The Optimist Cafe

Heard from a friend they’re very judgmental & rude to their employees, especially those with tattoos & piercings. I don’t support places that don’t welcome all walks of life including those who may look «different». After hearing how they treat their employees I wouldn’t feel comfortable going their as a customer since I have visible tattoos & a nose piercing.

What a wonderful place to visit if you are visiting the Cape. I had a delicious meal of Braised Beef with a tomato sauce and my wife had Parmesan Crusted Cod. I would highly recommend meals. I was with a tour group of about 50 people and you would expect the service to suffer as a result but not at this place. The service was attentive and on point. I couldn’t have asked for a greater experience.

Had lunch yesterday and it was wonderful. Yummy Bellinis. The gourmet grilled cheese was great on homemade bread. The lobster quesadilla was fantastic!
Server was so friendly too. Will definitely come back!

We have been coming here for years and in our week stay in the Cape we come here at least a couple of times. The food and service r always great! The breakfast potatoes r the best! They have lots of gf options too which is great for my sister in law. I almost always get The Joy! And that brings me great joy and so does this restaurant!

Simply amazing place! Delicious food — fresh and even gluten free options! :) the staff is super friendly. Highly recommend!

Went here to stay away from the brunch crowd on a Sunday morning. It was casual and quiet. Great for my kids and my toddler loved the food. Coffee was strong and yummy. We will be going back again!

The ice tea was delicious! My pancakes were okay but for $ 10 I was hoping for bigger pancakes. I was disappointed in their size. The real maple syrup does cost $ 1.99 which I can understand because maple syrup differs every year in supply and demand. I just didn’t understand why it was from California. It was a really cute place though! I would try it again! It’s good to support a mom and pops place and not a chain!

I’ve tried this place multiple times, and I’ve consistently had bad coffee. Don’t come here for espresso– perhaps try their other menu items? The coffee was worse than what you’d get from those old automated coffee dispensers.

great food, really quality tea, really friendly service. I got the chicken curry and would totally recommend it.

Cute, dog-​friendly patio and they serve (delicious) breakfast all day. What more could you want? Try the cinnamon French toast. I also really like that they serve salad with their breakfast specials. Friendly waitress too.

Nice breakfast spot. Cheddar cheese, mushroom, and spinach omelet was delicious. Excellent sharp cheddar cheese and fresh veggies. Homefries were good with rosemary. Sausage egg and cheese sandwich was fair, bland American cheese and it only contained one small sausage link. It was sliced in half and a very small link. English muffin was not toasted or grilled, kinda raw. Atmosphere was great in an old historic home. Service was alright, one waitress for entire place. She was very nice. Will give it another try.

Recommended:
Fruit filled Crepes and Lobster Benedict
Would give 5 however up charge for potatoes is a turnoff.
Kate was great!

My friend and I wanted to try out this place for its high ratings on Unilocal.Needless to say that I became quite pessimistic after trying out the food here.
I was in a rush that day and wanted to get some breakfast quickly for to go. Obviously optimist café is for eat in. There wasn’t a large variety of beverages, I ordered a ice latte to go. I wasn’t in the mood to eat a large breakfast at the time, I looked in their bakery display by the front door, and saw a large delicious slice of carrot cake sitting in the middle of the display. Thus I quickly ordered the carrot cake. My friend ordered crepes and coffee to go.
we waited about 10min for our food, and the café was packed with people, waitresses going in the out of the front area where we were seated to wait for our food.
I was extremely disappointed when the check came after the food arrived. I saw on my bill the cost of the carrot cake was $ 7.35, and latte was a regular price latte. My friends crêpe costed around $ 6, still cheaper than my slice of carrot cake. I was really angry that the carrot cake was so expensive, there wasn’t even a price display anywhere on the menu or bakery board. I was really upset by it. I guess optimist café was real optimistic on their food after all. The carrot cake was flavorful like every other carrot cake I’ve tried, it wasn’t anything different.
It was not until I was almost done w the carrot cake I found a small piece of baking wax paper stuck inside of the carrot cake. I just paid $ 7.35 for a shitty quality of cake w paper stuck in it. Are you kidding me?
I looked forward to try out optimist café all week long while I’m vacationing at the cape to feel the optimistic vibe but sadly it left me becoming a pessimist after I paid for expensive poor quality of breakfast.
Needless to say, I will not be returning to this expensive café after experiencing this expensive, bad quality of food.

