Mimis Cafe

this wasn’t lunch — it was a cautionary tale. MIMI’s CAFE is the poster child for why you skip chains and eat at mom and pop places.
really appreciated the basket of tiny baguettes and muffins that arrived soon after we were seated. this is not the kind of place you want to still be hungry when your food arrives.
i ordered the MEYER LEMON MUSSELS and FRITES. for those of you whose high school FRENCH is even rustier than mine, apparently FRITES is FRENCH for greasy, cold, nasty, limp, french-​fry like potato thingies — and they were the favorite part of my meal.
the boy’s SEVEN MEATBALLS in TOMATO SAUCE (which i’m pretty sure was a ladle of their creamy, tomato basil soup) was barely touched by the ten-​year old who ordered them. he stuck the tip of his spoon in, tasted the sauce and set the spoon back on top of his folded napkin. when i asked about his lunch, he thought about it for a moment, wrinkled his nose and answered «awful» with a noncommittal shrug.
pretty much sums up our experience …

My husband and I have been having breakfast here for the past 3 years.
The atmosphere is so comfortable, a quiet charm of its own. The service is adult, expert, and caring. The menu is varied and the food excellent. You will
be very pleased. Parking lot available, and excellent for families, dating, or celebrations.

It’s difficult to beat Mimi’s for dinner. The ambiance. The quality, taste and presentation of the food. It’s comparable to what you would find at a more expensive eatery. The only minus would be a limited items menu. And that just means it takes less visits to go through all the offerings before I can start over. Also, there are frequent coupons available online.

Service was slow from the start. We ordered an app and asked for their bread but they never delivered that. Also ordered a burger which was quite good but the fries came out cold. My wife had a steak and it was cooked well but based on everything else I feel 3 stars is generous. I told my wife I don’t plan on going back…

My review here is only for breakfasts, and they are as good as they get.
The corned beef hash and eggs is my favorite so far. I like how the emphasis is on quality, not quantity; I’m sure y’all have been to some breakfast places that go overboard on portions and undercut on the quality, for example, by piling on big heaps of cheap hash browns.
There’s a patio in back where I like to bring my dog. There’s a view of the upper Buena Vista Lagoon past the 78 there.
There are a few good places in Carlsbad (Topes, Don’s Country Kitchen) and a nasty one or two (like Al’s Café). Sometimes I’m willing to head across the O-​side border for excellence, and Mimi’s does just that.

Place was quiet for a Friday night. Arrived to dinner around 6:00pm. Got seated right away. Ordered the calamari as an appetizer. It was pretty good. I ordered the mussels with Fritas and tomato basil soup. Everything was good. My daughter and husband both order salmon and my boys ordered grilled cheese and pasta with butter and Parmesan cheese off the kids menu. Everyone enjoyed their meal. Definitely will be coming back.

Sarah is the BEST… And a hoot!
Thank You Sarah!!!
For the food, as the saying go,“GET IN MY BELLY”!!!
This IS the best place to get your introvert special, a bowl of corn chowder and grilled cheese!!! Plus, the side salad with honey mustard… Always yummy!!!

Waitress had no idea what gluten free menu items to recommend. «She said she wasn’t gluten free and did not know.»

Seated right away since we were meeting people who were already there. Not given enough time to pick a drink, so the waitress got everybody else’s. Couldn’t tell her what I wanted until she took our food order, which also took a while to do. She didn’t stop by our table until we had all closed the menus. Then didn’t bring it until my caesar salad came.
I had the Tillamook cheddar cheese mac with pulled chicken, bacon crumbles, and parmesan crust. Scrumptious and filling. Waited an average amount of time for us to get the food. Waters were filled and empty plates removed regularly. When dessert was asked for we mentioned it was someone’s birthday and was given a layered slice of their special cake for such occasions. That was a plus.
I wish they had a full bar instead of beer and wine only. Atmosphere is relaxing, but the general French café theme doesn’t really go with most of the kind of food they serve. I give them a mediocre meh. Just OK.

This place is lovely, very nicely decorated and cozy. They served us two kinds of bread (on the house) as a small appetizer, one was regular bread with butter and the other was sweet bread, both of them were really good. We ordered the hickory bacon cheddar burger and it was surprisingly good. Very juicy and HUGE, I had to take half of it home. There is nothing out of this world about their food, but it is pretty decent. Wouldn’t mind coming back.

