Sound Bites Cafe — Restaurant in Somerville

Okay, so this place was good in many respects, but failed me in one major way.

Let's start with the positives and the scenario: I called EARLY in the morning to place a pick up order and ask some questions about gluten free. The gent who took my order was friendly and knowledgable about the food. He also knew who I was when I arrived, though it was early enough that it wasn't busy at all. Place was clean (and being actively cleaned) and ready to start their business day. My food was ready to be picked up quickly.

The corned beef has was very tasty. I can see why this would be a popular menu item for them. I would order it again.

They had many varieties of coffee and tea, with all the fixings. I am not a huge coffee person, but I needed it today. As a non-coffee person, this brew was not bad. (I had the pumpkin, and you dress it yourself, so it's just the way you like it. I also have to admit to being a bit coffee spoiled, because I live with a certified coffee master. No one makes coffee like her, in my opinion.)

Now for the big let down: UNFORUTNATELY. The gluten free pancakes were truly horrible. I'm so sorry for saying this, but really, the recipe needs improvement. I say this with the genuine hope that my feedback can help improve this dish for your business. These were the worse gluten free pancakes I've ever had, and that includes ones I've cooked at home and burned and ate anyway. They had almost no flavor except what I think might be baking powder or some kind of leavening agent? It was bland, but also bitter. True Vermont maple syrup did not make them better. Additionally, and this is a big problem with many gluten free bread goods, it was -undercooked-. That means it was super dense in the middle and very pale. I know it's tough when you're used to cooking with glutinous flour. GF flours don't get the same airiness as glutinous, which often means it needs extra time to cook through. Owners/managers/cooks of Sound Bites, please do a little more research and practice...

Sound Bites is a nice place overall and the food is fine. However, we are from out of town and came here on a recommendation, and we were turned off every step of the way by the unorthodox elements of the restaurant's functioning. First we came in and asked for a wait time, were given a wait time and told to wait outside. No one told us that there is customarily a line on which people wait to be seated. Then we came in and learned about the self-serve, "bottomless" coffee, which is not marked at all with prices. We learned later that the coffee is not bottomless, as my friend was later charged for both a hot and an iced coffee, one of which had merely been discarded because the coffee beans were burnt. It took us at least five minutes to figure out that no one would bring us water or ice for iced coffee, and that we had to ask a man monitoring an ice bucket to give us cups of ice. We ordered food and it was fine, though my friend's eggs were too watery and she ate basically none of her food. By the time we had finished the meal, we were too hot and annoyed (they didn't have proper air conditioning and there were so many people in the restaurant that it was oppressively hot and humid) that we didn't bother asking for the waitress to take her meal off her check, we just paid and left.

Essentially what I'm saying is, it's fine if you want to be quirky, and it's great that the locals understand everything and love it. But for those of us who aren't there once a week, a little signage of the oddities and proper air conditioning would have made the experience so...

Me and my sister and her husband came here for Brunch on Sunday, around 10:30am there was a line already, got in line and wasn't a long wait. We got a table with in 20 mins or so, the menu has a lot to choose from! I got the cornmeal pancakes and 3 sausage links and 3 over easy eggs, my sister got buttermilk pancakes with 3 over easy eggs and crispy bacon, and her husband got pancakes with strawberries & powdered sugar and 3 over easy eggs with Linguiça sausage well done. All pancakes where light fluffy and cooked perfectly cornmeal grilled tasted so good, the sausage links cooked just as requested really delicious, the Linguiça was delicious and cooked well done as requested, the bacon was crispy as requested (1 bacon strip wasn't) but the rest was just how my sister loves her bacon crispy and delicious it was! All eggs orders where cooked perfectly over easy can't ask for any better, we got raisin bread toast & my sis got wheat toast, toasted just right! The service was excellent the servers work well in a busy service rush the place was packed and a line growing outside. The self service station for fresh squeezed orange juice was refreshing! The cold brew coffee was great the have a endless selection of syrups flavors for your coffee, hot or tea also! I will be coming back to try something else on the menu! Check this spot out we had a great brunch and excellent service and the prices...