As mentioned in other reviews the name of this place has changed, but I loved it as Pier One and I love it as Atiya Ola’s. They’re classic breakfast is as good as it gets in Philly and although the service is slow;(I’ve only ever gone when I’ve got plenty of time to sit outside and enjoy their atmosphere.) I truly enjoy everyone that works there and their offerings of raw foods is something I’m always willing to try! Sorry to be moving as I will likely not visit again for a long time.
Frank C.
Classificação do local: 4 Philadelphia, PA
I eat at this restaurant maybe once a week. I go with friends after mass at St. Francis deSales Church. The egg sandwiches are good and the coffee is OK, I’m not really a coffee person. The owner is friendly so are the waitstaff. As another reviewer has stated it is now Atiya Ola’s Spirit First Foods, but don’t let that stop you.
Jazmin I.
Classificação do local: 4 Boston, MA
**They are no longer Café Pier One. They are Atiya Ola’s Spirit First Foods.** I’m going to start this review off with a few warnings: the service is often very, very, very slow, and sometimes the charming older gentleman who works there gets confused if you say your order too fast, and sometimes they get your order wrong in the kitchen and they put cheese on your«no cheese please» item but you send it back and they fix it. Okay. The bad parts are out of the way, so on to the good, better, best ones. They offer a wide variety of beverages, from commercially-bottled water and juice, to typical tea and diner-quality coffee. However, where the drinks really stand out are in their fresh juices. The selection changes often, depending on what they’ve made recently, but can include Blueberry Moss(thick blueberry and moss purée with a sweet honey kick for $ 6), Pineapple Pleasure, plantain milk(tastes like a mild banana smoothie), green veggie smoothies, and my utter favorite, sorrel juice(sweetened with apple juice, I believe). Sorrel juice is a Caribbean drink made from a type of hibiscus, and has a lot of health benefits including a high vitamin C content. It has a flavor similar to cranberry juice, but somewhat less tart. Did I mention that it’s also delicious? I can definitively say that their homefries are superlative. Using a secret mix of spices(trust me, I asked and they said it’s secret), they make the most perfect flavor sensation of potato, onion, and peppers that have ever graced my plate and tastebuds. I think that they must have completely done away with the orange stuff that prior posters have complained about. Their eggs, turkey sausage and turkey bacon(they don’t offer anything made of beef or pork) have always been perfect. Their vanilla pancakes are light, fluffy and tasty. I wasn’t impressed with the buckwheat pancakes, I’m sorry to say. They were really heavy and kind of flavorless. I couldn’t even fix them with butter & syrup, which is pretty sad. However, buckwheat is gluten-free, so that could have been part of the texture problem. Can I rhapsodize about their raw foods now? With an ever-changing offering, their raw foods menu is always exciting and new. The shredded ginger beets, chopped kale, mushrooms & sprouted mung beans, Indian squash, cous cous and broccoli rabe are extremely fresh and delicious, and each visit I like to try a favorite selection with something new. They offer a raw foods wrap that contains two raw food items, greens and tahini, and they usually add a little taste of a raw food side like chopped okra & spices. They also offer their raw foods in platter form. 3 for $ 8, 4 for $ 12, and so on. Atiya Ola’s seems to be evolving into a place where you can appreciate slow food, rock out with raw food, and savor the taste of foods that have been prepared with love. Their whole menu is very high quality and you definitely get your money’s worth. Pricier than the nearby Best House or Fiesta for breakfast/lunch, but your whole body will thank you. The older couple who run the place are both charming, and I hope that they can figure out a way to streamline their process a bit to improve the speed of service.
Christopher R.
Classificação do local: 4 Philadelphia, PA
Seeking someplace in West Philly to get a decent breakfast on Sunday morning, the girl & I set our for Café Pier One. It definitely did the trick. We ordered the Regular(or Traditional or whatever) Omelette with turkey bacon. It was not by any means mind-blowing but it was certainly on par with your average diner fare. The eggs may have been a bit overly cheese-y for my tastes but they were still good. The potatoes were likewise without qualms. The turkey bacon could have been crispier but turkey bacon generally doesn’t get very crispy anyway. Toast was toast. Between the girl & I we ate it all and were plenty full in the end. The coffee was merely decent, but they did have soy milk, which is always nice. Since it was breakfast, I didn’t get a chance to sample their raw foods selection. I am kind of crunchy, I mean, I wear Birkenstocks sometimes, so perhaps I’ll go back and give that a shot at some point. Also, as far as breakfast goes, I would really like to try the Vanilla Pancakes at a future juncture. Right now, the food here is actually a 3-star meal but the woman behind the counter was so incredibly nice that they get a bonus star.
