Cafe Reyes

Super delicious authentic pizza. Staff was friendly and attentive. I loved the cheese bread which actually looks like a pizza.

My partner and I love going for drives along the coast and this has become one of our usual pit stops along the way.
We wake up early, grab some coffee, hike around, then drive up to point reyes and stop here for lunch before heading further up north.
Our usual = margarita pizza, salad, wine
I’m surprised by the negative reviews… we’ve never had a bad pie here.

OMG this pizza is good. I love that you can see them making it. Definitely stop by here if you are going to be in Point Reyes.
Also, Unilocal says they don’t have TVs but they do!!! They have a huge projection screen on the wall.

Came here after hiking around Point Reyes. Delicious pizza, great ambiance inside and out (sunny and shady tables available outside), super friendly staff. Laid back place to grab lunch or dinner and good wine/​beer selection.

Bring your own salt shaker.
Oysters– taste super blend and almost seemed like they have been shucked for a while. $ 28 for bad oysters? No gracias
Mushroom pizza was also a let down. The crust looked so good. But was soggy from toppings, plus the mozzarella tasted– couldn’t be worst.
Spinach/​veg pie with salad– prob the salad was the highlight. The veg on the was as dry as the bread it came with. Real sad on this one dude.
As much as I wanted to like this place more, people were nice, outdoor area, vibe was chill. But in all honesty the food could use a bit of an upgrade– on taste.

Wow, I have to say, wow. To begin, this place looks completely different during the day. I brought my fiancé here for dinner as a surprise «drive out and dine» thing, and coming from Novato, she couldn’t even begin to guess where we were going. The drive was beautiful, and we were able to work up quite the appetite as we crept closer and closer to Café Reyes on our 30 min drive. It’s actually worth it, trust me.
The place itself has a beautiful rustic Mediterranean feel. Cozy, nice lighting, great music (Gypsy Kings was playing when we arrived) and nicely set up.
Upon arriving we were greeted by a very friendly, smiling employee, Chris. I immediately felt more comfortable to be in a place I’ve never been before. We were seated and our waitress took our when we were ready. We ordered 2 local beers, my light beer was light but tasty (I was driving) and my fiancé enjoyed hers as well. The appetizer was DELICIOUS! Even tho it’s bigger than we anticipated, we ate the whole thing. It was like a pizza, olive oil with parm cheese and spices and what not. I don’t know exactly, but just thinking about it now makes me want to go back. then we ordered the 1^st salad on the menu, we almost ordered the deal for 2, but let me tell you, they sure don’t skimp you. The salad for one was shared by us, it was big. The best part about the salad tho, is that it was so frikin fresh you would have thought everything was just taken from a garden behind the restaurant. I just can’t even describe it any better. My fiancé agrees.
The main dish, we like pepperoni pizza, nothing fancy, but it came out fancy! With those Lil pepperoni’s! .Okay. so here’s the feeling I got: as I lifted the first piece into my mouth and bit down on nothing but cheese, my eyes hungrily focused on a Lil pepperoni, and as if to tease my senses, my brain made me feel like I could taste the pepperoni already even tho I hadn’t taken a bite of one yet. D-​Licious all the way to the end. Call me crazy, I don’t care. We are coming here again, it’s definitely a favorite spot now!
.and we are def bringing our ppl here.
Not to leave out the fresh apple pie. omg. had to take that one home, didn’t last long once there!
Thank you, Chris, Robert, and Kim for a wonderful evening.

Our first time in Point Reyes and decided to stop by here for dinner. Inverness Pizza $ 15 so. damn. good! If you love meat, I would add pepperoni because that’s what we did and it was delicious. I would come back here for that and try seating outside :) You pay at the counter when you’re finished and they offer a complimentary cookie!

3.5 stars
This place was pretty crowded on Friday evening. Local favorite?
We ordered half a dozen oysters and a pizza with olives, garlic and half sausage. The crust of the pizza is decent. It had a nice wood fired flavor but it could have been crispier. Oysters were fresh but small… not necessarily a bad thing but I’m a sucker for the giant savory ones.
They also have complimentary cookies. They’re far too sweet but I mean, who complains about free cookies?

We began with the big 2-​person salad (it fed 3 adults and 1 child), then 2 pizzas from the wood-​fired oven. The Inverness pizza with sausage is one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had. We finished by sharing a big slab of cherry pie. The only thing I didn’t like was the chianti. Casual ambience is great too.

Complimentary donut holes. That’s all I’m gonna say.
The food and service were great too. Their 2 person salad is huuuge. The Pinot noir, whatever it was, was just perfect. And the donut holes. FOR FREE. It’s just what you need.

Great wood fired pizzas, generous fresh salads, wonderful salads. They were able to accommodate a group of 12 with no problems after only a few minutes advance notice. Two thunbs up! A lovely space with warm sunlight and cool breezes, highly recommended!

