The Happy Rooster

San Juan Bautista is a tiny town. When I brought a friend sight seeing she dragged me inside. I was skeptical and did not have high expectations. The carpet has a smell…
BUT…
The minestrone was soo good. All fresh ingredients and homemade. I ordered the grilled salmon with rice and veggies. My friend ordered a seafood salad. I enjoyed every bite. So did she.
I miss the soup. I am willing to drive for a couple of hours to sit down for a meal of generous proportions again.
If only they would do something about the carpet…

The Happy Rooster has survived in this town, which is an accomplishment in itself. We usually end up either eating here or getting take out every time we are visiting family in this town.
It has just plain good food. I have yet to visit another restaurant of this class that serves polenta. Their «gravy» for their pastas are also great. If you don’t know what gravy is in Italian food, then you have no place being a food snob.
I notice that the negative reviews. come mostly from people who think they live in more civilized locations. They don’t advertise organic or humanely processed meat because they don’t have to. Most of the people who live in and around this farming community realize that all those claims do is jack up the price for the same food. For those of you who are not educated in animal husbandry, let me give you a few tips. Growth hormones have been outlawed in this country since the 90’s, corn is not your enemy and antibiotics have at least a month withdrawal period before anything can be processed. Antibiotics are very expensive and are used only as a last resort.
People with limited biological and chemical knowledge seem go jump on these supposed bandwagons. Remember when eating bacon was absolutely horrible? I was in college at the time and just laughed at my roommates who would not eat in a restaurant if they could smell it. Now bacon is in everything, no one seems to care about the preservatives and additives. Monsanto is the devil and so is GMO. Hate to break it to you folks, but all fruits and vegetables are from GMO seeds. That is what happens when those pesky bees pollenate different varieties of fruits and vegetables. The ultimate in people being sheeple is what I read on the side of a package of chicken breasts, «No gluten». Really?
Sorry for the rant, but if you want to eat some good food and don’t want to pay a fortune for it, this IS the best place in town. If you want to be fed a line of bull, stay in the City and pay a small fortune for it. What is sustainable agriculture any different that has been going on since a caveman threw out a seed and it grew?

We visited the Rooster again a few days ago with a party of 13. The service was excellent. This time I tried the chicken fried steak and found it to be different from last years taste.
The steaks, salmon, chicken Marsala, veal were all top notch. Portion sizes are huge so this is a good place to go when you’re really hungry.
Made another trip last weekend and went to the Rooster for lunch. I’ve heard that their hamburgers were pretty good and I wasn’t disappointed. The patty was perfectly grilled and had a nice smoky flavor exactly like one cooked over charcoal. Next time I’m going to request thousand island dressing with the burger.
Good service, excellent food. What are you waiting for?

Had breakfast. Quality fresh food. Good attentive and personable service. Good sized portions for our meals

Wonderful relaxed atmosphere and great food!

Fettuccine alfredo was amazing and there was great attentive service. Atmosphere is casually elegant. Will be back for more Italian dishes forsure in the near future.

This place is great. We have been there for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Each time we have had great service and they never rush you. The food is good and you can make substitutions, and its never a problem. The food portions are big. The chef sometimes comes out to greet you and checks on how you liked the food.

Wonderful waitresses, it was a busy weekend with the Antique Fair and although we had to wait (expected) those ladies were working so hard to get customers taken care of. Our waitress was wonderful, filled our water glasses, free Mimosas for waiting to be seated. Food was good. Nothing fancy. Would have liked some Mexican food options. KNOWN for their great breakfasts!

This place is adorable in the sense that it is truthful when it states that it is an Italian-​American restaurant. Basically that means Americanized versions of Italian food that an Italian would never eat. I did not eat here but only had a mimosa. The owner is Latin American but he is amazingly nice and will come out to greet you! I looked at the menu and I saw other plates which looked large in portion and people seemed to like it. I loved that the mimosa was half the price of ones I get in SF. $ 3:75 for two!
The people are very sweet and genuine. Customer service is great!
The things people might consider when eating here– It is not fancy, it’s average. The quality of food might not be the best, for example, they do not emphasize organic products or humane sources of meat, so if you are worried about GMO’s or antibiotic– packed meat, go vegetarian/​vegan here.

My friends and I had a wonderful dinner at at the Happy Rooster. We are old friends who see each other infrequently and were able to enjoy our meal and have easy conversation. Our waitress took very good care of us. I had the pork chops which were cooked to perfection. One friend had the salmon and another the sand dabs. And one friend had a pasta dish. I can’t speak for them, but I would note that the servings were generous and there was not a morsel left on any of our plates.

