Cheeky Cafe

If you’re down for comfort food, this place has it! The Chicken fried steak is amazing! The batter is well seasoned but the gravy can run a tad bit salty so it’ll be good if you share different entrees:) The cheeky French toast is a fried French toast with three layers of goodness and it comes with BACON.

Cheeky Café has quickly become my favorite neighborhood restaurant to grab a bite to eat for lunch or dinner. I just moved to the International District and I have fallen in love with Cheeky Café.
The cashier/​waitress who is always there to greet me has always been wonderful. I’m not sure of her name but she has always been very nice and attentive on every visit. I haven’t tried one menu item that I haven’t like. The fried rice with Portuguese sausage is amazing! The Katsu Burger is also a must try. I like that many of their menu items are unique and different such as, Kimchi Mac and Cheese, Spam and Eggs, Moco Loco Meatloaf with spicy sauce. Everything is fresh made to order and comes out hot and delicious. They do have a few beers on tap as well as serving a few selections of wine.
They also have brunch on Sunday’s and serve breakfast all day everyday. This is my kind of place!

I really want to like this place, but after three orders they suddenly don’t deliver to my neighborhood? Lame.

Green Tea pancakes!
Cheeky Café is pretty cute. The crowds sorta come and go here so you just have to get lucky and come when brunches are ending. Otherwise be prepared to wait. The servers there said average table time is about 40+ mins. We had a big party of 8 people so we were there for over an hour (including ~20ish minutes waiting for a table to be cleared).
SERVICE
–Super kind folks, but a little slow on the service side. My cousin had to ask for coffee twice and our orders came a good 15+ minutes later. We were all getting a little hangry but once our breakfasts came we were all in good spirits!
MENU
–Locomoco. This is the thing to try at any hawaiian/​asian/​brunch fusion place. The gravy was on point but the meatloaf itself was just OK. Not bad but not mind-​blowing. Thankfully my sister and I shared our orders ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ so I had a nice balance of savory and sweet breakfast foods.
–Green Tea Cheeky Pancakes! This one is not mentioned in reviews as much but if you are in the mood for pancakes, you should try it! Light green tea taste topped off with butter + syrup was soooo good!
–Cheeky French Toast. Other people in our party ordered this and it also looked extremely good. It was a good balance of crisp/​crunch on the edges but soft french toast goodness inside.
PROS
–pancakes and french toast
CONS
–slow service

I love coming here for breakfast. In my taste, the bacon is good, the food is good and the service is very friendly. Very clean cute place. The price on the menu is comfortably affordable. They have rotating beers on tap. Excellent coffee and other drinks. This place has been my go to place –I live only 2 blocks away– when I’m not in the mood to cook.

Not the best experience. Wasn’t greeted as I entered, just stared at. Staff was very awkward, wouldn’t make eye contact, would just stand near me and wait for me to initiate conversation.
Wasn’t bad food, breakfast sandwich with house made chicken patty was good, sweet potato fries were great.
Treatment by staff was a 2
Food was a 4
Average 3

Not a place to go if you’re uuuber hungry because you’ll be waiting a looooonnnng time for your food…
It took us over 20 minutes to get our food after we placed the order. We were warned by other Unilocalers and it wasn’t just us, every table waited and waited and waited for their food!
Lucklily, it came out delicious. I got the loco moco and my hubby got the country fried steak. I felt like mine was a larger portion than the chicken fried steak. For all the time and effort they put into the food, you’d think they’d cook a little more hashbrowns on your plate.
Gravy and ‘steak’ were spot on. Delicious! Not your typical sausage gravy. I think it’s more on a broth style gravy. And it’s the same gravy for the locomoco!
I wonder if I could switch it up next time, country fried steak on rice and locomoco on hashbrowns :) We did some crazy maneuvering to get those switched on our plates!

I really liked it here the first time I had lunch. Delicious salad and homemade chicken meatballs, I also tried the balsamic mushrooms. I really liked it and couldn’t wait to go back.
Second trip, ordered spicy mac and salad. Ended up sick in the bathroom an hour later. My coworker was violently ill and missed work the next day. Hoping that it was just an off day, I waited a few months and then ordered takeout from them, since I really liked it the first time. Big mistake. Third time having their food and second time ending up sick from eating there. Not sure if it is their food storage temps or their preparation or what, but I am sad to say, I cannot go back after getting sick two separate times months apart from eating their food.

