Howard’s Cafe

Think diner, not café.
Was a little disappointed after walking in & seeing how gloomy & unkempt it was but decided to give it a shot. Maybe their food would be phenomenal.
Wrong.
Ordered a hamburger steak, side of chili cheese fries, eggs Benedict & side of ham. Originally going for side of corned beef hash, but since it is premade, couldn’t get it without onions.
Hamburger steak was dry & flavorless. Chili cheese fries were Luke warm, flavorless as well, & just sad. The cheese is not melted, but rather uneven blocks of cheese cut up & thrown in cold. So disappointing.
The eggs Benedict comes with potatoes that were grossly undercooked & like everything else, flavorless. I couldn’t even finish the eggs Benedict because their hollandaise sauce tastes just like creamed mayonaisse. The ham is the kind you buy @ Safeway in the little packs.
Just awful.

I feel pretty bad giving a 2 star (though it won’t really matter Unilocal wise much) but I still wanted to give my 2 cents on the experience I had here, as it really wasn’t that great.
I heard good things about this place (and I’m sure the place itself is pretty consistent with offering good service and food) but I experienced the complete opposite.
The service was very weird. First of all, not that I ALWAYS expect staff to say hello or greet me, but I do usually expect to be seated at some point. After walking in, I waited about 3 minutes with no one in front of me for someone to actually acknowledge me, and even after that was not seated. I decided to just seat myself. The interesting part is that only after I seated myself — and this place is not «self seating», you do have to wait — did someone actually come up to me.
Secondly, after ordering, it took 30 minutes to get my food. I am not a picky person, and I totally understand when businesses are busy, but that wasn’t even what got me most upset. What really got me frustrated was that a couple that came in a good 5 minutes after me got their food before me! And just to add on, they ordered something very similar as me, except for 2 people, so I really didn’t think that was fair at all.
The food itself was average, I thought the omelette was tasty, so I’ll definitely give them that. The french toast was very underwhelming. I’ve had cheaper french toast at «Joes Coffee Shop» — one of my favorite places in SF — that was way, way better. The french toast they offer was basically on a plain piece of bread, had no fruits and not much flavor.
I will say that I understand that this could have been a 1 time bad experience, which is way I will try it again and update the review if my experience changes!

My boyfriend and I came here one morning for breakfast. Some people had left and there were a couple dirty tables. We stood near the door anticipating that someone would seat us. We stood there for quite a while before we were rudely told we could sit anywhere. We sat at a dirty table close to the door. The guy working there walked by 10+ minutes later with menus and threw them on the table as he walked by. We decided that we didn’t want to sit at a dirty table and be treated poorly. Sounds like other people have had similar experiences. Not planning on ever going there again.

I came here for the first time on New Year’s Day. Even though it’s not for everyone, I love the super-​cozy (perhaps even crowded) feel. This is the perfect place to go if you have just rolled out of bed on a weekend morning and are craving a home-​made breakfast.
One New Year’s Day, the staff was super busy, so our food did take a long time to arrive (30mins +?) but the coffee was flowing and the waiter was very nice. It’s hard to beat these prices as well!

Me and boyfriend loved this place but I am not sure what’s happening to the quality of their service first it takes literally forever for the server to come get your order and not to mention he is rude as fuck!!! And as part of our food the orange they gave us was rotten

Overrated. I like me some no-​frills diner but some cleanliness would go a long way. The breakfast was good.
But.
The coffee pots were brown. I think that’s glass that would be clear if it were washed every couple of weeks or so. I love SF and I love charm but the layer of dust and grime over every surface in this place was a bit much for me.

Decent diner breakfast food but def not the ideal place for a vegetarian. We both went with standard eggs/​potatoes/​toast ensemble. Nothing special but it got the job done. Complete with lots of refills of diner coffee. Extra points for maintaining the historical charm of this diner (loved the round bar).

