Cafe Bernardo

I went to Café Bernardo on my 1 hour lunch break and ordered a sandwich. There was no line and my order was taken promptly and courteously. After waiting for my sandwich for 25 minutes I went to the counter to check on the status. When the server asked the chef on my behalf how much longer it would be the chef very sarcastically and loudly said «Oh well I’m sorry, I didn’t realize it was my responsibility to make sure you’re back to work on time. It’s not my fault he can’t manage his lunch hour.» The server, knowing I heard the chef, came back and apologized profusely. All in all I waited 30 minutes for my sandwich and was thoroughly disappointed in the sloppy presentation and flavor. The front of house staff were very professional and sincerely apologetic. I just don’t like leaving a restaurant feeling irritated or hungry for that matter. I won’t be returning anytime soon.

Been using Unilocal for years without an account, but decided to make an account just to rate this place. My review: stay away.
We arrived around 1:30pm on a Sunday, ordered and found a nice table outside. My chicken sandwich and fries came right out with 5 minutes. I took a few bites, and as I inched towards the middle of the chicken breast I started to feel like the chicken was uncooked in the middle. It was kind of right on the boundary of done and undercooked, but out of an abundance of caution I decided to ask the waiter to throw the chicken back on the grill. He took it back to the kitchen (without apologizing or otherwise acknowledging a possible mistake) and quickly brought me out a new sandwich a la carte, and told me the fries would be right out.
A few bites into this new sandwich and — you guessed it — this one is even more undercooked than the first. I’m talking translucent pink in the middle. I took it back to the kitchen and told the manager I had lost my appetite. To his credit, the manager apologized and gave me a refund. But there must be something systematically wrong in the kitchen for you to undercook two chicken sandwiches in a row. I also don’t even know how you undercook that thin of a chicken breast so severely, and especially because the outside was charred black. Their grill must have been way too hot. I also suspect the sandwiches aren’t made to order because both the first and the second sandwich came out way too fast. And, to top it all off, my fries never came back.
Meanwhile, my dad’s salmon BLT took about 20 minutes to come out, although he did say it was delicious.
All in all, I will never be returning here and I’m currently sitting at home drinking fluids and praying to the gods of salmonella that I’m not infected. Not an ideal way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

My comments are similar to the one listed 6 days prior — overpriced food, very slow service. If you’re going to charge $ 14 for a grilled salmon salad, you could serve a decent portion instead of the skimpy fillet that was on my plate. So much for getting there before the lunch rush — still have to wait 30 min for the food. Also a good chance you’ll have to clear the dishes from the previous customers if you want to sit outside, that’s assuming the dishes haven’t fallen off the incredibly wobbly tables.

My office is having an all-​day meeting downtown today and I had just heard about the Postmates delivery app so decided to give it a try so nobody would have to leave the meeting to pick up lunch.
I decided on Café Bernardo as I had eaten there once before and enjoyed the food. I put all 8 orders in through the app and was given an estimated delivery time of 30 minutes. About 45 minutes later our food was delivered … Unfortunately we noticed after our delivery person left that one person’s entire meal was missing. I searched and searched for a phone number for Postmates, but it isn’t published anywhere on their site or app. I went through and sent an email with their help desk but didn’t receive a call back. This person was starving while everyone else had started eating, so I called the restaurant. I was transferred to the manager, Luis (Louis?) and he explained that the error was on the side of Postmates miscommunicating the order to Café Bernardo. The fault wasn’t his but he was very apologetic and offered to make the meal if I came and picked it up, as they don’t have a delivery service. I still hadn’t heard back from Postmates so took him up on this offer.
Because of the app I missed 45 minutes of my meeting to run to the restaurant and pick up the order they were kind enough to make for me, free of charge. Thank you Luis! I probably won’t use Postmates again but pleased Café Bernardo helped me find a solution.

I just can’t come back here anymore. It’s convenient, and the food is decent, so it always ends up being an easy go-​to lunch spot for meetings. But the service is so consistently bad, and the food itself completely hit-​or-​miss, that I can no longer excuse it out of sheer laziness.
While the food is usually decent, there is no consistency. I have ordered the same exact menu item and found it to be totally different (read: worse) from one eating to the next. I also think most of the items are overpriced.
The biggest issue for me is the service. Staff seem friendly (or at least neutral) enough, but every other time I drop in here, I wait 30 minutes or more for my lunch (even when I arrive prior to a crowd). At my most recent visit, I arrived with no line in sight, ordered and took a table with a friend, and had to wait over 45 minutes for my cold food. This was in addition to having to get up twice to ask for my drink, and getting up to check on the food. No semblance of remorse or apology.
Like Pizza Rock, I have no interest in spending my entire lunch break sitting and waiting for now-​cold food to arrive.

The order-​at-​the-​counter fast casual set up at the back is nice. Easy and pretty quick, even at lunch rush. Food was good, and fresh.