Nora S.
Classificação do local: 4 Boston, MA
Wow, what a little gem, and such a pleasant surprise! This is the first place I’ve come across in Philly with a really decent raw foods menu. Everything is really fresh — when you say you want to order raw, you’re given a special listing of what their serving that day. I had a delicious kale, plantain milk, apple, and raisin blended drink. Yes, it was actually delicious. It looks from the other reviews that this isn’t a place to go for regular old breakfast foods, or coffee, etc, and that’s the impression I got while I was there as well. But do go here for the raw foods. Ask about the prices, because you could be in for a surprise at the end — some of the special raw plates can get pretty pricey. Still, there are also some great deals on the menu. Not a raw food-ist myself, I have been to a few raw food restaurants in New York and Los Angeles, and some are scarier than others. Café Pier One is a totally approachable, not intimidating, neighborhood place to try out some raw foods. Go for it!
Candice B.
Classificação do local: 3 Philadelphia, PA
Oh, Café Pier One, how I miss the Old You. The café is in new hands, and will be getting a name change sometime in the near future. The new chef specializes in raw foods, which is something new for the neighborhood, and I may learn to love this new, different place. The good news is, the breakfast menu is still intact, at least for now, and the home fries are potato-colored instead of electric orange. The vanilla pancakes are still a plate full of awesome. The bad news is, the coffee is the same watered down sadness you can expect from a diner, and the deliicious mexican hot chocolate exists no more. And the service? My girlfriend tried to make conversation with the guy who took our order, and the only response he could seem to muster was, «Do you want cream and sugar in your coffee?»
Ben H.
Classificação do local: 1 Philadelphia, PA
Café Pier One used to be a little gem in West Philly. Their breakfast bowls used to rank among my all-time favorite breakfasts. Today I ordered one, and it was totally different. No hollandaise sauce, bad potatoes, very little spinach, very little cheese… and it was much less food than it used to be! $ 7 seemed steep but reasonable back when it was great food… now it seems like robbery. The service has always been… relaxed. Which is fine if your food can back it up. But waiting ½ hour for bad food(and not enough of it)…well, I won’t be back, which makes me sad.
Maggie G.
Classificação do local: 1 Philadelphia, PA
Today was the first time in my life where I have left NOTIPATALL. I go into writing this review feeling a little bad about what I’m about to do. I used to looove Café Pier One for its absolutely delicious food and in spite of its mediocre service. A warning to customers: The Café has changed owners! It’s portions are considerably smaller and much less tasty. The service has gone from what I fondly used to call«lax» to incompetent and oblivious to customers’ needs. Each member of the staff has a different idea about whether customers should order at the counter or sit at a table which results in much confusion from staff and customers alike. For a year or two, I have routinely ordered the Spinach Breakfast bowl– a dish that used to burst with wonderful savory flavors, fresh spinach and the most unusual but scrumptious hashed potatoes in the world. This dish, and others, used to be a great bargain as the portions were huge and they were served with an abundance of fresh fruit salad. When I ordered this morning, my boyfriend and I both ordered the Spinach bowl. His was small and unsatisfying, lacking in both flavor and fresh spinach. Mine on the other hand, was not a Spinach Bowl at all! It was a Sausage Bowl! I can excuse some mixups by kitchen staff every now and then but after waiting 10 minutes to place an order, after having my very simple coffee order screwed up and having to wait another 10 minutes just for a new coffee, I was fed up!
Michael C.