Came here Sunday around 9:45am and it was packed! Ended up only taking about 10−15min to get seated though so not bad. The place certainly is a bit cramped, so you’re often bumping into people sitting around you. It was also very very warm inside, which may be due to the loads of people or the heating system, hard to tell haha.
I went with the breakfast order #2 with pancakes, sausage, and 2 eggs over-​medium. We ended up waiting for a good 20−25mins for our food, and saw that other pairs seated after us got their orders before us. Eggs also came out a little too undercooked for my taste with the white goop still visible and very over easy instead of medium. Pancakes were great though! Moist, buttery, and sweet.
Coffee had a slight sourness to it, but was never left unfilled or cold by the servers. Before I knew it, I already had at least 3 refills!
Overall, busy breakfast hours as expected, with slow but nice service. Good food at good prices, but not enough to win me over as a frequent breakfast joint in Inner Sunset.

Cash only!
Your average diner food… But in SF that’s cheap and provides great service? Down.

Before you go into this restaurant, be aware that this is CASH ONLY.
TL;DR version:
— average food
— bad customer service
— CASH ONLY
ATMOSPHERE:
Thank goodness there weren’t a lot of people when my friend and I went in here. We thought there would be a line outside just because this area was always busy. The restaurant was rather small and quaint. The noise level wasn’t loud so it was a great place to have breakfast.
FOOD:
I ordered the corned beef has & two eggs which came with house potatoes and bread. I love my eggs scrambled with hot sauce and I would say that it tasted average. The corned beef hash was more on the dry side which was okay too. I was honestly expecting the house potatoes to be different than what it came out to be. I would say the house potatoes were pretty good; a little above average.
CUSTOMER SERVICE:
This is where this place lost its stars. The customer service that we experienced was HORRIBLE. We were seated and waited 5 minutes until our server gave us our menus. It took about another 5 minutes to get our order in. When we were ready to check out, it literally took between 10 – 15 minutes to pay our bill and leave because our server was ignoring us and had to go up to pay for it.
Would I come back here? Eh. Would I recommend this to a friend? Ehh. Gotta step up, Howard’s.

Great food, cheap prices (starting at $ 6), big portions, and good customer service. I just summed it all up! Can’t go wrong with anything. And the best part: breakfast is served ALL day. One thing this place can use is more ventilation.

like cheap brunch food? well this is the place for you! i brought my friends here for brunch and they really liked it enjoyed their food. i ordered the spinach, bacon, and sour cream omelette. my omelette includes home-​fried potatoes and an english muffin all for $ 7.25. most brunch places are expensive, but the prices here are very reasonable for the portion size! i really liked my omelette because i’m a spinach and bacon fan! normally, i don’t like to eat english muffins because they don’t taste appetizing to me. but i really like their english muffins! they toast it to the point where it’s nice and cripsy. hmmm, i love it! this is going to be one of my «go to brunch places» :)
notes: the wait can be long because the restaurant isn’t very big, so i would advise you to go a bit earlier than lunch time. because this brunch place is located on a busy street, parking might be tricky. you might end up parking a few blocks away. seating isn’t exactly ideal for groups larger than 4 but you can ask them to combine tables. the noise level is kind of loud too, so you might have to speak up louder

How this place has 4 stars is beyond me.
Service: ¹⁄₅
Food: ²⁄₅
My bf and I got seated around 10 minutes of waiting and it took another 10 minutes for them to get our order. After 30−45mins, we finally got our order. I saw our food on the counter for 10mins so idk why they took so long to bring it? They also took their sweet ass time getting the order for these 4 guys that sat behind us. When the food finally got to us, it was very disappointing for a place that was hella crowded and has 4 stars on Unilocal.
Anyways, if you want better service and mediocre food, go to Dennys. :-)

I wasn’t terribly impressed with this place. It was okay, but nothing stood out in my mind. The service was generally slow, the interior wasn’t particularly attractive, and the food was really quite average. It’s not a bad option, but not a great one either

