Restaurant Review
Jake & Eggs
1774 Sunset Cliffs
Ocean Beach, CA 92107
619-419-1207
Open 8-1 – Wednesday – Sunday
By Judi Curry
When this restaurant closed down a few months ago I was sorry that I had not patronized it more often. I was thrilled to see that it reopened in May, and when Marilyn came into town from Ohio today I decided to go back and see if it was as good now as it was originally. I am happy to say it is!
While not a standard breakfast menu, there are plenty of items to choose from. And, for those of you that need gluten free meals, almost all of the items have a “gf” designation.
The menu starts out with French Toast ($10); and goes to Short Rib Machaca Burrito ($11); Sweet Potato Hash is $12 as is Biscuits and Gravy. There is a Kimchi Fried Rice ($14); Chilaquiles Stack for $13;
Avocado Toast for $10; The Good Decision for $13, and Corned Beef Hash for $14.
Their side menu includes cage free eggs – $1.50; bacon – $2; Chicken Apple Sausage -$4; Avocado – $2; Biscuit – $2.50; Jam – $2; Pico de Gallo – $2; Homemade Hot sauce – $1; and sausage gravy – $2.
Their drink menu was very interesting. They feature Dark Horse Coffee at $3.50 a cup, and have Dark Horse Cold 
Brew with Nitro for $5. Jakes Berry Lemonade Sangria is a feature at $8; as is a mimosa made of Orange juice and mango at $7.20 a bottle; Bloody Mary’s are offered at $9. There is orange juice, milk, hot tea and hot chocolate, but when I asked if they had lemonade I was told they did not. The Berry Lemonade Sangria comes to them already prepared. The menu says to ask the server about the bottled and draft beers.
Marilyn ordered a decaf coffee and she was asked if she wanted cream. She did, and it was the real thing. Thick and creamy, and served in a small bottle of its own.
Before telling you about the meal itself, I was not prepared for the disclaimer listed on the back of the menu. It states that there is no tipping, but an 18% surcharge is added to the menu. It further stated that that money goes to the server, cook, etc.
Avocado Toast with Bacon
What is so interesting about this is that our server – Bernadette – was excellent. I think that Marilyn and I would have left a 20% tip if the 18% was not added in to the total. Yes, I know that we could have added more, BUT the disclaimer states that no additional gratuity will be accepted. Hmmmn. Wonder if that hurts the staff?
Now about the food. Marilyn ordered the Avocado Toast and elected to have bacon added to the meal. ($3). She said it really added to the flavor. This is, by the way, one of the items that is not gluten free. The thick slice of multi-grained bread from from “Bread and Cie” had layers of avocado, caramelized onions, two fried eggs, herbed salad, heirloom cherry tomatoes and a lemon vinaigrette dressing. It was beautifully presented and tasted wonderful. A sharper knife would have helped in cutting the bread, but Marilyn struggled with cutting the bread nicely.
Sweet Potato Hash. All photos by Judi Curry
I ordered the Sweet Potato Hash, and it, too, was presented beautifully. It is gluten free. It consisted of sweet potato cubes; russet potatoes, two poached eggs, seasonal squash, fire roasted poblano, scallions and fresh herbs. I elected to pay the $3 extra for avocado. It was very tasty and the only thing I would have liked to have added was a dollop of sour cream.
Although the service from the kitchen was a little slow, Bernadette kept us informed as to when we would be receiving our meal. She asked us many times if we were pleased with our meal – we were – and made the afternoon a pleasant one.
Our total bill was $34.34 and, of course, we did not add a tip.
Would we go back? Definitely. It was very tasty and enjoyable.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
It is a joy to see them open again!! So so good!!
The kimchi fried rice is unbelievable. The biscuits are amazing too. And everything is presented in a way you will not see in another restaurant. I highly recommend Jake and Eggs to everyone.
Now it’s Marilyn from Ohio. What happened to Susi from the Shanghai Bun review? How can you eat when Susi’s apparently missing?
Funny about that, Leon. Now you see them – and then they disappear. Maybe you should do a review with me. What do you think about that. Just so you don’t get too worried, I will be doing a review with Irene on the 23rd; Marie on the 1st; and Irene and Candy on the 18th.
Susi and I will be doing another review soon. She is ok – just having a migraine attack. I’ll tell her you were concerned about her.
And I am serious now – want to do a review with me?
Do I want to do a review with you? I’m not sure but, as comedian Judy Tenuta used to say, “It could happen.” Needless to say I’d have to get over my reticence premised upon a fear of being “disappeared.”
Militating in favor of doing so is that it might be desirable to add some testosterone to your review. Although admittedly a stupid thing to have said, it struck me as funny.
Moving right along, while I generally wouldn’t concern myself with reverse peristalsis unless the food were balut, for example, it would be nice were I to participate to be assured the subject cuisine would, in fact, be of inherent interest.
So for the immediate future, I will hold my acceptance of your kind invitation in abeyance.
I can’t promise you that you wouldn’t disappear – but I can guarantee that your name would be HIGHLIGHTED in the article. And if you were nice, real nice, I might invite you for a second time.
Never thought that my reviews were missing testosterone – but I’m willing to see if it makes a difference.
Funny that you mention “reverse peristalsis”. I think I passed my science class in high school because I knew what it meant. And if you are going to practice that – or indulge in it after our review – I would certainly want to mention it. I am hopeful that you are not bulimic or anorexic because that wouldn’t be fair to the review.
I hope you give the offer some thought – although I am looking for a man, you are way too young for me and I promise not to bite. Let me know. I am sure that my readers would be interested in your comments!
Just glossed over balut, huh? In any event, just think, with each passing day the absolute value of the percent deviation between your age and anyone else’s younger than you diminishes.
Not sure that you can find balut in San Diego. At least not where I will go
for a review Let me know when you reach my age
Sorry, I may have caused some confusion in suggesting you’d glossed over balut.
I alluded to balut, originally, in my earlier posting at 1:54 pm. It was meant in the context of reviewing a restaurant’s offerings in which the reviewer would have an inherent interest. That is, were I in the presence of balut, I expect I’d be sick.
Just a commentary on how times have changed, for some of us. In the past, when I came across a word I didn’t know, I’d look it up in the dictionary. Today, with Google or any other search engine handy, you just type the word in and get the meaning right away but with one important difference. Unless you looked up a word, back in the olden times, in a picture dictionary, you got a a print definition to read. Picture dictionaries were not that common and the pictures were usually sketches. Now, you not only get the definition, you also get a picture, a detailed, color picture. I never heard of balut so I looked it up and now I have a picture burned into my mind of what it actually is that I wish I had never seen. Had I not looked it up, I would not have understood Leon’s last comment. Now I do.
Apologies, Geoff, for having prompted your exposure to balut. I suppose I should have simply indicated that reviewing a pastrami sandwich, for example, would be acceptable while certain other possibilities such as organ meats not so much.
Thanks for your state of the times commentary.
No need to apologize Leon, but I may go back to my old practice of just looking up a print definition and, if it’s ok and I want to see it, then I’ll Google it. At least I learned something new.