I have been a fan of Mimi’s Café since I was little. I used to frequent this chain up in Long Beach & Cerritos with my parents for Sunday brunch. I think I’d still consider this place one of my favorite chains! They have changed their menu a bit over the years though, and I am never a fan of changes when what they served prior was good. But I get that they are trying to keep up with times.
My go to here are:
— Corn Chowder (if they ever take this off the menu, I will probably never go back lol)
— garlic cheese bread (They usually offer their muffins when you order soup and salad, but I always as for garlic bread because it’s delicious and goes better with the soup and salad I think)
— Chinese Chop Salad (they took my most favorite salad off their menu years ago, but at one point you could still order off the menu, but last night I tried to order off the menu, and this salad was all they lady offered, not as good as the original)
–they also have strawberry lemonade!
Also, they now send out coupons for buy an entrée and 2 drinks, get 2^nd entrée free. So that’s pretty cool, I get them via my email. I will forever love this chain since it brings me such good memories eating here with my parents:)

Would like it and go a lot more if you put back the curtain separators it made it so cozy and not distracting looking at other guests… please! It was uniqueLove Mimi ‘s but ever since they took down the curtains that made a nice cozy separations between the booths. I feel like i am in Denny’s Please put the curtains back and make it back to a cozy French Café and not a soup plantation atmosphere

Mimi’s appeal is the interior design of the place. The food is the same as a bad truck stop. No healthy choices at all. The overall Mimi’s experience will leave you thinking, «Why did we go there?»

Birthday Celebration smoked salmon and capers eggs benedict what more can I say about that… the food profile here is something now you can get in this area it was amazing

Good little place for breakfast and lunch. Nothing special but when everything else is busy, this place is quiet and calm.

Well, that was so lovely! We came here with the family on Mothers Day and had a very nice breakfast.
I think they have changed up their menu, I haven’t been here in years and remember it not being very good. But I was pleasantly surprised.
Great coffee!!! I couldn’t believe it was decaf. Nice that they have coffee and snacks while you wait too. Most delicious fresh blueberry muffins and pancakes with real maple syrup — that was the best part. Our waitress was very nice, but seemed alittle overwhelmed — it was very busy there today. Minus one star for food not coming out all at the same time, some of the moms had to wait while others had their food already. Overall — it was great! We’ll be back!

I went here last night with a girlfriend of mine and was very pleased! It wasn’t crowded being as it was a Tuesday night do we were greeted and sat quickly. Our waitress was sweet and funny. We waited a little longer than anticipated for our food which would’ve been fine but we were on a tight schedule. Upon my friend telling the waitress we kind of needed to go, she was able to gather our payment right then and brought it back quickly along with our food. She was very apologetic and accommodating! An overall pleasant experience even though we had to rush! So I will be coming back when I have more time to enjoy. Oh! And the food was delicious!

I have a soft spot in my heart for French onion soup, if you are the same you should stop by this spot. I visit here every so often for lunch and always ordered the same thing. French onion soup and a cobb salad. The service is always very good and never had any problems. For a quick bite at a chain Mimi’s is spot on.

First of all, the place is very cute and has 2 telescopes to view the lagoon, which is great!
Sadly, we had a big party and I guess that was overwhelming.
My bff sat at the end of the table, and it was super sticky. She asked an employee to clean it, and the lady couldn’t get the sticky stuff off. It was like someone put a strip of duct tape on it and then I took it off.
Secondly, her fork had crust on it which is super disgusting.
My other friend ordered before I even arrived and asked where her food was and the guy told her it wasn’t ready. Then offered to bring bread for the table. My problem with your is: if you offer complimentary bread, why are you not serving that first to tie people over until their food comes?!
My other friend asked for a refill on his sprite and the cup came back with something green in it. Maybe a parsley leaf. However, since that couldn’t be determined, that was ultra disgusting as well.
I asked for a napkin since I spilled my drink and that took 20 minutes to receive. I had to ask twice.
Luckily, my food was delicious so that made up for my forever napkin. I ordered a salmon omelette, but didn’t want it in omelette style, so the waiter offered me a piece of grilled salmon and I asked for 2 slices of toast and potatoes with a mango mimosa. This was a winner!
Then my bf ordered crepes and complained that it wasn’t enough food. Maybe at 6’1, that’s a personal problem.
At the end, I probably won’t be coming back here until they get more attentive waiters and a better dishwasher.

I like updating a review when it is positive. I stopped in for lunch today and had great service and great food. I had their artichokes appetizer and their new Tillamook mac and cheese. It was perfect. Totally delicious. Glad I came back. Great attentive service from Susan as well. Never an empty glass.