A really nice experience. Pretty, airy interior and an interesting, diverse menu. Service was excellent, super friendly and prompt, and the coffee was some of the best I’ve ever been served outside a proper coffee house.
I ordered the Cape Cod Delight (I figured, what the heck, it was my last day on the Cape!) and it was quite good, although the potatoes alongside were horrible. They tasted strongly of old, near-​rancid grease, though to be fair, so have all the breakfast potatoes I’ve had on the Cape this week. Is it a style thing? A lack of oil recycling trucks? Yankee thrift? I don’t know, but it definitely leads to inedible potatoes. Steer clear of those (especially if they are not included with your meal — you definitely do not want to pay extra for them!) and you will have a good meal.
This would be a great place to take your mom for tea if you are looking for something special to do together on vacation!

Had a lovely Mother’s Day brunch. Highly recommended! Especially the eggs Benedict.
The service was great and the establishment is roomy and charming. It’s close to the highway but feels worlds away on pretty Route 6A.

The building is cute and the interior is warm and clean. The servers and owner were friendly. However, the corned beef hash clearly came from a can. Very disappointing. The eggs were good and sourdough bread was a nice surprise. The lunch menu looked interesting, might go back to try that. I would not go back for breakfast with many other options nearby.

Delicious! We had brunch here when we went down to the cape. Our server was so sweet and attentive — he even asked us if we wanted a more «romantic spot» because there was a crying infant at the table next to us (we declined but it was a nice offer).
For our meals, my husband had the waffle and scrambled eggs (I think the «house special»). He loved it. I had the cheese omelet with hashbrowns… The hashbrowns were AMAZING. They used a variety of spices and made them really pop. The omelet was huge and delicious.
Cute place, great ambiance. Plenty of parking on the side. We’ll definitely go back when we are back in the area.

I happened to be in Yarmouth for a weekend camping event with my son and wasn’t keen on the grilled cheese and soup they were offering, so I ventured into town for lunch.
Based on browsing Unilocal,my choice ended up being The Optimist Café. I was in the mood for pub food, so I ordered the «ultimate cheeseburger club».
Truly an excellent sandwich with a juicy 8oz Angus burger cooked to order, freshly cooked bacon and fresh lettuce/​tomato, as well as an amazing choice of cheeses. Not your average triple decker at all!
Oh and the service was great too, I highly recommend this place.

While on vacation we went to this place for breakfast early on a Sunday morning. The place is in an old building that is probably from the 1800’s judging by the transoms over the interior doorways, and the thick molding.
Ambiance/​waitstaff: The ambiance in great, very homy feeling, a great place to visit with family. My waitress on the other hand was pretty indifferent to my table. Never once were we asked how the food was or given a refill on our drinks.
Food: I got the Cape Cod Delight which is a lobster scramble with gruyère cheese, tomato, red onion and lobster sauce on a croissant with a side of home fries. I would give the sandwich a 3, I would have liked more lobster/​lobster sauce (who wouldn’t), and a little less egg. The home fries were a 5 freaking outstanding. My wife ordered their love waffles which comes with seasonal berries and a raspberry cream. Her waffles were way overdone but considering our waitress never stopped to ask how our meal was, the meal took a while to receive 25min prior to them becoming busy, and we were checking out later that morning she opted to eat the waffles. Her waffles would receive 1 star, they were burnt the raspberry cream tasted artificial, and you are served log cabin syrup. Seriously… I have to pay $ 1.99 for genuine maple syrup… I’m in New England for Christ’s sake.
Needless to say our food and experience was all over the place. Based off of this visit we will not be returning here when we vacation in the Cape in the future. Hopefully next time I pick a better horse for breakfast.

When Unilocal deletes reviews you wrote 5 years ago, it makes it hard to revisit the places you enjoyed. The only benefit in the small quantity of restaurants on Cape Cod is that it was very easy to do a Unilocal search for this place by looking at all restaurants in Yarmouth.
The owners changed 5 years ago, but they still give the same attention to detail to their food. I still wish the portions were better, but the food is done well, including the waffles my wife really likes. (She’s German and says these are closer to what they offer in Europe — she hates American waffles whatever that is.)
And as an unexpected surprise, our favorite server from 5 years ago was still there! Luis — you’re awesome!