James’ Garden Cafe

Love their chicken salad. James and assistant are really flexible and ready to serve. Great café.

4 for convenience and friendliness!
I’ve come quite a bit for my almost daily bagel with cream cheese and cucumber (which obviously isn’t on the menu, but once you buddy up to Oscar, you can ask for some customizations here and there!).
I just worked upstairs, so if we didn’t have much time for lunch because of a conference call, we’d order ahead and either bring back to the office or eat it quickly downstairs.
The food is pretty good, especially for being an office café. I’ve had the
— breakfast burrito: ask for the vegetarian one and add meat to it! It’s the best!
— bagel: I always get the everything bagel with cream cheese and cucumber.
— turkey chili: the turkey one is very good! However, it is a bit pricier, so I don’t usually get it. MAKE SURE that it’s the turkey one before you get it! Sometimes they have beef and it’s not as good.
— chicken pesto panini: this is probably my favorite sandwich. I always get it with the salad since the other sides are super duper small. I also like the balsamic vinaigrette dressing that comes with it (add it onto your salad!). I’ve had the macaroni salad side before, and it’s tiny and tastes a bit bland
— tuna melt: I’ve only had this once, but it was really good!
The prices are a bit high for what it is. As I mentioned, it’s mainly for convenience that you’d come here and pay for the food/​drinks. Otherwise, you could probably pay the same amount and go to a restaurant or café in Westwood.
Also, there’s a credit card minimum (I think it’s $ 4? maybe $ 5?)
The seating area in the atrium is very convenient, especialy in the winter when it gets cold and/​or rainy outside.
Thanks, Oscar! You’re the best!

good for studying！too many people all the time! But it is warm in winter! It also has bread and salad!

very well priced. great, healthy food option. not known because it’s on the bottom floor of a commercial building. come here all the time and am very satisfied

The prices have gone up since my first review. In fact, the menu has changed at least 3 times in the past 4 or so months, which solidifies my 3-​star review. Service is still pretty good. The staff is incredibly friendly and helpful. I love that I can call in an order and get free delivery or pick it up when it’s ready.
The food is still just okay, and the prices are not very competitive with the rest of Westwood. If you are willing to pay these prices, it’s because you work in or are visiting the Center West building. I can’t imagine an outsider choosing to eat here.
At this point, I’ve had breakfast, lunch, coffee, and tea here. The breakfast sandwiches come on a bagel, english muffin, or toast. The bagels are nothing special, and they definitely don’t compare to Noah’s. A bagel with butter is $ 1.50. If you want a bagel with cream cheese and tomato or a peanut butter and jelly bagel, you’re looking at $ 2.50! Pretty steep, considering Noah’s is so close and so much better (and less expensive).
The breakfast sandwiches are okay. For $ 3, you get a scrambled eggs sandwich — that’s it — just eggs. For $ 4, you get eggs and a choice of meat (ham, bacon, or sausage). If you want to add cheese, that’s an extra $ 0.50. If you want to add tomato, that’s an extra $ 0.50. If you want to add avocado, that’s an extra $ 0.75. If you want to your sandwich on a croissant, that’s an extra $ 1. If you want egg whites, that’s an extra $ 1. Basically, if you want an egg white breakfast sandwich with bacon, cheese, tomato and avocado on a croissant, get ready to pay $ 7.75! Yikes.
The breakfast burrito is good. The standard burrito comes with 3 eggs, cheese, hash browns, sausage and bacon for $ 4.50. It’s mostly egg. For a better breakfast burrito with more exciting ingredients, I go to Trimana across the street at the Oppenheimer Tower (their turkey & avocado burrito is delish and super filling). It just bothers me that I pay $ 4+ for mostly egg and tortilla (see the picture). Then again, if I’m hungry and in the building, I’ll probably buy it.
The coffee is pretty good, and the prices are comparable to Peet’s down the street. The tea is good, too, but here you only get 1 tea bag for $ 2, whereas at Peet’s, you get 2 tea bags for $ 2.15! If you’ve got a large cup of hot water, two tea bags goes WAY further for that extra $ 0.15!
Lunch is decent, though there are tons of great lunch options in Westwood for less than $ 8! If you order a $ 7.50 sandwich, it also comes with salad, coleslaw, potato salad, or macaroni salad (or, for an additional $ 1.75, you can get fruit salad or a cup of soup). I had the chicken pomodoro panini (chicken, provolone, sundried tomato, avocado, basil, and pesto on rosemary foccacia) and potato salad. The panini was fantastic! It was crunchy on the outside, and the flavors really worked well together. The potato salad, on the other hand, had way too much red onion and way too much celery for my taste. It was too crunchy, and those flavors overpowered the potato.
*For better sandwich options, I would order delivery from Sandbag’s or pick up a lunch combo from Panini Café across the street (better quality ingredients for roughly the same price).
I’ve also had soups here, and I don’t understand why each time I order a soup, I have to tell them to put «stuff» in my soup (instead of just broth). The other day I ordered the «chicken» tortilla soup. I told the server to please not skimp on the ingredients this time, and she assured me she would not. When I got upstairs with my soup, it was all tortilla and broth, with 2 tiny (smaller than bite-​size) pieces of chicken! What a major let down. It was the end of the day, too. Shouldn’t you be trying to get rid of your leftovers?!

For the area and quality, this place is a real bargain. The staff are friendly and my panini was delicious! It’s a privately owned café, not a chain, so I feel the quality of food is well worth the price. I would highly recommend this to anyone who works in Westwood or happens to be in the area.