Kensington Cafe

Great menu, good food but slow service. Nice outdoor seating. Clean bathroom. Dog friendly. Parking could be an issue if you get there at a busy time

Great Food Wonderful Staff, Intimate Ambiance, Easily Found, Well Located, Just Down the Street From Kensington Cinema — One of San Diego's Premier Art Film Houses.

While visiting San Diego we stayed in Kensington ... we were referred to this cafe and glad we went ... we stopped for breakfast twice and lunch once ... portions were really good, food prepared well and it was fresh, price was good as well. Dog friendly patio dinning ... great bakery.

We're finally at the point where we can start to relax our budget a bit, which means we're able to explore our new neighborhood. We don't want to go all out crazy with meals, so after a bit of research, we decided to give Kensington Cafe a shot. They were pretty busy on a Friday evening, but we were shown to a table near the back right away. The restaurant had three large parties, and most of the other smaller tables were occupied, so I was happy to have been seated without a wait. Our waitress came out right away with ice cold water for the two of us, and took my husband's drink order. After a small internal debate, I decided to order the Smothered Chicken (a chicken breast covered in a spinach, goat cheese and mushroom cream sauce, served over a pile of mashed potatoes, with vegetables on the side. My husband got the Spicy Chicken Burger (a chicken breast sandwich with ortega chilis, bacon, cheese, avocado, lettuce, tomato and an aioli sauce with fries (for me ; he added a green salad for himself. The restaurant was fairly loud that evening they did have three very happy groups of people, after all so my husband and I had to press in close in order to have a conversation. It wasn't terrible, though I don't mind sharing space with him and it was nice to hear so many people enjoying themselves. My husband's side salad came out first, and he made short work of it. It's amazing how something as simple as a green salad can be so delicious, but he said it was fresh and crisp. I'm sure the gallon of ranch dressing he threw on top didn't hurt, either, haha. The entrees came out soon after, and I was bowled over by the portion sizes. My meal had just the one chicken breast, but it was on top of a huge serving of mashed potatoes and a large presence of vegetables, which made my day. My husband's sandwich was immense, and there was no shortage of french fries. I did enjoy my meal, but didn't really get any goat cheese tanginess in the sauce. It was creamy, but it was supposed to be a spinach, goat cheese and mushroom sauce, which didn't come through. The mushrooms were served on top of the chicken (and the sauce , which was fine, but not what I'd expected. The mashed potatoes were decent, but could have used a bit more creamy sauce to help out a bit they got dry under the chicken. The best thing about the plate were the various vegetables, which were bright and fresh, and exactly what I needed at that moment. My husband gushed over the sandwich. He still does to this day, as a matter of fact. I don't think he was expecting much from it, but according to him, the finished product was a definite winner. Not just because it was massive and incredibly filling. He said the aioli sauce and green chilis pulled the sandwich into a completely different category. For my part, I couldn't stop gushing over their french fries. Those were hands down the best fries I've had in a long while. They're exactly what my memories say a Rally's fry should be, though in truth, Rally's fries can't even come close to Kensington Cafe's fries. I ate way too many of them to feel good about myself, but I couldn't stop! I took one star off for the service. Our waitress was nice, but she did disappear for a long while towards the end of our meal. My husband had a line of sight past the bar counter, and said he could see her back there chatting with the other workers. He was finally able to flag her down for the check, but we did have to wait a lot longer than I'd wanted to to get closed out. Still, we did enjoy the food, and like that it's super close to us. I'm sure we'll be back for another meal sometime soon.

We were walking by and were drawn in by the music. Wonderful band! Could listen to them every day. We only had a cup of tea, but it was nice and hot, which is not always the case in some restaurants.