The Elite Cafe

Busy place. Our friend brought us there to try one of the good places for breakfast and it worth it. A little pricey but you will enjoy your breakfast. Nice atmosphere, old school seating, in enclosed rooms. Service was good. I got the Veggie omelet with side of mashed potatoes. Portions are big, cooked good.

Why haven’t I been here before today?
Arrived at 11 a.m. and was immediately seated at the bar. Fantastic service.
The veggie hash was delicious. Cubed veggies with two poached eggs and a yummy sauce with just the right amount of heat. My bloody Mary was also perfectly spiced.
What a delight!

My first time here, been wanting to try Elite for years but just never made it. I’m happy we landed here for brunch yesterday. My friend and I shared the following:
Beignets: These were disappointing. Dense bland and not enough powder sugar. We had to ask for more sugar. I’ve had real beignets at NOLA these don’t fool me!
Meetinghouse Benedict; Alabama Scramble:
I’ll just talk about the main dishes together. These are such fatty dishes, but so good! How can you go wrong with a plate full of fat and butter? One of the best biscuits I’ve ever had. Whoever thought of mashed potatoes for a side, you are amazing! Mashed potatoes for brunch is the best. The salty bacon or ham hock in each dish was perfectly salty to compliments the buttery mash and biscuits in gravy. All so good and too filling.
Blood orange mimosa: perfect!

*puts on pretentious southern/​creloe hat and jumps on soapbox*
Ill preface this by saying I am not only from the south (Houston) but have New Orleans/​creole roots. My bar is high for cajun food so for that, I wont fault elite café.
It was fat Tuesday. Back home, Fat Tuesday was our last hoorah to celebrate all things mardi gras. A quick search for fat Tuesday festivties led me to elite café. The selling point? Live jazz, New Orleans beer and crawfish flown in from New Orleans.
We pop in around 6pm and the spot was pretty dead. The music was being set up, the bar was popping and most of the dining room tables were open. The host, who didn’t seem too interesting in being there, monotonely asked us if we had reservations and said it’d be a minute (as we looked at the empty dining room). Once seated, we were given menus and the mood shifted from there.
The extent of their «New Orleans beer» was abita amber on draft (take note from north star café in north beach, guys.) no turbo dog? No purple haze?! Strike one.
We opted on a few sharing plates just to see what’s up.
Meetinghouse biscuits — HYPE. Kinda dry and the spread was aiiiiiteeee. Honestly, go to hard knox for their FREE jalapeño corn bread or even red lobster for their cheese rolls (even Beyoncé is a fan!)
Baked artichokes — the winner. Beautifully cooked but a little too salty for my taste.
Red beans and rice — ordered but our waiter forgot it. By the time we remembered, we were already full.
Crawfish Maccheroni — I’m torn. The serving was too small to share and it had the smallest crawfish I’ve seen in the bay area. But the sauce was good. Not worth $ 25, IMO.
This dinner made me realize how much I don’t like how much type creole/​Cajun hype that is sweeping the bay area. While I was excited to get some crawfish, I couldn’t stomach $ 20/​POUND while back home they are ¹⁄₃ of that. I get it, supply and demand wah wah wah but still… No thanks.
Last time I was in Texas a group of 7 of us got a handful of sides, entrees, beer AND crawfish with leftovers and it was around $ 100. Last night, we dropped $ 90 for two people who got two beers each and left still kinda hungry.
If you want a real Cajun/​creole experience, check out Angeline’s Louisiana Kitchen (
) in Berkeley… Hands down the most authentic ive had in California… def worth the bridge toll. I’d only recommend Elite café for a few drinks at the bar to watch some live jazz.
I’ll keep it on my radar for brunch, but otherwise it’s a hard pass.

I am giving them a four star because the food is really good. Went for brunch and we all enjoyed our entrees. The biscuit which they are known for was excellent! The service on the other hand is a hit or miss. Our waitress at first couldn’t be bothered as she had an attitude but occasionally we saw a glimpse of decent service.
Food and drinks were good so they get a four star.

The service was extremely slow: the waiter took forever to take our order and we waited 50min for our food!
The waiter didn’t smile once. Not the best brunch experience…

Ferguson and I met another friend there for dinner last night and had a wonderful time. I love the ambiance of the place with the old, private booths and décor.
Had a couple of cocktails waiting for dinner — very nice. Then had an order of their biscuits which were absolutely wonderful. A dish of their bbq shrimp showed up moments later that was also wonderful, but I am always left wondering why places put two or three slivers of bread on a dish when there are 8 or 9 pieces of cheese, shrimp, etc., that needs a resting place as well as something to sop up the wonderful juices, but I digress.
Entrees came. We had the jambalaya and pork chop. The chop was fabulously moist and tender and very flavorful. Jambalaya was also very nice and Neworleansy. We finished off dinner with beignets, which sadly to say, were absolute crap. Big, dense dark blocks of fried dough. I asked the waiter if they were supposed to be chocolate because of their dark color. He said it was the fact they have a small fryer in the kitchen and have to cook them at a higher temperature, which didn’t burn them, but fried them beyond any desirable golden color. I suggested they not serve them again. He very nicely took them off our bill.
Great place, get the biscuits!

