Bette’s Oceanview Diner

I’m a long time local resident who always had a high opinion of Bette’s as an almost historic café. Always getting decent food there, i have been somewhat disappointed this year by its food as dated, with still some great dishes, and some disappointing. However I believe the servers and cooks are now overwhelmed by the new influx of constant customers. And as such I experienced downright rude service from the server (she seemed stressed as being the only server there at 645 AM Sunday), thus upending my heretofore pleasant morning. The place is too small now with long, long waits. Thanks for the good years Bette. But i dont want bad vibes with my breakfast! Bye Bye Bette!

I was so excited when my bff said she was taking me to Bette’s. Alas… it did not live up to my expectation. I don’t take off stars for a long wait, of which there definitely was one.
But, none of the food items we tried were particularly exciting. We came for breakfast before heading over to the city. We tried 4 different dishes, none were memorable.

Everything was good, great service was looking for the scrapple like we have back East there’s is made in the area and is more of a shredded pork patty.

A long wait but a lot of fun.
My friend was visiting me in Berkeley and we decided to check out the western part of town. Cue a Unilocal search for Sunday brunch and Bette’s diner was the cream of the crop. Given that the line was super long, we put our names on the list for interior seating and ended up waiting an hour and some.
The diner environment was incredibly charming, with a huge piece of pie hanging from the roof, chrome bar stools, and old fashioned posters. We sat in red plush booths and got the creamiest, foamiest drinks we could get. I got the soufflé pancakes, which were every bit as airy and delightful as promised. My friend got the breakfast platter, with a beautifully runny egg, savory meaty hash, and a biscuit. All in all, it was a wonderful meal.

Great for breakfast and brunch. It’s a cozy diner with a homey feel to it. The soufflé pancake is so fluffy and light. Really delicious. Great breakfast foods. Worth checking out.

Food: ⁴⁄₅ Price: ³⁄₅ Service: ³⁄₅ Ambience: ⁴⁄₅
This is my second time at Bette’s. If you want to avoid the wait on Saturday, come in before 8:00am. I was SUPER LUCKY to get the best seat in the house — right in front of the counter where I can see all the magic happen in the kitchen!
Bette’s soufflé pancake is a must, and it is definitely worth the 30 minute wait. The chef first cook the soufflé pancake on a stove top, add your toppings, then slowly bake it in the oven and wait for the pancake to rise into a heavenly soufflé. We went with banana rum flavor. It was super light and fluffy, like eating a cloud. The sliced bananas were baked and turned into caramelized bursts of flavor, so good. The soufflé pancake was not overly sweet, and was best complemented by a drizzle of maple syrup and homemade berry jam. Divine!!!
Spicy scrambled eggs were super soft. It was done in french style — not completely cooked through and melts in your mouth. Shove the flavorful eggs in your mouth with freshly toasted bread… ahh amazing
Bette’s potato pancakes were a disappointment. Tbh it just tasted like plain potato hash browns… Nothing special and definitely not worth $ 12.
Service was good and bad. Since we ordered soufflé pancakes and it takes 30min + to make, our potato pancakes were left on the stove top for way too long and completely burnt and dry. My friend asked for a new one and the chefs did it right away. She was very happy, since this is her favorite dish to order every time she comes. Great job!
However, all the waiters are pretty rude. It would be nice if they can put a smile on their faces.
Overall, it’s a slightly pricy place for breakfast, and you have to endure the long wait. But great way to spend a Saturday morning. If you have friends in town, I highly recommend Bette’s.
Favorites:
* banana rum soufflé pancakes ($ 14.95) — a fluffy pancake, lightened with beaten egg whites and baked in oven.
* spicy scrambled eggs ($ 8.95) — with salsa, served with home fries & toast or tortilla
* House coffee ($ 2.75) — bottomless!
Other orders:
* Bette’s potato pancakes ($ 11.95) — German-​style pancakes, grated to order and served with house-​made applesauce and sour cream

