The bar portion of the Cafe, known as Bar Bernardo. 
Salmon BLT is delicious! 
The Amaretto French Toast is available during Brunch hours 
Eggs Bernardo
| Location |
| 234 D Street , in the Best Western Palm Court Hotel, near Newsbeat |
| Hours |
| Mon-Wed 7AM-9PM (breakfast until 11AM) |
| Thu-Fri 7AM-10PM (breakfast until 11AM) |
| Sat 8AM-10PM (breakfast until 1PM) |
| Sun 8AM-9PM (breakfast until 2PM) |
| Phone |
| (530) 750-5101 |
| (530) 792-7409 fax |
| [email protected] |
| Owner |
| Randy Paragary |
| Website |
| http://www.cafebernardo.com (direct link to menus) |
Cafe Bernardo is really two restaurants in-one: full-service on one side, and an order-at-the-counter "eatery" on the other. The full service restaurant is good if you're looking for a decent place to take a date. It's not as fancy or expensive as Seasons but is still a good restaurant. The atmosphere is fairly relaxed. A sticker in the window states the restaurant is a wifi hotspot.
They use some local and seasonal ingredients as well as free-range meat. Their coffee is not fair trade. They have an odd substitution policy that some have found offputting: you can only substitute vegetable for vegetable, starch for starch.
The eatery typically features a "no-wait" sandwich that is pre-made, and is excellent if you are in a hurry. They've got good tea and quiche, and an excellent grilled salmon BLT. Vegetarians have several good options, including the quiche, salads, portobello mushroom sandwich, spaghettini, grilled polenta triangles, quesadilla, cherry tomato pizzetta, and calzone. The quality of the food drastically varies depending on the chef.
The bar, officially called Bar Bernardo, is on the full-service side of the restaurant. The bar's hours are: Mon-Wed: until 11:00 pm; Thur-Sat: until 1:00 am; Sun: until 10:00 pm. The WikiWackyWoo (no relation to the Wiki!) is particularly excellent. Wicki Week 2014 is 09/28/14-10/04/14 and Wicki Wacky Woos are $5 each (the price in 1995) all week long!
Want to avoid trouble while eating and/or drinking here? Check out the Bar Taboos page before entering.
Bernardo's restaurant in Davis is only one of three area Bernardo's locations, the others are in midtown Sacramento. Bernardo's is owned by the Paragary family, who also owns some of Sacramento's best bars and restaurants: Monkey Bar, Paragary's Oven, Centro, Esquire Grill and R15.
Cafe Bernardo has a mediocre health inspection record.
Reviews from 2005 ~ 6 reviews/comments Reviews from 2006 ~ 13 reviews/comments Reviews from 2007 ~ 20 reviews/comments Reviews from 2008 ~ 22 reviews/comments
2009-01-24 19:49:25 I go here frequently, and as I veteran Davis foodie I love Bernardos! —AndrewBianchi
2009-01-28 20:58:28 I love the food and eat at Bernardo's all the time, but when I showed up just after 8:30 this evening to order take-out, the cashier said they were closed even though she admitted they close at 9 pm (???). . . Not a good business practice. —britti
2009-03-29 13:20:24 Really bad and unfriendly service. A waitress pretty threw a hissy fit at me and my friends when our order wasnt sent out right. Over priced for what you get too. That plus attitude should = pass it by and walk on over to Crepe Ville, Burgers & Brew or Sophie's Thai. All much better choices! —poggle
2009-04-12 23:35:54 Very disappointed in this cafe. Not only do they charge $2.25 for a regular coffee, but they charged me $3.75 for a glass of orange juice, the cheap kind from a gallon jug nonetheless, when I can go to the grocery store and actually buy at least a quart of high quality juice for less than $3. Also, the food was minimal at best. I ordered french toast, and that was all I got, 2 pieces of french toast with hardly any flavor.
The staff was preoccupied in conversations between themselves to care about customer service, and one waitress wanted to take my plate before I was even finished eating.
