Cafe on the Ave — Restaurant in Seattle

With a wide variety of delicious food, excellent coffee, fun drink, and delightful customer service, I can't say I've ever had a bad experience here.

The food surprises me with its quality every time, and the coffee tends to do the same. (Especially if I remember to ask for less sweetness.)

Each employee I've interacted with has been a friendly, helpful, and polite individual and while sometimes curious glances can be passed, they tend to serve with respect and quality.

Cafe on the Ave has complimentary wifi with a generally great connection even on the outdoor patio. They also have a restroom for paying customers, and some outlets to charge up as well. The seating is usually comfortable.

One thing to note is that it's a self-bussing establishment - you're expected to take your own drinks to the table and grab your silverware, napkins, water, and condiments as well. They will bring your food to you if you get some (I highly recommend their Breakfast and Dinner menus in particular!) by giving you a number placard they can match with your food order and find you. After that, though, you'll need to locate the bins on the other side of the small hallway leading to the bathroom, which is to the right of the main counter. Especially with how busy they can be, this helps everyone get the service they need and keep things cleaner.

They sanitize, currently require masks per mandated guidelines, there is ample hand sanitizer available, and I personally have never seen a truly dirty table. The bathrooms have creative statements by local artists (graffiti. Nothing offensive from what I've seen) but are also kept very clean.

Overall, take an hour to sit in and relax, have some excellent food and/or coffee, leave a nice tip, enjoy the laughter, and soak in the pleasant atmosphere. I've also seen many a student taking a chance to study. Not a bad idea!

Thank you for always surprising me with your...

Pros: This place is open for dining during the pandemic, with quite a few seating options: indoor by the window, indoor by the long wall, outdoors, etc..

Service is friendly!

Plenty of outlets, which I didn’t use, but this is nice bonus for working on a laptop.

This place is clean! After each guest leaves, someone sprays and wipes.

I was offered water with my meal, which is great because I forgot my water bottle at home.

Could improve: You can get water, but they only had styrofoam cups, which is bad for the environment. It just dawned on me that since I was dining in, I probably could have requested a coffee mug.

I ordered from the “new” menu and I initially only received the entree and not the side salad. The person that brought out the entree was unaware about the salad. Once I pointed out the salad on the menu, it came not too long after. A majority of the time I make deliberate eating choices, so I ordered this particular meal because it came with salad versus another meal that came with rice. A customer shouldn’t have to point out the menu. It detracts from the experience, so I knocked off one star. (The way my review system works is that everyone starts with 5 stars.)

The salad was excellent! The sweet and sour chicken was so-so. I think they should take everything out besides the lemon peel and chicken and offer lemon chicken instead, but I digress. (See pic)

Overall vibe: Kind of a dark ambience versus sunny and bright due to the furniture being dark.

It was busy in terms of number of customers, yet calm. Customers were appropriately spaced. It wasn’t a ghost town like some of the establishments I’ve been in during the pandemic.

Very professional staff. I would...

Cafe on the Ave, where are the owners? You guys disappoint me to much. Rarely when we order breakfast sandwiches they come out good. I didn't take photos but I got bacon egg on crossoint, what a waste of money again the sandwich was litterly a crossoint only. I mean there was like half a egg on both sandwiches . They wrapped them up in thick paper adding weight and to make sure it looked like something was in there more then just a disappointment. It's crazy because 90 percent of the time this happens . I don't know if it's the cook but it's horrible for your business. The other thing is Everytime we order comes most the time they are missing. To get your drinks you must go in and order, cause if you get delivery they are not being given to the driver. I'm not looking for any free handouts that why I don't complain. I know these are students working in a very busy establishment. I know he's hard it can be.. but I think to myself if they can do math and be on honor roll,they should know how to pay attention to the tickets, and get the orders correct. It's like they just don't want too because they are 18 and tired. I have sympathy but I still don't like to waste money everything is so expensive and prices gone up but I still make the same ... I don't see the fairness in that so I do have a unrealistic expectation that I should get what I pay for. Everytime. Burgers are delicious, all your food is the Alfredo is so so good, avocado toast . I'll be ordering from you guys again, but honestly that's cause you do make good food. Okay thanks!! Bye!!

Oh yeah soggy hash browns ... Breakfast burrito is like child sized not worth it.. Waffles are great . . Avocado toast...