Eating at Howard’s is like watching a gymnast do a backflip, it’s been done a thousand times but is still amazing each time you experience it.
Seriously my family has been coming here for 30+ years and it always hits the perfect mark one expects a greasy spoon to hit.
I get the breakfast special with 2 eggs, 2 bacon/​sausage (3 if the gods smile), 2 orange slices, and a heap of hash browns, with coffee or tea. All this for 7bucks with tip. HELL YA!!!
Sometimes it can get a little hectic in there with only one person managing the entire front end of the restaurant but they make it work.
–Tip well they earn it. :)

Total «dive» greasy spoon.
Cash only… But a fun experience overall. The bacon is awesome and a somehow these English muffins are the best I have ever tasted! Where do you source them from!!!
Perfect breakfast… 2 over-​easy eggs, 2 pieces of bacon, breakfast potatoes and an English muffin. You’re welcome.
Awesome service too where my coffee was always filled and warm.

Great family «hole in the wall» restaurant with the most affordable brunch prices I’ve ever seen. Eggs benny for less than $ 8? Yes please. They give you lots of food and you won’t leave hungry. The only thing is service is slow so don’t come here if you’re in a rush.
CASH ONLY.

I was in the Sunset visiting my son and we decided to walk around to find someplace to eat breakfast. I decided to take the advice of my fellow Unilocaler Chelsea B. and give Howard’s Café a shot and I’m so happy I did. It’s a quaint little restaurant that doesn’t look like much from the outside, but they do a very nice job with their food.
We walked-​in and immediately a gentleman, who was cleaning a table, turned and greeted us. We got a table and I wasn’t quite sure what to order, since I was torn between the Corned Beef Hash and an Omelette. I decided upon the Western Omelette, due to the various reviews. My son ordered the House Omelette. The omelette’s were cooked perfectly and were very tasty. I really enjoyed the crispy country potatoes and lo and behold, they serve their breakfasts with 2 English Muffins and not toast. This was a really nice touch.
I’m glad we walked around for a bit afterwards, since their portions are filling. Our service was very good and the restaurant was fairly crowded this morning and there was maybe only a table or two vacant. The prices are very reasonable, especially with the amount of food they serve. I really enjoyed the meal and will have to try the Corned Beef Hash on a future visit.

Recommendation:
Disappointing. If it looks busy, I’d find somewhere else. Quality of Service drops dramatically when there are a lot of customers. Also, it was a somewhat grimy establishment. Food was okay, and the price was great.
Service:
The service was among the worst I’ve seen in a restaurant. Upon entering, there were a couple tables open, and after standing by the door for a couple minutes, I was helped. I said I was the first in a party of 3, and the waiter told me that he can’t seat me until the other people are present. Okay, not the best, but whatever. I asked if I could be seated instead at the 2 person table near the window, which he allowed. Once seated with a menu, I was left to myself for about 5 minutes before being asked what I’d like to drink. It took another 5 minutes before my room-​temperature glass of water was brought out. When that happened, I still wasn’t asked if I’d like to order something. By that time, the rest of my party arrived and we moved to the 4 person table directly behind where I was seated, which had just been vacated. The waiter came by to get us water, and asked if we had ordered yet. We said no, so he left and got the waitress who was actually taking orders. The ordering was fine, and the food came out in a respectable manner. Not notably fast but not slow either. Once we had eaten, she gave us the check, which was just her notes notepad. I asked if it could be split three ways (for each of our party) and in an exasperated tone, she said that’s difficult to do, and that she could do two ways but not three. Very peculiar.
Food:
The food wasn’t terrible, at least! The one redeeming part of this eating experience. I got two overeasy eggs, two pieces of bacon, and two english muffins. The eggs were excellent, the bacon was cooked not too crispy but not floppy, and the english muffins were browned and buttered. I guess it’s a pretty simple meal, and there’s not too much room to mess up, so I don’t know if the cooking was good or if I just got lucky. Regardless, my dining companions got french toast and reported that it was okay (not the best but not the worst). The price was good though! 3 people ate for under $ 25 so I can’t complain too much about the food, considering the price. That’s about all I can say!
Atmosphere:
The restaurant was pretty dark, but the worst part was that it was very packed. There was hardly room to walk in between tables, and parties entering the restaurant stood awkwardly by the tables near the door. At times, there were 6 – 8 people waiting to be seated by a hostess, and these people towered over diners seated near the door. I was seated near a window, and I have to say I was a little grossed out by the grime on the windowsill. It looked poorly painted and not cleaned/​sanitized in a very long time. The windows weren’t too clean either. This really makes me question the floor and the rest of the establishment. The table also wasn’t in particularly good condition, and I just got a general sense of second-​hand poorly-​maintained equipment and dining conditions.
Recommendation: The food was decent, but the rest of the dining experience was disappointing. The service was terrible and I felt at multiple points in time like I was an inconvenience to the waitress, I was able to watch other people have a similar bad experience through lack of service, and the establishment wasn’t even neutral; it was repelling. Unless I’m completely broke and am looking for a super cheap meal, I don’t think I’ll be coming back.

