Sarah had passed this place on a recent trip to Pacific Grove, noting that it was open for breakfast, so in a break from our tradition of breakfasting at either Lulu’s Griddle In The Middle or the Old Monterey Cafe, both in Monterey, we headed west to Pacific Grove.

The interior was slightly stylish, with high-backed chairs and a banquette along the wall, with nondescript art here and there. We were immediately seated and offered coffee, which arrived decently rich, and not burned. They had 3 (count ‘em!) flavors of fake shelf-stable half and half: normal, french vanilla, and hazelnut.

I ordered a breakfast burrito ($8.45) and Sarah, who can always be relied upon to order any benedict on any breakfast menu, got the crab cake benedict special ($11.95). My burrito was filled with onions, sausage, cheese, ranchero sauce, eggs, and sour cream, but somehow managed to be pretty darned bland, and even a few liberal splashes of Tapatio sauce didn’t lift it much. My side of fruit consisted of some tasty grapes, and underripe, bitter cantaloupe and honeydew melon.
Sarah’s crab cakes were downright strange – just a few milimeters thick and pretty browned on the surface, these were more of a crab “chip” than a crab cake, and had little moisture (or crab) to them. The house potatoes were decent, but needed salt.

Service was friendly, and water and coffee refills were offered very often. Our total came to $27 before tip, which I felt was very high, even granting that Pacific Grove is not going to have any bargains.

I wouldn’t return here, since we know of two good places in the area, and there are several more we haven’t been to yet.

My rating: Mediocre

Monte Cafe
589 Lighthouse Ave.
Pacific Grove, CA (map)
(831)645-9051