Classificação do local: 3 Manhattan, NY
Café Pier One used to be just two blocks from where I lived, but it still took me a good part of the year to make it out there. Clean decorating style, with the owner being a friendly, if a bit busy, host. Bonus points for the Obama signs posted in her store(haha, don’t worry, I’ll still focus on the food). Voicing some of the opinions of other Unilocalers(@Mike B-lol about the orange potatoes!), Café Pier isn’t really anything to write home about. The coffee is average, and the food, although generously provided, is also average. There’s nothing I discovered that I would highly recommend. In the end though, for West Philly/University City, there’s the only other real alternative is the waiting-line party at Rx(no Dorothy, Izzy & Zoe’s on 40th doesn’t constitute proper brunch), and so Café Pier One remains on my short list of brunch/breakfast joints. Remember, cash only.
Molly O.
Classificação do local: 2 Wichita, KS
Coffee is good. Service is non existant. The young lady who waited on us acted as though she was put upon b/c we were there ordering food. the bowl I had was pretty good. really really really oily. I kept getting a feeling like we weren’t really ‘wanted’ there. I rarely get this vibe but I def did here. I mostly try to ignore that type of thing but the waitress barely spoke to us at all, sighed when I asked for sugar or butter. The bacon was missing from my husbands meal, when we told her about it, she just walked in the back and did nothing about it. Bought a donut because she wouldn’t make change for a $ 10 so I could leave her a TIP. and the donut was the nastiest thing I have ever eaten-donut wise. Save your money. Go to Ikea-same damn food for a fraction of the cost. Sorry Café Pier One, I LOVE to support local business but I won’t when you act like that.
Erin G.
Classificação do local: 1 Philadelphia, PA
I have to say that these other reviews confuse me. I stopped in on Mother’s Day, wanting to stay close to home and avoid the«brunch» crowds in other parts of the city. It was literally the worst breakfast I’ve ever had. The potatoes had no flavor — as if they had been cubed, boiled and dyed. The eggs were strangely greasy without being flavorful, and the goat cheese tasted strangely bad — though there was about 8oz. of it on my scramble. The toast was white bread and tasted like old bread, which maybe explains its dry, odd consistency. In general, nothing had any flavor, except oil. Overall, I think that the food suffers from being made with really poor ingredients — that’s the only way I can explain it. Even the butter, salt, pepper, jelly, etc. on the table was cheap., and yet, somehow, we walked out after paying quite a bit of money for what we ate. My dining partner and I couldn’t even speak during the meal, it was so bad. We actually had a walk a block away before turning to each other and saying WTF? I will say that the coffee was delicious(though the service was abysmally slow). I really like to support local businesses, so maybe I’ll stop in again for a coffee — or one of these hot chocolates I’m reading about, and nibble on a delivered croissant, but I’ll never order food here again.
Mike B.
Classificação do local: 2 Philadelphia, PA
I’m not sure if I went to this place on an off day or what, but I will admit I was shocked to see this place so highly reviewed. My experience can be summed up with this haiku: Ooo, orange home fries I bet they’re spicy and great Hrm, must be food dye. Seriously, these orange potatoes had no business being orange. It almost makes me wonder if they, in a fit of inexplicable flash evolution, developed this color as some sort of potato protection mechanism. «Don’t eat me! I’m blazing hot!!!» The service was fairly terrible as well and we waited a solid 10 minutes before we were able to order our 2(admittedly delicious) coffees, and another 8 or so before they arrived at our table. I feel obligated to set aside my enmity for this spot and give it another shot based on the glowing reviews posted here by others. I think I’ll wait for a day when I’m not very hungry though.
Ab C.
Classificação do local: 4 Washington, DC
Wonderful neighborhood restaurant. Try the Breakfast Bowl, and say hello to proprietess Pam. Her eclectic taste is reflected in the Africa-accented décor, and her culinary innovation in the café’s various hearty«bowls.» This place is small and filled with friends and neighbors, but there’s usually a table to squeeze into.
Sharon W.
Classificação do local: 3 Philadelphia, PA
I think the coffee here is good but the food is overpriced and usually of fairly low quality.
Spencer W.
