Matines Café - Wayne — Restaurant in Tredyffrin Township

Finally after four attempts, a friend and I were able to get in the teeny weenie parking lot that services The café. That is not the fault of the restaurant. It’s just unbelievably tight and people drive unbelievably stupidly on the Main Line.

But once we got in, it was a fabulous experience. You actually felt you were in a European Café.

The food was off the charts, and in particular their gazpacho was the best I’ve had short of my late mother-in-law‘s recipe that she got from a Spanish waiter decades ago, which is an Andalusian Gazpacho. I will also note they serve it with crumbles of feta cheese, which is something I do that I didn’t know was a thing it just seemed to me the flavor profiles would work.

In addition to the food, the coffee and tea is remarkable and their iced tea is amazing because they do a fresh pour over for each person at their table.

We tried a few different things and everything was excellent. But my favorite for the day really was their gazpacho.

They also have an assortment of things for sale, including their pastries and French condiments and some soaps, lotions and what not. They also have herbes dr provence to sell which I love and use- only I didn’t need that big bag yesterday.

I look forward...

The first time I stopped in here was a couple of weeks ago, I needed a baguette and my usual bakery was already sold out. The service was friendly and quick, the baguette was good not great.

Yesterday my daughter and I were looking for a place to grab coffee and I suggested Matines. I'm so glad I did, the coffee and pastry service were an entirely different experience. The coffees in particular stood out, I got a plain cafe au lait and my daughter got a peppermint mocha, both were excellent. The croissants were buttery and flaky, just what we were looking for. The store was packed and it took some time to place our orders but everyone from the cashier to the people bringing the food and drinks were incredibly nice and helpful.

The only issue had nothing to do with Matines, someone was complaining very loudly that they had reserved a table for two and needed to know where to sit. I didn't even know they took reservations, the staff accommodated them pretty quickly considering how busy it was. If I were the owner I'd probably stop taking reservations. People have discovered you and you're going to be very busy moving forward, probably better to avoid future...

This is a place you want to go for the ambience not the food. To be fair my friend and I both ordered the same meal which was scrambled egg, avocado, cheese on a gluten-free bagel, with a side of tomato basil bisque. The soup was delicious, perhaps a tad on the sweet side. The gluten-free bagel definitely left something to be desired, however, I don’t have much experience with this item- for me it was flavorless and had a unsatisfying texture. The scrambled egg also had a strange texture and no flavor, I question whether these were real eggs, especially since the only way you could get egg on your sandwich was scrambled, not fried or omelette. The Brie was very good.

Everything looked fresh, and was presented nicely.

The ambience and service were just lovely. It’s the type of place that you want to linger with your food or beverage and have great conversation. It had a festive atmosphere for the holidays and was fairly well packed for being newly opened. Parking is a little bit of a challenge, the lot in the back was full, and we circled looking for a place to park. Hopefully other menu items are more satisfying than what we got, and this new café...