Isabel's Cafe — Restaurant in Port Isabel

Let me just start off saying the customer service here SUCKS!! I must have called 10 different times and the phone just rings and rings indefinite. So here I go driving up to Isabel's and I stood at the counter for another 5 min. before anyone acknowledged me...let me add there was a young man standing right in front of me messing with the damn salsa while the lady was running around like a chicken with her head cut off over a two top with no smile no hello oh and the phone was ringing off the hook...and the man just kept standing there still messing with that damn salsa!!

FYI...if you can't answer a phone, wait on a two top, and say hello and acknowledge the customer standing there then maybe just freaking maybe you should hire HELP!! I guarantee if I call to Manuel's they would answer their phone and I would most defiantly get a hello when I walk in the door!! This place is ridiculous! YOU NEED TO HIRE HELP....or tell your help and train them right on how to handle customers when they come in the door. And here's another tip...a phone should never ring more than 3 times in a restaurant. Not only will you lose business that way but it is VERY ANOYING when you are there eating and all you hear is a damn phone constantly...

A restauratuer told me once that my reviews would be helpful if the negatives mentioned things that can be changed by the owner. Saying it “sucks” never helps anyone and is bad karma.

In that vein, let me state the POSITIVES:

open Sunday mornings. (Therefore can be crowded if you come after 8:30 or so.) solid takes on breakfast classics. I had the western omelette, which came out piping hot. A medium sized portion. Not sure if 2- or 3-egg but it tasted good. friendly and competent staff. good value. good place for small groups and for kids.

NEGATIVES: biggest is the plastic utensils. Makes eating difficult. I was trying to stab a couple of home fries and they squirted out of the plate and onto my lap. Yes, I could have maybe used better technique. But the plates are not disposable and are washed, so there’s little reason from a budget or labor standpoint this couldn’t be adjusted. If this one aspect is changed, I’d be glad to edit this review. I also wish they’d use those cheap plastic drinking cups instead of styrofoam. Easier to hold and drink with and better on the environment.

Anything else that I’d point out as a negative is petty. It was...

When I was 10 my grandmother lived in Brownsville Texas. We would go to visit her often and everytime we did we would come here. Last time I went I was 13 years old, my grandmother moved back home with us and life went on. Well now I'm 23 and have a wife and a child. I decided to take them to Brownsville because I loved it so much when we would go to visit. Sure enough over the years it has changed. We decided to go to Isabels Cafe for breakfast as we went to the island that day. I was so scared that it had changed like everything else there. I ordered the breakfast burrito like how I did when I was a kid and it came out a few minutes later. When I take the first bight it brought me back to my childhood and all those fun loving memories. The same people that where working there when I was 13 years old are still there today. They are still cooking the same delicious food and have great costumer service. This is just a restaurant here, its a small place to stop and have a bight to eat, then when you get older stop by there again and sit down, have the same food you had and remember all of the good memories that came from that day. You won't regret...