Forgetful bartender, I ask him 3 times about what soup they had and he never answered my question. He totally forgot about me. There was literally 3 people at the bar, it wasn’t busy what so ever!!! Never coming back! Worst service ever!!!

Came here on a Sunday morning for breakfast and I had the breakfast sandwich. My sandwich was pretty good. The eggs came out perfect. The only thing that wasn’t that great was my potatoes. It wasnt cook all the way and apparently, everyone who had those potatoes said it wasn’t cook all the way either. Other than that, everything else was delicious!

I got food poisoning after eating here. i was out of commission for 1 week. It might have been my fault of eating lunch at 3pm but that is when I was able to swing by and grab a bite.
I ordered the pizza with the sausage. it was luke warm, and it wasn’t crisp at all, it was kinda soggy. Now that I think about it, it felt like it might have been microwaved. I would advise to not order at off hours and be sure the food is hot when it comes to you.

Went here for an event hosted by the Children’s Defense Fund. It was good considering the limitations of keeping food for 50 people hot and plates full in a buffet.
Probably wouldn’t go back because nothing really special. I will admit I prefer more exotic places if I’m going to eat out and this is like a soup and fresh sandwich place. The pizzas all tasted the same despite their colorful variety. The vegetables were all very fresh and the dips tasteful but nothing remarkable.
PROS: attentive staff; comfortable seats; worked for a large group (best I could tell)
CONS: meh.

Enjoyed the chopped salad and the burger and fries. Chopped salad is a Cobb salad all mixed up, the burger is like biting into a steak and the fries were shoestring style. The food was outstanding, only negative, we had a group of eight and some of our group did not get their food until some of us were almost done. But the food is outstanding. and the staff very helpful.

The last time we went there for lunch they had a very bad customer service but this time it changed not only the food were great but as well as the service. Don’t forget to try their salmon sandwich and you be happy. I also tried the butternut squash mushroom pizza and it was delicious I would definitely coming back here.

It’s my first time here and I like it. The food is good, but what makes it better is the friendly and attentive staff.

Pretty pricey. My friend and I came here for lunch, both of us had a salad, we ordered one iced tea, and the tag was over $ 30. Her order was the salmon salad and the salmon couldn’t have been more than 2 oz cut in a long strip. The other ingredients, all of which I don’t know, were slim as well. I had the kale ceaser with chicken. I ordered the «large» portion but to me it was still pretty small. The dressing was minimal but very tasty and the chicken was nice and juicy and tender. I could easily see myself trying this place again, when I’m not on a diet, because their sandwiches and burgers sound/​look amazing.

I love the different options they have at their menu. Always a pleasure to go there while Im visiting Sacramento. Ask for the jalapeño burguer is delicious.
Kevin the waiter is one of the nicest and efficient people I have met in Sacramento.
The desserts are good but not outstanding; I also like they have some mix of organic products in their food. They have wifi.

There is nothing super exciting about Café Bernardo, but for the most part, (depending on what you order) their food is not bad. They mainly use fresh ingredients in their dishes and their service and customer service is pretty decent. I mostly come here for lunch since it’s conveniently located downtown near the Capitol, and they are a great place for a big group gathering. They offer a variety of salads, sandwiches, burgers, and pizzas, BUT many of their best dishes are seasonal. The plus side is that they are using fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables. The down side is that sometimes a dish I like is not available the next time i want to order it.
Café B offers small and large sizes for most of their salads, which is fantastic when you don’t feel like eating a big meal. The Thai Noodle salad is offered year-​round and has a light, yet great peanut sauce taste to it… one of the best salad choices. The strawberry arugula salad and the watermelon & mozzarella salad are both seasonal and excellent choices if you want something light and refreshing. I didn’t quite like the grilled salmon salad because several times the salmon was slightly overcooked or a little too blackened from the grill.
As for sandwiches, the best two I’ve tried were the grilled albacore sandwich and the grilled salmon sandwich. The salmon is usually pretty tender and not overcooked. The albacore sandwich is a little raw on the inside, and very much like seared ahi tuna. Since I love raw fish, the less cooked, the better for me.
I’ve also tried several of their pizzas, which are pretty good! They have a light, thin crust, fresh toppings, and great flavor. The pizza usually takes a lot longer to come out that the other dishes.
I’m not a huge fan of their burgers. Sometimes they are dry, and in the world of burgers, they are below average. You can get a much better burger somewhere else. They usually have a special dish of the day, which is probably the better choice if you are deciding between the two.
One other thing I like is their blueberry scone. Probably the best scone I’ve had downtown and a great breakfast item to go with coffee.
For breakfast, the Bernardo benedict is not a bad choice (if you like benedicts), but also not something I would line up for.
BTW, I heard they got rid of their birthday reward program, which SUCKS!
Best things about this place — you can taste the freshness in their ingredients and the flavors of the food are pretty good. Overall, not exceptional, but definitely not bad.

