Cup & Saucer Cafe

07/13/07

Good Breakfast Hangout

by oneangryraisin at Citysearch

The wait on Sundays can really mess up your morning plans, but that can be said about waiting for any popular eatery. I love this place for breakfast. There are decent options for vegetarians, such as their tofu scramble. Staff is friendly. Prices are reasonable.

06/21/07

Not for Big Groups

by mrloco at Citysearch

The staff are an intelligent, fun, eclectic group who seem to make a genuine effort at excellent service. However, the Hawthorne location can get REALLY busy, loud, crowded, and chaotic. Keep that in mind when planning your visit. This is especially true of weekends between about 9:30 and 2:00. Expect a wait on the sidewalk outside during peak times. Groups of two are seated most frequently and will get moved up in the line because they have many tables that can only accomodate parties of 2. For bigger groups, the wait can stretch. In fact, I wouldn't even take a group bigger than 6 here during these hours. The dining room is just too small and crowded. They have to move tables, block aisles, etc.

The place is known for it's breakfast menu and a few items are particularly popular. First, the scones. If you don't like the first one, try another. They are almost continuously baking something and it's often fresh scones, cookies, or WONDERFUL coffee cake, all from scratch. Other popular breakfast choices are the Lucky Scramble (bacon, eggs, pots, cheese, mush, onions) and the Garden Scramble (fresh garden veg, cheese, vegetarian sausage, eggs). For a change of pace, I like the heavy but delicious MaryAnne Sandwich or, for the adventurous, the corn meal pancakes made with bacon inside. Not on the menu, but they'll make it for you. A server recommended it. Rightly so!

The lunch and dinner menus are often overlooked, unfairly. Try the soup of the day, their excellent Club Sandwich, the Reuben, or the Tuna Melt. Pasta of the day is so so but big. Same goes for quesadilla of the day. There are usually 2 or 3 homemade quiche on the menu which seem to have a devout following. Worth a try.

For a light dinner, try the Soup, Salad and Bread combo with the cobb salad (homemade Bleu dressing). Though the standard garden salad is no slouch, either.

Greasy classic: All Burger. Home fries: depends on the day. Surprise: cheap beer!

• Pros: funky atmosphere, diverse menu, tons of homemade and veggie options
• Cons: loud, crowded, stressful at times, long wait, parking

05/03/07

It really was good food ...

by Tastyeyes at Citysearch

.....and horrible service. Perhaps in our waiter's little world, being a pretentious, inattentive slob is what keeps the crowds coming back....And the excessive wait for our food was not made any more pleasant by hip-waiter's lack of basic interpersonal skills (asking if the food is OK, or if there's anything else you can bring out, or refilling the water glasses isn't all that hard. In fact, one might say those things might be expected at restaurants!). Ok, ok, dude...we get it. You're too cool to be working there. But you know what? Until you convince someone other than yourself of that, I'm afraid you're stuck. And yeah - thanks for making us wait AGAIN - this time to pay! I fully understand that sorting the forks behind the counter was much more important.

BUT! The food is really very good. Too bad it was overshadowed by the horrid service. Sigh.

• Pros: Great food. Really!
• Cons: Service, or lack thereof

02/26/07

in response to

by dwightshrewt at Citysearch

This is purely a response to "Good Food, Awful Service

Posted by newdawnnewday on 01/27/2007"

Oh my god! I'm just taking a wild guess, here, but I'm guessing that you pull that race card whenever you aren't treated like a "special" person. If you walk into a crowded restaurant with a waiting list, and someone skips you (a party of 5) to put TWO WHITE WOMEN in that spot that seats LESS THAN FIVE "MINORITIES", does that make them at all PREJUDICED? I think not. No place on hawthorne is going to treat asians or indians rudely, get a grip. Maybe not the case for you, I don't know. Maybe it isn't your color. Maybe it is your ATTITUDE. I've been in that restaurant many times, I take my children there. Granted, I AM WHITE, but I can tell you that that restaurant doesn't give a sh#! whether or not you're brown or not.

Thanks.

01/27/07

Good Food, Awful Service

by newdawnnewday at Citysearch

I'm giving this place a low rating based totally on the service. The food on the other hand is good. I loved the black bean omelette. Every time we've gone there though, the hosting staff is incredibly rude. The waiters have always been fabulous though. We kept going back for the food but the last time we visited the rudeness was just way out of line and we will never go back. We had visitors from L.A. and wanted to take them to our favorite breakfast spot. We walk in, four adults and one child. We are not greeted, we are just stared at.........I thought the Eastside was supposed to be welcoming and diverse. We were a multi etchnic group, a Hispanic, an East Indian and two Asians and were looked at like we were totally out of place. When the host came by to check on the list of those waiting to be seated, he looked at our name and party of 5 and said "Well I don't have a table for five so oh well." I could not believe my ears. We saw him seat two white women in a booth that we could have fit in, instead of asking them to wait ONE MINUTE while he cleared the table for two that two other patrons had just left. It was truly saddening and disappointing, we walked out embarrassed in front of our out of town guests and just overall horrible about the experience. I know this is a favorite spot of many and I'm sure some Asian or East Indian or Hispanic will read this and say they weren't treated as we were, but this was our experience and at the time we were the only non-whites present so we called it as we saw it. For a place that isn't exactly sparkling clean, they sure act with an air of superiority over us *minorities* We will never go back.

