Full House Cafe

I honestly love this place. I’ve always wanted to stop in but never really had the time until I decided it would be a great stop to finally end my tires with an ex. We were say fairly fast for it to be a Saturday morning. U had the lox Benedict witch they only have on weekends with home fries and it was great!

Really great food. If their customer service was better I’d probably give them 4 stars. They haven’t mastered cleaning tables & seating people, & that can be huge a problem when there’s a Sunday rush. All in all the food is good. Just don’t show up hungry.

Devastated by this closing. Closings like this epitomize the way the gentrification and displacement in Oakland breaks my heart. I know the owner retired…, but the fact that the new place is something bougie and artisinal makes me sigh. Full House epitomized (yeah I said it twice) so much of what I loved about Oakland, what is being lost.

Devastated with this closing. Devastated. But I hear the fantastic FHC chef, Kirk Roberts, is now at Mama’s so I’m on my way.

I usually go for breakfast but the food is very good at all times. It’s a nice local diner that uses fresh produce from local farms. Sometimes there can be a few minutes wait for a table. It’s THAT popular.

Yum. Yum! Have been looking for great, low-​key breakfast joint since we moved to Oakland. Bingo. This is the place. Great, classic diner-​style breakfast at affordable price. Food was fresh and fast. Service was super and speedy. Shhh. Let’s keep this secret to ourselves :O)

I came here one Friday morning with a colleague to do some lesson-​planning and I have to say I did enjoy myself. The service was very friendly, our waitress refilled our coffee quickly and made sure we had what we needed.
It is a cash-​only café and I can see why other Unilocalers would say that it is a very small place. I didn’t have to deal with the crowd that morning.
I ordered the ham and cheese omelette with country potatoes and my colleague ordered some waffles. We found the country potatoes to be under-​cooked but the omelette was quite tasty and was quite a large portion so I actually didn’t get to finish it all.
It wasn’t too expensive and quite reasonable! I would return.

CASH ONLY.
The flavor is on par with maybe a glorified Denny’s. My friend likes to go here a lot because it’s a short distance from her house and the portions are filling enough to sop up our hangover woes. Overall, is it incredibly impressive? No. Would I choose it over any other breakfast spot that I love and have forged deep and meaningful biases toward? Of course not. But after a Saturday night of way too much drinking, dancing and general debauchery, I’m willing to take mostly bland diner food while we try to piece together memories of what actually happened (and how I ended up with a miniature bottle of cheap wine and what appears to be Top Ramen noodles in my purse).
One thing I will say, though, is that Full House has good breakfast potatoes. It’s hit or miss in terms of seasoning, but I’ve met more hits than misses and at least they’re not the dreaded shredded hashbrowns (Ugh, doesn’t it piss you off when all that crispet-​y, crunchity goodness on top yields NO flavez?!)

My first visit to this establishment was 7 years ago. We decided to slide through last Sunday after our morning coffee at World Ground across the street. Yes, it’s diner food, but with a little twist depending upon what you order. I had the Cajun hash and my date ordered something with oysters and what seemed to be a pound of yummy potatoes. The hash wasn’t seasoned as spicy as I like, but the sweet potatoes added a nice flavor. As someone else noted, the addition of salt and hot sauce was definitely needed. And, the service was mediocre and also a bit confusing (more than one person helped us at our table, and one was not friendly).
I’ll return, because I think it’s a cute neighborhood spot, and I like to support local when earned.

Overcooked bacon that had obviously been sitting for hours along with poached eggs that came out soft boiled combined with dense cold pancakes leaves Full House Café with two stars. I’ve ate here twice hoping it would be better the second time. Too bad as it’s right in my hood…

Breakfast is my favorite meal. This is my favorite breakfast in Oakland.
Full House Café, since I found you, I am no longer stricken by potato homesickness. This had been a recurrent affliction since I moved to the left coast 20-​ish years ago.
Pro tip: bring cash. I always forget, and sometimes the ATM next door is broken for a year or two.

It’s a diner, a greasy spoon, hearty breakfast type of destination.
If you’re too lazy to cook your own eggs or make coffee, they’ll whip it up just as well as you would. The eggs & hash browns aren’t oily, the veg is fresh. Can’t complain.
Service is great, typical no nonsense waiter.

This place is awesome. Every time. I cook pretty well and value a restaurant that does it better than I can. This place holds to that. Everything is cooked perfectly. The eggs, the waffles, cornbread, grits. its all fresh and delicious– consistently.
They are pretty packed on weekends but the service is great. They are on top of it without making you feel rushed. I would recommend this place over most other breakfast/​brunch spots.