We’ve been here a few times for dinner and tried their brunch this past weekend. All our dishes were fantastic and the service was great. My husband, from NOLA, always gets Shrimp and Grits if it’s on the menu and he thoroughly enjoyed the preparation and presentation at Elite. My friend had the Alabama Scramble with Biscuits and we all thought it was the best damn biscuit we’ve ever had. The Huevos Ranchero looked different than how we’ve typically seen it prepared but it was still great. I loved my Trout Benedict and my side of Collard Greens. We all loved the Bloody Mary’s (one had it with bacon) and the Blood Orange Mimosas. You should definitely try their Deviled Eggs brunch or dinner.

Solid weekend brunch restaurant that usually has a line, though you may want to sneak a seat at the bar for a more retro experience. Otherwise, it’s fun to have a secluded booth that will drown out the busy restaurant. Food wise, the beignets are worth sharing after you’ve tried their warm biscuits handed out shortly upon seating. Then try the Meetinghouse Benedict or Shrimp and Grits to complete your southern style brunch. With a little bit of retro and a lot of love put into the dish, come here for a solid weekend brunch.

I had such high hopes for a great brunch here. The pictures of their Meetinghouse Benedict (biscuits, ham hock, poached eggs, hollandaise) for $ 15 and the Seafood Benedict (shrimp, crab, scallops, baguette, poached eggs, hollandaise) for $ 17 looked amazing. A lot of fellow Unilocalers raved about these two staples.
What my table received were portions about 60% of the size of the dishes in the pictures that I had seen. The food was luke warm and bland. Given that The Elite Café is a Cajun & Creole restaurant, I expected some serious flavors. It was probably the worst hollandaise I’ve ever had at any restaurant — devoid of any hint of lemon juice, salt, or cayenne pepper.
The saving grace for this brunch was the large carafe of mimosas we got and the small free samples of banana muffins that our waitress gave us at the end of the meal. Those mini banana muffins were amazing, which still made me wonder if the chef just had a bad day in regards to our food. However, in talking with some friends, they all had about the same experience as I did. Bland food for high prices. There are plenty of other brunch places on Fillmore to choose from. The Elite Café may be best frequented for their drinks and live music, certainly not their food fare.

what a disappointment.
Not at all what it used to be. The name of the restaurant is the only thing keeping this place opened
It used to be one of the best! Service was mediocre– food was less than bad

One Star, which is for the excellent service. This place has been around forever, and I always give it another chance every year, or so. And, then the food sucks again.
The deets…“Omelette of the day” while it was accompanied by some mashed (then fried?) potato thing that was rich but tasty, the spinach inside the omelette could have come right off of a spinach salad or even, freshly picked. It was firm & cold. Boo. The crab, not fresh, certainly not the good SF stuff. Dry crumbly, whatever, A bite & a half, & right back to the kitchen garbage I assume.

Three words. The vegetable mash. I could leave it at that, but I need to keep going.
This is a delicious brunch place, and I’d wanted to go for a while. I rocked up midday saturday and waited around 20 minutes for a table (I hadn’t booked).
We got seated in this cute little booth, brown leather seats and a menu that looked exciting. There’s a definite Southern theme and I was excited about the Beignets, crispy doughy balls that came fresh out the oven and were sweet and doughy on my tongue.
But it’s the mains that impressed me. My vegetable mash came in a large frying pan, still slightly sizzling, combining an egg, onions, cubed potatoes and more. It was dense and delicious, and my friend looked very jealous. He ate a large Alabama Scramble, which looked pretty good, but hey, no frying pan right?
Just to kill our stomach lining we layered this with cajun fries. They came coated in a spicy seasoning with a portion of (aioli? maybe?) pinkish sauce on the side.
And FYI, prices here are low. A main is around $ 12 and that will fill you up.
I basically rolled down the hill home and had a good food coma nap.

I was looking forward to trying this place because of the other reviews and pictures from fellow Unilocalers, but was quite disappointed.
The service (for the most part) was very nice, but there were a few servers who showed an «I don’t want to be here» attitude. I wanted to try many of the food options, but my budget would not allow it; the food quality (among the ones I got) is «just decent» for high prices.
In addition, the secluded booth area my boyfriend and I sat at were very cramped and near a ton of noise (noise from entrance, noise from nearby tables, etc.). I felt that was a bad choice on their part when there were plenty more tables in a quieter slightly more spacious area towards the back.
I would say to give this a place a try for the experience and to fulfill curiosity, but keep in mind that the prices are on the higher end.