This was a bizarre experience…
I came in for brunch on a Sunday morning with a group of about ten girls. Besides ours, there was only one other group seated. We were seated quickly and provided menus. And it pretty much went downhill from there. Our server, also the bartender, was definitely polite. He was however very slow. It took us forever to get just water, and when we did finally get cups and water, we noticed as we poured that one of the glasses was completely broken. Ok. No biggie. We called him over and let him know that he gave us a broken glass so we would be needing another. In his possible embarassment he decided to pretend to dump out what he thought was an empty glass– and I ended up with water all over me… weird… he told us he was sorry and would comp our round of mimosas, but i definitely ended up paying for all the drinks. Also a few of the girls of our group joined a bit late. After they ordered and we got our food, they asked how much longer it would be and he admit that he forgot to put their order in. They finally got their food as the rest of us were finishing ours. It was just weird.
The food was solid. 2 stars for that.

And the award for worst service in the last two years goes to… Café Bernardo on K, absolute Worst!
When I came in with my sister and brother-​in-​law on a Tuesday close to 2pm, the order taker was giving an older gentleman a hard time with plenty of extra attitude on top. I tried to brush it off as end of the lunch rush fluster since he seemed to have been a bit difficult to help. However, she was in full-​on Flippant Bitch Mode this afternoon.
I ordered a black bean burger and fries with only avocado, lettuce and tomato (it comes with all three). Homeboy got a burger. My sister had the chop salad and asked what the blue cheese vinaigrette was, since it wasn’t a usual dressing. The response was an annoyed ‘it’s a blue cheese vinaigrette’, to which my sister asked again to know more about it. The further annoyed response was ‘it is a blue cheese vinaigrette, it comes with the salad’. I flusteredly noted that the same response wasn’t helpful, and neither was her attitude. I noted that perhaps it was a vinaigrette with blue cheese crumbles in it to which everyone was like oh, that was the response needed here.
Once the food came out (nice waitress who dropped it off), I noticed that I didn’t get any avo on my burger (just three ingredients I asked for, she repeated them back to us). I ran in and asked for some on the side. My sister’s husband was about done with his burger when I went back in to ask about the avo. She noted it was fifth in line behind the other orders, since it was extra and should have cost me more (BS, I made a clear order). I shouted back to the kitchen for some avo on the side and he was quick to aknowledge the issue and my sister grabbed it within a minute. I started my lunch when they were pretty much done.
Everyone enjoyed the food, but that one horrible server absolutely ruined our meal and their experience visiting our downtown dining scene.

You can count on Café Bernardo for fantastic food with decent prices, that’s no issue. I’m knocking this place down to 3 stars because of the bad experience I had there the other night.
I stood in line to order, there were about 10 people in front of me. They had ONE guy running the cashier register to take orders. After every order, he would then walk back to the kitchen for a couple minutes, then come back and take the next order. He was chit-​chatting with girls and while the friendliness is typically appreciated, it’s like, come’on dude, you have a line 20 people deep, let’s get the ball rolling. By the time I got the counter it was 35 MINUTES later and there had to be 20 people behind me. I placed an order — they were out of a couple menu items, so I ordered a pizza — went and sat down and 10 minutes later, someone comes up to me to say «they ran out of pizza.» How do you run out of pizza? lol.
I don’t know, good food but insanely slow service which is bad news when you’re trying to catch show. Maybe when you guys know it’ll be busy, like on a weekend, maybe make sure you’re fully stocked and staffed? Crazy idea, i know.

I have only eaten at Café Bernardo for lunch, but I have always had a decent experience here. It’s usually very busy, but the line moves fast. You get a giant playing card to put up at your table so that waiter knows what your order is.
The good:
The outdoor patio is great on a beautiful day. The patio is raised above the street and is around the corner from K Street, so it’s not super busy and you don’t feel like passing pedestrians are looking over your shoulder as you eat.
I usually get one of the salads – you can order a generous portion of one salad, or get the sampler with three types of salads.
My all time favorite is the Thai noodle salad. Even though Café Bernardo doesn’t specialize in Asian cuisine, the flavors are decent for this dish. I recommend it if you like Thai noodles and/​or peanuts.
I also like the refreshing watermelon, tomato, and mozzarella salad. I just wish they included more basil. It is a very light dish, so make sure to order something else or you’ll be starving two hours later. Also, this might be a seasonal dish.
The meh:
The kale caesar salad and quinoa are not the best. I would avoid them unless the kitchen has made improvements.
Good to know:
If you eat here often, join their iEat rewards program. You get points for eating at any of the Paragary restaurants (including KBar and R15), and for every 250 points earned, you get $ 20 to spend in your account. If you’d like a personal referral link, send me a message (I got 100 points automatically by signing up through my friend’s link; not sure how long this promotion will last though).
Happy eating!