Another Friday Night at Rudy's

AKA: the "I can Haz Cheeseburger" Rudy's edition..

Friday night soda run had us thinking about food.. Our neighborhood pizza and bread joint Arizmendi's was closed, and somehow we ended up here.. Rudy's (which was already a favorite, but is fast becoming one of our 'regular' places).

We started it off with the Boneless Buffalo Chicken Tenders:


I came in craving mac & cheese and ended up ordering a Bacon Classic with cheese, served w/ salad instead of fries:


Sean ordered a very similar burger, "The Chupacabra" which was goat cheese and bacon:


I had a Coke Zero and Sean had the "Shaken Jesse" and after we ate all that our original server (whose name I can't recall but runs the counter really great!!) had already gone off shift. Another guy, "M" was working the counter.. He kept hitting me with a new Coke Zero as we decided on dessert..

Sean went along with me and we split a slice of the Coconut Cream Pie:


Not sure why it was served with a dollop of whipped cream (we were asked if we wanted it a la mode which we declined) but who cares: it was good. The graham-y crust was sweet and crumbly and had a cinnamon-y-ness to it as well coconut. I am pretty sure there were bits of coconut in the crust.. If you don't like coconut, you won't like this but it was good! The pie itself wasn't especially coconut-y, but had a creamy, whipped texture to it. I would definitely order it again next time I've gone without a cooler pie for a while.

Soy-riffic Soyrizo Saturday!

Yes, another post about Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe! We haven't been here for breakfast since we moved (I have to use that clarification, as we HAVE eaten here since we decided we wanted to come home).

It was still relatively early, but the place was busy.. about 15minutes and then we got a seat in the back.. We immediately ordered our coffee!

Coffee here.. time to order..

I"ve been cutting back on my meat eating (No really!) and I like to do "Meatless Mondays" and on occasion a few meatless meals in between. One of the things I wished I could have tried during Lent was the "Meatless Soyrizo Scramble" ($9.50) so this was as good a time as any:

Soyrizo scramble: consists of 3 eggs, corn, green onions, soyrizo, and pepper-jack cheese.


served with black beans.. at least a cup's worth.. It may be more than you possibly could need or want after the scramble and toast.

Sean ordered the French Toast Deuces Wild ($10.50):

2 slices of Challah French Toast served with toasted almond slices, 2 eggs any style and choice of a meat (veggie sausage, chicken-apple sausage or in this instance: bacon). They also have a pancake version called "Pancakes Deuces Wild!" of course..

Sean said he chose this in honor of a friend of ours (who was working her final breakfast shift at a Disneyland Hotel restaurant.) When we were regulars at her restaurant, we often ordered a similar item called "Hooked on Twos."


One of the things I really like about Rudy's is how vegetarian-friendly they are. Many of the dishes are veggie-friendly, or can be made veggie or vegan-friendly with tofu substituting as the protein.

The staff is pretty knowledgable, providing very good and often friendly service. The food is always good to really great! I'd be hard-pressed to mention anything that wasn't worth trying at least once.

We definitely don't go here enough to be regulars, but between here & Doyle Street, I'm a very happy & stuffed Meeko. So until next time.. =)

Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe Pt 2 (Good Friday edition)

As mentioned in the previous post, Rudy's is one of our favorite places to eat over the last few years we've come home to visit the Bay Area from Downtown LA. We usually eat breakfast here so having an opportunity to try the various menu items and specials is becoming a real treat!


The "Shakin' Jessie" forever taunting us when we either are there too early or too stuffed to try it.

Being "Good Friday" Sean was thinking about Rudy's Fish & Chips Friday Special. I looked over the menu online and decided that I wanted to see what their Crunchy Asian Tofu Salad was like. I was hoping the tofu would be battered and fried, and if not I was ready to try something else.. Rudy's has a large selection vegetarian dishes on their menu, as well items that can be made vegetarian on request. The taco salad with veggie chili as an option was appealing to me, or possibly a cheese quesadilla with possibly some grilled vegetables added.

Ready for dinner, we took the walk over to 40th, near Park and Hollis. Unlike other times we'd been there it was pretty busy, and we put our name down but didn't have to wait long, as we got a couple seats at the counter. Shortly after sitting down, we've decided we *will* be ordering dessert, as it's the best chance to give the "Shakin' Jessie" a try.