Probably some of the worst service I’ve ever received at a restaurant. Which sucked. We came in to Bette’s when it wasn’t busy at all, a weekday mid-​morning, and with high hopes.
The server was cold, abrupt, a little condescending. It was such a jarring experience. The atmosphere is supposed to be reminiscent of a comfy old-​school diner, but the entire dining experience was so uncomfortable because of the server’s attitude.
Example:
«Hi, just wanted to know if you guys had any kind of cashback available?» (realized that the parking lot across the street only accepted cash)
Glares at me. «No». Turns around and walks away.
This was probably the longest conversation I held with them the entire meal. And none of it was kind. The worst part was that it felt like we were the only ones in the restaurant who were getting treated like this. Every other customer received smiles, engaged conversations, and frequent assurances of «is everything ok here?»
We were the only Asian customers in the establishment. Probably the youngest too. I don’t want to point fingers or yell «RACISM» or «AGEISM» when it just as easily may not have been. But these were the only factors that differentiated us from everyone else. We were the only ones to be shoved a bill when we were barely halfway done eating.
I’m not angry. I realize that maybe they were just having a bad or off day. Totally understandable. And I want to give them the benefit of the doubt. But I am sad. Their lack of professionalism and clear disdain left a sour taste in my mouth.
The food is genuinely worth 3 – 4 stars. The Philadelphia Scramble was tasty, and the scrapple in it was lovely. But I won’t be back. There are way too many other fine brunch establishments in the area to give this place a second chance.

I love rating excellent restaurants
My lovely wife and I ended up here based upon a good friend’s recommendation.
We had to wait about 20 minutes for a seat and I’m happy that we took the counter seats closest to the grill. They were the best seats in the house. The chefs performed a culinary ballet to be envied by the Bolshoi. Their timing and food preparation was something to behold.
Maxine got the special, which was a Kale Cesar salad, with fresh anchovies and croutons. It also came with a prosciutto scramble, palenta and rhye toast. She had a side of bacon and their chicken apple sausage. She topped it off with a Mimosa. Surprisingly, she ate the entire thing, with the exception of the few bites I ate and it was great.
I had their world famous Banana Rum soufflé Pancake with Maple syrup and butter. It was the firat soufflé pancake I have had and it was great. Surprisingly I ate ¾ of the behemoth Pancake and didn’t feel stuffed.
I must say that the show from the kitchen kept us entertained while we waited for our food and gave us a new appreciation for what it takes to crank out great food from a great diner.
The staff was friendly and patient, as we changed our order about 3 times.
Whenever in Berkley or the Bay area, make sure you stop by Betty’s Ocean View Diner for a great meal.

We’ve been meaning to get to Bette’s for quite a while, not because of any television show but because of raves from friends who also live in the area. This week we managed to pop in during the week not too long before they closed and got an outside table immediately.
We were really torn between breakfast and lunch. I’ve been dying to see how their scrapple was. I’ve not had good scrapple outside of the East Coast certainly nothing on the West Coast. Apparently it has quite a reputation for being as good as you get in Philly. I’ll get to it eventually, though there are other breakfast specials that also look incredibly yummy. Fortunately I’m not terribly tempted by the decadent soufflé pancakes, which apparently also have a fabulous reputation. They don’t sound like my kind of thing. I tend to like my pancakes dense and eggy and do a mean Dutch Baby at home.
So we went for lunch because there were also some wasteful looking lunch items. My partner got the meatloaf sandwich and was extremely happy with it. The portions were huge to my way of thinking and, in fact, we both only ate half our meal and saved the other half for later. I got the Reuben sandwich with the home fries. I’m a big aficionado of Reuben sandwiches and this was one of the best I have ever had! Maybe a teensy bit more meat would’ve been nice, but not so much really it was pretty much the perfect balance of flavors and textures. And they have Russian dressing, really Russian dressing not Thousand Island pretending as you often find on diner ubens! That alone made me swoon. So I wasn’t disappointed with my lunch, I simply wanted breakfast too despite the fact that I couldn’t have eaten another bite!
And the reason I could’ve eaten another bite is that we shared a piece of coconut cream pie for dessert. Coconut cream is my favorite part of all time and this was as good as I’ve ever had anywhere ever. It was to die for! Really dense creamy filling with lots of big flakes of coconut and a ton of whipped cream. The crust was not a fabulous one, but with a pie like that really you don’t give a lot of attention to the crust — it’s the filling that matters. And the filling was just right — full of rich coconut flavor and creamy goodness. I may have to try to forget I ever ate this here or I’ll find myself coming back compulsively for the pie!