I will not return here, for the cost of the minimal food, I can get 2-3 times more food at Crepeville or Little Prague. Definitely out of touch with quality implies being able to charge higher prices. —BrandonBarrette
2009-04-13 10:41:24 A couple of quick comments. You can eat in the bar and it's much quieter. The service isn't much faster, but the servers are friendly and competent. I had the huevos rancheros yesterday. If you're expecting stand-up Mexican cooking, you'll be disappointed. I was. —JimStewart
2009-04-26 21:30:54 I have breakfast here at least twice a week and like their oatmeal, egg dishes, and French toast. The service is great and the food arrives quickly. There are also one or more newspapers on the shelf near the water that you can read while eating. I enjoy chatting with the staff: Mary, Amber, Paul, and the others. —nowhereman
2009-06-14 15:36:11 The "2 eggs, herbed potatos and turkey sausage" makes a great non-pork carnivore breakfast, something that's a bit hard to find. —JimStewart
2009-11-08 20:22:38 The french toast with fruit on top is to die for! so delicious, I go there just to order it. BUT the bad thing is that they only serve it until 11 am on the weekdays, 1 pm on Saturday, and 2 pm on Sunday...They really need to extend the breakfast hours!
besides that, it is generally overpriced. Although the food is good, it comes in small quantities for big bucks. The heirloom tomato and mozzarella salad is DELISH, but whos going to pay 8.50 for a tomato and some cheese? —mrandmrs
2009-11-21 15:00:57 My wife and I recently moved from Sacramento to Davis. We were happy to see one of our favorite midtown restaurants was also in Davis. My wife always gets the Eggs Bernardo and thinks it's the best Eggs Benedict she's ever had. The staff is usually pretty friendly, and they seem to be well trained. —TheoMonk
2009-12-06 23:22:20 My girlfriend and I went here tonight together for the first time and found the overall experience to be very nice. Yes, we had to get up and ask for a re-fill on the iced tea but we didn't mind that. We had the Portobello sandwich and the Butternut Squash Pizza with no cheese, adding spinach and pesto. I absolutely loved this pizza, and the portobello sandwich was good too.
Compared to many other places we frequent in town there was a more pleasant ambiance here, and the food was quite good. We enjoyed hanging out there enough to order a hot tea and cake (yeah, a bit pricey). We'll be back. —Brett
2009-12-29 12:21:02 Best coffee in Davis. Food is very good, although sometimes inconsistent depending on the chef. I usually get the steak or chicken plate which is fantastic. They often use local farm fresh ingredients. Breakfasts are also excellent. The place could use a fresh coat of paint as it is a little dingy and looking a little run down. Staff needs to pay attention to the music. I was in there during the week for a late breakfast and the crowd was older....they had Rush and Metallica cranked. Service is usually good, but if there is a long line, you may want to wait as the kitchen isn't built for large crowds and the service slows down. —stodd84
2010-07-07 16:39:38 Good menu, somewhat reasonable prices. After five visits and the order repeatedly coming out wrong, we are really fed up with the antisocial chick with the glasses. Asking a question about the food is some sort of crime, and you won't hear please, thank you, you're welcome, is there anything else?, how can I help you? or any of that from her. In this economy, I cannot believe some people still have jobs. The Wednesday night burger special is well worth it if you prefer to eat free-range meat. The pickles on the burger are strange. Lovely salads. Cheap desserts. A couple of servers are super-friendly and helpful. The service just isn't consistent and the one I mentioned makes the place almost not worth the negativity. Reading these posts, the only other thing I'll say is that whereas someone said this place is one for "the white folk," I haven't found that to be exclusively true. While that crappy comment could be misconstrued, I would be more inclined to try the new Ethiopian restaurant when it opens if I saw what appeared to be people from the Horn of Africa eating there. FFS. —seesharp
2010-07-16 17:43:56 I like this place. It's fun to watch the brick oven fire. I like the location too; you can sit outside and watch the people go by. —JasperD
2010-07-20 07:36:38 I've generally been happy with the food at Bernardo's, and it's only two blocks from my house, so who can complain? However, I got very frustrated awhile back and stopped going because they had an absurd substitution policy. Most of their entrees had a protein, a veggie and a starch. I was trying to be healthy and skip the starch and just ask for more veggies, and the counter people (multiple ones) said "we can only substitute a vegetable for a vegetable or a starch for a starch." The sides menu, however, had these items as costing the same, so it didn't seem to make a lot of sense, but rather seemed to be a computer programming thing at the register. I wouldn't have minded a small charge—like Crepeville's charge to substitute fruit for potatoes—but the rigidness of the policy seemed absurd. Does anyone know if they still do this? —ScottLay
2010-10-20 00:52:39 I like the food but I don't love it. I like the quality of the ingredients but I don't love it (fibrous crater filled avocadoes chunks are not acceptable IMO). The service isn't bad but I don't love it. Overall, this place isn't bad but I don't love it. Now is the time where I would tell you what is worth coming here for but I really don't think there was anything exceptional that I could recommend to anyone...at all...how sad. And yes, I agree with the comments about there being a yuppie vibe.
