Cafe Lobos

I really really wanted to go here! It was next on my list of great new restaurants on York – my hood where I grew up – but it’s closed :(

Sorry Café Lobos, I’ve tried on three separate occasions since Thanksgiving to stop in for brunch and not only are you always locked up and closed, you always have the same «Private Party» sign on the door. It must be the most exclusive private party in the history of private parties since no one is ever there. Shame, I had high hopes for such a dining establishment in the «hood.»

I want Café Lobos to be my spot so bad that I keep putting myself through agonizing experiences. I read another review by another Unilocaler about the strange hours this restaurant keeps without telling their customers, and its true. I finally went back for brunch a few weeks ago during the hours that are on their website, but when a bunch of my friends showed up, the door was locked and no one was there. I don’t know when I’m going to learn to give up.

this place is never open. how it stays in business is beyond me.

I have tried to come here twice now on a Saturday morning. Both times they have been closed during business hours. I’m done trying to come here.

Sunday Brunch:
The Breakfast Nachos– Good. I like how the tortillas stayed crisp, even though they had melted cheese on them. If a dollop of sour cream were added, these would be very good. Served with 3 hot sauces.
Chocolate Banana Ebelskivers– Great idea, execution needs work. The inside filling of the ebelskiver was too dry. I was expecting more of a creamy chocolatey banana filling flavor. Instead it seemed to be pure dough.
Excellent Service. Add a star.
The interior of Café Lobos fits the York boulevard vibe. Slightly hip, not trying too hard. Quite dim lighting. Perfect for people who partied too late the night before and don’t want to be under the scrutiny of bright lights.

Had breakfast with my wife this morning and it was horrible. I couldn’t eat the
breakfast nachos because it tasted awful and my wife ate just a little bit of her waffle and eggs. I don’t know who owns this place but they need some serious advice. They don’t even know how to scramble eggs. Breakfast are better at Jack in the Box. The service was good though.

Came here on a Sat night, and it wasn’t super packed, but I figure it’s only been a couple weeks since they’ve been open, so people don’t really know about them just yet.
The décor is modern and homey, but there’s no hostess table right at the entrance, so that threw me off a bit. If you’re looking for comfort food, definitely check out this place (aka it’s not super healthy but it sure as hell is tasty!)
On to the food
Naughty Nachos for appetizer — This was pretty good — I think the cheese they used was real cheese? The gaucamole was a bit interesting (from what my friends said) and had something like pesto in it. Would have liked a bit more chips to go with all the excess cheese in the appetizer
Baby Back Ribs with fried polenta balls and green beans — very tasty ribs with a unique bbq sauce. Polenta balls were just polenta… maybe could have used a bit more seasoning or some sort of dipping sauce, but it had a nice crunch to it.
Buffalo Pig mac n cheese — this was tasty with cheese, bacon, and bbq sauce in the mac n cheese.
Definitely will check out their brunch menu at some point. Can’t wait for them to expand their menu once they start establishing a customer base!

We’ve always been huge fans of Mia Sushi, Rudy Martinez’s other restaurant — best sushi this side of town — so we felt we should try this place out. Stopped by for brunch on a whim and we really enjoyed the food. The space is intimate, lowkey and nicely done — don’t be scared off by the walled-​up exterior, once inside it’s very warm and friendly. We both had the Lobo Hash — really tasty, perfect size portion (brunch can sometimes be sooooo huge). The table next to us had the Breakfast Nachos — looked awesome, that’s my call next time. Looking forward to trying it our for dinner!

Went there tonight for the 1^st time… excited to try a new restaurant in the ‘hood.
We started with the crudite — a chilled pint glass with some celery, carrots and beans, and a little cup of housemade ranch dressing. The dressing was great, veggies looked a little anemic though, and for $ 5 there should definitely be a bigger portion. It’s just raw veg!
Hubs was thrilled — he said the bangers and mash was awesome. Skinless bangers, creamy mushroom gravy, yummy mash. Peas are listed on there too, but he said he wished there were more — I didn’t even see any in there. But he was stoked.
I ordered the chicken pie off the menu (and a glass of Ferrer). The runner brought it out and it looked great. Ramekin with a big piece of puff pastry on top. I thought it was weird that the plate was sprinkled with bacon but the menu listed a chicken pie. I asked the runner who went back to the kitchen to confirm it was indeed a chicken pie even thought there was bacon on the plate. He did so. I took a big bite. WHOA. It really tasted like a crumbled sausage pie. We called the waitress over, she went back, checked with the kitchen and told us that it WAS actually a beef pie. I was a little grossed out (25 years of not eating red meat) but they were all really apologetic, (they said the pies change daily and they didn’t know) and offered to make me a chicken pie. The manager asked if I would like something else to drink while I waited, so I ordered another glass of Ferrer.
New pie came out, it was very tasty — yummy mushroom gravy sauce, tender chix, pastry was a little chewy so I pulled it off. We finished the meal with the fried PB&J (super crazy rich) and a cup of coffee.
The bill came and they comped the glass of wine they brought me while I was waiting for my new meal, but they charged me for the remade pie. I think that’s a little déclassé when you have grossed out your customer and crossed a pretty serious dietary line.
It seems like everyone there is trying their best to make this a great place — nice staff — and the neighborhood could certainly use this type of eatery. I want to support local businesses and I know they are very new so things can go wrong but I thought that was lame. I see another Unilocal customer had an issue with a remake so they should probably make a better policy for when people send things back because staff have made a mistake.

