Nini's Coffee Shop, San Mateo

3/30/14

We decided on this place for a late breakfast after a late night out in Milbrae.  My husband picked it based on picked of biscuits and gravy, even though they didn't have hash browns (home fry potato chunks instead).  We arrived a little after 1 and were told it'd be a 20 minute wait.  Two friends joined us 20-30 minutes later.  It was raining as we waited but hot coffee was free out front.  The place was packed which I took to be a good sign, so the wait wasn't a big deal.  What was a big deal was that after we were finally seated (35 minutes after arriving) another table of four was seated after us, at the table next to us.  They were brought menus and water right away, and greeted by name.

We were actually never brought menus. I never had a menu to look at, other than the one that one of our friends grabbed while we waited. I don't know why we wouldn't be seated and handed menus. After the table next to us ordered, we were brought water and asked if we wanted to order.  I don't care how regular of customers they are, we were sat first and should have been greeted first. After waiting the better part of an hour to be sat, we deserve that at least.

This will probably freak most people out, but I'm going to share it anyhow. We stole the bread from another table. No, I'm not kidding. Technically, our friends that we were dining with lifted it.  It was a plate with several slices, untouched, and they had all gotten up to leave. We watched the bread, starving... all thinking the same thing but nobody saying it.  Finally, Bill got up, grabbed the plate and slowly, one-by-one, we ALL gave in and had a piece. I thought of it like the complimentary dinner bread basket you get at nice restaurants. Except ours was semi-used and stolen.  It was good though. Glad that's off my chest.
I had only seen a couple items when I briefly glanced at our shared menu and ended up with the vegetarian omelet.  It was stuffed with veggies and was a huge serving.  The extra crispy potatoes weren't really crispy, but it's hard to crispy giant home fries.  I ate the second half of my omelet at home this morning and had crispy, crunchy, homemade hash browns.  The omelet was still really good, even a day later.

Husband enjoyed his biscuit/gravy plate but... we're prob more likely to find somewhere new if we're in the area again, before returning again.  The place itself is fantastically decorated.  Plus, we ate on a well-heated back patio with a lot of fun things to look at.  It would have been a better experience overall if the staff were organized enough to bring their guests menus and acknowledge people in the order they're sat.