The food is awesome and they are huge portions. One must eat here when in Carpenteria. Nice people and great service.

i've been there a few times and everything's great except the food. i think they should work hard on improving the taste of what they serve, but they have a line out the door either way. read more

AWESOME eggs perfect coffee spectacular potatoes delightfully crispy pancakes have a grand reputation, but were not mind-blowing. staff awesome and friendly, surfing videos on the teevee what more could I ask for? read more

Great breakfast and lunch place. Generous portions of high quality food. Fast and friendly service. Breakfast around $10. Lunch around $15 with enough leftovers for a second meal. The banana walnut pancakes are fantastic! read more

We were going to go to breakfast at Esau's until a guy driving a black car with ESAUS License plates tried to run us down in the crosswalk on Linden. He was too busy paying attention to his cell phone. Thanks! read more

Excellent breakfast menu with a bottomless cup of coffee! We enjoyed Mikes Special (potatoes, bacon, eggs and ranchero sauce) and a Pasillo pepper omelet with potatoes and guacamole! Very friendly staff and great ser read more

The biscuits and gravy: biscuit was delicious on its own, and the gravy was thick and very very bland. Service was good, everyone is nice, but they should just take that off the menu. read more

The food tasted great and the environment was nice, but I definitely got food poisoning from the clam chowder. Maybe look into the handling of shellfish better? Or change your distributor. That was a sucky night. read more

Still thinking about the breakfast we ate a week ago.. French toast, eggs, sausage patty, potatoes, homemade jelly, banana bread deliciousness... so satisfying can't go wrong here.. something for everyone.. read more

The Burgers, Fish tacos and Micheladas are great. Also, it was really quick service. The line moved amanzgly fast. Customer service is awesome. The servers and hosttesses are smiling and welcoming all the time. There is patio with a lots of good vibes on the side. Prices are very reasonable. We were really happy! read more

I've been going to Esau's for over 40 years. It's a staple, always good food and good service. Food is in large portions so come hungry or share with a friend. Bloody Mary's are great, and they go perfect with Bacado Omlette! Can't say enough good things about them, I was sad to see them leave state st years ago. But always happy to visit the Carp location for friendly service and a hearty breakfast! read more

Best beach breakfast ever. Best biscuits and great holland aisle sauce on the eggs Benedict. Awesome staff and the coffee is delicious and so fresh. Everything on the menu is delicious. read more

Esau's Cafe - Bacon, cheese and chorizo and eggs - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Carpinteria, California

I love this place, the menu is a bit smaller but food always is good, and I can sit outside with my bird!

If it were not for the great and attentive service and cool beachy vibe, I'd have to bestow 1 star. The food was awful. I've had better at a Denny's for a lot cheaper. The breakfast here is overpriced and it is not very good. I had an omelet and my dining companion had the corn beef hash. We were both disappointed. The waiters were great and checked in with us a lot...almost too frequently, but better too much than never. Great service is extremely important, but cannot save a bland meal. Not to mention the cost for the small portion was just plain not right. One word: pass. read more

Esau's used to be THE place for breakfast. However, sadly today in 2014, it's really slid down to nothing more than a mediocre place to fill your belly. Our first sign things weren't right was entering on a Thursday morning at 8:20 am to find only one person having coffee at the counter. We passed by at least four other packed restaurants all serving breakfast, but I wanted to try Esau's having not dined there in years. After perusing the extensive menu, we both decided on the basic two eggs, bacon, home fries & homemade biscuit due to not wanting to bloat out with a three egg omelette or the "clay pigeon thick" pancakes. Our meals arrived in about seven minutes and all looked fine except for the biscuits. They were like small loaves of dense bread measuring about 3" high by 4.5" square. They was tepid at best and after a small bite, I was not happy. I flagged the one lady working the restaurant, another sign of low customers, and asked for an order of sour dough toast. She had no problem with my request & brought me one piece of thick, non-sour dough bread that was barely warm and slathered with a thick coat of butter that soaked almost from top to bottom. Yuk! The eggs, over medium, were fine & the home fries nothing special as they lacked any spices, bits of onion, etc. normally found in this type of breakfast potato. I should also mention they offered hash browns, so there wasn't a mixup in the kitchen. I had requested my bacon to be crisp and it was limp, fatty & pretty much tasteless. Needless to say, this is our final experience at Esau's. On our walk around town afterwards we noticed the previously mention breakfast place were still full of seemingly happy & well satisfied patrons. read more