Repeat after me, «I will not cheat on Brenda’s French Soul Food ever again.» Seriously never again! I know most people go to The Elite Café for brunch, but four of were attempting to go to Woodhouse on a Friday night around 8:45 — 9:00, and they were packed with a weight. Hubby and I had plans the next day at Roam across the street but they looked busy too. Delfina had a 45 minute wait. I had a feeling that Thai place up the block or Elite Café were are only options. So we all walked up to Elite and got a booth table. Those tables are weird since they’re sort of enclosed.
We shared the buttermilk biscuits and I ordered the Jambalaya to share with him (since he wasn’t very hungry). At least the waiter was cool with him not really ordering anything. The buttermilk biscuits were served piping hot. They were deliciously buttery and moist. My jambalaya was filled with veggies, chicken, sausage and some shrimp. It was just okay at best. I think some of the spices were a little off putting as they smelled a little funky. Definitely not worth the $ 28.
If I give Elite Café another chance, it would be just for brunch, but honestly I don’t even see myself coming back for brunch.
Brenda’s is still our favorite place for Creole food. Brunch and dinner it’s still very consistent.

delicious corn beef hash and deviled eggs.
the poached eggs and hollandaise sauce was great with the cornbeef hash.
our beignet looked overdone and a lil dense.
wait was 10 mins for sunday brunch.
drinks were on the slow side.
décor was old school sf with nice giant skylights.
booths are lil tight and upright for the seat backs.

The food and the drinks are in the title. Elite.
I’ve only been here a handful of times, but I have never been disappointed. Breakfast, brunch and dinner. The food is always fresh, and we’ve had great service. You’ve got to try the biscuits! Yummmm.

Came here on a late Sunday afternoon with two other friends. I live closeby and have been wanting to try, but the line is always so long. We were lucky and were seated fairly quickly, but sadly we missed brunch/​breakfast, so I didn’t get to experience it. We were given the WEEKEND HAPPY HOUR menu though, which was limited, but we were hungry enough to try almost all their dishes on the menu. The total came out to be around $ 85 for 3, which isn’t bad especially because we ordered almost everything on the menu.
Brussel sprouts — very strong vinegar taste, but something about it made me keep eating it. The outside was super flavorful, but the inside was a bit harder to bite apart and lacked flavor. These were fairly large brussels sprouts, but cooked well because it didn’t have the bitter taste which is a plus.
Bacon Cheeseburger — nothing special, but the fries and the sauce to dip it with was the best part of this. Next time I’m strictly ordering the fries and the hint of spicy dipping sauce that comes along with it!
Cornbread — a bit hard and dry — which was disappointing since I’m a huge fan of corn anything. It did taste better when I applied butter to it though.
Biscuits — YUM! They were soft and buttery enough to fall apart easily in your mouth. Request for the strawberry butter, because it was AH-​MAZING! We almost used it all up because we put it on everything: p
Mac & Cheese — Not usually a fan of mac & cheese, because I feel like it’s the same everywhere, but here, I enjoyed it and definitely would reorder when I return. The crispy onion bits were such a good pair with them.
Devil Eggs — They were a little too strong on the taste of mustard & mayo because it was all I could taste. I barely tasted the egg itself — not very impressed with this dish though :(
Beignets — Last, but definitely not least! This was my favorite dish of the meal! The beignets were soft and warm to perfection. Putting a bit of strawberry butter on it made it as good as it gets! This is a must order when you come :)
Service was not bad, workers didn’t seem very friendly or smiley which was a not good — but I would definitely be back for the food.

The mister and I came back to Elite Café to try their brunch even though our dinner visit wasn’t so great. I’m glad I was able to make reservations as there was already a line out the door at 10:00 a.m., which is when they open.
We ordered:
Meetinghouse Biscuits ($ 1 each) — A bit pricey IMO, but it’s a good buttery indulgence. It was even more heavenly paired with the strawberry butter.
Meetinghouse Benedict ($ 14) — I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was a rock solid dish! It comes with two melt in your mouth biscuits topped with ham hock and two poached eggs. The ham hock was perfectly smoked and when eaten with the egg and biscuit, it wasn’t too salty. The ham hock reminded me of pulled pork because of the shreds.
Elite Cajun Style Braised Beef Hash ($ 15) — Topped with poached eggs, various bell peppers, and Bechamel sauce. Hubby said this was definitely better than the jambalaya he ordered here for dinner. Flavors and portion was good.
Service was okay. We only saw our waiter when we ordered our food and had difficulty getting his attention as we sat in the booth.
Overall, I’d come back for brunch, but not for dinner.

Spectacular service. Sat at the bar for a late dinner (came in about 30 minutes to close) and the bartender was outstanding — nice, chatty, attentive, and accommodating.
We ordered:
* Deviled Eggs: traditional and delicious — don’t miss out
* Dandelion Salad — very good — but started getting too bitter the more you ate it — could use a few different greens to even out the taste — also the dandelion leaves were HUGE — looked nice, but made it hard to eat.
* Blistered Padron peppers are also not to be missed
* We also ordered a small seafood pasta dish but the name escapes me — it had a copious amount of garlic — yummm… the shrimp was well cooked but the crab was a bit dry.
Overall wonderful experience.