Jinky’s Cafe Santa Monica

Great food and reasonably priced! Very cute little café with healthy and unique omelet options

Spent the morning in Santa Monica with a friend and stumbled upon this place for brunch. There was no wait and we got seated right away. The menu was extensive so it took us a while to decide. Was going to go with the Chilaquiles but the sauce had a really strong kick. The server was accommodating and friendly to let me try the sauce first! After going back and forth, I came across the healthy choice section! It’s great to see restaurants who offer healthy choices.
We started with a hot Chai Latte and my friend got a hot chocolate. The Chai Latte was good and the sweetness was on point. Some places are super sweet and I’m not a fan of that.
For food we got:
— Quinoa Bowl: good portion and the taste was on the light side. Since there wasn’t much flavor, I just added a little salt, pepper, and ketchup.
–Quinoa Hash brown: from what I had, it was ok but the hash browns were a little dry for my taste.
Overall we had a good time!

Food is pretty consistent with its other locations but the staff is so rude. With all the other good (even better) food in Santa Monica, it’s not worth it.
The hostess saw me when I entered and blatantly ignored me. I understand it was busy but she didn’t so much as smile and say «I’ll be right back.» On her way back in she bumped into me and still didn’t ask if I needed to be helped.

Overwhelming menu with pretty typical diner food. Mediocre service. It’s okay for what it is.

My friends in Santa Monica love this place, but I was underwhelmed. Stopped in for a weekday breakfast while traveling and was seated right away. The fresh-​squeezed orange juice was the best part of the meal – cold and a generously-​sized portion.
I ordered the Rosemary Omelet (Chicken, artichokes, sun dried tomato, rosemary and boursin cheese) and Jinky’s potatoes. The waiter described the Jinky’s potatoes for me and said they’re «pretty good!» They sounded nicely seasoned but in the end, they seemed to be ordinary home fries. The omelet was disappointing: the chicken was rubbery, the sun-​dried tomatoes were tough (if you can imagine), and the boursin cheese was very unevenly distributed. The food arrived so quickly after ordering that for a second I wondered if it had been pre-​made, but they have so many kinds of omelets that would be impossible.
The place had plenty of customers on a Friday morning and the service was prompt and friendly, so it has something going for it. Can’t complain about the prices. Perhaps I just chose the wrong dish or it was an off day.

Came here yesterday at got breakfast. I got the buttermilk pancakes with Strawberry/​Banana/​Chocolate chip toppings on it. It was really good. I would have liked a little less chocolate chips but overall my stomach was happy. Came across this little place while shopping. My server was a lifesaver as I left my bag from Apple and he flagged me down before I left to give it back to me. Whew! 5 stars just for saving me money of having to replace my purchase!

We enjoyed a delicious breakfast here this morning. My parents were in town visiting so we wanted to check out a new breakfast place. I normally try to avoid restaurants in the heart of tourist chaos, but we went early (around 8am) and it was quiet.
The waitress was great. Two of us ordered dishes with their chili. They have like 20 different types of chili, which is pretty incredible. My stepdad was interested in the level 10 heat spicy chili. The waitress brought him a few samples to ensure he was ok with the heat before bringing the actual dish. I thought that was nice touch. Very yummy overall and they deliver! We will definitely be having a chili delivery night here during the winter.

Good service. Great food. They have excellent vegan and vegetarian options. We ordered the chili omelet with tofu for my vegan husband and I ordered the veggie delite omelet for myself.

I had breakfast here when I visited Santa Monica. The classic egg Benedict was awesome! And a server was really handsome here… lol

I can’t — I just can’t. Finding a good and cheap breakfast in Santa Monica should is easy, but you won’t find a good one here. Cheap? Yes.
The service is non-​existant. Servers meander thru the dining room with no attention being paid to guests. The restaurant is busy because is it is well located and looks appealing, and as a result guests are seated seemingly at random. This means your server will go to see new guests in a random order. We waited to place an order while three other tables seated after us got their orders in.
Things only get worse once the food arrives. Overcooked and flavorless, the re is not enough salt in the shaker to make it palatable. I specifically asked our server if we should get the Jinky Potatoes or bash browns, and she quietly replied «the potatoes.» I shouldn’t have listened — at least hash browns would have been fried. Eggs were overcooked, potatoes were overcooked, even the pancakes for the kid were overcooked! At least the pancakes looked like Mickey Mouse, but even a few bites in she told me that they tasted «yucky.» (She’s four.)
And then there is no rush to get you out so they can turn the table and seat another round of unsuspecting rubes. This is a tourist trap of the highest order, and we won’t be back.

