Cafe Lumiere - Monterey

Cafe Lumiere is a cute spot nestled in a movie theatre with good breakfast and pastries. I had the Super Bowl for breakfast which is a yogurt, granola, and fruit parfait. Fairly standard but with a different taste than usual since it had seeds in it. My mom got a breakfast sandwich that was delicious (I had probably 1/4 of it) with egg bacon and avocado (she ordered it extra) on ciabatta. We also got the pumpkin scone and the cranberry orange scone. Service was a little scattered (they first gave me the wrong order and also forgot the avocado my mom had ordered on the sandwich) but they made up for it in being apologetic and nice.

Whenever my fiance and I are visiting Monterey, this is definitely our go to brunch and coffee spot. We randomly stumbled upon this place because we saw a hipster theater and wanted to check it out. Then we realized that there was a cool cafe in the same spot. So cool! We have ordered cold brews, iced or hot tea, and lattes. Their coffee and service is spot on! We also ordered the Avocado Toast and the Croissant Sandwich. Both are awesome! They really load up the avocado on these tartines, which is great! And their croissant sandwich is perfect buttery and crispy. Yum! Every trip we come here at least once and we will definitely be back!

What a chill and pleasant cafe experience. As you walk in Cafe Lumiere has a calm atmosphere even with all the noice. You'll see a couple of students studying and as you walk to the cashier there are paper menus provided. Also there's a glass display that provides prepared croissant and ciabatta sandwiches. I ordered three dishes to get a true feel for this place. The first is a classical favorite, French toast. Wow! What a great and appreciated twist to such a lovely dish! The star of the show was the bread. Looks like a homemade white toast but it's very thick and surprisingly still very fluffy. The only small suggestion I have is to increase the amount of maple syrup and make it proportional to the thick bread. Next I got another classic, avocado toast. I really loved the portions of the dish. They are so generous with the amount of avocado they use! For the first time ever I didn't eat all of the avocado which is very rare because most places I go I'm left wanting more. This dish had the same fluffy bread that I appreciated from the prior. Lastly, I decided to go a little out of the classic zone and more into an adventurous zone. I ordered their new veggie tacos. I enjoyed this dish but the tortilla was not fresh and I think that is a big part of the dish. Lastly, A delicious chi latte. I would really recommend this place for a nice chill Sunday brunch!

I stopped by for a quick espresso, and it was delicious. The presentation and taste were top notch. They also had a tempting display of baked goods and sandwiches. Unfortunately, we only had time for coffee. The ambiance was cozy and inviting, making it a great place to relax. There was plenty of free street parking on Saturday morning.

I am disappointed that I even have to update this review. My sister and I came in on a Saturday and ordered 2 iced lattes. This was our second time at this coffee shop and we really loved our experience the first time. Unfortunately, this time around the coffee was not good at all. When the barista called out that our lattes were ready, I knew something was wrong because they looked like 2 cups of milk with barely any coffee. We decided to give them a taste hoping they tasted like delicious espresso, but no. They tasted like 2 cups of milk on ice. My sister and I are both introverts and we contemplated on speaking up because it was obviously uncomfortable for us. But each latte was $5 so we had to say something. The barista didn't hesitate and just proceeded to offer to remake them. We were okay with that. After all, we just wanted our coffees. But after she remade them, we noticed that they looked exactly the same as the last ones. She didn't change the amount of milk or espresso in the second round, which was frustrating. What was the point of remaking them? It was a waste of the milk we saw her throw out from the first ones. It's disappointing because I love supporting local coffee shops, but not when stuff like this happens. After she gave us the second pair of pale lattes, we just took them and walked over to Starbucks to buy ourselves an additional shot of espresso to pour into our lattes from Cafe Lumiere. We just wanted to enjoy a nice iced latte and this was the only way we would be able to. I am sad to say I will not be returning to this coffee shop.