Walked in and saw please seat yourself sign, sat at empty table streetside and waited. 20 minutes later waitress walks out with menus then starts chatting with friends, then walks back inside. This gave us 10 more minutes to yelp a better rated business up the street. I guess that's the difference between 3 1/2 and 4 1/2 stars. read more

pet friendly affordable fresh non-dennys food delicious american style breakfast $36: 2 not weak bloody marys, cornbeef hash/eggs & biscuits/gravy (& may i add homemade blackberry ( i think) jam) the salvadorean coffee sounded good but i wanted to not be awake yet buzzed so i didnt try it this is the perfect spot for brekky while on a beach getaway we will forever return cant comment on the indoor decor or bathroom since we were w/fido but the food alone was enough to make us believers. delicous delicious tasting read more

First off, the place is PACKED on an October Sunday morning. But the wait isn't long and we are seated inside where the decor hasn't changed since the doors opened. But it's clean and the server is incredibly friendly. Even though the pancakes are the specialty the hubby and I order a breakfast burrito and chicken fried steak and eggs. It's all sounds delicious and the menu is almost too large making my decision tough. The gnarly burrito is filled with eggs, mushrooms, sausage, bacon, and cheese. Lots of glorious cheese. It's fantastic. Chicken fried steak sits on top of a lake of country gravy so the top breading is crispy and it's peppery and the perfect ratio to the meat. What's killing me though is the biscuit it comes with. It's huge and fresh from the oven...when it's split in half you see the steam rise out. The honey butter and homemade strawberry preserves makes this almost like a dessert. Our server Kerry was on top of it and never let our drinks go empty. The check did come in the middle of eating like one reviewer mentioned but Kerry said there was no rush and she'd still be by to check on us which she did several times and never once did I feel rushed. read more

Esau's Cafe - Biscuits and gravy... it's a half order! - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Carpinteria, California

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I was staying in carp at the state beach and woke up ready for a good breakfast so i drove down the main drag and found this coffee shop. from the outside it doesn't look to cool but once you open the door and you see all the orange booths and happy customers you will want to sit down a while. i had the ham and eggs and every thing was really good. i had a huge biscuit that was also great. my buddy and i both decided that if we ever roll back to carpinteria we have to go back. the girl that helped us was also super nice. read more

The Infamous Wife & I were Northbound 101 and got hungry! We stopped in this cute town, Carpinteria. The Wife read several reviews on Yelp and so we landed here. After I signed in we stood outside enjoying the morning dew. Time past. More time passed! I noticed the Counter has several empty chairs and so I decided to eat at the Counter. Take note, I probably stood outside basking in the freshness of this coastal ambiance for about 10-15 minutes. If I didn't get that impatient itch, I wouldn't of poked my head in the door! The friendly waiter promptly took our drink order. Then our meal order. Now the wait is on!! This place was packed and that is good! To me, that means freashness and the food is good. The servers were all young and were busy!! I noticed 4 cooks in the kitchen and the were putting out plates of food!!! I asked the waitress how long it is to Pismo. I saw them make coffee and deliver plates of food! So, I asked for the paper! I burned through that to get my mind off FOOD!! 50 minutes after I checked in We received our breakfast!! The food was ok. I ordered the Jalapeño omelet and the Wife, Coconut French toast. Just ok- read more

Service not the greatest. Worst corn beef hash I have ever had!! Menu says home made but it tasted like it came from a can!! Also for the rest of the day my boyfriend and I felt sick. We will never eat there again!!! French toast was subpar as well!! read more

Cute little coffee shop in Carpinteria great food awesome good service definitely going to be back

Good greasy spoon. Burger and onion rings were just right. Service is slooooow.

We loved the quaint small town atmosphere and the diner feel. The Jalepeno scramble was AMAZING! The portions are good and the staff nice. Not fast, but nice. This might be my new fav! read more

Good food if you want to wait FOREVER. We had to ask for or get everything ourselves, and it wasn't that busy. Very dirty bathroom. But the pancakes were sublimly yummy! read more

Like other reviewers, I too have given this place several attempts at getting it right. Unfortunately they just can't. The service is the biggest detour from this eatery. You have to constantly ask ask and ask for everything. So many other options for dining in this area. I suggest a 5 minute drive north to Jeannine's in Montecito. read more

Cute place. Food isn't bad but the service is terrible. Had to seat myself after being asked to 'go see the hostess', ask if I could order, ask three times for a coffee. Last time I checked I didn't think I had become the invisible man. Go figure?! read more

Breakfast so so, lunch too much cheese no flavor. Overly priced and slow service. As a local i recommend there are better places.

