Magnolia's Cafe - Don't believe the hype

magnolia’s café was an utter disappointment. after it was profiled on the food network’s ’diners, drive-ins and dives’ and discovering that it was just a couple blocks down the road from our place, we decided to try brunch there. this was actually our second trip and we were hoping for an improvement over the rushed lunch we’d eaten there back in November on our scouting mission. after a bit of a wait (cannot believe people line up for this place), we were seated but given no menus or greeting until we flagged someone down, which was after a neighboring table that had been seated minutes after us already had drinks. we noticed that all the cute, sparkly cupcake paintings that hung on the wall months before were m.i.a. and unfortunately replaced by nothing. right away we were confronted with another table’s conversation about cold food that needed to be returned to the kitchen. we ordered water, which came with limes instead of lemons, that we would have rationed had we known it would be the only glass our server would deliver. the menu consists of standard sandwiches, lunch specials like meatloaf and fish, and some unique dishes like the magna cristo (a club sandwich on battered French toast style bread) and the mag mud nachos (a heap of avocado, queso, chips and beans). that table that had to send back cold food…yep, there they went again…eventually they just ordered something totally different.

i should have known better than to try my first migas (eggs scrambled with tomato, onion, pepper, cheddar, jack and tortilla chips) here. i can’t imagine how rough they would’ve been had i not paid the extra 25cents for a serrano and garlic LOVE butter upgrade. the veggies were really firm and crunchy, the eggs were watery, the cheese wasn’t melted and the whole thing was bland. it’s supposed to be served with tortillas, which took asking and waiting and asking and waiting to actually get my hands on.

same went for andy’s hot sauce, although he scored a little better on his meal. he had the house special omelet with home fries and an English muffin. the omelet was average but the home fries were crunchy and salty.

when i finally got up to corner our server and ask for the check, i refilled our drinks. the server realized how terrible the whole experience was, or maybe he was just lobbying for a decent tip which would not have been commensurate with the service, but he gave us a $5 ‘good patron‘ discount. still wasn’t enough to make up for the whole lousy experience. yeah, magnolia’s café, we’re sorry you’re open too.