Sunlight Cafe

10/13/08

Mediocre at best

by suzymccormick at Citysearch

As a vegetarian I was excited to try this U district cafe. My husband and I were dissapointed by the limited and unimaginative menu. The waiter hovered over us while we were deciding and the restaurant itself was fairly rundown and not exactly clean. The food came rather quickly and it was decent but I don't think we will be returning, we go to Silence-Heart-Nest instead.

• Pros: vegetarian
• Cons: Bland food, run-down

09/01/08

Disorganized and suffering service, has corner on vegetarian dining, lemon tahini dressing the best

by ghs at Citysearch

I've eating at Sunlight many times over the years and appreciate their comfortable attitude and focus on serving tasty vegetarian food. I don't mind that the place desperately needs an upgrade from peeling paint and rocking counter stools and just assume things are pretty clean since you can look into the kitchen.

But Sunlight really needs a service upgrade. It's not that they have a bad attitude, in fact they're mostly nice! But dining there can be a painful experience with servers who seem to be overwhelmed or dazed don't even notice that you are waiting....and waiting. The food arrives fairly quickly, fortunately, however about half the time I have to get up to remind a server that something is forgotten. I used to be a server and it's painful for me to watch the disorganization.

It's depends on the timing and I appreciate Sunlight still serving vegetarian after all these years, plus the lemon tahini dressing is to die for, but I wish the servers could either get extra help or receive some training on how to wait tables. I think the whole place desperately needs an upgrade.

• Pros: lemon tahini dressing, good food
• Cons: service spotty

05/22/08

Tasty and Cheap!

by Glytterrie at Citysearch

I have been to Sunlight Cafe multiple times and each time gets better! The hummus and pita/veggie appetizer was good, with fresh veggies and creamy hummus. I have had both the nutburger and the portabello burger and both were fantastic! Their sandwiches all come with soup. One great thing about dining at a vegetarian restaurant means that you never have to ask or wonder if there are animal products in the soups. Hidden chicken broth for example. The yogi tea can be made with soy and is a cold weather treat. Their desserts look amazing although because the portions are so large, I havent tried one yet!

As to people who comment the service was slow, I have never noticed. However, both times I went it was seat yourself, so I can understand if someone stood around for ten minutes before being seated because they weren't aware.

• Pros: Healthy and tasty veggie fare, cool informal atmosphere
• Cons: none

05/16/08

I'm a HUGE Fan of This Place...They Know What They're Doing

by afurlan at Citysearch

This is a consistently phenomenal place to eat. From brunch to dinner, they take great pride in their food quality and they nail it every time. Some of my favorite brunch dishes are the amazing blueberry crunch waffles, and the scrambles that you can have with eggs or tofu!

For lunch or dinner, my favorites are the brown rice salad, and their tempeh is so good! You won't go wrong here for creative and solidly wonderful vegetarian dishes that are made with high quality food!

• Pros: Food Quality, Service is Friendly and Prompt, Creative Dishes
• Cons: None

05/11/08

Best Food (for its price) in Seattle, Vegetarian or Otherwise

by SmileyHungryHippo at Citysearch

Okay, maybe not the best, I haven't tried everything there is to eat in Seattle, but this cafe is one of my personal favorites at any time of day. I'm not vegetarian but I LOVE healthy food, and the food here is proof that healthy eating can actually be tasty and creative. I personally believe that the food is so good, it should appeal to plenty of non-vegetarians and less health conscious people, as long as you know what to order. I took my picky-eater / Fruit - Loops - and - White - Bread -a - tarian friend here and made her order the nutburger. She insisted we return the very next day. The staff is really friendly and when there's not a rush on, it's a great chill atmosphere to just sit back and relax in. I constantly am looking for excuses to eat there. I read the reviews on citysearch all the time but this is the first time I've felt a need to write. So five stars for me!

05/01/08

Good, but be sure you want limited healthy hippy

by misseswaffles at Citysearch

Personally,

I love it. But I just went there with my in-laws. The breakfast choices for breakfast are no meat lots of huevos rancheros derivatives and sides. No basic egg dishes. The food is delish, but just be sure that is is the kind of food you want. So, three stars only due to the limited range of food they provide. WE ended up leaving and finding another place.

• Pros: healthy
• Cons: too limited a menu

03/30/08

Oh, so awsome! A must try!

by nightlinefeline at Citysearch

Five of us headed out on Saturday night for a late dinner. Three vegetarian, one vegan and one began with a wheat allergy. The wait staff was quick to greet us; we had just missed a rush. So the restaurant was almost empty at 8 o'clock, with just a few people at the bar. The menu is so varied, with intriguing salads, soups, sandwiches and lots more. Drinks were delivered and I regretted sticking with water like I usually do. There are so many good beverage choices from apple juice to beer to natural sodas and Yogi Teas. We started out with a hummus plate, a very good choice. The hummus was perfectly creamy and the veggies on the plate we perfectly bite sized and tasted like they had been picked that day. The starter salads were large and again the veggies looked impeccable, like a fresh summer harvest, and it was late March and snowing. The meals were hearty and over flowing. Let?s see, there was tofu salad, blushing salad, which were both HUGE. An avocado and cheese sandwich, the bread was picture perfect; in fact the whole thing looked like it was ready for a photo shoot. Next to me was the best smelling soup and salad I have ever seen, that came with melt in your mouth corn bread. And I had falafel, one of my favorite meals. My dinner beyond surpassed my notion of falafel. All the flavors and blended seamlessly and each detail was perfect, down to the steaming warm pita bread. Everyone ate till they could not eat any more, and then had dessert. The only hiccup was trying to split the check three ways. I just have to remember to bring cash when I go out to eat. I don?t get into the city much, but I definitely will be making many trips back.

• Pros: Quintessential diner atmosphere
• Cons: Bring cash

12/15/07

Terrible Service & Food

by jaime099 at Citysearch

Obviously the cafe owners have never had real Heuvo's Rancheros (The delux heuvo's) and therefore should really not name it after overcooked eggs swimming in salty spageti sauce with too much cheese. The wait staff took forever to get to orders and snapped at me with an attitude when I raised my concern. Most places would listen to their customers and try and remedy the situation, however this cafe's service left much to be desired. I do not recommend this place at all. Cafe owners need to think about their service and their food. I'm not going back and neither are my friends.

• Cons: Terrible Food,Worse Service

02/17/07

Healthy, hippy. There's better.

by ronglmr at Citysearch

Atmosphere is less than great. Food is sometimes ceative but inconsistent. Weird (not great) service. Skip it.

• Pros: Unique menu. Healthy food
• Cons: Not much taste (in atmosphere or food)

12/03/06

Life is too short to eat at the Sunlight Cafe.

by kayway at Citysearch

My partner and I are vegan. We went to the Sunlight where a waitress made us wait several minutes to be seated even though there were many tables open. We waited another several minutes for water as we looked at the menus and waited at least another 5 minutes for our coffee. The meals required extra increments of $.50 to upgrade to tofu and to add on extras to make the meal, as we learned later, actually have taste.

Service was bad and the food did not help. The Veggie Sunlight Tofu Scramble had no seasoning, even though there was supposed to be a ginger sauce on it, with tofu that didn't seem to be cooked. The Huevos Rancheros was okay- at best.

Don't settle for the mediocrity of the Sunlight Cafe.

• Pros: location, good intentions
• Cons: food, waiters, small plates