Start Fresh Cafe — Restaurant in Oceanside

It was a nice brunch spot to go to on Father's Day.

When I arrived, I waited at the podium for a while, the workers saw me and made eye contact, and didn't even say hello. An older Hispanic man made eye contact stood at the doorway and looked into the dining area for a minute, then finally asked if I had been helped. However after asking me, he handed off the responsibility to an older Caucasian man. I found this weird... But oh well.

We waited a bit because we had a party of 9. Their systems are very old school. I don't believe anything was digital because right after me another party of 9 showed up. Their name was written down, but mine wasn't. The two older men were trying to set up a table of 9 but one was addressing my party to sit and the other was trying to seat the other party. Luckily I was seated first.

The service for drinks was weird... Only 3 people in my party got something other than water and every time the waitress came back she kept asking who got what. We wanted to converse and share stories so to be interrupted multiple times for 3 drinks seemed a bit ridiculous.

Other than that service was great! A young man was a waiter. He did a great job. Unfortunately at the end he seemed very busy so we couldn't personally hand him his cash tip. I hope he got it from the lady at the register.

The food was good. Nothing incredible, but not bad. I got Iris Stuffed Hashbrowns and my husband got the Breakfast Burrito. The whole table shared the cinnamon roll. I won't list the other foods my party ate.

I would have loved a cream cheese frosting for the cinnamon roll, but it was still good. Also the stuffed Hashbrowns had a lot of cheese and bacon. If you like those you'll love that dish. Towards the end of my dish it was too overpowering with bacon and cheese so I stopped eating it altogether. My hubby said his burrito was good. He liked the sausage and bacon in it. However the salsa on the side was bland to him.

At the end I got a slice of Chocolate Banana Cream Pie to go. That was tasty. I liked it all. I did wish for more chocolate flavor, but not...

Although I don’t usually have breakfast after church today, I was craving pancakes. I decided to try Start Fresh because I live in Oceanside and I drive by it all the time.

I was seated very quickly and was quite surprised by the menu. Pretty big selection once I saw the menu, I decided against pancakes because I could go anywhere for those. I chose to get the Texas Style. This meal was biscuits topped with scrambled eggs and gravy your choice of sausage, links or bacon, I chose bacon. I also added Home style potatoes for two dollars.

The food was decently priced and tasted really good. One gentleman was walking around greeting everyone after he greeted me. I let him know it was my first time and he sat down at my table and told me about the restaurant. He told me that everything is freshly made in the back and the owner only chooses quality ingredients and meats.

You can definitely tell this because the biscuits taste homemade. There was one young man walking around picking up dishes off of the tables, and she was probably the one that was more attentive to me than anybody else. He made sure somebody took my order and when I was done with my meal, he made sure I was given my check Because other than him nobody else came to check up on me. I won’t knock them because of this because it was a pretty busy Sunday morning. I just think he needs to be commended on his great customer service and I made sure to tell the bosses best friend who set up my table this as I was leaving.

I’d like to go back and try a salad and...

This is a cute little diner. It smelled weird inside but was clean. They offer some fun and unique breakfasts. I tried the biscuits and gravy, hashbrowns and bacon. The biscuits were pretty standard, not anything special, but better than a lot of places. The gravy was a little off for me. It definitely had more of a dinner gravy taste as opposed to breakfast gravy, but it wasn't terrible. Just not my favorite. I'm sure a lot of people would like it. The bacon was super crispy but not burnt. Perfect for me. I adore bacon like that. My husband thought it was too overdone. But the kicker for me was the hashbrowns. They were SO overcooked. I like a crispy hashbrown. I really do. But they HARD and were dripping oil and tasted like it. The only flavor was oil. Disgusting. And for an extra $2, not not not worth it. The prices were high for what I got and nothing tasted great. My husband has been here before and what he ordered he said was better before. Not as good as they used to be, for sure. The service was spectacular. Our server was quick and sweet...