Honey Girl Cafe

14 N Ocean Ave #122, (805) 900-5193. Daily from 6:30 am.

exterior of Honey Girl Cafe in Cayucos, California

The small Honey Girl Cafe offers a breakfast menu that includes espresso drinks, breakfast bowls, bagels, a basic smoothie, pastries, and muffins. We ordered an acai bowl that was loaded with fresh fruit (blueberries, strawberries, and banana), a bagel with lox and trimmings, a lemon-poppy seed muffin, and coffees--all delicious. This seemed straight-forward but took a long, long time for the spacey, bland baristas to accomplish. I wish I’d left out the smoothie because it was made with packaged juice. In an effort to get some fresh fruit into it, I asked them to add a banana (which cost additional, though that wasn’t mentioned until I saw the receipt). One interesting thing though, the server put the mixer into a special cabinet and shut the door and the mixing noise was stifled immensely. The lesson I learned here is to order simple if you are in a hurry--perhaps just a pastry and coffee. Made-to-order sandwiches are available at lunch.

interior and menu at Honey Girl Cafe in Cayucos, California

2020 pandemic update: I love that this sweet spot is located just across the street from the motel I was staying at. However, I did not love that they don’t have a website with a menu and don’t answer their phone. I had been hoping to place an order to pick up. Instead, it took about 30 minutes to complete the order on site. And after all that, they didn’t bother to pack it up in a bag so that I could easily carry it away. I had to ask them to do that, and then they put it in a hard-to-manage box. Also, unfortunately, a group of old-timers were seated inside. But fortunately, they were in the back, though several were not wearing masks and they had to pass waiting customers as they left. The space inside for waiting is minimal, so we had to wait outside in the cold.