Alpenglow Cafe

We had an amazing breakfast here recently. They had several items that sounded good so it was hard to decide!
I got the breakfast burrito with coffee cake. Everything was so fresh and the portions were huge.
The women who helped us were both really nice and gave us advice on what dishes were best. We’ll be back for sure.

The best thing about this place: the cinnamon rolls! Big enough to share.
It’s good value. The prices are high, but ALL of the ingredients are local and natural. That quality does not necessitate quantity.

Pretty terrible, bland food and poor service. Went in for breakfast with a few friends, there were only a few other tables in there, they had 2 – 3 people working the dining room yet it just seemed like forever to get the waitress’s attention, it shouldn’t have taken that long, trust me I know, I’m a server.

The food is slightly overpriced compared to the overall experience. I will say that I enjoyed the French toast I had, but it was nothing special. The décor is clean but… rather uninspiring. The vibe inside reminded me of a dentist’s office.
A nice quiet place to go close to downtown, with solid breakfast basics but nothing to write home about.

I was here years ago and had a much better experience than this most recent visit. Only one table was occupied, which I expected for noon on a Thursday. What I didn’t expect was for them to have run out of hollandaise sauce, which is part of many of their breakfast items and also advertised to be on the special that day. It just rubbed me the wrong way. Otherwise the visit was a nice one. The food did taste good and fresh. And yes, the prices are high. Presumably because it’s all fresh.

We found this small restaurant on our Unilocal app and wanted to check it out for breakfast…
Overall it was really disappointing. First of all, the prices are really high for breakfast. The prices would be top end for a San Francisco breakfast.
We tried the scramble and the biscuits and gravy.
The food came out luke warm at best. The gravy was not cold, but not warm. The biscuit fell apart. it seemed like it was microwaved.
The scramble was supposed to have three eggs. They must have been the smallest eggs I have ever seen.
The service was fine.
Overall, it wasn’t a good fit for us.

$ 15 eggs benedict, $ 8 for two eggs. One waitress for the whole place on saturday morning. Thin, burnt coffee. Has espresso but no espresso cups. Uninspired décor.

I went to have breakfast at Alpenglow based on a recommendation from a stranger. I only wish I had gone here sooner.
I had the special, biscuits and gravy with eggs and potatoes. This is not a meal I would normally enjoy, but these biscuits were excellent.
My friends ordered the eggs Benedict and were all raving about how delicious it was.
To top it off, the staff was friendly and attentive. I highly recommend this establishment if you get a chance

I had a coupon for Alpenglow, so I was willing to give it another try after avoiding it for 5 years. I was only reminded why I avoided it. It’s unfortunate, because they *do* have a «freshness pledge», which I respect, and they used to be one of *the* places in town for breakfast, with a line out the door.
The first thing I noticed when we were seated (only about half of the tables occupied at 9am on a Saturday) was the dirt, toothpick wrappers, food on the floor and windowsill. They had only been open 2 hours, and not very busy, so my only assumption is that they don’t clean their floors after close of business each day.
Upon opening the menu, I was startled to see most prices between $ 11 and $ 14. This is more expensive than other high-​quality places in town who offer local and fresh breakfasts. I chose the special of biscuits and gravy with home fries and 2 eggs for $ 9.95, which was the least expensive item I found.
Food review:
1. The coffeecake was dry and crumbly. It turned into a powder as soon as we touched it with a fork. The bottom «crust» was hard, and the flavor was nothing special. It dried out my mouth. I noted that the Freshness Pledge states they make their coffeecake «in house» but not «each day», so perhaps this had been sitting around for a while, but the recipe definitely needs help.
2. The potatoes were large fried chunks with a spice powder. Nothing unique added (i.e. onion, pepper, garlic). One of my potato chunks was black, like it had been stabbed with a tool during the harvesting process, which made me nervous about the food prep QA.
3. My biscuit and gravy was warm (not hot). The biscuit was dry, and had been split and then toasted, which made it crunchy. I typically see biscuits and gravy served on a biscuit cut in half with the gravy poured over the biscuit’s soft inner side, so this was not to my liking. The flavor of the gravy was mediocre, but the biscuit was not appealing in color (yellow-​orange) or texture (crumbly, not flaky).
4. My husband’s $ 11 omelet was a basic ham and cheese. The cheese was not melted, and he thought it was not worth the price.
5. My daughter had the buttermilk pancakes, which were also average. Slightly rubbery.
6. The server was very nice. No complaints there.
7. Bacon was very good.
In summary, the food quality and quantity is not worth the price. Based on the cleanliness of the facility, the prices, and the black potato on my dish, I will not be going back.