Always happy when a new restaurant opens that serves breakfast opens up. This one, the reincarnation of Marty’s, has a great vibe and menu. Last Sunday several friend met for brunch. The coffees great, the Bloody Mary my friend has was served just the way she likes it, with a green bean and olive. Our other friend had the mimosa, so good she had two! We opted to do a tasting menu. We ordered three different things to share. The menu is so creative you want to try it all. I think the winner in this grouping was the Breakfast Hash. This is comfort food taken to another level. Great combination of flavors. I had the bacon waffle, that has bacon cooked in with the batter. It was lean, not greasy at all. The eggs were cooked to perfection… a big deal to me. Our other friend had the special scramble.
We love there is inside and outdoor dining. The proprietor, Rudy, said that the back patio is dog friendly! Good news for our furry friends. The menu for dinner also looks inviting, and I’m thinking I will definitely need to save room for the salt caramel bacon brownie… do you think it was inspired my all the green collectives in the area? Who knows, but it seems like good idea!

Being a big fan and proud supporter of the unique establishments opening up on York, my man and I decided to try Café Lobos out for dinner. Both of us prefer places that are laid back and comfortable but still have style, and that is exactly the sort of vibe we got from this restaurant. Everybody was incredibly friendly; the owner even came over to welcome us and we briefly chatted about the opening of the restaurant. I always appreciate when places make you feel «at home», and I have to say that that was my favorite part of our experience.
The food was also very delicious, but I was a bit frustrated with how limited the menu was. There were several items on the menu that I was dying to try that were only available at lunch… all in all there were only 3 entrees to choose from for dinner in addition to entrée sized salads, plus one special. HOWEVER, the food we did order was damn good: «devil» chicken wings (lip throbbing hotness!), bangers and mash, warm spinach salad, and bread pudding. I could barely walk out after, but it was worth it!
For those of you that like to have adult beverages with your dinner, this place also has a full bar and a decent beer selection. I am not a beer drinker but I was glad to see they could make a cocktail to go with my dinner, rather than only offering beer and wine like most places (or no liquor at all!!! … *shudder*)
Overall, we really enjoyed our meal and I know this place will succeed. My only minor «gripes» are to expand the menu options and to find music that fits the ambience … I think at one point a Katy Perry song came on (ugh!) As I said, these are minor compared to how wonderful the staff was and the delicious food. We will definitely come back for lunchtime burgers and the crazy brunch dishes!

This Modern Bistro is so handsome! The ambiance was so inviting and comfortable, not to mention the best Cadillac Margartas are served here, also tried Toasted Almond which is also very delicious.
For appetizers we tried the mac and cheese which was great, also the Hector salad which had so many textures and great flavors followed by angel wings with devil sauce on the side very yummy.
Then dinner, Baby back ribs cooked to perfection with just enough sauce, served with fried polenta nice and crunchy on the outside delicately soft and flavorful on the outside and grilled green beans with a hint of garlic.
The overall experience was phenominal the staff is extremeley friendly and attentive, we will definately be coming back. Actually planning a family holday breakfast in December.
Thank you Café Lobos

My wife, daughters and I had breakfast. It was great, affordable and close to our home in the Noortheast. It’s great to have a quality restaurant in our neighborhood. I recommend everyone go.
Ribs were great for dinner!

Rudy Martinez was the owner of what once was Marty’s Lounge and Grill (named after his son) saw the potential for business in this area and believes that a restaurant will do well, a love of food brought Rudy together with Jasmine Wolf they have built a business trying to lighten the carbon footprint wherever possible by recycling, composting and convert used oil into fuel, the tables at Café Lobos are made from the old wooden doors from Marty’s, in the Spring an Organic garden will be build on the back lot that will be used at the restaurant.
Rudy Martinez is no stranger to the NELA area he also owns Mia Sushi (named after his daughter) and is a business man you might have seen him on A&E’s «Flip this House» Los Angeles, he even ran for City Councilman of this district
UNFORTUNATELY he lost to Jose Huizar.
Grand Opening is a rainy evening yet the place seems to be drawing a good crowd, Café Lobos Eatery & Libations = Food & Liquor, not quite a full bar but they do offer various beers and mixed alcohol drinks, not your typical Highland Park fare, though the area is changing for the good I just fear the area turning into a Silver Lake Hipster hangout.
My main complaint if you want to call it that was the Menu, selections are LIMITED since Brunch Sat & Sun ONLY is one menu, they have a different for Lunch and different items for Dinner, the Burgers sounded pretty good BUT they are ONLY served for LUNCH. so you can check out the webpage
BEWARE of hours of operation VS menu selection.
Angel or Devil Wings aka Hot Wings — 6 wings $ 9 I opted to try half and half
Angel —
Nice firmness to skin with light crunch BEAUTIFULLY cooked and great flavor! 5-​Stars
Devil —
Well I was told they were HOT as $#%& maybe I’m crazy but I just found them spicy and extremely flavorful, might just be best wings I’ve ever had?! 5-​Stars
Buffalo Pig — (aka Mac n Cheese) Menu says Old School baked with our special buffalo sauce and juicy chicken topped with BACON — $ 12
Buffalo Pig —
Well maybe I interpreted the menu incorrectly, the only special buffalo sauce was on top the chicken wings, cheese was VERY limited making the Mac on the dry side, definitely need more cheese and moisture, and bacon was only a couple crumbles on top. NOT worth $ 12
3-​Stars
DJ’s Steak & Hot Wing Dinner — Rib eye steak & Hot Wings aka Devil Wings $ 20
DJ’s Steak & Hot Wing Dinner —
Why not Devil Wings… Well same great wings, and a Rib Eye steak
that was nicely marinated and cooked til tender and juicy
delicious, not sure if for humor or really meant for use but it comes with
Tumbs Hmmm your food ain’t that spicy! 5-​Stars

The staff was extremely friendly and enjoyed some good food!