Great café style food, large portions and fast, excellent & friendly service. The menu must be different for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Our menu said lunch on both sides and did not include any Italian dishes.
We stopped in here for lunch. Our party had the Crab melt sandwich, California burger (avocado & bacon), Philly Cheese Steak, Western Burger, Ruben. The crab sandwich is served openfaced, but with fixings to make a sandwhich out of it. The burgers come on a huge roll and the patty hangs out of the sides. The side order of french fries are hand cut country style fries and come unsalted — perfect!
But the sides of onion rings took center stage! They are large thick hand cut onions in a crunchy tempura style batter. Ask for a side of ranch dressing to dip them in — YUMMY! They are also unsalted, so you can salt to your taste!
Meals averaged $ 12 each. Bottomless iced tea is $ 2.50. Sodas get 1 free refill.
This is a great little gem in the Mission City!

I was craving American food the day I came here — so I ordered a cheeseburger and fries. Watch out for those fries, ya’ll — they are addicting. Burger was OK. Fulfilled the craving but was nothing special.
My fiancé ordered the Reuben. It had wayyy to much dressing on it, which kinda ruined the whole thing. Onion rings were inconsistent — some were nice and crispy some were kinda «blah».
Would be interested to see how the Italian food is…
As for the American food, it was just «OK».

Horrible, both my mom and I had mold on our turkey sandwiches. The waitresses were nice but stated that the manager refuses to compensate us for it. The table next to us were compensated for their whole meal because they were friends with the owner, I heard the waitress tell them, «everything is on the house». The owner came up to us and said it was not mold. He was very rude and very inappropriate. Never come here.

Best breakfast in town!!!
We have tried many places for breakfast around the area by far this one has the best service and food was cooked to perfection all this for a great price highly recommended
They also have a great variety for lunch and dinner.

Unilocal reviews did it again — thanks a lot Unilocal reviewers! We stopped by Happy Rooster on our way home to SoCal. I asked waitress to help me decide between patty melt and Philly cheese steak. She said both are good and that she’d order Philly because it’s one of her favorites. Yes, I would say it’s one of the best Philly cheese steaks I’ve had. My friend had turkey sandwich — he loved it. I wish we had room for dessert. Really good food over at Happy Rooster! Easy and short drive from highway 101…

We’ve eaten here several times… all good experiences and we enjoyed the food each time. I think the challenge the Happy Rooster has is building its clientele and that will be overcome when they decide what they are as a restaurant. Is it a diner? Is it Italian? Is it a steak place? Is it a burger place? Is it for breakfast and lunch or more for dinner?
The layout is ‘undetermined’… it is very quiet and the times we’ve gone, not very busy so, anything anyone says is heard which can be awkward.
I really root for this restaurant because the food is very good, but I think it could be legendary and amazing a huge part of the SJB experience if they could get their ‘brand’ figured out and adjust the seating, the sound etc…

The restaurant is advertised as Italian. But it is clearly not. They serve American food in a Spanish atmosphere. The food was not bad however, you can do better. The highlight was the minestrone soup but it ended there. Again the food was not awful and it was fairly priced. But I can not condone going there considering the dining options near by.

we were on the way home from Monterey and stopped at the old bakery on main street. We were pretty hungry and the bakery lady said next door was good. It looked pretty «hole-​in-​the –wall», typical small town diner. Inside was nice, kinda plain like trying to renovate some old boots. SJB is old and charming. We ordered ministrone soup with broiled salmon, veggies, and rice.
Now it gets interesting…
I was skeptical and had low expectations. But the soup was deee-​lishious.
OK, a few minutes later out comes the salmon plates, my wife and I had ordered the same, and this day we by-​passed the Wharf in Monterey where I usually order fish.
. I started with the veggies: carrots, squash, yellow squash, brocoli. What a pleasant surprise! –they were tasty and cooked perfect in a buttery sauce that was light and not soppy. After 2 – 3 tasty bites of veggies, I went to the rice and WOW! –risotto-​like, wonderful texture and flavor, I mean good. After 20 – 3 bites of rice, it was time for salmon. Again, WOW! the salmon was not only GENEROUS in size, it was also cooked PERFECT! It had a light crunchy texture on top, and the 2′ thick salmon was moist, cooked all the way, not dry, and was the best salmon I have had in a restaurant in many years. Overall the portion for lunch was perfect, no room for dessert, so we will go back.
The owner chef came to our table and we had a good conversation, described his menu, and then he made us a sample cut of pork chop which tasted like steak, at no charge.
I want to say this was their lunch menu and the price was very good. Dinner is more expensive, but for a nice, quiet Friday afternoon, it was the best meal in a restaurant i have had in many years, and we travel a lot…

Nice little restaurant with good Italian food. Their menu is somewhat limited but the service is excellent and they’re very friendly I had the Pescadora which was delicious

Great waiter. We stopped by this town and by luck we found this great place. I had the New York steak and it was AMAZING. My mom had the mahi mahi and it was pretty good too. Really recommend the New York steak. We got our food pretty fast. Overall it was a very pleasant experience dining in this restaurant.