Little Lion Cafe — Restaurant in San Diego

Big Disappointment at Little Lion

From the moment we walked in, the ‘welcome’ ended at the door — and the disappointment only grew from there.

The sign on the door said “Welcome” — but nothing about the experience felt welcoming. No one acknowledged us when we arrived; we had to initiate the conversation. We were asked if we preferred to sit inside or outside. When we said outside, two employees said they needed to clean a table… but honestly, it felt like they just didn’t want to walk outside. They immediately offered us inside seating — but the inside tables were a mess. No pre-bussing, dirty plates — and I didn’t want to eat next to that.

Meanwhile, employees wandered past a perfectly clean-looking table outside, calling it “dirty,” while the waitress stopped to give someone a long-winded set of directions instead of helping us. She also ran a credit card for another table — yet somehow couldn’t grab a towel and quickly wipe the table? Servers are trained to multitask. I know — I worked in hospitality for years. My hands were always full: clearing, cleaning, seating, whatever needed to be done — especially when guests were waiting.

The table already had a roll-up on it. It was ready. We were ignored.

The disdain was palpable. When the waitress finally approached, she was condescending, removing the unused roll-up from the table right in front of us like we were an inconvenience. I told her I didn’t want to eat there after all — and instead of apologizing or offering a different solution, she smiled and said, “You’re welcome… to eat somewhere else.”

So we did.We ended up having a lovely breakfast at Point Break — where the hospitality was sincere, the energy was fun, and they actually seemed to appreciate our business.

I’ve lived in OB since the ’70s. We won’t be back to...

My wife and I are well-traveled, so we have eaten at too many restaurants to count. Particularly, when you are looking at where to go for breakfast or brunch, you are hard-pressed to find an original restaurant that serves, not just quality food, but dishes that stand above the rest. I mean, after so many pancakes at so many breakfast spots, they all start to taste the same, you know? Breakfast sausage becomes the same as anywhere else, bacon becomes the same, and you even see the same dishes being served, just under different names. How can one break away from the drab and mundane of the everyday American-style breakfast?

Enter the Little Lion. When just reading the description, and while watching a short feature about them on YouTube, they had me at “Belgian.” I am a chef myself, so I’ve found it challenging to be impressed. Even if it’s tasty, a lot of times I’ve found myself saying, “It’s great, but I can make it just as good at home.” But I don’t want to cook at home! I want to eat somewhere and just be able to completely lean on the chef, the restaurant and their overall palette for food and beverages.

From my handcrafted vanilla bean latte, to the homemade granola bowl (coconut whip added) for my daughter, to the sausage & kale bowl with gravy (for my wife), and finally, to the hot chicken sandwich with Belgian fries, we were absolutely blown away with the ingredient/texture/flavor combos in every way. To be completely honest, it was like falling head over heels on a first date. To say the least, my family and I are in love with the Little Lion. Other places who serve breakfast and brunch need to come here and eat so they can see what food and flavor really...

We were the 2nd of 4 parties of 2 to be seated. The only outside tables, a 2-top and a 4-top, opened up outside. The twosome in front of us got the 2-top. Then we got seated inside. My wife asked “is there any chance we could sit at the 4-top in the sun outside?” Our waitress replied, “only if you want me to get yelled at.” Then they sat the twosome after us at another 2-top inside. Before we know it, that twosome moves outside to the 4-top! My wife looked at the waitress and the waitress replied “you can go out there and sit with them if you want.” Of course no one will want to share a table with strangers, so naturally whomever gets the table first gets the table to themselves. That should have been us. We’re visiting from Seattle and wanted to enjoy the sunshine but I think some locals got the preferential treatment. Vanilla bean lattes were good. Baked green eggs were great. My wife’s eggs benedict came out with cold hollandaise sauce. Another waitress offered to re-make the whole plate or bring out some warm sauce. We had already waited 20 minutes to be seated and another 30 minutes for food, so we didn’t want to wait any longer and asked for warm sauce. My wife stopped eating and waited 5 minutes for the sauce to be brought out by the chef, who seemed very unhappy to do so. They removed the eggs benedict from our bill without us even asking, which was nice. However, the whole experience was ruined from the moment...