Tried this place out from a Do Local Deal special.
Pros: Very hard working staff. Those gals are go go go! Drinks were brought out fast, food ordered and brought out fast even though it was packed. They did great! Love the ambiance as well. Nice sized portions on the food.
Cons: Prices. Oh my goodness this place is VERY overpriced. I could have bought a weeks worth of groceries for the amount we spent on breakfast for a family of three, and we didn’t go overboard either. That alone will keep us from coming back.
The food was good. Not great, but not bad. I could have made the same thing for about $ 6 compared to $ 42.

This local breakfast favorite has a pledge of freshness that guarantees the most delicious, homemade dishes. I had the simple eggs over easy, the delicious baked that morning coffeecake and the crunchy, buttery potatoes on the side. My husband had the scrumptious, melt in your mouth French Toast with fresh baked bread. The owners Kimberly and Gregg say that you will never find a can opener in the place or anything frozen) they have no freezer), but, I bet you can find the chickens and the cow in the back somewhere to account for the freshness of the eggs, butter, and creamy sauces. Last but not least, the coffee is from a local roaster, Strictly Organic Coffee Company, to truly round out our breakfast. Fresh, comfort food at its best.

I give my highest recommendation they have excellent food great real service right downtown Bend Oregon all-​natural food nothing canned or processed in the kitchen I’ve been coming here for 20 years and I’ve never had a bad meal!

We were there for vacation and had their breakfast and we loved it. They did a great job for a reasonable price.
We would go back, it was great.

Just okay. I ordered the special, «Santa Fe scramble». Cheese, eggs, chicken tortilla strips. It was okay, a bit dry. Needed more cheese, more salsa, etc. The salsa was really Pico de gallo, but very dry.
The service and people were super nice.

Was here in September 2012.
This is a little space right in front of a bank building. I only mention it as google maps has us driving all over the place and we didn’t realize it was on the front of this building.
We ate here on a Friday morning, the 1^st week of September. Ordered coffee and we were served quickly. I am gluten free and didn’t see many options on the menu for me, which surprised me because of the character of the restaurant (even the huevos was made with a flour tortilla). The potato pancakes were tempting, but I don’t eat pork. The menu wasn’t that big, but there was enough.
I had «molly’s favorite» (Smoked chicken, Swiss and fresh basil) and my husband ordered 2 eggs with bacon. The omelette was OK. The chicken was in bug chunks which made it difficult to eat. It was also wasn’t seasoned, well and lightly smoked. The combo of flavors didn’t really work for me. The potatoes were good. My husband said his plate was decent. So, our take is this place is nothing extraordinary but I can eat here. Wish they would offer local eggs, as I prefer organic eggs (conventional are LOADED with pesticides).
PS– there was a couple with a baby at the table next to us, where the baby made a HUGE mess, loud and the parents barely acknowledged the mess. They then messed up the other clean table next to them as they left. So rude.

On our way back to Portland from Silver Lake, my wife Googles «Best breakfast in Bend, OR» and this place pops up in the #1 spot. OK, done deal. As it turns out, what we have here is a savvy webmaster who knows how to manipulate the search engines.
We walk into a place located in the ground floor of a new office building — not a good sign, but the web DID say «The best…» It’s quiet at 8:00 or so and we sit down and order. I had the pecan waffle ($ 15.00) and my wife had the Monte Cristo. Just prior to receiving our order, the place fills up like someone rang an alarm — it gets noisy in a hurry with families with young, ill-​behaved children.
Our food arrived in reasonable time, but it was obvious that our waitress had been left to fend for herself that morning; and while she did a good job, it left no time to accommodate coffee refills. In the meantime, the din from screaming children is deafening. Make no mistake, the food is good (not great, but good), but definitely NOT worth the money — they need to find another way to pay for their rent and trendy logo.
Trying to leave was an obstacle course of baby strollers full of our future. This place is less a restaurant and more a daycare that serves really expensive food. «Kid Friendly?!? They need to leave the kid trade to McDonald’s and Chuck E. Cheese and be infinitely more concerned about the people who pay the exorbitant prices. So much for Google’s integrity.

