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World Famous Restaurant, Pacific Beach, San Diego.

World Famous Restaurant, Pacific Beach, San Diego.

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World Famous Restaurant

711 Pacific Beach Drive
Pacific Beach area of San Diego.
San Diego, Calif.  92108
Phone: 858-272-3100
Fax: 858-272-3189

California coastal cuisine.

Reviewed 8/7/08 (Thursday) at about 9:45 AM for breakfast.

Food: B (Once it arrived, quite good.)
Service: C (Food took a long time to arrive.  we ordered fruit and got potatoes.  I had to ask for my coffee cup to be refilled.)
Menu: B (Scored high for some unusually nice offerings.)
Value: B (Not bad prices for what you get.)
Ambiance: A (See text below.)
Restrooms: C (a serpentine path to get to)

The concierge at the Paradise Point Resort & Spa, Jeff, recommended we try World Famous as it was one of his favorites.  He recommended the eggs Benedict.  Getting to the restaurant from the resort was extremely easy, Jeff showed us on a map he provided.  We went north on Ingram Street to Crown Point Shores and made a left on Rivera Drive, which turned into Pacific Beach Drive.  He said just go past Mission Blvd and look carefully for an underground parking lot at the Promenade shopping center.  He said parking in the beach area can at times be difficult but few people know about this particular garage because the entrance is practically hidden.   We have offered a web page that we hope shows you how to enter this garage.  <Promenade parking garage>

The restaurant is right on the boardwalk and the longest segment of the restaurant runs along the boardwalk and offers a wonderful view of the ocean and people moving up and down the boardwalk.  There is a patio area that has a half wall and on top are windows that offer an unrestricted view.  Just behind the patio is a large, rather dark dining room from which very good views of the ocean are available.

World Famous Restaurant

World Famous patio

We were luck enough to get a table, actually two side by side, on the patio with a wonderful view of the ocean.  My wife and I sat at the table closest to the windows to the internal dining room and my daughter sat at her own table but next to ours.  Her table rocked.  I asked the waitress for something to wedge under the table, she said she would get something but never returned.  My daughter took 4 Sweet and Low packages and wedged them under one leg of the table.  The tables were wood tops with wonderfully rounded edges.  The chairs on the patio were wood slats on a metal frame, not too bad for comfort.

World Famous Restaurant patio.

My wife, daughter and I did a three way split of the following two menu items:

World Famous Wipe Out $8.75.
3 eggs
3 buttermilk pancakes
Choice of ham, bacon or sausage.
Choice of potatoes, refried beans or fresh fruit.

Famous Bread Pudding French Toast  $7.55.
Home made bread pudding sliced, egg dipped, pan griddled, topped with diced bananas and caramelized pecans.

The coffee, I was told it Boyd’s Coffee and it was very good.  The second cup was excellent.    Boyd’s Coffee is so much better than Starbucks.

The waitresses were another visual attraction (for me), all cute, wearing short shorts and skirts and all seeming possessing killer tans.  I gave the ambiance score a high mark for having three wonderful visuals to keep me occupied, ocean, boardwalk traffic and the waitresses.

Here is the meal analysis:

  • Eggs = perfect.
  • Bacon = perfect.
  • Potatoes = really good which is unusual.  My wife thinks they were cooked in butter, nice flavor, quite a surprise.
  • Pancakes = light, fluffy, bland.
  • Bread pudding French toast = quite good.
  • Coffee= excellent!

I tried the Famous Bread Pudding French Toast with no syrup and they tasted just a tad better than good.  When syrup was added they really achieved a step higher in flavor.

I have a recommendation for World Famous Restaurant.  Why not offer a new menu selection and label it “Word Famous Wipe Out PLUS”.  Keep all the items for Wipe Out but substitute, for the pancakes, the bread pudding French toast.  After comparing pancakes to the French toast I just could not figure out why anyone would want pancakes.

Kono’s Cafe In Pacific Beach

Kono’s Cafe In Pacific Beach

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Kono’s Café

Breakfast and Lunch
704 Garnet Ave
San Diego, CA 92109
(858) 483-1669

Reviewed for breakfast.
Price: A+
Menu Selection: C
Food: B+
Seating: C-
Restroom: D

Yesterday when we drove up to the Hyatt Hotel, the doorman told us of two of his favorite places to have breakfast.  The first place was called Kono’s in Pacific Beach part of San Diego.  It is located at the end of Garnet Blvd and the intersection of Ocean Blvd (no vehicles on Ocean boarwalk) as close to the beach as a business can get.

We got lucky and found parking on the short segment of Garnet between Ocean and Mission Blvd.  Because we parked across the street from this establishment we immediately noticed a long line trailing out of this place.  It was just past 9 am on a Tuesday.  Normally we do not like to wait to eat but decided to try this out as the long line and the recommendation sort of hooked us.  As we stood in line, we tried to figure out how the restaurant was able to seat all the people.  I went to a side door and saw there were a number of tables for inside dining as well as some eating spots along the walls.  I struck up a conversation with a woman behind me, once I got back in line, to discover that her daughter had been a waitress for a year at the restaurant and knew what was going on.  She told us there was an outdoor patio on the other side of the building, a short walk up past the building along the boardwalk.

(Tip) The third place one can eat is on a patio across Ocean (boardwalk).  Ocean serves as a sort of boardwalk but is not made of wood but a street for pedestrians, bicycles, skateboards and anything else that does not have motor drive.  Across the back porch is a very narrow walkway on one side of a vendor selling wind no needs.  You Just have to know where this path is.  The image below is marked for you.

Path to patio across the street from restaurant.

Behind that shop is a decent size patio with a terrific view of the ocean and beach.

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It took at least 25 minutes to get to the counter to place our order.

This photo shows where you order your meal inside the restaurant.

From ordering window a view of the kitchen.

Two orders of pancakes, eggs (with cheese), pancakes and one breakfast burrito with drinks cost us about $22.   The meals are delivered to your table so pay attention to the name you give the cashier or your order will pass by you. The poor girls (did not see any men making deliveries) entered the small dining room first then the back patio and then had to walk across the board walk to the “hidden patio” to find who had ordered the meals they were carrying.  Our meal came within 5 minutes of paying for our food at the counter.  We sat inside because it was a wonderful day outside and the “hidden patio” was full and I did not care for the back patio.

Kono\'s Cafe dining room.

The food comes to you on paper plates and you are given plastic knife and fork.  The portions looked to be really large.  The pile of eggs was truly impressive and the plate had three strips of bacon and two pancakes.  The eggs were not salted and I liked that as some people are on low sodium diets and you are allowed to salt to your taste.   I sampled the eggs unsalted and the cheese did not overpower the eggs one bit and I had to salt lightly the dish and the flavor popped for me nicely.  The bacon was cooked perfectly and the taste was perfect.  The pancakes were pretty good, nothing above average.  The coffee tasted like Starbucks and needed cream for my liking.

In summary, I did like the experience; it was like taking a roller coaster ride once to see what it was like.  I think I would go back if I knew the place was not slammed and I wanted to have a good meal at a cheap cost.  I definitely would sit on the “hidden patio” if a table was available.