Lacey Rha’s Cafe

We stopped in on a road trip and were rewarded with tasty home cooking served in abundant portions. The coffee is not to be missed, a special brew.

Perfect lunch. Welcoming service. Very clean café near interstate 5. Take the business loop.

Stopped here on the way from Seattle to Portland due to great reviews. Great place to stop and relax and eat!
Café was super clean, calm, great service. We had a variety of foods (salad, sandwiches, fries, etc) all were very fresh and delicious.

A little hard to find but very good food. Quality ingredients, friendly staff, quiet atmosphere and worth the stop off the freeway.

We travel through the Castle Rock area often. We love these small cafes, however, after reading the reviews, we will stick with Papa Pete’s at the freeway. Now that is a great pizza.

This is a cute little café in downtown Castle Rock –so go into it expecting just that. The food is decent/​good, but the few times I have been in there, the older woman working acts as though I am a nuisance rather than a paying customer. Sorry that you had to get up from your friend’s table to come help me. I even tried to engage her in conversation, hoping I was misjudging her. I asked about the historic building and asked if she knew what it used to be in the early days of CR. Nothing.
In a small town like this, word of mouth is everything. I certainly don’t want to see this place go out of business but I do think there’s room for improvement here.

Food was simple and fine. The waitress is also the cook so she was trying to feed many guests all at the same time. But what really bothered me was the way we were approached and the way others were; not even a simple good morning, hi or smile horrible service.

Great home cooked style food. Omelette and hash browns were wonderful. Pancakes and over easy eggs were really good as well. Had to wait a little for the food but worth it!

This was an amazing place. It’s a local café. Had a meet up here and it was a reasonable price for the food. It was all made fresh and it was amazing. That’s simply it.

This was an unexpectedly pleasurable stop. Never been to Castle Rock before. We passed it by twice, looking for a quaint, attractive place for lunch. Being 4 very hungry adults and finding nothing that APPEARED better, we pulled up in front and took a table. So glad we did! Lacey Rhe’s Café is very clean, we had excellent service, and the food arrived quickly. The food was a nice surprise: adequate amount, very tasty, and creatively prepared. It might get a little jammed up with lots of patrons, but I won’t hesitate to stop in next time I’m nearby on I-​5.
G&M Jones, Seattle

Food was okay. But wait for food was an hour. Not acceptable during lunch. There were only four or five tables ahead of us. Would only come back if there was no one already waiting for food.

Great little family owned diner! We stopped here on our way to visit Mount St. Helens, just off exit 49 on I-​5. Fresh sandwiches, delicious homemade soups and friendly staff. A solid find!

Excellent small town restraint! Really friendly and sweet staff, the food is delicious, the prices are very affordable… Definitely recommended!

Lovely little place in Castle Rock. We sat outside at a table for two in the sunshine because we had our dogs with us. The service was fabulous and the food was great. They brought out water for the pups too. :)

I loved this Café! The service was phenomenal. I was lost and called to get a tip of where to go and the gentleman described where to go and even came outside saying, ‘Okay, where are you?’ To guide me there. Amazing food! We had the club, deluxe club, grilled cheese, cheeseburger, BLT, salad, beef barley soup, fries, and jalapeño poppers. Everyone loved everything they tasted! Must try if your feeling hungry and driving by. My family will probably make this a frequent meeting spot in between Vancouver and Olympia. I can’t wait to go back and try the handmade raviolli. Yum!

This is a small town eatery/​café which provides big flavors. Form their home made burgers to the vegetarian sandwich, you can’t go wrong. This is definitely a place we will go to when we need a place to eat in the area. The place was clean. The service was friendly. The food was good. The prices are fair. What more could you ask for?