After an 11 mile hike in Point Reyes, we stopped into town to find dinner. One restaurant was too pricey and high brow. Another bar/​restaurant was closed. I went up to a sheriff’s deputy to ask if anything was around as I was hungry and out of ideas. He said to go to Café Reyes just around the corner because his partner loved it. I had driven past Café Reyes 100x and never noticed it. Looks uninviting from outside. Darling on the inside. Good service. Fantastic pizza with the best pepperoni available in America. Truly. Every table was sharing the fresh and flavorful giant house salad. Nice beer choices. Great prices. Just yum.

After being turned away by the most unprofessional business owner I have ever experienced at Saltwater in Inverness, we showed up here to enjoy some oysters. They welcomed us with open arms and were sat right away. The food was great! We got pizzas and oysters, everything was delicious, quick and the service was wonderful. When I told our waitress about our experience at the place we wen to prior to Café Reyes, she responded, was it Saltwater? Sounds like they have reputation…
This place is great!

We decided on an impromptu road trip to Point Reyes a couple of Friday’s ago and really had no set plans for dining. We decided on Café Reyes given the great Unilocal reviews and loved it.
We got lucky and found a parking spot right in front of the restaurant. Upon entering, we were greeted by a super friendly hostess who was able to seat is right away. I read that they do get busy so we were lucky that we got there after the lunch crowd.
We decided on a glass of Chianti each and shared the Limantour pizza which was topped with cherry tomato, fresh mozzarella, roasted garlic and basil. The crust was perfectly crisp and the toppings were fresh and tasty. We also shared the tossed salad with the blue cheese and light herb dressing.
The food and service were great and I love the free cookie in the end!

Randomly stumbled into this restaurant looking for lunch while we were shopping and walking around Point Reyes Station. When we first walked in, I felt a little awkward. The place looked a bit run down and there were only a few tables seated. It also didn’t help that the place was huge with tall ceilings.
We took a look at the menu, saw the outdoor patio area and decided to give it a try.
The oysters and little gem salad (huge portion) was delicious! Unfortunately, we didn’t try the pizza which seems to be what they’re famous for. Service was very friendly and quick. And when you pay, they offer you these delicious free cookies to go. As I finished the 1 cookie that I had picked up, it took a lot of self constraint to not go back into the restaurant and grab an entire handful.
Would love to come back and try their pizza!

I had previously been to Café Reyes several years before when I was in town for a Michael Ondaatje book readying and thought the food was delicious at that time. On a recent outing with a friend I was raving about how good the pizza was so we decided to stop in for lunch. I was a little nervous my memory may have been a little glamorized with the passage of time.
However, we were not disappointed. The day we went it was rainy, foggy and cold out. After spending all morning at the beach in the chilly weather it was comforting to walk into Café Reyes and smell the delightful warms smells of baked bread and cheese. We ordered two different pizzas as well as beer. The pizza came out in about ten minutes, which was impressive (and made me thoroughly happy was I was extremely hungry). The pizza was even better than I remembered, as was the beer. We finished both pizzas, with my only disappointment being that I didn’t have any left overs to take home. Despite being fairly full from lunch we shared a slice of the house made apple pie (our waitress saw me eyeing the doughnut holes and brought a little dish over for me as well). I can make a pretty mean apple pie so my expectations are pretty high when it comes to dessert. I was very pleased with Café Reye’s pie, yummy flaky crust, applies cooked just right and perfect balance of cinnamon and buttery sweetness.
I look forward to stopping by here again in the future.

8÷4÷15 (update): Very much appreciated the restaurant’s response to my previous review. I didn’t ask, but they proactively contacted me, and it appears that whatever happened was just an understandable mixup and they have offered to reverse all charges. And that’s awesome cause I did want to share with you how great the food was that we actually did get to eat…
1. Margherita Prosciutto $ 16: So, they forgot the meat. But, I’m gonna assume that the rest is the same as their standard Margherita at $ 13. I do not hesitate to say, this is one of the very best pizzas I’ve ever had up in NorCal. There are a few badass places in SoCal like Pizzeria Mozza that just will never be topped, but up here it’s really hard to find good traditional Italian wood-​fired pizzas. They got Chicago style here, New York, and I guess you can even call Californian, but as for Italian-​style just not that great here. Yup, I’ve also tried those ultra-​famed ones in SF and surrounding areas with lines going around the block. Had plenty in other hole-​in-​the-​walls as well as trendy places, but none even come close to approaching Pizzeria Mozza, … until now.
The crust is chewy and perfectly toasted around the rim, bubbly and all with just the right amount of char. The bread under it all is thin and juicy, but not too crisp or soggy. The sauce is really savory, and there’s plenty of flavor from the sauce, the basil and other herbs, and the cheese. Excellent… very few in California are better. ⁹⁄₁₀.
If you are around and hungry, this is The Place to eat. Just make sure if you’re getting to-​go you check that your order is correct when you get it and ask them for fresh parmesan if you want some.
⁵⁄₅
#pizza #margherita

Ate dinner after a long and grueling 14 mile hike to Alamere falls. Tried their mozzarella pizza and oysters! Both great meals. The raw oysters were served with a vinegar sauce with chili flakes, lemon, and tabasco sauce! They were fresh and the combination of flavors worked so well together! Their pizzas are baked in a brick oven behind the counter, which also turned out very good! Although the waiter mistook our pizza order, we were well compensated with a large piece of chocolate cake!
The interior was nice! Dimmed lights, wooden tables and chairs, lit candles, and a small gazebo with a couple of tables inside. To the right of the restaurant is their kitchen and red brick oven to bake pizzas. Behind the counter is their cash register as well. Overall, a very nice, quaint restaurant!