Would give this place a zero if I could. I have no comment on the food; we were turned away because we had 8 people. My husband worked managing restaurants for years, so we know seating a large group at a small place can be difficult. We offered to break up into 2 groups of 4, and told the guy that we understood that we wouldn’t all be seated/​served at the same time… didn’t matter. He was so EXTREMELY rude that we finally stopped arguing with him to be put on the wait list and said we’d find somewhere else to eat.
I don’t think I’be ever seen my husband more upset by poor customer service; he was truly taken aback. We ended up going to Meal Ticket and having a wonderful breakfast & impeccable service… truly the opposite of how we were treated here. Good food is wonderful but doesn’t make up for being treated poorly; find somewhere else to spend your money!

We got here early, at around 8:30am which turned out to be a good thing. Out wait time was around 5 min. Though by the time we left the line got long and I’d guess the wait time was around 30 min.
Getting here early also gets you easy parking. As that too quickly filled up and was packed by the time we left.
I really wanted to try the soufflé pancake, but based on the pics I thought it might be too much food since we were already ordering 2 other meals for 2 people.
We got the hash and the Philadelphia, both with poached eggs. They were both wonderful. For the hash, it was very nice however I personally like mine a bit more meaty. I felt like the potatoes overwhelmed it.
The Philadelphia has the home made sausage which was something I’ve never tried before. It was almost like a hash in consistency. I really liked that.
Service was great and food came out fast. Will come back when in the area.

So glad we found this place as we were driving through San Francisco up to Napa. Stopped off in Berkeley thanks to a Thrillist article. We were seated at the bar right away. I had the hash for breakfast and it was great and a large portion.

I had bookmarked this place as a must try on my next visit to California, so on the way back from Sacramento we set our GPS for here.
First, there is no Oceanview at all maybe in the past not here.
It’s a cute diner with tables close together! Don’t listen to the people at the next table or be a quiet so I can hear better. lol
We ordered the vegetarian sandwich with coleslaw as the side dish. I ordered the chili bowl with the salad combination. Both were good. We ordered the pie of the day Strawberry Rhubarb, no ice cream. That was good, really good. Dine here for good old fashioned diner food.

I’ve had this placed bookmarked since I was in college. Honestly, I just never had the chance to come, but finally the friend and I decided to come here.
We got here a bit early and were able to get in within 15 minutes of getting there.
I ordered the seasonal fruit soufflé pancake — SO GOOD. I really liked it. Light and fluffy, but a pretty big size. Mine was made strawberries LOVE.
The friend got the Maryland breakfast which is the corned beef hash with poached eggs and scone. The corned beef hash was delicious! The poached eggs added a lovely sauce too. The scone was great! I liked the homemade jam as well. The jam was even better on the scone!
Protip: get there early and get a soufflé pancake!

Ok I am late. Found this place via Unilocal.Hotel front desk recommend. Good olé dinner. I was even able to get old fashion chocolate soda.
Peggy’s BLT was EXCELLENTLY. You should have seen the bacon. I even stole a piece because there was so many strips… They were falling off the plate I tell you. I had to save at least one strip of bacon
I had the «famous meat loaf». Not like your normal meat loaf. No red sauce. If you decide to eat here absolutely try the meat loaf. It was great.
Ok, in my opinion
Great service. Spoiled again.
I love traveling and Unilocalers to guide me…

There is ALWAYS a wait!!! But do know that they over estimate with wait time, which I appreciate. It’s always nicer to wait less than you’re told than to wait more than you’re told. I completely understand why there is a wait, this is a SMALL place. There is no big table, and the biggest table is a booth for 4 people, and that’s 4 people without much elbow row. I definitely caution coming here with a group of more than 4 — you will definitely get split up. If you come as a coupe, if you’re willing to sit at the counter (and of course why not) you will get seated sooner.
The food is great. And it’s perfect for brunch. It isn’t just your traditional eggs and things, but they put their own spin on it. I had the California Benedict, which in lieu of the hollandaise sauce and a butter garlic sauce — which I liked more. I felt less heavy afterwards. Not only did it come with home fries, it also came with grilled tomatoes, which was a nice touch.
I would definitely return.

