Daybreak Cafe — Restaurant in California

12/14/2024 UPDATE: A sign in the window said it was under new ownership so I thought I’d give them another shot. Any positive reviews of this place have to be from friends and family as they screwed up my orders so many times I stopped going. I thought things might improve with the new owners, sadly not the case. I ordered my usual: chicken fried steak, two scrambled eggs, hash browns, and toast. I came home to find I got chicken fried steak, two over easy eggs, AND NO HASH BROWNS. Like I said, all good reviews must be by friends or family because I have never had anything go right at this establishment. The new ownership didn’t change a thing. I mean, you make these meals every day. How hard is it to follow a ticket (and yes, I have actually been a short order cook)? And to forget an entire part of the meal, dude? Give the restaurant back to the other owners. My order was always screwed up but at least I got all the parts to the meal. I only kept going here because it was the only breakfast place in Penn Valley. Now that the Northridge (right next door and a dollar cheaper for the same meal) started doing breakfast, I’ll be giving them all my business from now on. I suggest the reader of this review to do the same as it is apparently literally impossible for the Day Break to get anything right.

DO NOT ORDER ONLINE/DOORDASH! I called a few times attempting to place an order to go. No one answered. I saw an option to order online. I made my selection, paid for my order and got an email from DoorDash that my order was placed. About five minutes later I got another email stating Day Break confirmed my order and it would be ready at 11:05am. I arrived at 11:05am and told them I hear for a DoorDash order. They told me they never confirmed the order because they didn’t have it in stock. I showed them the email stating they did confirm the order. They looked at their DoorDash screen and said, “Well, we’re too busy to text or call when stuff isn’t in stock.” I asked for my money back. They looked at their screen again and told me they couldn’t find my order now and they’re too busy to investigate further and told me to take it up with DoorDash. The app and chatbot just tell you it’s the restaurant’s responsibility and give you their contact info. I tried calling again but it just rang. If they can’t handle DoorDash orders, they shouldn’t offer the service.

On another note, the quality of the food has severely gone downhill since the new owners bought it. The only thing I order is the country fried steak and eggs. I have to order a side of gravy as it now only comes with about two tablespoons on the steak. When I bring it home I have to finish cooking the hash browns as they are raw in the middle and put the warm bread they call toast back in the toaster. The gravy tastes like it’s probably a powder mix and the steaks are preformed from Sysco or something, definitely not made in house. Why did I order if it’s so crappy? I love country fried steak and was really craving it but didn’t feel like going all the way up to Lumberjacks. I won’t make that...

We brought a group in to try things out as the sign said new owners. We were hopeful we would have a decent local place to go. The first clue should have been the old menus with scratched out prices, additions, and notes. We should have left then. We felt committed when coffee came. It was lukewarm but at least it was coffee. It wasn't until later one person noticed the lipstick on the cup. They only had one water glass that looked like it was a thrift store find so the rest of the waters were brought in Styrofoam. We tried a few breakfast options (one party member wisely opted out of ordering after the initial signs) and unfortunately none of the meals was really enjoyable. In addition to the abundance of butter slathered on the bread, the crunchy "over easy" egg, and charred hash browns.... there were many odd flavors, likely from burning and cooking items on a shared griddle. The bacon didn't even taste like bacon... just the odd flavor from the grill. Almost an hour later we all still have an odd taste in our mouth. All in all...4 meals with coffee for about $70. The...

We were from out of town. We pulled into a parking space at the end of parking spots. There was a sign stating Hospice Thriftstore. We were going to go in restairant and have lunch. We saw the thriftstore sign and decided to go in there before lunch. When we went to our vehicle to items in and then go in to the restaurant, a waitress came out and told us the owner was going to tow our car! She said there was a sign stating it was restaurant parking only. There was no sign on the pole from the restaurant, only the thriftstore. The other spaces were empty in front of restaurant. So because of their attitude that we had gone to thriftstore first and then to restaurant, we took out business elsewhere. So this tells me that if the owner was looking out the window judging, so that means no clientel , food must be bad. So another nearby restaurant got our business. Oh and by the way, we were waiting for other family members to join us for lunch. So our family...