So I am here leaving this review in hopes the owner re-​thinks how she handles a customer complaint about the food.
So some pros: Nice, really friendly waitress.
Oh and that was about it. Here is the rest:
Our first mistake was probably what we ordered but anyways we ordered the quesadilla and nachos both fully loaded.
When we received the food, I dug right into my nachos (I was starving!) and immediately after one bite and chewing a chip for about 5 minutes I knew I was not going to be able to eat it. The chips were HORRIBLE! Chewy and moist and gross. Normally I am not prone to complaining about the food but this was pretty unbearable. After letting the waitress know she said, «oh well the owner makes them fresh every 2 days…
***BACKGROUND*** I have lived the past 12 years in San Diego, so I have had a few tortilla chips in my day and I promise you these were some of the worst.
So after this, my mother gave me half of her quesadilla (which was okay, very bland). I suddenly hear an older woman/​cook loudly saying there is no way that the chips could be stale and they taste fine. I hear her going on and on about it and while my mother isn’t confrontational, I am. I asked her to come speak to us at the table and not continue loudly proclaiming our ignorance to the poor waitress.
***BACKGROUND*** We were one of two tables in the entire diner eating, so we could clearly hear her talking about us from about 10 feet away.
So Coni, the owner, decided to march over to our table and tell us our food was fine. I told her no these chips are stale, and she proceeds to GRAB A CHIP OFF OF MY PLATE. As in still there for me to eat, chews up the chip and goes these are perfect and this is how they always taste. At this point I was really frustrated so I put my head down and said okay when did you make them? Saturday… we were eating there on a wednesday. So NOT fresh at all.
I guess my moral of the story is that not only was the food average, but the unprofessionalism was stunning. I don’t know if she thinks that is a good way to treat people I’m not sure but I will ensure to let all of my parents new neighbors in Castle Rock that we treated like dirt here.
More BACKGROUND: I suspect we were treated poorly because of our appearance, my mother (45) and I (24) are both naturally blonde and we were dressed up to head to the airport. Maybe she thought we were passing tourists and not exploring the town. Either way had she thought to ask about us, she would have learned that my parents are moving here and could be great future customers.
Will not come here again and I hope others have a better experience than I did.

We were looking for a late lunch after driving up and back to/​from Mt. St. Helens, and we really try to avoid chains along the interstate, opting to drive into the small towns. We found Lacey Rha’s via Unilocal,and it turned out to be a highlight of our trip. Coni is the owner, cook, and server and she is friendly and welcoming. Granted we were the only folks in the restaurant for lunch at 2:30 PM, but it was like having a homemade meal in your Mom’s kitchen at home.
I chose the oriental chicken salad, which was a platter of romaine lettuce, sliced grilled chicken breast, sliced water chestnuts, fried wonton strings, and mandarin oranges. The dressing was a honey-​mustard with some soy-​sauce on the side. Everything was fresh and flavorful.
My wife had the patty melt sandwich which was a ¼lb burger grilled with cheese and onions between two slices of thick-​sliced buttered and grilled bread. For a side she had a cup of a southwestern soup that was more chili-​like in consistency, buy clearly homemade and full of flavor.
They have a full coffee bar, and I probably should have had an espresso to ward off the post-​lunch, sunny afternoon, sleepies. We are in the coffee business and Coni shared information about her coffee supplier and we talked about good coffee and travel each time she stopped by our table.
If we could find places like this every day on our travels, we’d be very happy. Take a few minutes and check out the small towns and local restaurants and you’ll be glad that you did.

Originally I typed this, while waiting to pay: «Had a fantastic combination omelet, and at the price was an exceptional value. Glad I made the detour here.»
Now as I sit here 40+ minutes later trying to pay (yes 40+ minutes to pay), I have changed my mind. I planned on coming here weekly, but never again.
After several «failed transactions» on my card which took 20 minutes, and the employee (probably owner) saying «it’s not your card, it’s my machine» I said well let me see if I have cash, and her response was «start digging» like this is my flippin problem when they have a visa/​MasterCard sticker not he door. I then said, would you like to try another card. Now 15 minutes later I am waiting to see the verdict. Luckily the guy I’m with (coworker) had cash in the car, and now he can submit an exception report with expenses to get reimbursed. Unreal.
If you have cash, are very patient, and don’t need to get anywhere, go there. The food is pretty darn good. If you do not want to take an hour+ (about 90 min in our situation), do not. Unfortunately my weekly drive from Portland to Seattle is long enough, so I will NOT be going there again. If the payment weren’t such a disaster (and it didn’t take 15 minutes between giving each card and her coming back with each card), I would probably go again.
I seriously have «failed transaction» slips from the credit card machine that range over 30 minutes on the time stamps… And the first stamp was after our card sat there for 15 minutes…
I changed this review from 5 stars (post meal), to 1 star (trying to pay) to 3 stars (after I cooled off — I was angry).

So, I hate it when you’ve just passed the last well known eatery and THEN you get hungry!!! Well thanks again Unilocal.When there is a good «hole in the wall» place that I have yet to try… you’ve never steered me wrong.
This place was hard to find (another good sign), but great customer service, great food. You can tell this family owned place knows what’s important.
Nice job!
All that and espresso too :]