or BBQ brisket. The eggs were prepared exactly as ordered. The grits were the perfect consistency. I am from the South. I know perfect grits. You need no teeth to eat The bbq brisket. The bbq sauce was very complimentary to the beef. The coffee cake is more like a sock it to me cake vs a breakfast cinnamon roll.