Café Sarafornia — Restaurant in Calistoga

This review is just about their "Club House" sandwich, made with "Turkey, Bacon, Tomato, Lettuce & Swiss Cheese", price as of this posting $16.50. A club sandwich should consist of bread, sliced cooked poultry, fried bacon, lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise. I received the bare minimum.

Nevertheless, I expect a club sandwich to be compact, easy to eat with nothing falling out, speared with a toothpick. I was disappointed when the sandwich I was served was quite loose, with lots of space in between the layers. This was caused by the slices of roasted chicken, which seemed to be either Costco roasted chicken or lightly grilled frozen chicken breasts. These were balanced precariously beneath the bread, not forming a layer of poultry but a lattice.

Before I could take a bite of the sandwich I had to grasp it with both hands, fingers placed strategically to both flatten it and ensure that nothing fell out. This proved futile and was also when I noticed the sandwich was extremely dry.

I put the sandwich down and opened it up, checked the inner layers of the bread and was disappointed to find they had skimped on the mayonnaise, just a dab on the side that got on my finger. When I make any kind of sandwich or burger at home I butter the bread on the inside and toast it. Only then do I spread the mayo. Restaurants often cut corners by trying to toast with mayo, which melts in and disappears.

I also took note of the lettuce, which was iceberg, very pale in color, and excessive. Why don't they use red leaf lettuce or romaine like I would at home?

I also noticed the roasted chicken and thought nothing of the menu description referring to turkey. If I'm wrong and you had a roasted turkey back there from which you were carving chunks for club sandwiches, please reply in the comments.

I could barely make myself look at the sad, cold brown strips of what was passing for bacon, very thick and salty but they didn't just come off any frying pan, maybe some strange overly thick, fat free brand that doesn't curl at all, uniformly brown, maybe cooked a few hours ago.

Other than the sandwich they allow dogs inside the restaurant, and let them to sit on the benches, which isn't sanitary.

The included photo is of a club sandwich I made in my kitchen this week for myself, Costco roasted chicken, Costco bacon, red lettuce, roma tomato, red onion from Safeway, Claussen pickles, Best Foods mayo, unsalted butter, lightly toasted ciabatta roll from Safeway, wrapped in waxed paper, salt and vinegar chips on the side, glass of ice water in a canning...

I'm a black African American Man and I came to eat Breakfast with my Jamaican femal friend who's also dark skinned.

The waitress who's an elderly white woman showed us a lack of customer service and respect.

My food was delivered without silverware, I had to get it up and asked for silverware, she was rude and had a suttle attitude. I had to get up and asked for Jelly, from another waitress.

She also catered more to everyone else in the restaurant than the black couple that was one of the first to come into the restaurant.

Last but not least, she tried to embarrassed me by saying something was wrong with my credit card and just threw it on the table and didn't look at me. Instead of matching her suttle racist energy and behavior.

I simply provided my debit card, paid and still tip her. I wanted to respond with class, rather than stoop to her level. I drove down the street to get gas with the same credit card and no issue or problem with my card.

If you are a black or dark or bown skinned person please beaware of the elderly white female waitress that alters her level of service based on the color of your skin.

On a positive note: The food is good, I've been coming here for years whenever I'm in town, however it's just the waitress that's the issue, not so much the establishment. I would go back to eat breakfast, and just asked for a...

The staff was very nice, warm and welcoming. BUT, the food was another thing. The bacon seemed to be cooked hours prior in the oven, hence was why so cold and hard to chew. The English muffin was supposed to be toasted, but was very slightly warm. Not even warm enough for the extremely soft butter to melt, it was as if I was eating bread with butter without warmth. I ordered the hashbrown extra crispy, compared to my companions, mine did look crisper, but only the top layer, the rest underneath the top was vary soggy and wet. The carrot cake was extremely chewy, not only that, when you look at the layers you can tell the baker pulled it out TOO soon to where it was 75% cooked and 25% not. The eggs were great, its close to impossible to mess up over easy eggs anyways. The gravy, for the biscuits and gravy, was somewhat unsettling. And for me, any cafè breakfast place, if the hot chocolate isn't right, nothing else will be... the first hot chocolate that came to me was cold like chocolate milk, not even warm to the touch... the second hot chocolate was perfect!!! The third... they barely put any chocolate in there to where it just completely ruined it for me. Overall, the service was good but the food not so much... you could also see the chef in the back throwing food tickets around looking angry. ALSO they did NOT check for covid vaccine...