We start with an order of Buffalo Tofu:

Buffalo Tofu: served with carrots and celery and option of blue cheese or ranch dipping sauce.


firm tofu center with crispy fried outside, sauce was spicy but not especially "spicy hot"

For our entrees, I went with the Crunchy Asian Tofu Salad. Our server, who was super nice & helpful convinced me to give the salad a try. I'm already missing the Crispy Tofu Balls (and chopped salad) from Starry Kitchen but know there has to be something I will enjoy almost as much.. somewhere.


Crunchy Asian Tofu Salad: tossed in Sesame Soy Vinagarette, served with multicolor cabbage, carrots, romaine, cucumbers, sliced avocado, sesame seeds and sprouts

Salad was 'very hearty' as our server described it. The tofu was the same crispy tofu that served as the base for the buffalo tofu, but I missed the buffalo sauce. Since it was a salad, this crispy tofu was served cold. I definitely loved the salad, but probably would have liked it better without the cold tofu.

Sean ordered Friday's Special and opted for a side salad:



Mr Roadie's Fish and Chips: breaded fried cod served with french fries, cole slaw, and tarter sauce

The Fries were crispy on the outside and seasoned. The malt vinegar was a nice addition that Sean added, but was not necessary. Battered and fried cod.. Sean said it was good 'but not the best' he's had. I don't eat fish, so I don't have an opinion to add. I did like the fries and I would order them with something if given an opportunity on another visit.

And now.. for dessert! I know, we definitely should have passed on it, but for whatever reason, Sean decided he would order the Shakin' Jessie and not share it. I wasn't sure if the Guinness, expresso and chocolate ice cream shake would be to my liking, so I decided to get the "ultimate chocolate cake" as it seemed it would compliment Sean's choice better than the strawberry rhubarb pie I was tempted to order. =)



I had a sip or two of the Shakin' Jessie, and yes, you can taste the Guinness Stout, but it compliments the shake really well. My 'ultimate chocolate cake' was a darker, rich chocolate with hints of a liquor flavoring that I forgot to ask about.. There's no description of the cake on the menu. Suffice to say it was very rich and the a la mode option broke through the richness of the cake and frosting just enough without taking away its decadence.

I honestly couldn't decide which dessert I liked better. Sean, on the other hand, loved his Shakin' Jessie. I liked his shake enough I would order it for myself in the future and not share it. The ultimate chocolate cake was pretty good though, and I can see it being a 'go-to' dessert on those chocolate craving days.

Rudy's has a huge and varied menu, and while not everything is "amazing" it's still very very good. The service is always friendly, despite sometimes being busy. I know we'll keep coming back because over-all we've been very happy with the food and with the service. It's one of our top three or four favorite places to eat breakfast in our area, so you know we'll be back for another round of "My own Private Eyedaho"(my favorite breakfast dish) or possibly the Meatless Soyrizo Scramble, which caught my eye on the menu today.

Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe
4081 Hollis Street
Emeryville, CA 94608

Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe Pt 1

One of our favorite places to eat when we've been visiting home the last few years away has been Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe. Usually we'd go there for breakfast, so having lunch there Thursday after we brought the cats up from DTLA was a nice treat.

Rudy's has a HUGE menu selection, and many dishes are vegetarian, or can be made meatless. I was craving mac n cheese and we didn't have butter in the house yet to make our own, so the one place we knew we could get Mac N Cheese was Rudy's. =)


Thursday's special is the "Combat Mac N Cheese"

Not sure what makes it 'combat'.. It's a blend of six cheeses, topped with bread crumbs. Whatever cheeses they use, they are pretty mild, and seem to cancel each other out. Luckily there was some "Gringo Bandito" to splash on my half to spice it up. It was still good mac and cheese, just not up to comparing to my favorite places in LA.. It wasn't as creamy as Royal Clayton's, nor was it as cheesy as Pete's Cafe, or as zesty as the Nickel Diner. It was mac & cheese and it fit the current craving I had.. just wasn't amazing.

Luckily there was the Monster BLT.. Sean let me try some of his sandwich:

Monster BLT: double bacon, double, lettuce, double tomato.. mayo served on wheat toast

I *heart* good bacon.. this was the winner of our lunch.. Sean opted for vegetarian chili which was very hearty and was super good. Definitely something to order again..

Since Rudy's is one of our favorite places, and we live in E*Ville now, I'm sure we'll get a chance to work our way through the menu!