Café NOMAD Heidelberg Weststadt - Frühstück, Kaffee, Kuchen & vegane Auswahl — Restaurant in Heidelberg

My wife and I visited Heidelberg for the weekend, and since we left home early, I promised her a great breakfast when we arrived. I searched for the best-rated breakfast spot near our hotel and stumbled upon Café Nomad. The photos on Google looked promising—nice presentation and a decent variety of dishes. What we didn’t realize until later is that there are two locations (Weststadt and Handschuhsheim), each with different menus, which is something to watch out for if you’re planning a visit. Unfortunately, our experience was a letdown. The place is tiny, with very limited seating—one table for two is crammed in a corner next to the bathroom, which isn’t exactly inviting. I’ve waited a long time at some spots and found it totally worth it, but here, the wait didn’t pay off. The menu leans heavily toward vegan and vegetarian options, which isn’t usually an issue for us, but this selection just didn’t suit our tastes. We were traveling with kids, and there was really nothing they enjoyed either. We ended up with something like banana bread, and it was a miss—neither the kids nor we liked it. The staff was very nice, friendly, and accommodating, and we had no issues with service. My wife waited for a table while I checked into the hotel, and we’d planned plenty of time to wait in line, so that wasn’t a problem. On a positive note, the fresh juices were very good—probably the highlight of the visit. But at the end of the day, the food is what matters most, and it just didn’t deliver for us. I feel Café Nomad is overhyped, catering to a small niche of folks who love it. For families or anyone in a hurry, I’d say skip it. We won’t be back.

Let me know if you’d...

Nomad

Hospitality - 5/5 Selection - 4/5 Quality of Food - 3.5/5 Overall - 4/5

On our way out of Heidelberg, we found a quaint little spot just off the main road. Meet Nomad. With a name like that we were excited. Upon entering, the place was buzzing with a local vide. Luckily we hit it just right and grabbed the last seat before it got busy.

The waitress and staff were supper friendly and excited to show us what they had to offer. We ordered a couple of flat whites, the French toast, and a couple of bowls. Which by the way was way more than we needed. The bowls were enough for sure! However, we really wanted to try the special.

The flat whites arrived and they were more like lattes. They were good, just not your traditional flat white in a 6 oz. cup. Next was the massive breakfast we ordered. The bowls were good and packed with everything they listed. Made it quite heavy to be honest. From there we got the French toast. Which was kind of disappointing. It came out cold. Which in turn made it super dense, dry, and hard to enjoy. Which was a bummer because we were looking forward to it.

Overall the experience was good and with a limited menu there is still some great items to choose from. We would suggest getting in early as there isn’t a lot of seating, or just be ready to...

We came in straight at opening time on a Sunday, and the place was busy and seriously understaffed.

The waitress was very nice and spoke both English and German. She sat us down and we ordered coffee… so far so good.

Now here is the bad…

The coffee took 25 minutes to arrive, and was a solid 6/10. Milk wasn’t burnt which was great, but I wouldn’t say it was worth the 4.70€ for a flat white. 25 minutes is a whole lotta time for a place with like 7 tables.

We wanted to order food but.. if you’re not vegan or looking for protein in your breakfast: this is not the place. The only option to have protein is to order a hard boiled egg for like 2€ per egg.

All the gluten-free options were unavailable as well, so we couldn’t order anything to eat.

We decided to leave and ordered a juice to go and the staff forgot to prepare it, we waited an additional 15 minutes, and they only started making it when I got up to pay for the entire table.

We ended up paying 28 euro for 4 coffees and a juice, which is the fair side of expensive, but also hardly worth the super long wait and mediocre coffee.

So… it seems like the place is hyped as hell, but...