Country Inn Cafe — Restaurant in San Jose

My uncle and I have been hiking recently, and we've discovered the trails in Almaden. After we hike, we go to lunch (restaurants varying depending on the location of the hike), and Country Inn Cafe [CIC] is where we've gone after both our Almaden hikes.

The food is SO good, and the wait staff is very friendly. This last time, our waitress was Alicia! (Growing up, NO ONE had my name. It was NOT popular or common. Nowadays, it's not AS unusual as it once was to come across another Alicia. But doing so still throws me for a loop because for so long I was the only Alicia in my sphere.)

Anyhow, our first after-the-hike lunch, I had a salad. The Southwest salad (can't remember the exact name), and, oh, my gosh! You'd better come to CIC with a BIG appetite or you'll be carting home leftovers! That salad was HUGE and SO good.

This last visit, I went with a chicken sandwich (again, can't remember the name). And THAT was good, too. Their French fries are excellent--crispy outer "shell" with a mushy interior.

I really do recommend CIC very much. As I said, the food is great and PLENTIFUL, and the atmosphere is cozy, homey. It's the sort of place that you can imagine staff greeting you by name as you walk through the door (if you're a regular)--it has that sort of friendly, welcoming atmosphere.

Oh, at the CIC near Almaden, you can eat outdoors if you'd like. They have a big tent (probably started during COVID) for outdoor dining, but we always prefer to eat inside (that way, your food and hot beverages don't...

We were running errands in the neighborhood so decided to try this place for lunch. Even though Country Inn is part of its name, we figured it wasn't one of the Holder's chain. Interestingly, the menu was almost identical to theirs: layout, dishes, etc. Having lived a short walk from Mission City Grill (perhaps Holder's flagship restaurant) we were extremely well versed with their offerings and bore them in mind as a point of comparison.

We both got breakfast plates. Immediately we noticed portions were a bit smaller, like only one slice of toast each. The hash browns, however, came out tastier. The food was fine but I became aware of my growing discomfort. There was no air circulation of any kind—completely lacking air conditioning—which became more bothersome the longer we sat. It wasn't even that hot outside, maybe 77 degrees at most.

To compound this problem, after we finished eating the manager took our payment and handed it off to someone at the cashier's station then resumed making conversation with other customers. This went on for 10-15 minutes until else someone noticed us desperately waiting and rang us up.

Overall a middling experience. If you're in the area hungry for breakfast or lunch, this might do. If you are closer to a different Country Inn, take that opportunity for a more...

It was Saturday morning and I had to go to the Electrify America station to charge the car. After I got the car plugged in, there was a little voice that said to go over to the Country Inn Café you just passed and treat yourself to a nice breakfast. Now usually when I have gone out for breakfast it has been with the family. So was this little voice an angel encouraging me to go and relax and rejuvenate with some "me time". Or was it a little devil that wanted me to go and take pictures of what I ate to show them what daddy did without them. I think it was a little bit of both.

What I really liked was that they had this very nice open outdoor dining area. My waitress was very nice and friendly. She explained to me that this used to be one of Holder's Country Inn restaurants but it was under different ownership but had the same menu. So I ordered my usual eggs over easy, bacon, sliced tomatoes and Swedish pancakes (with that wonderful lingonberry butter). And yep, it was just as awesome as the other Country Inn restaurants. The star of the show was the Swedish pancakes. I could just eat these until I pass out. Overall both the food and service were fantastic. I highly...