Whew what a Monday! Needing a break, I headed up the street aimlessly and didn’t stop until I was on the doorstep of the Crest Cafe.
Now I had been here several times,
but did not really know why I’d wandered here. I entered and couldn’t believe my eyes, the place was totally empty. On weekend mornings there’s no way you can get in without a wait; this neighborhood joint is jumpin’. What I’ve always noticed about Crest Cafe is that it always smells like breakfast, pancakes and maple syrup for that matter. You can drop in at 11pm and it’ll still smell like pancakes and maple syrup. Maybe it’s something in the AC? By now I focused in on the menu, and set my sights on a Butter Burger($8.25). What’s a Butter Burger you ask? Well it’s a half pound burger, stuffed with an herb-garlic butter, topped with cheddar cheese, with more melted butter and a garlic mayonnaise. There was a good chance that after I ate this burger, I wouldn’t see Tuesday, but whatever, I was willing to take the risk!
The previous 2 or so times I’ve been here I ordered the Oui Oui Burger, and it was pretty good sized, no wee-wee burgers served here. To complete the job I ordered fries as my side. The burger arrived on a huge egg roll. Now looking at this you’d think that it was all roll, but that wasn’t the case. The roll was perfectly toasted, the burger charred on the outside, and super moist on the inside. Overall the burger had a very rich, not greasy feel, but was under seasoned, I’d say even somewhat bland considering all of the effort to inject rich flavorful seasonings into and onto the burger. One of my pet peeves is food that’s under salted; I mean, you supposedly have all this butter, all this nice meat, you cook it by-the-book, it’s retains moisture and has a great 
texture, but you forget the salt and pepper. You can say I can add my own, but it’s not the same as if the burger was seasoned during cooking. The fries were “natural” (I really don’t know what you call them – maybe a fry expert can tell me), think In-and-Out, a little larger with the skin attached. Nice potato flavor, but again under seasoned. I did finish all of them, so they must be pretty good, but of course I’ve never met a fry I didn’t like! Overall, not a bad burger, but next time I’ll stick with the Oui Oui – Blue Cheese under Melted Jack, no flavor short circuit there!
A few notes; the Crest Cafe, has a combination of chair and bench-style seating, and when filled can be quite cramped. Also, all the surfaces are pretty “hard”, making this a really loud room. By the time I’d left the room had filled both with people and noise. I’ve heard that the breakfasts here, especially the French Toast is good, but have never had breakfast here. One really good thing about the Crest Cafe is that they are open till midnight. Here in San Diego, any establishment that doesn’t roll up it’s sidewalks at 9pm is gladly welcomed.
Crest Cafe
425 Robinson Ave
San Diego, CA 92103
Phone: (619) 295-2510
Open: 7am to Midnight Daily