To preface, I will say this –
I was here on Memorial Day. So, yes, it was incredibly crowded.
We arrive just before 11am to a moderate waiting list — maybe 6 – 8 groups on it, so I added our names to the bottom. As there is no appropriate waiting area here — just an anteroom with the entries to the Alpenglow and the burrito place next door, we stepped outside the café, and rather than loom over the tables seated outside, we stepped just around the corner into the sun where there were some patio chairs, and several other groups waiting for a table.
We then proceeded to wait for an hour, almost on the nose. Watching the service at the other tables outside did not give me a warm fuzzy feeling — there was little sense of urgency in taking care of the customers, but we were patient and played a board game on my phone and enjoyed the sun while we waited.
At just about noon, I thought I heard someone say my name, and I got up from my repose to go investigate. It turns out that that was their version of finding a waiting group — once at a normal talking level out the door, no attempt to see whether the party was simply not crowding the doorway while waiting. Not only that, but I saw that without locating me (And we did not leave the premises, mind you), the woman had crossed me off the list and moved on to seat the next party who WAS hounding her about a table. When asked why she only called once and not very loudly, she defensively said, «Well, I said it as loudly as I could».
Inside the restaurant, there were probably 4 or 5 waitresses working the rather small seating area. The coffee was just fine, and we got it quickly (though, I could have used a cup a while back), and placed our orders. I also noted the swaggerly comment on the menu about «daring us» to find a can-​opener in the kitchen, and while I do appreciate the sentiment of wanting to serve local and/​or fresh food, it just struck me as a bit disingenuous when I saw they had plenty of other products in their kitchen that might not be considered «Fresh» — jars of jam, tubs of butter, and so on — just that none of them happened to be canned.
Our food took about 35 minutes to arrive at our table. During that time, we watched a waitress tell another waitress that her order was up instead of serving it herself — while standing next to the kitchen. We watched the two gentlemen scrabble in the tiny kitchen and try to keep up with the orders, but the waitresses were carefully checking receipts and handing items directly back into the kitchen for missing or improperly assembled orders.
Our waitress lamented that the kitchen was just inadequate today, and how she couldn’t wait until 2pm so that she could have a margarita. Lady, I thought, it certainly feels like 2pm.
When the food did arrive, it was solid in quality, (though, the espoused coffee cake was squishy and overly-​sweet) but the portions were quite small. especially considering the price — Just about $ 33 (not including tip) for 2 brunch entrees (both without meat, so no salmon markup), one cup of coffee, and one latte. For that kind of price tag, my brunch better be life-​changingly delicious, gut-​bustingly enormous, or better, both.
If this is the best breakfast in Bend, it is a tragic tale.

