Andy's Coffee Shop — Restaurant in Pasadena

First impressions last. Signs on the door are anything but welcoming.

I rode my electric unicycle from Monrovia. It was cold so I was wearing gloves and a long sleeve thermal. I stopped in to get a cup of coffee. It was about 10 am Sunday. Not busy.. about 30-40% full. I sat near the break in the counter.

I ordered a cup 'o joe and checked messages. I was offered a menu.. "no thanks, I'm good" I said nicely. After a while I began to notice that I wasn't be asked if I wanted a warm up even though he had refilled the cups of others twice.

I drank the last sip and waited to see. The coffee warmer was almost within grasp, my empty cup was situated away from me close to the inside edge. The server had to pass by me each and every time he wanted to grab a pot. The game was afoot.

The server passed by me with a pot. Okay, do I get coffee? No, he was distracted by something unseen in the other direction. Perfectly reasonable. I'll get some attention next time. The next time he grabbed a pot he went the other direction, made a full loop, refilling cups along the way. Will he fill me on his way back in? No, he retraced all of his steps, and as he neared my cold, lonely cup he was again was distracted by that unseen force.

My suspicion that this treatment was actually a policy was being confirmed with each pass.

As I sit here (with obviously too much time on my hands) I notice that every other person or group that entered was being greeted. I was not.

Petty? Maybe. But I did not feel welcome nor appreciated.. that is, until I was about to leave and (the busman?) Rafael grabbed a pot and came toward my cup. I looked at him and smiled. "Thanks. I'm good". I love Rafael.

I asked for my bill and pulled out wad and paid my bill, leaving a generous tip just in case all of this was being enforced by the owner, which is what I suspect. I wouldn't want to take the chance of stiffing the server for simply trying to...

My wife and kids were on vacation in Pasadena and heading back to San Diego after checking out of our hotel. We wanted to have a good breakfast and found Andy's had good reviews. We walk in to Andy's and all the tables were occupied. The entrance hardly had any space to stand without feeling like you are standing over people eating at the nearby tables. There is no host booth or signage telling us if we had to wait to be seated or to seat yourself. We waited since there were no tables or it would've been even more awkward if tables were available and we had taken one. Waiters and waitresses were busy walking around, but not one of them, nor any manager, acknowledged us or walked over to let us know how long the wait would be or what to do, etc. After 10 minutes, a waiter came over and said it would be about 15 minutes. A table of 4 opened up and no one went over to clean it for several minutes. Seated at a smaller table was a mom with 2 kids. It was smaller, but they were able to make it work, however, they got up and went to sit at the bigger table for 4 and no one said anything to them. These people didn't even have menus the entire time they were seated at the smaller table, so they never ordered and were able to just steal the bigger table when we had been waiting for a long time. These employees have no concept of common sense, how to acknowledge waiting customers, and how to properly get customers seated who are waiting to spend money. Put up some signage letting folks know to wait to be seated. We eventually gave up as we got irritated and went to Dennys down the street. My 10-year-old daughter said she was happy we chose Dennys as our breakfast portions were surprisingly large and she got to eat chocolate...

A decent Mexican themed diner in Pasadena. I would say that Russell’s is my favorite diner in Pasadena followed by Shakers but Andy’s is a nice option if you are in the area. They have a much smaller menu compared to some of the other competitors and inside is quite small as well. They don’t have outdoor seating so everything will be indoors and if it’s crowded be prepared to wait. We had to wait about 10 minutes for our table for two to be ready for our Saturday brunch. They don’t have a dedicated parking lot however street parking is fairly easy to find in this part of town. Pricing is fair and our server was pretty nice although took quite some time for the drink refills and to check in on us.

As mentioned this is more of a Mexican themed diner. All diners in Los Angeles are one of four to me. The traditional retro LA diner, the country diner, the Asian diner, and the Mexican diner. This being Mexican due to the amount of Mexican dishes on the menu, clientele, and staff. As someone from San Diego I don’t mean this is a negative thing, actually something that I really like and prefer even though I myself am not Hispanic. For my order I chose the Huevos à la Mexicana and did enjoy it although I felt that there was too much liquid, everything was a bit too wet, but still had some nice flavors.

Overall, I would recommend if you are in the area and I would definitely give it another try again...