**** CASH or CHECK ONLY ****
I’ve been here a couple of times for breakfast.
First visit was Biscuits & Gravy with a side of Ham (
). You have a choice of chicken or sausage gravy. I went with the sausage.
Two halved biscuits on a plate filled to the rim with gravy (
).
I really liked the biscuits this visit. They aren’t large (maybe 1.5−2″ squares) and were light and flakey with some chives inside (
). I really liked the biscuits.
The gravy was thin and just a little lumpy with minimal sausage. It wasn’t that heavy and had some herby flavor I couldn’t place. Much better with a couple dashes of Tabasco.
They have 5 hashes on the menu (
) with the usual suspect Corned Beef along with Smoked Chicken, Cajun, Mushroom, or Red Flannel, which is what I got my second visit.
Poached eggs are standard, but you can specify if you want them prepared differently. Coffee cake, bagel, or biscuits can sub for toast for +$ 0.50 and after my first visit, I sprung extra for the biscuits. (
). The mustard horseradish sauce in the picture usually comes with the Corned Beef Hash, but they were happy to bring me a small cup.
The meat in Red Flannel Hash is often corned beef, but the version here is bacon with beets, potato, and onion (
). The eggs were poached well (
) and came in a separate small bowl which was good because they weren’t drained well and sitting in warm water.
I liked the hash flavor with the contrast of the beets and potato along with the occasional smokey bite with bacon. Just a few crisp bits on the potatoes which I would have liked more of. It was also pretty light on the bacon.
The mustard horseradish sauce is made with creamy horseradish so didn’t have much bite to it.
The biscuits were harder and dryer than the last time.

My husband and I love this place. Be warned, if you show up at 10 am on a Sunday, you’re going to have to wait probably about 30 minutes, because it’s relatively small and it’s really the only decent breakfast place in the neighborhood. Well, actually, I haven’t been to Café of the Bay or whatever that place is called, so I can’t say if that one’s better. I think this one’s cuter though :)
They always have specials, and great eggs benedicts… which you can only get on weekends. Portions are huge, we always take leftovers home, and prices are great. It’s just an awesome little diner, I pretty much love everything about it. I hope it never closes down :)

The service was good. The waitresses here are very personable and super sweet. That’s probably the only reason why my rating is so high.
The environment is more like a late night diner, definitely nothing close to a café.
I had the Cajun hash with a substitute of biscuits. I had to douce everything in salt and tapatio sauce because it was so bland. The spices seemed off in the Cajun hash and the biscuits were incredibly dry.
I’ll never eat here again, poor quality food and not worth the price.

The place is a bit run down, looks slightly uninviting.
I ordered the Greek frittata and my husband ordered the mushroom cheddar omelette. Mine was basically scrambled egg whites with spinach, feta, I think I tasted 2 olives, and mushrooms. His was an omelet with a cheddar and mushrooms. They tasted okay for eggs and cheese. I could have made it at home.
Both plates were served with a nice fruit bowl that looked good until you got into it and then the fruit looked dead.
We chose to try the coffee cake because who doesn’t love coffee cake. We ordered the buttermilk spice and the mocha one. Both were dry and did not resemble coffee cake.
When we went to pay we handed them out card and they informed us they only except cash or check!!! My husband had to go 3 doors down and get money from and ATM. Not cool! We were not thrilled with this place at all:(

I really want to like this place. It’s in my neighborhood, the prices are reasonable, the menu is well rounded and the food is pretty good. Plus: amazing fruit bowls!
This is a diner style little restaurant with a charming décor, just how you would expect one to be. Locals meeting for breakfast or lunch. Somewhat slow but friendly service.
My pet peeve: it’s just grimey and dirty, the carpet looks like it’s been around since the 70s, the table are always sticky. And even though the food is good, I always feel like I need to wash my hands. Not a very good sign for an eating establishment.
Oh, no credit cards and closed on Monday.

Love their avocado & jack omelette with spinach added. Excellent taste and texture!
I substitute a bowl of fruit for the home fries.
My husband enjoys the lox benedict-​which is served on the weekends.
Everything is fresh and good. Busy on the weekends.
Cash only or local check. Keeping it real.
Support local businesses!

I planned to drop-​in to this neighborhood café for quite awhile, but never did. It is usually closed when I leave the hairdresser. I did not want a late breakfast. Although the choices did look good, breakfast is way down on my list of just must tries.
The bacon wrapped meatloaf sandwich sounded good. And indeed it was. The meatloaf was not dense and the bacon was less than crispy. In this case that was a good thing it made the meat really tasty. The sandwich included a choice of a small salad or cup of homemade soup. For $ 7.95 it will be hard to resist having it the next time I have my hair done. Good taste and good prices equal 3.7 starts rounded up to 4 stars.