Classificação do local: 4 Brooklyn, NY
Pretty good. I had the regular eggs benedict, and enjoyed it. Mostly I liked the atmosphere, though — the place is quite small and a few steps below street level. The staff was pleasant and I had a good meal, but I mostly just liked being there and having a few minutes to read the paper before my comfortable meal. I gave it four stars, but I think the ranking is a little circumstantial; I probably wouldn’t rank Pier One against most of the other 4-star places I’ve reviewed.
Cherie C.
Classificação do local: 4 Denver, CO
This place is cozy and quiet. I made a special trip just to try its fabled hot chocolate – thanks Unilocalers. I went early in the morning and ordered breakfast as well. Breakfast was good – not great but good. Didn’t get the fruit that the menu mentions(though I had enough to eat) and there was no butter for my toast. No butter on it, none offered. I didn’t bother to ask and just ate my eggs, potatoes, and turkey bacon. Meat lovers will be happy to know that I got three or four strips of bacon with my meal. Potatoes were seasoned, and I was pleased to find that it wasn’t just seasoned salt like Lawry’s. Looked like there was turmeric but they weren’t salty. On to the hot cocoa. It was good and definitely homemade with solid chocolate. I was caught off-guard when they asked if I wanted sugar. I said yes, and perhaps that cut the spices in my cup, because I didn’t taste any chile in mine. But it was made-to-order and tasty. And did I mention the VOLUME? I think my mug probably held about 20 ounces of milk and chocolate. I could barely drink it all. They also get fresh croissants delivered, and they look amazing. If you are a parent, you’ll be pleased to know that they have a table and chairs for the kids with some toys. So you can bring the little one if you want to linger over your ginormous hot cocoa, and they’ll be happy to find that Café Pier One has made accommodations for them.
Bill M.
Classificação do local: 5 Philadelphia, PA
It’s incredible as a coffee house, But it might just be the best place to go for Breakfast in all of West Philly. they have an incredible create your own omelet deal, and some delicious pancakes. And they have incredible breakfast bowls that range from Turkey Sausage and eggs, to a full blown granola mix. And now I have to try those Home Fries! But if your not looking to eat than you can still come here for it’s incredible coffee house vibe. sit and drink Torrero coffee, Tazo Teas, or some of the best Hot Chocolate that you’ll find in Philly. and it’s rarely crowded so there’s plenty of good seats to use. And they have Free Wi-Fi.
Rachel L.
Classificação do local: 5 Philadelphia, PA
Let me expand upon this«Hot Chocolate» that Nate F. mentioned. It is normal hot chocolate’s super fine older sister. It is spicy, yet sweet, and a little salty. it has so much flavor, that you sip, contemplate, and sip again. Kind of like a fine wine, only for the whole family. They MELT A BAROFSPICYCHOCOLATEINTOWARMMILK. Seriously. This is the real stuff… no chocolate sugar powder crap for this shop. I cannot rave about it enough. Try the hot chocolate!
Bess W.
Classificação do local: 5 Chicago, IL
Of the three coffee shops on this part of Baltimore, this one is the least crowded and the smallest. It has a cool Afro-beatnik feeling as opposed to the preppie-hipster Green Line or the Anarcho-grungy Satellite. All of which are great but have different strengths. I probably wouldn’t hang out and study here because it’s sort of dark, but I would definitely meet a friend and enjoy the dark coolness below ground(summer) or the cozy warm glow(winter). I like Pier One’s coffee– a nice nutty roast, though I’m no big connoisseur. I hear that I need to try their lunches because so far all I’ve had is their decent, not fabulous and not homemade pastries. No Baltimore ave coffee shop has homemade baked goods. What’s up with that. edit– I stand corrected. this place does have breakfast, good homemade egg and pancake kind of stuff. Bagels are subpar, but what are you going to do.
Wallspro S.
Classificação do local: 5 Philadelphia, PA
This place is one of the coolest and most low key places in the area. I hope this review doesn’t blow up my morning coffee spot or hangover brunch, but I want this place and these people to be doing well so, here it is. Overshadowed by the hipster enclave the Green Line, Café Pier One offers a much better ambiance, menu, and beverage selection. Plus the people working there are a LOT more friendly and MUCH less aloof. It’s run by a couple, one lady runs the front, her husband cooks in the back. The whole place just has a great vibe and is totally deserving of every accolade they get.