• Pros: good breakfast
• Cons: cramped seating, awful service

01/06/07

They Do Eggs Right

by pdxjon at Citysearch

I'm rating this restaurant on the basis that I've had breakfast at this place once-a-week (almost without fail) since moving back to Portland in August of '06, so I'd say that I can give it a pretty honest, balanced assessment. Overall, it's the food that keeps me coming back. From omelettes to scrambles to sandwiches--one will find something to satisfy one's breakfast cravings. And everything seems to always be better when paired with one of their signature scones--lightly sweetened, just the right constistency, the perfect starch to organic, free-range grub. Vegetarians and PETA-conscious diners, in particular, will find a happy home within the confines of this relaxed, laidback 'diner' amid the bustling Hawthorne area. Yet, relaxed and laidback also seem to describe the service that one sometimes receives--a bit of a hit-or-miss. When they're "on", they're "on". But when they're "off", the lousy, diner coffee is the least of your complaints. It would seem, at times, that the waitstaff have the mental capacity to adequately service only two tables at a time. If you're unlucky enough to be that third, it's a sad day for you indeed. And, dare I repeat, there IS that lousy diner coffee. But, this neighborhood eatery remains a popular treat to both the locals and visitors alike, that, if you arrive later than 9:00 a.m. on any Saturday or Sunday, good luck finding a table. In terms of price, the Cup & Saucer is comparable to other popular breakfast places in the city. Breakfast for two would run you between $16 to $24, depending on what you get and what you ultimately decide to tip your server, even if s/he doesn't deserve to receive any. If you haven't tried the Cup & Saucer before, I'd say give it a try. But, leave your expectations at the door. Just enjoy it for what it is: a simple, unassuming neighborhood restaurant that happens to do its eggs (and scones) very right.

12/11/06

i love the killingsworth location

by pawtown at Citysearch

i think most reviews here are about the hawthorne location of which i have never had the pleasure. we often take guests to CS for casual dining, they even let us play dice on the tables. for me i like the tuna melt which is loaded with quality fish and not too much sloppy mayo. also the all burger is great. fries and home fries are good but not great. all the breakfast food rocks. i's menu appears to have been engineered towards non meat eaters or even vegan, but as you have correctly deduced i am not one of those folks. so there is something for everyone. Sucka MC hipstahz line up around the block for this little joint during sat/sun brunch hours so go early or late. also, we tend to get the really tall female waitress alot and unlike many portland food staff she is she has substituted attitude with intelligence and a friendly nature.

• Pros: great breakfast and other items
• Cons: can be crowded, but this true of many small restaurants

11/29/06

Yummy yummy breakfast

by littlebunnygirl at Citysearch

We both had the cage free eggs (an extra 25 cents per egg). I got an omlete with cheddar and scallions and homefries and a scone. All was wonderful. The scones were so good that I bought some extras to bring home with me. The homefries were great- not at all greasy, and the omlete was cooked perfectly. We were seated right away and found parking right out front, but it is Wednesday morning and parking on Hawthorne is always a problem later in the day. The staff was attentive. They kept the water and coffee coming which was greatly appreciated. We will definately be going back.

• Pros: good food, good service

11/15/06

not a good dinner place

by yakdog at Citysearch

Breakfasts may be good, buy the home fries with my sandwich were barely warm and mostly burnt, the sandwich order was wrong, they were running out of various things and the service was not attentive. I appreciate what they stand for, but would prefer that it came with decent food. That being said, the scones were delicious, the beer was fairly priced and the people were nice. Maybe you just have to be careful what you order.

11/04/06

Great Breakfast, Quite Busy

by carniverous_pretzel at Citysearch

cup and saucer is one of my favorite breakfast spots, although the negatives noted by others make it a pain in the neck: crowded, busy, noisy, only street parking. even given all that, i still take most of my out of town guests here.

my last time there, we went there on a saturday, around noon. it was packed, as always on the weekends, and noisy.

coffee service was okay but slow. one plate was delayed, due to chef inattention.

i had the lucky scramble. next time i would order it with no potatoes - i find their potatoes are often undercooked to my taste, plus i'm not too down with such carb-heavy fare. but for the carniverous, cup and saucer has some protein laden choices, including some of quiche specials.

excellent vegan options, including vegan pancakes. when the waiter found out we had a vegan among us, she made additional vegan suggestions. note that their garden patty is NOT vegan.

• Pros: good food, good neighborhood, eclectic choices
• Cons: crowded, noisy, parking