1. Cutesy
2. Free parking!
3. Fusion food
Consumed:
Meatloaf Loco Moco with spam
Green tea pancakes
Came here for brunch and what a cute gem close to Chinatown. It’s central and convenient enough of a location to meet up with friends, but it’s also on the outskirts of the international district. That means it’s not quite as busy and street parking is free! (Hopefully it stays that way!)
The Loco Moco is super rich and yummy. I don’t wanna know how much butter was involved, but it was pretty good. I thought it was seasoned very well, and the meatloaf was not too salty. The sauce they use is just really good. I asked for my eggs over easy, and it’s just perfect with the meatloaf, spam, and rice. It’s inspiring me to go home and attempt making my own Hawaiian fusion food.
Green tea pancakes were kinda unique, since I have never had them. My friend said that it has more green tea flavor if you eat it first before the Loco Moco. It comes with eggs and bacon, pretty standard. I’d suggest trying more of the Hawaiian foods.
Definitely going to come back to try the other dishes! (Especially the Wendy’s Fried Rice. We wanted to order this, but brunch was backed up and they said they weren’t making it then).

Great restaurant for brunch or casual lunch/​dinner. Hawaiian fusion meets comfort food. Convenient location in central Seattle and plenty of street parking in the area.

I stopped by here for brunch on a Friday morning since I was visiting town and it was walking distance from my friends place. I had the cheeky French toast and mocha. Both were quite horrible and it took about 20 minutes for the food to show up. Which is odd since I was the only customer there… For $ 16, I would’ve been better off at IHOP. The eggs were too salty and the stuffed French toast taste so bad that I only finished half of it. Definitely not worth the money.

Meatloaf MOCO Loco! the only thing you’ll need to order and try here. parking may be hard to find so if you get luckly you may land a spot in front or around the street. so back to the meatloaf moco loco. im sure there are other items you can probably order too but i came mainly for the meatloaf moco loco and it did not disappoint.

My first visit here. Ordered the balsamic marinated mushrooms and spinach salad.
Mushrooms are fried and served on skewers. The breading is nice; crispy and herby. The mushrooms are juicy and you can taste the tang from the time they spent marinating in the balsamic. Very yummy :)
Spinach salad comes with feta, cranberries, and bits of mandarin orange in a vinaigrette. I added chicken as well. Very well balanced flavor from the salad and the chicken was cooked nicely. The salad doesn’t even need the meat and I don’t say that often.
The ambiance is very comfortable, it smells great in here, and the service is good. If I lived closer I would be here more often :)

This place is pretty confusing at first. They serve an array of dishes from Pasta Carbonara to Loco Moco to Kimchi Mac ‘n Cheese.
Got past that and ordered all three of those off for delivery and enjoyed every morsel that I could shovel into my mouth. The Pasta Carbonara is very flavorful and the bacon is perfect for this dish. Pasta cooked well and arrived not mushy is always a plus for delivery. The Meat Loaf Loco Moco was excellent and they even packed a whole thing of gravy on the side so you could pour it on by yourself. There is even a piece of spam that they include under the meatloaf which was a pleasant surprise! (Never can get enough spam anyways) The kimchi mac ‘n cheese was no loser to the first two dishes. I added spam and egg on top which was probably the best decision I made that day.
protip: add some extra spam and fried egg to your mac ‘n cheese, you won’t regret.

A brunch corner in the middle of a residential area that has a large menu but a small shop vibe. I thought their brunch was just average.
I had bacon, eggs, and green tea pancakes. The bacon and eggs were satisfactory, but the pancakes barely had any flavor. Their was a slight aftertaste of green tea, but the pancakes were really bland and disappointing to a green tea lover. I used all the butter and maple syrup, as the honey had frozen over and I couldn’t use it on the pancake.
I tried some of my friend’s other foods and it was just ok. The gravy for loco moco was too light and barely had any flavor. The loco moco was actually really forgettable when it should’ve been rich, the meat was too light and the dish was not hearty.
This is a nice casual spot to chill with friends, as it gets loud and busy. Their brunch however is pretty average.

Sadness. That’s what I experienced when I ate my food. Flashback to the time I was looking at the menu. I was excited. Although the menu appeared a bit mashed together, a number of dishes caught my eye. The space was cute and staff members were helpful and friendly.
The sweet potato fries were exactly what I expected. Crisp, a bit sweet, and the wasabi aioli added a little spice. The fried calamari was okay. The batter could have been crispier but overall, it was a good app.
Wendy’s fried rice on paper is everything I could have dreamed of. Okay, you had me at Chinese sausage. Add Portuguese sausage in rice and I could eat for days. If only that were true. The flavors and textures were wrong. I love both these types of sausage and I couldn’t stomach it. I struggled to politely eat a portion of my food (I was there with friends). I was on limited time and decided not to send it back. I gave it to my friend who appeared to like the food and went on my way. In addition to the rice, I had the chicken wings. The sauce was thick and chunky. Again, I struggled to eat it and finally stopped. They went in the box with the rice for my friend.
Two stars instead of one because of the space and staff.