AVOID IT LIKE THE PLAGUE! Chicken fried steak mushy, gravy tastes like flour. dry potatoes overcooked and unchewable, dried up biscuit crumbled into dust, butter hard as a rock, 1 kind of jelly tastes like bad jello. water warm, lemon with big bad spot on it.l Best part....waitress completly unavailbale for table of 7 because she knew her 18% tip would be included no matter what. BREAKFAST FOR 2....$35.00 TERRIBLE-NEVER AGAIN!! read more

I'd say 2.5... good hash browns if u get them extra crispy, the sausage is the cheap sausage, and the French toast is a dry ass piece of bread. Don't do it. Ur better off at IHOP. Lol. The house made biscuits are dry and not worth it either... read more

We stopped for breakfast on our way to Solvang. There were 6 of us. We ordered our food and waited a normal amount of time. 4 of us got our food and 2 of us did not get their food for approximately 15 minutes later! The waitress did not apologize and did not offer a discount. I finally asked if they could discount our friends meal sine we were almost done before our friends got their meal. They offered a $3.00 discount on a $50.00 bill. Then when checking our bill we noticed we were all charged more for our meals then the listed price in the menu. When we questioned it they told us we were charged for changing our sides which they never mentioned when we were ordering. Bad business! Food was not that great! Next time we will search for another place to have breakfast read more

So glad we got to try this place while on vacation in carpinteria! We usually get the breakfast burritos from a nearby place but I'm glad my boyfriend was open to eat here during brunch! Definitely good food! Soooo happy they served micheladas! They go great with brunch! Service was on point and quick! The wait time was about 15-20 minutes! Lots of people were in line to eat. Will definitely go back! read more

The food was pretty much diner food with Tex-Mex flare. I would have given more points but the service was terrible, we waited a good hour for food until I spoke up and noticed our order wasn't even put in read more

Let's be honest here. The location, atmosphere and story are awesome. Unfortunately the food is a firm 3/5 and it's a bit pricey. When people list each little disappointment with food it always sounds so whiney. I would rate the food exactly the same as the IHOP down the street. read more

This place SHOULD be really good but IMHO is so not. Pricey, crappy service, not very tasty yet heavily salted food. Cute place, though.

Great food! The veggy options are the beat! Cheap too, service was a lill spotty but well worth the stop.

My daughter and I ate here for a late breakfast 4th of July weekend. It took us a long time to decide what to get because there is so much to choose from and everything looked good. I settled for the breakfast with eggs, potatoes, toast, and steak. The food was good, but I had to add salt and pepper to everything. The steak was just ok, nothing spectacular. My daughter got the same except she had the turkey patty instead of the steak. She ate everything except the patty which she said was dry and lacking flavor. Service was quick and friendly.; our waitress was very nice. We sat outside on the patio and it has a nice little view of the street if you like people watching. Overall I would probably go back. Our bill was around 30 for both breakfasts, oj and coffee plus tip. read more

Great little find. Close to the beach. Relaxed atmosphere. Owners were wonderful. Baja fish tacos were top notch.

Been there 4 or 5 times on visits and I don't see us going back. Most of the dishes we had were ok, basic diner breakfast quality, except the seafood omelette, which was horrible. Most of the "fish" in it was imitation crab, which took over the dish with its sweet-tinged taste. The hollandaise sauce was completely devoid of taste, which would have helped if it was decent. The service is average to poor, and the prices are on the high side, so we'll see what else is around next time we're in town. read more

My husband and I go to Esau's Cafe for breakfast when we come to town. I love the blueberry pancakes- they must use a whole container of blueberries because it is packed. The Bacado omelette is awesome as well. My husband loves the crunchy french toast with their fresh homemade strawberry jam. The crunch comes from corn flakes they are dipped in. Overall the experience is of a pleasant, casual beach diner with delicious food. We also take our dog and sit on the patio ( do not sit by the tree with the ants though) and they give a dog bowl with water for your pet. read more

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