Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe — Restaurant in Emeryville

Overpriced and the server had an attitude. I spent YEARS working in food and beverage and the WORST thing that a server can do with me is presume that it is okay to be too casual and "ghettoish" with me because I'm Black. Unless you are my "girlfriend" it is NOT cool at all. About the service....when a person orders a cup of coffee that coffee should be served hot not warm and there should be a portable coffee pot to ask a customer if they want a refill. If the issue is the fact that the customer ordered coffee in the evening and "fresh" coffee is not prioritized then DON'T SERVE IT! When I asked for a refill the "waitress" said okay and then pretty much ignored me while she did other things. I then asked the male server who was on the floor ( he was very nice) if he could get a refill for me and he was awesome about it. I heard another person also ask for more coffee. That's kind of sad because refilling coffee is waitressing 101. When it was time to pay she dodged a bullet on this one because I usually tip about 30 percent because of my YEARS in the business and in this case she would have gotten at the most 5 percent but it was my friend picking up the tab. Trip point on that was when she FINALLY came to get the credit card so that we could pay my friend had to ask her if she had returned his card! He was just being polite because he KNEW SHE HADN'T! Not only that she hadn't even run it through! How SAD is that? So to the PATRONIZING, slow, LAZY, and attitude having server who "waited" on me and my friend on Mon. 6/25/18 between the hours of 7:45PM to roughly 9PM you need to leave your attitude at the door, get a bit more training , and step up your game at the table because when I'm spending $14.00 on a hamburger I expect better than a $6.00 Carl's...

You know, if you're going to be rude; it's best paired with a little intelligence. But when you're going to be rude and stupid, it doesn't go down very well. Best describes the waiters at this location.

I ask the doofus waiter for some sliced avocado and he brings me back a side of guacamole. Thinking it was just an error on the kitchens part, I mention to him that I asked for sliced avocado (like as indicated on the menu) He tears off into the kitchen like a lunatic and SCREAMS out to the Cook "Can I get the sliced kind, instead of the smashed one, the guy out there is having a fit about it!!!"

Which it was far from a fit. The only thing that was A FIT was the pissy rage in which the waiter ran back to the kitchen, when he only had 3 tables to occupy his whole morning.

He returns with sliced avocados and says "I didn't know you wanted the sliced kind, I thought the smashed ones were the same" and my response was "Would that make sliced tomatoes, salsa, and ketchup all the SAME thing? he looked at me, totally defeated.

I've had so many random bad experiences at this place, but, this time I decided to write about it. I like a little sass with my service, but it seems like whomever is doing the hiring at these locations is just scraping the bottom of the barrel.

I didn't know "hipsters" still existed... I thought that fad played out with the passing of the last millennium :( Aren't they just called "TRENDY" now?

I like the idea of a throwback style diner. But, the menu is in desperate need of a refresh, the overall feel of the place is, kind of, behind the times & NOT in a retro-y kind of way....

I feel like Rudy's is riding on some wave of former popularity and hasn't othered to keep up/improve with the times. Used to be. You'd walk in at any given time, be it 4pm or 10am and the place would be relatively busy, the vibe fun. We walked in the other evening after running errands at East Bay Bridge shopping area down the road and decided to grab dinner since it was so close, and we haven't been in years. The staff was absent when we walked in, never a good sign. Two miserable looking patrons were dining solo and the place had a chill to it. The food we ordered was so mediocre- granted I usually came here for breakfast, but the food was just poor. My veggie barley soup was mostly celery and onions. My kid's turkey sandwich was pathetic, with dry turkey, dried up looking cheddar, and really dry bread despite a thin smear of mayo, our side order of veggies was swimming in a pool of the water they boiled them in. My husband felt so bad for her, he gave up half his BLT to her so she would actually eat something.

Sorry Rudy's, your establishment is no longer a place we would consider returning to. I was surprised to hear of your Telegraph Ave location shuttering, but now it's evident what happened to...