The Walnut Avenue Cafe — Restaurant in Santa Cruz

Based on reviews and close proximity to the Boardwalk, my husband and I went to the Walnut Avenue Cafe for brunch on Sunday, July 25th at approximately at 12:30 pm. When we got there, we were told it was 1 & 1/2 wait time to get seated. Although 90 minutes was a long time to wait, the place looked airy, clean, and had a pleasant crowd. Since I have a fused ankle, I asked the waitress for a place to sit while waiting. She was kind to show me a 3 person place to sit. An older fellow was sitting in the middle of the seat. I was about to ask him to scoot over so I could sit down. He said, "You are NOT going to sit here, are you?" I briefly told him, I had a fused ankle..." Immediately, he got up and left. Although he did not want to share the booth-type seat, at least he was a "gentleman" to get up and go outside the place to wait. A few moments later, my husband told me he got his "food to go" and left. We waited 45 minutes to be seated at a table. The waitress was pleasant and asked us if we wanted to have coffee or tea while waiting to order. Of course, we asked for coffees w/ cream on the side.

Thereafter, I ordered 2 poached eggs, with chicken apple sausage, and sour dough toast. In addition, I ordered the 9-grain pancakes with Boysenberry sauce (rare treat). Although I knew that was way too much to eat in one sitting, I figured I could eat one pancake with the boysenberry sauce and take the rest home. My husband ordered the meat omelet with the same chicken apple sausage on the side. Although we did not get refills on our coffee prior to getting our food, there were other waitresses that came around and served us refills.

We waited approx. 10-15 minutes more to get our food. We did not mind since we were not in any hurry. When another waitress served us our meal, everything looked plentiful and delicious. I first received my 2 poached eggs, 1 large sausage (size of a thick polish dog), sour dough toast, and country fried potatoes. I did not order nor expect the potatoes. So, the waitress took my plate away and removed them. She returned my plate within a minute later.

My husband received his order of a large omelette, large sausage, toast, and country fried potatoes (small chunks seasoned).

Immediately after, I received 4 large plate-size pancakes smothered with boysenberry sauce. OMGoodness! Those pancakes were huge and smothered in sauce! I wish I had the sauce on the side though. The sauce was plentiful, fresh, and tasted homemade. However, I was expecting more of a syrupy sweet Boysenberry sauce. Disappointing, the syrup on the side was not boysenberry though. It was a warm regular sweet tasting syrup... nothing special. The boysenberries itself were plentiful and overwhelming... Since I was expecting a sweeter sauce, I removed most of the sauce with the berries to the side. I added a little syrup on a pancake. It was good. I took the 3 other pancakes home with regular syrup.

My husband's meat filled omelet was large and had plenty of chunks of bacon (mostly meaty) and ham with cheese. The eggs surrounding the meat looked exceptionally bright, clean, and yellow... no specks of anything. I must say, my husband and I really enjoyed eating our eggs. They tasted rich and fresh. I wish I had ordered 3 instead of 2 poached eggs. Yes, they were really delicious! I don't think I ever tasted such yummy eggs like this ever!

I must say, eating these delicious eggs itself was well worth the wait! Talk about finding the "golden eggs" of Santa Cruz,CA! WoW! Whatever you order, make sure you include eggs.

I rate our overall brunch at Walnut Avenue Cafe as a 4 out of 5! The food was fresh, hot, and delicious! I would have given the rating as a 5 but; the wait was long... I...

Lets start with the positives. Food was fantastic and so was the fresh squeeze juice! Our server was kind and the other girl who was helping fill drinks was on top of it. The reason I'm not giving 5 stars is because of miscommunication and tone i was given. I had told my bf that i wanted to sit outside because it was nice weather. There was an available table outside but it was large and for a party of 2 i assumed they would not allow us to have the table. They seated us inside and when i saw that they gave that same table to another couple i asked the gal writing the waiting list outside in a *kind and *non demanding tone that *IF they had a table leave outside *if we could possibly be relocated outside. I was asked if we had ordered and i had told her we had. Then this older tall larger set weight gentleman perhaps a manager idk his title or name came to our table with an aggressive tone and attitude said they would not move us. I wasnt some rude customer making demands telling them "move us now. I want the table now". I asked kindly if it was at all possible now that i was aware it was an option. The gentleman should have said "my apologies for the inconvenience but we will not be able to move you due to (whatever reason)". I was aware that it might not be possible. Its the tone and attitude i received thats the issue. I should have asked for the table before being seated and shouldn't have assumed it wasnt. However my tone was kind and respectful. Idk if it was the girl i originally asked acted like i was being a karen about a table or if it was that managers fault alone but either way it was an unnecessary tone for a simple question. I think this is an isolated incident and the food was great enough to still return. However i think this incident should be discussed to prevent it from...

We were looking for a good breakfast place in Santa Cruz and came across this great place. Unfortunately since we went here yesterday which was Saturday morning, there a lot of people here. So we ended up waiting here for 40 mins to be seated.

Order: Cappuccino House blend coffee Walnut scramble with eggs avocado, mushrooms and cheese with fruit and a raisin bagel Custom made omlette stuffed with green chillies, garlic and mushrooms

The food was delicious. I never thought that the scramble with avocados and mushrooms would taste that good. Usually it is served with house fries but to keep my meal on the healthier side I opted for a fruit bowl instead for a meager $0.75 addition. I also got a raisin bagel which was super yummy.

The omlette was very good as well. The green chillies we're pickled so that gave the omlette a nice tang.

I don't like cappuccinos so I can't really comment on that.( my husband ordered it). The coffee was brewed with a house blend sourced from the Santa Cruz coffee roasting co. next door which I was dying to try out but, oh well this served the purpose. The coffee was really good.

All in all it was a great experience but I would call ahead to make a...