My beloved Art’s Café was somehow closed this cold rainy Wednesday morning so with a quick stroll around the corner and across the street looking for a good hearty breakfast, I found myself here at Howard Café. How could it have been here all this time and I was never aware of its existence?
I got to the door while I the cold rain hit my skin. Smiling at a little old lady with a nod of good morning, I opened the door to an old and warm 70’s diner setting where you can unmistakably smell the eggs and bacon on the griddle as it sizzled like music to the ears of an empty belly.
There were a couple of vacant tables even though I sensed they were busy beyond their norm, but I walked straight to the bar seating and took a seat next to another breakfast driven stranger. The server seemed flustered and a little stressed by the amount of orders coming in all at once. I can tell he was doing his best.
I sat for a while and the server was all over the place so I nonchalantly helped myself to a menu next to their cash register. It was a relatively small straight foward all American eggs, meat, and potatoes type of breakfast menu. I seemed to have studied it so well that if my highschool SATs were based off this menu I’d pass blindfolded with high honors… Possibly even a chance at Stanford. That’s probably cause I sat there for an eternity like a ghost. I got in there at 7:36AM and didn’t get my order in until 7:56AM. How do I remember the exact time? Because I made a very specific text right before I walked in at 7:33.
Finally taking matters into my own hands to manifest the future of poor empty belly, I approached the server who was busy at the register while the cook was ringing the bell away on his ready to be served orders. He never once looked up at me. I get it though. It really was a sudden rush in there especially with Art’s closed. I was not the least bit upset even as I’m recounting my first time here today for my fellow Unilocalers. Without any acknowledgement, I said «Veggie omelet with avocado when you get the chance.» Still no acknowledgement to whether he had heard me, but I went back to my bar seat to give him some space. 2 minutes later he came over with a napkin, fork, and knife and asked if I wanted anything to drink with my order. So I told him water was fine. He did hear me after all. Like I had said before, he was trying his best… He really was.
My omelet was very hearty with 3 farm fresh eggs and largely diced tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, avocado, mushrooms, and spinach. Done as you’d expect a diner would. The home fries were made of sliced potatoes like that of a potato gratin. Although fresh from the griddle, it was a stale kind of crispy when it came to the browned crusts. Wasn’t my cup of tea really but I’m sure others might appreciate it more than I do. It came with a side of buttered toasted English muffins. I love English muffins in general and this one had that light crunch from being toasted as I sank my rabbit teeth into the warm soft doughy center.
I looked at the time and forgot how long I’ve stayed. I wanted to enjoy my breakfast a tad bit longer but it was off to work and I packed the unfinished half to go. Here I am at 9:55AM sharing my morning with my Unilocalers while I’m pretending to be busy on my emails with a full stomach.
3.5 stars for a «you know what to expect from a diner» diner but I can’t say it was a 4.
Good morning Unilocal!
Note: Please let me know if you got the aches after eating here. I hate to assume but this was the only thing I had all morning. About an hour or 2 later things got a little runny if you know what I mean. Not the biz.