Our favorite meal at Alpenglow is breakfast. We’ve enjoyed tens of dozens of breakfasts here over the more than fifteen years we’ve been customers. A truly mom and pop owned and run restaurant, it makes the good food taste even better to know what great people are the owners.
BOTTOM LINE
Delicious, freshly prepared breakfasts with mostly local sourced ingredients served by friendly people feed our happy customer loyalty. (Pun intended.)
FOOD:
My menu favorite is the eggs Benedict. They always get the eggs poached EXACTLY as I order them (as hard as golf balls… more difficult for a kitchen to do than one thinks), the Hollandaise is great, the English muffins are house baked and the bacon, from a local smokehouse, is round and lean.
My husband loves the Cascading Grains pancakes with the lovely warm spices and walnuts added to the multi grain batter served with REAL maple syrup. You won’t find fake syrup here… Alpenglow uses the real deal.
The potato pancakes, served with homemade applesauce alongside, can’t be beat.
If you order toast (made from house baked bread), it will be werved be served just sweet enough berry jam in a little dish. No foil wrapped packets jam here.
Alpenglow also serves good, robust coffee custom blended for them by local roaster Strictly Organic and your cup is always kept filled. We think this is the best breakfast coffee in Bend.
VALUE /​QUALITY
Prices have gone up a bit in the last couple of years as have the cost of the fresh products they use, but the owners tried very hard not to raise them. Including reluctantly laying off their baker so now the owner /​husband /​chef only comes in even earlier to bake the from scratch goodies. You’re not getting food from cans here. In fact, their advertising says they’ll pay you a reward if you find a can opener in the kitchen because they don’t own one. At Alpenglow you’re getting a hand crafted breakfast from locally sourced ingredients.
SERVICE
At the peak of breakfast service, this can be a busy place and service might be a bit slow as the kitchen works to keep pace. And as with all Bend breakfast restaurants, crowds on weekends are greater. If it is important to you to get in and out in a faster pace, going early or later in breakfast hours or during mid week will be a good choice for you.
LOCATION /​AMBIANCE
Located on the corner of Greenwood and Wall Streets right off of downtown Bend. Parking is on street or in a lot around the side of the bank building where Alpenglow is located. Maybe the only drawback for the location is that siting of the restaurant around the side of a bank building is a little awkward and the semi — industrial vibe interior of the building seems a little tight for seating. Music mix is classic rock and pop oldies, at a volume that allows conversation. Outside seating is available in good weather.
ACCESSIBILITY
Accessible parking is located just around the corner from Alpenglow in the bank parking lot. A paved sidewalk runs to the door, although outside tables and chairs can sometimes block the sidewalk passageway.
And here’s a personal note of «thumbs up» for Alpenglow re equal access and the reason I bump them from four stars to five.
After a devastating injury in early 2008, I used a wheelchair to get in and out of here for better than a year. Alpenglow was one of the few Bend breakfast restaurants that made it possible for me to get in the door, at a table and enjoy breakfast, the same after my injury when I rolled in as before when I walked in. With some restaurants in Bend, only able bodied customers are welcome to come in given they maintain acccess barriers even now, 22 years into the ADA. Good for Alpenglow for getting the «all people are welcome here» equal access right!

Food was not excellent. In fact, it wasn’t anything close to good– especially since fresh, local, and farm grown should be good, right? The service was lacking. I’m pretty sure I came during downtime, and it still took the server a while to get us menus. How can you seat a group and not provide menus? That bothered me. But I brushed it off. Then later, the server brought us our food and didn’t ask if we needed any condiments. Nor did she ever check up on us. My friend wanted ketchup. He couldn’t eat his potatoes without it. Usually, they have all of the condiments on the table. But again, it was downtime, and the person refilling the ketchup bottles took all the ketchup bottles off the tables and set them near the kitchen. Before finishing the task and returning the bottles back on the tables, she decided to take her break. Yup.
The prices are out of control. Sure, everything is local and fresh, etc. BUT if you’re going to mark up prices then at least finish it off with a good product. The english muffin is fresh and homemade –but did not taste good at all. Probably one of the worst english muffins I had ever tasted. This place was disappointing. I had high hopes for this place– but the only thing this place provided were high prices.
Summary: Not only was this place expensive, but the food did not meet expectations nor was service very good. Horribly disappointed. If you want to pay a pound of flesh for this food, go for it. Just make sure that pound is local and farm grown.

Did you ever go to a place that reminds you of so many other great places that it suffers a little by comparison?
Throughout my meal here, I kept saying to myself…
Great cinnamon roll, but not as great as…
Good fresh squeezed OJ, but remember that time …
Tasty Baja Oregon omelette, but oh man, wish I was eating that scramble from …
This coffee cake makes we want to go back to …
My cousin’s family stayed at a hotel close by and ate breakfast here three days in a row. If he was writing the review it would be 5+++. In particular he raved about the Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict. The Strawberry French Toast also looked out of this world (see photo), so I’ll get one of those menu items when I go back. I didn’t particularly care for the home fries that came with my meal (wedges were too large, not fully cooked and a bit bland — damn you Mother’s Bistro, you’ve ruined me with your tasty little potatoes!).
Really almost everything was wonderful here including the server who was charming and fun. Most of their food is grown or sourced locally and they comically offer a $ 1000 reward if you can find a can opener in the café. It is the best breakfast I’ve had in Bend, just not so good to warrant a glowing five star review.