Pacifica Breeze Cafe

Anonymous Dec 2, 2017 at 6:54AM

Lovely place with a cool view of the main intersection of Del Mar. The breakfast fare is great and very quick. Nice place to chat and have coffee and breakfast. Staff is friendly but you don't get table service, you order from the counter. Expect the crows to be waiting for you to finish your food so they can have the leftovers (:

Anonymous Sep 11, 2017 at 12:54AM

Very helpful staff, delish food, amazing bloody mary!

Anonymous Aug 26, 2017 at 8:50PM

Great place! Everyone is super friendly, amazing ambiance definitely I'm coming back.

Anonymous Aug 9, 2017 at 6:22AM

Pacific Breeze Cafe is a little breakfast and lunch place in the Del Mar Plaza. Its a casual extension of Pacifica Del Mar upstairs. You order at a counter and they bring the food out to your table. They have a few inside seats but most of the tables are outside on the covered patio... being on the second floor of the plaza, they have a pretty nice view of the village and the ocean. They menu is limited but everything on it is great... they have some vegetarian options if that's what you are looking for. Prices are good considering the location, and the staff is helpful and friendly. Check this place out when you want your food fast, but not fast food! My recommendations are the ham and cheese panini or the fish tacos.... and what ever you get, get it with the house made yam chips!

Anonymous Jul 18, 2017 at 8:18AM

** UPDATED REVIEW **

I'm a tough critic, but not an unreasonable person. My experience and review were not the best, but the manager of Pacifica Breeze Cafe did the right thing. He contacted me and offered to make it right. He did not pressure me to delete or alter my review, which makes his offer even better. This was a professional approach to a customer with a problem. I appreciate his actions and have updated my review.

The facts of the matter remain -- bland sandwich and slow service on a not-so-busy Sunday. However, the response from the manager made all the difference. I've upgraded my rating to 3-stars. He also agreed to mention the issues to his staff and I feel they will work on improvements. Honestly, the fried chicken sandwich could have been made a bit more flavorful with simple salt and pepper, or cheese, or mayonnaise, or an alternative sauce besides Tartar. Perhaps they will offer a few of these in the future.

I really wanted to like this place, especially since it is a new-to-me brunch place in Del Mar. There are a lot of positive reviews, which brought us in the door. In light of this new development, I will plan to visit Pacifica Breeze Cafe again in the future (most likely for brunch). My original complaint is below, but I hope to have a better experience next time and write a new review. Thank you to the manager for contacting me and making this into a better experience.

-- Original review below --

We went here for a late Sunday lunch, around 2 PM. The place was empty, which is a bad sign. But since we were the only customers we thought it would be quick and there was some chance that the food would be good.

I ordered the fried chicken sandwich and house-made yam chips. The sandwich was supposed to come with coleslaw and Tartar sauce on it, but neither of those sounded like they would be good with a fried chicken sandwich. So I ordered it without those and requested cheese and lettuce. The guy at the cash register made it sound like he couldn't add cheese to the sandwich, but that he could add lettuce. I thought either the chicken or the fried might have some flavor to it, but it was without a doubt the most bland sandwich I've ever had. The yam chips also had very little flavor and were a little bit soggy. This cost $13.

We also ordered a Gatorade and one of the small bottles of juice. The juice cost $10 and was not worth it. Ultimately, the meal cost almost $30 and was not great. It took almost 25 minutes for them to make a bland fried chicken sandwich when there were no other customers around.

Anonymous Apr 26, 2017 at 6:24AM

The Breeze Cafe has a pretty killer location overlooking Del Mar and the Pacific. The building itself is very nice and easy to navigate. The staff was friendly and working hard which was great. Upon ordering our breakfast/brunch we noticed a problem immediately though, there are plenty of tables and chairs are seriously lacking. We counted at least 5 tables with no chairs and had to borrow a chair to make our table even seat 2 people! Please, just invest a bit into a dozen or so chairs, it's not hard to do.

We sat down and enjoyed the spot, it really is great. Our beverages were ready quick, my wife got a cappuccino and I ordered the coffee. The coffee they have is pretty good and the cappuccino my wife got was great. The food came out fairly quickly considering how busy they were. I ordered the Sugar Spiced Salmon Hash with supposedly my choice of eggs to top it. I wasn't asked what kind of eggs I wanted, despite asking again about my order. Thankfully the hash came out with beautifully poached eggs. However, given the chance to order my eggs as I was supposed to I would have preferred scrambled. That being said, these were probably the best poached eggs I've had. The rest of the dish was pretty interesting, I don't think I'll ever get a salmon dish with sugar again. It was decent, but felt like I was a kid eating some sugary cereal for breakfast. The salmon was a bit overcooked and still had a couple bones. The cinnamon and sugar really was too much and overwhelmed the salmon flavor. The breakfast potatoes on the other hand were cooked great and had a nice crisp on the outside while soft in the middle. It was also supposed to have feta cheese, but it had maybe 4 chunks of feta on the whole dish. The dish would have been made much better had they actually used a decent amount of feta cheese and had asked how I wanted my eggs. I'd say their Sugar Spiced Salmon Hash is worth a try since it is an unusual dish, however I definitely won't order it again.

My wife got the breakfast sandwich on the croissant and it was quite good. The croissant itself was delicate and buttery, just great. She got it with ham and scrambled eggs and it was very good. The sandwich was very pleasant and perfectly cooked. I would definitely recommend the breakfast croissant as it was one of the better ones we have had.

Overall a decent experience and considering how many businesses here are closed Sunday mornings I thing I would probably come back to try more traditional items. But please get more chairs for your customers.

Anonymous Jan 3, 2017 at 12:41AM

My favorite in del Mar for breakfast

Anonymous Jul 13, 2016 at 12:12AM

Visited this place the last time I was in Del Mar four years ago and couldn't wait to come here again for the legendary Huevos Rancheros...

Anonymous Oct 18, 2023 at 5:51PM

If you're looking for a outdoor casual beach atmosphere breakfast spot, look no further. Though I don't think it is the best breakfast in Del Mar, it is hard to find such a casual (and relatively well priced) spot, which is what I am typically looking for.

I am fond of the eggs Benedict with bacon instead of ham. I typically get that and a black tea and enjoy the outdoor setting with a great ocean breeze. You won't be waited on hand and foot here, but you can get the beach atmosphere without the Del Mar price.

Anonymous Feb 13, 2016 at 10:34PM

Awesome food! Very healthy choices too, but most of all extremely tasty. Great ambience as well.