I found Cheeky Café when I moved into Legacy at Pratt Park (the wonder bread apartments) and I’m so happy I decided to try it out. The food there is good! I haven’t tried a lot that they offer because I am a pescatrian, but the things that I have been able to eat are delicious. My favorite is their sweet potato fries. These fries are crispy but not too crispy, soft but not too soft, sweet but not too sweet. I make sure to order them whenever I go, even if it doesn’t make sense as a side for my meal that day lol.
They have all types of asian fusion food. My niece loved the loco mock, but she switched out the meatloaf for spam. The kimchi mac and cheese is delicious. The black bean burrito is always a quick fix when it comes to lunch or dinner. For breakfast I prefer the regular french toast or the breakfast sandwich with veggie sausage. I’ve tried the cheeky french toast, and all though the filling was DELICIOUS, it was too fried for me. Last time I was in there on the weekend for breakfast they were serving $ 5 mimosas!
And no matter how delicious the food is, I continue to go back because the people who work there are just amazing! When you first walk in, you’ll notice that it has a very homey type of feel, its very comfortable. But the servers remind you every chance they get through their great attitudes and relationships with one another, that it’s more than just the décor that makes it homey. They are like a family and they treat everyone as if they belong no matter what. I recommend Cheeky to any and everyone!

I see from the Unilocal reviews that Cheeky Café has been around for at least five years, and I only discovered it now. What I’ve been missing out on all these years…
I came here earlier this week to pick up some takeout for JP and me. Cheeky Café has a huge menu, and everything we ordered was ultra tasty. They definitely have a solid set of options for breakfast, lunch and dinner here. I know where we are coming for brunch next time.
But before I go any further, I must tell you that you need to bring your patience to Cheeky Café. Yes, the food is great, but the time it takes to get your order is excruciatingly slow!
For my first visit to Cheeky Café, I ordered oxtail soup, pasta carbonara, Wendy’s Fried Rice and sweet potato fries.
The oxtail soup (listed on a sandwich board outside the restaurant as a daily special) was an impulse purchase, based on the memories of an oxtail soup a girlfriend made for me thirty years ago. Cheeky’s oxtail soup, containing onions, tomato and carrot was perfection, seasoned wonderfully.
The non-​greasy sweet potato fries were excellent. But even better was the delicious thick dipping aioli sauce that came with the fries. That aioli was fantastic! Cheeky Café’s Wendy’s fried rice, served with Portuguese sausage and bits of scrambled egg was another excellent dish.
But, I loved the pasta carbonara the best. The sauce, or oils, or whatever it was that they coated the pasta with, was out-​of-​this-​world tasty. And I loved the generous amount of bacon that Cheeky Café added to this dish. Highly recommended! I ordered it again on my second visit and it was just as good as the first time.
Service is friendly. Cheeky Café is a keeper.

This place is like a cross between an old-​school diner and a school cafeteria!
Besides Cheeky Café, there are quite a bit of good eateries in this area known as Northern ID.
When I walked into Cheeky Café, I felt like I was back in Oahu! The place definitely has a very chill vibe on one face and a not-​so-​chill vibe with the cooks in the back frantically cooking on the other face. Another Hawaii-​ish attribute are some of the dishes: spam with eggs, fried rice with Portuguese and Chinese sausage, and mac and cheese with kimchi.
My buddy and I got the last two dishes listed and also an appetizer of chicken wings! At first glance when the chicken wings came out, we were kind of skeptical, but upon first bite «oh man it’s so good!» was our initial thought. The wings were uniquely flavored with this red sauce on top that I still can’t ascertain what it is, but it was good. The fried rice was solid. I never had fried rice with Portuguese sausage, but it ended up meshing well with the Chinese sausage. The kimchi gave the mac and cheese a little kick, so I give the place props for attempting that kind of fusion.
We tried getting the famous dumplings, but they were sold out! Guess we’ll have to come back here again for that, and it seems they have oxtail soup on Wednesdays? Mmm. Oxtail soup.

I like this place! They have very good strong coffee :) (at least to me). Dropped by with my girl friend and tried loco moco and nachos. Loco moco is made with their signature meat loaf and a light colored, thick gravy. I think it’s good but not out-​of-​my-​way good. The nachos were made of fried wontons and topped with their signature turkey chili and lots of beans. I dislike beans but man, those beans were soft and sweet, very good (I’m contemplating to eat more beans now) .
I’ve tried their kimchi Mac n cheese in the past, but I don’t recommend them together, or separately.