Mito I.
Yelp
Quick Summary:
- Near Trader Joe's
- Lunch time hours, so it is not open in the evening
- Plenty of tables and chairs inside and outside the building
- Coffee is strong but not sour
- Hefty dishes, entered hungry, left pretty full
- After eating, bus your used dishes and utensils to a cabinet area in the right most side of the cafe
I always miss the hours on this cafe because I'm hardly in Berkeley in the early morning, or I prioritize Trader Joe's late in the evening. By the time I'm on Martin Luther King Jr. Way, the cafe is done for that day. Opportunity finally came when I had a day off one day and came here the moment I arrived in Berkeley.
The interior is very wide, so there are plenty of tables and chairs. There are two large tables that could fit 6-7 people, but we chose the 2-person tables, that were placed along the windows. On the wall, there was a food menu, and one of the spots was reserved for special menus. It was a salmon bagel sandwich that day, and I chose this one. I also ordered the croque-madame because I saw that a lot in the yelp photos.
The cappuccino came first and then the savory dishes. The menu name was called, so I suggest listening carefully and take a proof of receipt, if orders that sound like yours was called. On this particular day, maybe it was because it was the weekday, but there was a handful of people. A poster on the counter that read, "for weekends, only stay at a minimum of 2 hours" so I had a feeling it would be busy.
The salmon bagel sandwich was generously stacked with layers of smoked salmon. It was so good (this is coming from someone, who likes seafood). My relative, who tried this said that it was a bit too fishy for them. If you like fish, then this was a super good salmon bagel sandwich. It also contained tomato, rosemary, cream cheese, and cucumber. A refreshing dressing was poured on top of the cucumber and tomato for the tangy sour flavor.
It is also pretty hefty, so I suggest ordering this when you are feeling really hungry. I also didn't feel like eating a large dinner meal in the evening.
I tried a bit of the Croque-Madame, and my impression was that there was a lot of cheese. On the contrary, I'm not a huge fan of dishes with too much cheese, so near the end, as the dish cooled down it grew harder to eat. However, to mitigate that, it has ham and a nicely cooked egg that oozes slightly upon cutting it in half. It didn't spill over the sandwich, so I liked that more -- I like when the bread of the sandwich is dry and crispy and not wet or drenched.
Speaking of the bread, this Croque-Madame had two thick slices of bread. I anticipated an open faced sandwich, so I didn't expect the two slices of bread. This one is also a hefty dish, so I also recommend eating this when you are really hungry as well.