Not worth the hype or the wait. We were told the wait would be an hour and fifteen minutes, but it ended up being just over an hour an a half. Usually, places tell you the wait will be longer than it actually is, so you’re kind of in a good mood when you sit down. Not the case here.
We had already looked up their menu prior to coming here, so we ordered pretty much as soon as we sat down. Food took over half an hour to arrive. When you’re as hangry as our group was, you pretty much have nothing to focus on but the time. When the food arrived, it was pretty burnt beyond recognition. The chorizo would have been amazing because it had an awesome spice level to it, but it was more charred than I usually like. I got a short-​stack, which consists of two pancakes. Unfortunately, I got one semi-​burnt pancake, and a charcoal disk. The second one was so burnt that I had to send it back (should’ve taken a picture prior to that). I wasn’t the only one — two of my friends also got burnt pancakes. We remarked that it was pretty impressive for a breakfast place to mess up pancakes to that extent.
What disgusted me, though, was that our waitress reached her hand onto my plate to grab the more burnt pancake, and then threw it away. That’s a new one! I think I expected her to take the whole plate back, or ask me to put the more burnt one on another plate, but nope. Just reached in there and grabbed it with her bare hand. She did the same thing to my friend’s pancake as well. I wanted to love our waitress, I really did. She was this sweet young lady and I could tell she was working hard given the mad rush. However, this was just not okay. Also, by the time our replacement pancakes got to the table, we had already finished the rest of our meal.
It’ll probably be a while for me to come back here. If I do, it’ll be for the Soufflé Pancake, definitely not for the regular pancakes.

Here we go again with the waiting one hour for brunch. My three friends and I stopped by Bette’s Oceanview Diner on a recent Saturday morning around 9:45am for breakfast/​brunch and waited the customary hour for a table before being seated (at least there’s a good deal of interesting shops to poke into on 4^th Street while you wait). One thing to mention here is that there’s a host/​owner milling about who has a lot of personality — this can be a good or bad thing depending on your mood. He is a person of apparently German extraction who I’d describe as solicitous if not mocking.
Anyway, once we were seated the whole experience was really quite good! The menu is your standard offering of good old American breakfast including omelets, other egg-​based dishes, some sweet stuff, etc. I had a cheese and herb omelet which was good and I liked that it was served with a scone (something different). Everyone else I was with enjoyed their food, and they have a few interesting breakfast cocktails (blood orange mimosa, etc.) which are also of note.
Being as popular/​crowded as it is, the service is somewhat harried but still managed to be polite. The restaurant itself is a cute, kind of retro space with booths and counter with stools. I think a lot of people like Bette’s because the price-​point here is also very good (meaning: great prices!). Overall, I’d say this is a good choice for breakfast or brunch in Berkeley (I think that’s a foregone conclusion) but I’d come earlier or later to avoid a wait since that is never any fun. (Minus one star for the wait…)

Okay, forreals y’all. The last time I visited Bette’s, I had a crab cakes benedict plate (buttery toasted English muffin, poached eggs with custardy yolks, and golden crab cakes that were like 95%+ sweet Dungeness crab– hands down the best crab cakes I’ve ever had– and I live near the Oregon coast) with perfect-​as-​always home fries, and a gingery persimmon muffin rolled in sugar and rainbows. Plus dark, black coffee.
I never thought these words would come out of my mouth, but that was the BEST $ 17 I ever spent on breakfast. The objective best. Do not give up, get out of line, and eat elsewhere. Stay the course, and you will be rewarded.

Tip: If you’re coming here for brunch, expect a long wait. Either put your name down and grab a coffee from their to-​go store next door or take a stroll down 4^th street and check out some of the cute shops.
Just as we were walking up back, we heard our name called and immediately got seated. Typical diner décor though there’s a giant pie statue thing hanging from the ceiling that looks kind of precarious… Service was prompt and we ordered an apple brandy soufflé pancake, Philadelphia breakfast, and Maryland breakfast. Can’t really speak to the Philadelphia breakfast but the other two were very delicious.
Apple Brandy Soufflé Pancake — If you’ve ever wondered what it’d be like to eat a cloud, this is it. I’ve had soufflé pancakes at other places but this one is so fluffy and light that it’s a delight to eat. Maybe a bit more egg-​y than I’d prefer, but still quite good and not overly sweet. There’s just a hint of the brandy but it is fairly subtle.
Maryland breakfast — Corned beef hash with two poached eggs and a cinnamon scone on the side. It was all very tasty. I liked that fact that instead of giant potato chunks, the hash was more like mashed potatoes with corned beef mixed in. The eggs were also poached just right — just wished it was a bit saltier, but that’s an easy fix. The scone was also one of the best I’ve had because it was really moist, probably attributed the cream they put in it. At first, this portion seemed kind of small because it’s in a bowl, but it really fills you up!
If I’m in West Berkeley again, I’ll definitely try to stop by. =D