Zanzibar Café

Pacific Beach of San Diego
976 Garnet Ave.
San Diego, Calif.  92109
Phone: 858-272-4726
Web site: www.zanzibarcafe.com

Reviewed 8-6-08 for breakfast.

Food: A
Menu: B+
Service: self serve
Ambiance: C+
Restrooms: C

This restaurant is for breakfast and lunch only.

The menu costs range for breakfast of between $2.25 for a toasted bagel with plain cream cheese and $9.95 for egg specialties.
The menu ranges in cost between  $3.50 and $9.95 for lunch.

My wife thought the inside of the restaurant looked to be old town.  The ceilings were high with exposed beams, old looking inside and out.  There is very interesting artwork on the walls.   You walk inside the restaurant to the counter cash registers (left one for take out orders only), and place your order.  You are given a number to place on the table you sit at so the servers can deliver your food correctly.

Reviewing any restaurant for breakfast is difficult because the preparation of the meals is no challenge, in my opinion.  The items we ordered were too simple to list here.  What did impress me was the claim that this restaurant tried to promote is they “serve only the highest quality food and beverages available” and it seemed this was the case.  There were two problems I spotted.  As I ordered our meals at the cash register I noticed flies in the kitchen and one fly landing on what appeared to be toast lying on a kitchen table.  When we sat to eat I noticed flies in the dining room.  The doors were left open with no overhead air blast fans to keep flies out.  The second problem was a plumbing problem in the men’s room.  The urinal did not flush, could not flush.

The only parking we spotted was along the streets.  During the week, we found plenty of parking spots near this restaurant.