The aroma that came from the open doors of Café Reyes are enough to make any person turn in and check them out. I can seriously go on and on about how much that smell just carried me inside. But instead, I’ll talk about the food.
They have a pretty decent menu, with a nice variety of pizza options. I went for the Palamarina Pie because of one topping in particular. Anchovies. That’s right, I am a fan of anchovies on my pizza. The pie looked gorgeous when it was brought out. Bubbly cheese, beautifully crisp crust, and many filets of anchovy. The pizza was extremly thin to the point where I could almost fold it into a wrap. However, it was beyond amazing. The cheese was awesome, the anchovies were tasty, but the sauce is the star. Unlike any other pizza sauce I’ve had before, and that is enough to make me want to come back for more.
The inside is pretty compact so getting around can be a challenge. They do have an outdoor seating area as well, for those beautiful days. They have a beautiful wood burning pizza oven at the entrance. (Makes sense why the amazing smell hit us at the front door). The service was good. Even with a packed house they managed to really stay on top of things and keep everyone happy. Speaking of packed, because they have one restroom, a line was impossible to avoid.
This place is all kinds of amazing. The small town has a few other local spots to chow down at, but if you’re in the mood for pizza as you pass through, you are in some serious luck my friends.

Sometimes I listen to Unilocal against all odds. BF and I rolled into Point Reyes on a sunny Sunday day trip ready to pound a late lunch. A line pouring out the door, not to mention the article featuring Point Reyes in my latest copy of the AAA Via magazine, said the Station House Café was the place to be for dining. Something in my gut said there was another gem lurking nearby, and it wasn’t just my grumbling tummy. I quickly checked Unilocal and sure enough, Station House Café may have 3 ½ stars, but the nearby Café Reyes has 4. And off we went. As we walked up the creaky wooden steps of the charming rustic building, a blast of the most luscious tantalizing scent hits you — tomatoes and basil and olive oil, oh my! Another line but a shorter one — no matter. I was content to wait a couple minutes to taste the food capable of unleashing that heavenly aroma.
Their dining room is equal parts spacious and cozy, and in our corner table we not only got a little privacy but a full view of the whole place. The roaring fire of the pizza oven to the right, their bustling bar area to the left. We didn’t even notice until we were leaving there was also a charming outdoor patio — dining al fresco with a glass of wine on a warm summer night would be nothing short of perfection.
The staff was polite but intense, all of them working hard to cater to a full dining room even at 2:00 pm. Their menu is simple and lovely, and though we were in a coastal town with oyster offerings galore, we could not refuse those incredible pizzas. I opted for their Margherita (cuz if you can’t rock simplicity, you may not rock at all) and a bottle of Boylan’s Root Beer. While we waited and people watched, a server accidentally brought a couple of salads to our table — which immediately made us regret not ordering a salad because they looked AMAZING. So getting a salad next time. We could also see chillin’ atop the bar a couple housemade pies and the most gorgeous chocolate cake! Temptations of all extremes!
When our pizzas arrived, they were just as dazzling as those kitchen smells promised! A sign outside the restaurant informed us Café Reyes was part of a local organization focused on quality organic ingredients and it was easy to taste that focus here. Wonderfully rich mozzarella, melty but still toothsome. Robust and herbaceous tomato sauce. Fresh and aromatic basil leaves. And a perfectly seasoned dough to form that crust, with a splendid balance of crispy, chewy and oh so soft. The drizzle of good quality olive oil atop it all was the perfect final flourish. Not just one of the best pizzas I’ve ever eaten, but probably the most soul satisfying.
A couple of teeny tiny gripes: the whole restaurant only has one bathroom for all patrons, and is unisex. There was nearly always a line — it would be nice if there was at least one bathroom each for ladies and gents to keep the traffic flowing a little faster. And finally on each table is a little plate with your napkins and silverware, salt and pepper shakers, and a small ramekin of red pepper flakes. While it looked very cute and welcoming, general hygiene wants those pepper flakes coming out of a shaker that a hundred fingers of varying cleanliness haven’t dived into, so we didn’t partake. Small things though, and easy to forgive — simply food for thought.
And oh that food. I can’t imagine ever returning to Point Reyes Station and not stopping by Café Reyes to indulge in a heavenly pizza and further explore their temptations. If you couldn’t tell, I loved this place! Thank you Unilocal for taking us slightly off the beaten path — I have no doubt we chose wisely.