2011-05-03 13:30:06 I had dinner here on Sunday, and the grilled salmon BLT was really good. The bread wasn't too dry and the salmon and tomatoes went really well together along with the bacon of course. :) —NickSchmalenberger
2011-08-12 16:55:36 I had lunch here today and it was Delicious! I have always liked the food here. My only complaint is I have always tipped when I pay for my food and I never have received Refills, sometimes silverware, or any type of service. I guess I will stop tipping at the beginning and only when if ever I have service! —Sherri
2011-08-12 18:04:36 I want to qualify this by saying I don't like making negative reviews. I think everyone should find out for themselves if a place is worth going to, if they're really interested in going. That being said, the difference between this location and the others I've been to (midtown Sac, R St., Roseville before it closed) is simply night and day. Bottom line, if you have a choice, don't waste your time at this location. I have been to the midtown Sac location many, many times (and the R st. a few times), and the food and service are far superior. Recently, after visiting both the Davis and Midtown locations within the span of a couple weeks, I felt obligated to compliment the chef at the midtown location, as his food was (again) far superior... I also told him about our problems at the David location. He thanked me and said he "had a problem" with the Davis location as well, and that I should share my views with ownership.
It's a shame really, because every other Paragary's owned restaurant I've been to has been excellent. Consistently great food, great service. Not at the Davis Bernardo's. By my experience, the food and the service have been consistently poor (we've tried 4 different times, no improvement). My stir fry noodles were mealy and flavorless. They actually burned the bread on our sandwiches (!?!) But what I find really strange is that the service is pretty poor too. It's strange in that they really don't have much to do in terms of table service... just bring your food out, get you some ketchup maybe. No taking your food order, nor any drink orders... pretty simple. But when my wife dared to ask for some ranch for her fries, the server said it would be $1 extra and then walked away. Wow. And this was AFTER they grossly undercooked her turkey burger and it had to be sent back. To her credit, the manager was apologetic after the turkey burger incident, but the replacement was not much better (cooked, edible, but flavorless). The manager also also apparently then pulled a David Copperfield, because she was "unavailable" when I asked to see her about the ranch "snub" a few short minutes later.
Sorry again to "bash" this place. Don't take my word for it, just do this: Next time you're in Sacramento, visit the R (at 15th) or the Midtown location... then compare (them) to the Davis location, and you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. —OldDavis73
2011-08-29 03:31:48 To be honest, I only come to this place for one thing: their Wicky Wacky Woo or what I prefer to call their wiki. Last week, my friends and I decided to stop by Cafe Bernardo to grab a few drinks. We had our drinks and then left. I thought everything was cool until I checked my checking account and found that they charged me for 4 wikis when I only ordered 2 wikis. This could be just a simple mistake, but I hope I get my money back. —KristineLalic
2011-09-24 10:00:35 I think this place has gone downhill. I really used to like it—although the portions aren't huge for the price, the was food was always really good. Recently went in for a large chopped salad to go which took forever to arrive and then it was surprisingly small and mostly lettuce—which is antithetical to the whole idea of the chopped salad. I'm wary to go back. —BrentKago
2011-10-18 22:58:18 Really, really, mediocre place. I'm not sure how Cafe Bernardo is still open, because everything you find here you could probably find elsewhere at a better price, and with better service. It's breakfast foods (go to Black Bear Diner), sandwiches (deli, bistro 33) and everything else is just salads and pizzas that you could easily find elsewhere in Davis.
I went there with my boyfriend yesterday after having gone a couple times in the past couple years, and everytime we've been back, we were more disappointed. We had the chuck burger and the steak sandwich with fries, and one soda and that came out to be about $25 wtf. And they also charge you 1.50 for a teeny slice of cheese. Also, it's pay up front, and it's silly to tip and stuff and not ever have the "server" come by and refill our drinks. ALSO, the portions of the actual burger/sandwich was sad. It was pretty tasty, but so not worth 10 bucks each. Plus, the fries you have to pay EXTRA for. Wtf? What kind of establishment doesn't automatically serve fries with burgers/sandwiches? It's like a no brainer. And the fries that we got were sooooo over salted that we couldn't even bear to have ketchup with them.
We won't be going back there again. If you want burgers/sandwiches/salads/pizzas, go to Burgers&Brew, Bistro 33, Rostini's, Village Bakery, etc. —susiebear
2013-01-04 08:56:37 I recommend the butternut squash omelette for breakfast. Overall, I've had mostly tasty meals here with quality ingredients. The workers I've encountered have always been pleasant and hard-working. —ScottMeehleib
The breakfast burrito is good, so is the potatoes. Bernadoes shines at breakfast and is solid the rest of the time Daubert
Comments:
You must be logged in to comment on this page. Please log in.