We were planning on spending the day at Pacific Park in Santa Monica but wanted something to eat first. When we parked our car at Santa Monica place, I did a 1 mile radius search on Unilocal for breakfast and found Jinky’s.
We got there on a Saturday at 10:00 and it was pretty crowded but the host was able to get a table for 4 really quick.
Service was fast and quick where they got us out of there within 45 minutes of sitting, ordering and eating where we didn’t not feel rushed at all. We ordered the following:
Kids Chicken Tenders with fries ($ 7) — good size tenders with yummy fries
Popeye Scramble Chicken Breakfast with Tator Tots ($ 12.49) — it was good, my husband liked it. Lots of spinach, chicken, tomatoes and onions.
Sherman Oaks Omelet with Tator Tots ($ 11) — it was good. It was filled with spinach, garlic and mushrooms.
Coffee ($ 3.50) — coffee was really, really, really bitter.
Iced Tea ($ 2.75) — I love passion iced tea :)
All in all we liked the place, the service was great and the food was decent. But I will never get the coffee again.

Looking for some convenient breakfast near my temporary apartment in Santa Monica, I decided to give Jinky’s a try. The food was just ok (overcooked eggs and more like cheese with a little bit of macaroni). But dos tots! Mmmm. You can’t really mess up tater tots. I mean everything would’ve been fine food wise. It’s breakfast; it hit the spot…
…where it went wrong is they gave me the entirely wrong order. I walked all the way back to my apartment (about 6 blocks — which when eating breakfast mac & cheese is not all that bad, just inconvenient) to find this out. When I called, they said they would take care of me if I could bring the order back. So, I walked back and made the exchange. At this point, the checkout dude said he’d just comp my whole order. I’m like, sweeeeet!
Well, it’s been a couple weeks and I don’t see a return credit on my card so they didn’t comp it. I didn’t go there seeking a comp. They offered it. While the sentiment is nice, please follow through. Otherwise, it’s just another empty promise… like my food being hot and fresh (which it wasn’t after my duo of 10 minute walks there and back twice).

Dependably good food & speedy service. Typically a 15 – 30 minute wait for brunch on weekends, but worth it. The menu has great variety without being overwhelming, and you can’t go wrong with their homemade chili.

I personalized a scramble for myself at Jinky’s with feta, turkey bacon, and green onions with a side of tots. Not only did I enjoy the customizable option because it was delicious… But oh my goodness the tots! They were seriously so good.
The service was average, and while it was busy I did think that it detracted just slightly from the overall meal. On the plus side, our wait time was just about 20 minutes on a Saturday morning.

AM breakfast sandwich to go… on the run my son had the potatoes and chicken apple sausage, cheddar cheese, tomato on sourdough bread. He said it’s delicious!!!
I took a few bites yummy.
Enjoy!

I can’t believe I’ve never tried Jinky’s before. A great place for breakfast for any meal! Okay, so I didn’t get breakfast when I went, but I wish I had! I ordered a salad with tandoori chicken tikka, which was very good. The dressing was a mint yogurt dressing, which tasted light, but was a little thick for my liking. The salad itself didn’t even need dressing! The omelets looked soooo good. One of my friends got an omelette on the specialty menu, which had fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil. The benedicts looked amazing as well.
There really is so much to choose from, and this location is conveniently located in downtown Santa Monica.

Wir waren an einem Sonntagmoren ins Jinky’s gegangen, da es eigentlich das einzige Lokal war, das auf hatte. Wir waren noch jet-​laged und so sind wir einfach da rein.
Das Lokal ist ziemlich gross. Die Bedienung war leider eher unfreundlich und extrem unmotiviert, vielleicht war sie hungover, wer weiss. Wir bestellten uns dann Frühstück.
Der Orangensaft war sehr lecker, frisch gepresst. Das restliche Essen, es gab etwa Pancakes, French Toast, Scrambled Eggs und Bacon war einfach nur Standard. Hier kriegt man typisch amerikanisches Frühstück, total 0815. Kriegt man so in jedem Diner, es ist keineswegs innovativ. Geschmeckt hat’s aber trotzdem.
Nicht unbedingt ein Ort, den man wegen was speziellem aufsucht, aber wenn’s zackig und unkompliziert sein soll, sicherlich ein passabler Zwischenhalt.