Purple Onion Café — Restaurant in Los Gatos

This review is for the downtown Los Gatos Purple Onion Cafe on East Main Street. They have a second location on Winchester Blvd.

The Purple Onion. is a popular local hangout for breakfast, lunch or an afternoon snack. The extensive menu features a wide variety of sandwiches, soups, salads and outrageously tempting pastries. On my last lunch visit, I had a classic turkey sandwich with lettuce and tomato on a fresh ciabatta roll. The turkey was good, but unfortunately the kitchen put way too much extra-hot Dijon mustard on the bread. After just one bite (yikes!) I had to scrape off the rest with a knife.

The service at this place has been erratic lately. There seems to have been quite a bit of turnover (including the former long-time manager) and the amount of training and supervision the staff now receives is minimal at best. And despite what the owner claims on their website, this place definitely doesn't offer "white tablecloth standard" service. You'll need to bring your patience.

Don’t bring cash since they only take credit cards and electronic payment. Also, if you’re with other people, be sure to grab an outside table. The restaurant is extremely loud when it’s busy and it’s almost impossible to hold a conversation.

I’ll go back after a morning hike just for coffee, but I’ll go elsewhere in town for lunch. My three star rating...

Extremely rude staff person working there. I don’t know if she’s an employee or owner, but as an area with many travelers passing through, places should be mindful how to treat travelers and of the impression they leave. I had spilt coffee on me and simply needed a napkin; that was IT. She rudely stopped me and told me to get back with aggressive body language, using her arms to motion me to where she wanted me to stand....even after I had just told her that I just needed a napkin! I understand the precautions businesses have to take with COVID, but her candor was abrasive and uncalled for....pick your battles! It was just a napkin. I could tell she judged that I wasn’t from the area and treated me like she didn’t really need the business. No problem; I’ll never...

I rarely give one star ratings but this place deserves it. We got the lox box, the veggie sandwich, a latte and 3 pastries. The lox box was really 2 boxes - one with all ingredients, one with the greens and the bread came separately. Basically I made my own sandwich but paid a steep price for it. The veggie sandwich was also disappointing - thinly sliced veggies on a piece of bread. All pastries tasted like they were store-bought. They were all cold and kinda stale. The latte was okay, nothing special. They charged an extra $1 for a milk alternative. The total amount we paid was ~$55, so pretty expensive for what we got. I’m not sure why we were asked if we were dining in or taking it to-go because everything came in...