Mama's Royal Cafe

This homey cafe between Oakland's Temescal and Piedmont areas is a neighborhood favorite for hearty brunch portions and quirky napkin art.. For high-quality hangover helpers, Oakland residents come from around town to this tiny eatery decorated in hand-drawn napkins and kitschy '50s artifacts, where weekend brunch often means an hour-plus wait shuffling around the sidewalk out front. But ask any of these hungry regulars and they'll tell you the food is worth the wait--innovative omelets or eggs Benedict paired with seasoned homefries, monster burgers and sandwiches, a choice of dishes from the rotating daily specials. And rather than making up for quality with quantity, the proverbial Mama supplies both: generously heaped plates are made from top-notch ingredients like Acme bread, Hobb's bacon, Niman Ranch beef, New York sharp cheddar and the like. And the ultimate test for diner-style meals? The coffee is from Peerless, it's bottomless and it's exactly what you need on a late Sunday morning.…

Three times is NOT a charm! Can't get it right! Hairy potatoes and wrong meals! YIKES. My husband and I went to Mama's Royal Cafe. What a huge & costly dissapointment. We waited 20 minutes to be seated (not bad). I ordered the corned beef hash, and my husband ordered a bacon & cheese omelette. After waiting 15 minutes for the food to arrive, my husband saw that he had received a completely different omelette. After waiting to let the waitress know for over 5 minutes we told her of the mistake. She apologized and told him that it would be really quick for him to get a new omelette. She took the plate and left. By this time, my meal was getting cold, and my husband told me to start eating. I took my time, but by the time his new omelette arrived, I was halfway finished with my meal.

His new omelette was fine, but there was a large hair in the potatoes. The waitress finally appeared again, after another 5 minutes of staring at the hair. Again she apologized and offered to get him another meal. My husband's appetite was rapidly dissapearing, but he decided to give the place one more chance. He asked the waitress if the french toast or the pancakes were better. She recommended the french toast, as the pancakes were unimpressive. He ordered the french toast & one hot link. By this point I was completely finished eating. When breakfast #3 finally appeared (10 minutes later) it was not the french toast that he ordered, but the unimpressive pancakes. Couldn't they get it right after three tries? My husband told the waitress that this was not what he ordered, She apologized and said, well, you will like these, and I am giving you some of this for free. He ate a little of the pancakes (which were indeed unimpressive) and the one link, and asked for the check. When the check came, the only thing we were not charged for was the ONE HOT LINK. After spending over an hour without any food, shouldn't his meal have been free- especially since it was not what he ordered anyway? After spending 22 dollars on a bummer of a meal, we agreed never to go back there again!…

service was terrible. my girlfriend and i waited for 2+ hours to be seated and to get our food. although others seated around us arrived a long time after we did, they were served and finished their meals before we even got ours! although the waitresses are polite once they finally serve you, they are mostly oblivious and neglectful, no matter how many times they pass your table. if you don't mind the extremely long wait, the food is delicious. you may want to consider having a light snack before you go.…

I've been coming back to Mama's for 29 years. I was introduced to Mama's when I was a college student and the food still holds up. I only come for breakfast on the weekends (not brunch as there's no champagne or beer, boo hoo). Wonderful, greasy home-fried potatoes (with sour cream) and eggs, with veggie specialties and applewood smoked chicken sausage and chroizo; definitely not a place for a diet. The wait is lon to be seated AND to get your food. This didn't used to be the case, kitchen management must have changed around 1999 or 2000, which is when I first noticed excruciatingly long waits for food. (Come on, we've already waited almost an hour for a table, don't make us wait for our food as long, too.) Aside from that I find the wait staff polite and efficient, and the decor funky and arty. It's my kind of place.…