The Daily Grind Cafe — Restaurant in San Diego

I ordered from here for the first, and the last time. My order arrived first with no utensils, which is not a deal breaker. When I opened up my Chicken Fried Steak, just looking at the gravy on top, I had a feeling things weren’t going to be as I expected. My steak was basically all breading and the thinnest piece of steak I’ve ever seen. The gravy tasted like it came out of a can, and the eggs had absolutely no flavor to them. I asked for my home fries to be extra crispy, but I got mushy potatoes instead. I even had asked for jam packs with my toast (every restaurant has them for people to use on toast) they sent none. My spouse ordered a waffle, and I thought to myself, you can’t mess a waffle up! It was like chewing cardboard! The syrup even was thin and watery, like the most generic syrup I’ve ever had from a sit down place. What finally did me in was the coffee.... I ordered two iced mochas, we got two totally different coffees, neither of which actually tasted like mocha. I don’t know how long this place has been around, but I will NEVER eat here again, and I would not recommend it to anyone I know. Definitely a...

The food was definitely good just don’t go here if you are in a rush or have an impatient baby. When we walked in we were told to pick our own seats so we did and then we waited 15 minutes and never got a menu so we asked for one. Once we got our menus we waited to place our order but where never addressed so we went up to the desk and had to ask to be served again. Once we placed our order we waited a little over an hour for our food to finally come. It was a really strange experience because the one waiter would come and stand directly in between the table next to us and our table yet would give us his back and very obviously only served them and checked in on us but to us he wouldn’t even look our direction. We couldn’t figure out what the problem was but it was very obvious everyone was being waited on but us. We weren’t in a rush luckily and our baby only started to fuss when he saw food on everyone else’s table but ours but it was just strange to be so...

This place has a lot of potential but a few things need to be addressed. The food variety and taste were both excellent—everything we ordered was delicious. Our waiter was friendly, and the location right off the main road is super convenient.

However, the dining experience had some major downsides. Despite there being open tables, none were clean, so we had to sit down at a dirty table and wait while a table was bussed. The old plates and cups were removed but there was still sticky honey all over the surface that we just avoided during our time. Also, the staff seemed under-resourced, and the restaurant felt expensive for what we got. I was also disappointed by the $4 upcharge for a fruit side with my breakfast sandwich since the fruit was mostly overripe watermelon and some off-tasting cantaloupe. The number of flies inside and out was also a big turn-off, and parking was a real hassle.

Despite that, I would try it again, but maybe I'd...