Dipsea Café
200 Shoreline Highway
(Stinson Beach exit off 101)
Mill Valley, Marin County
415.381.0298
| posthoc's Late Night Restaurant Guide |
Blue and white checkered tablecloths, a cartload of sunshine, fresh flowers. Situated on a bike path and a pretty waterway, Dipsea Café is almost too Marin…but not quite. The good news is that the food is fresh, plentiful and consistently high on the yum factor without being pretentious or sculpted into odd shapes.
If you eat breakfast at a decent time, as I do…around 2:00 in the afternoon, you’ll rarely wait for a table. However, if you are that rare bird who has meals at the time they are normally served, be prepared for a wait. The restaurant is so popular that they now have a semi-irritating little sign on some of the tables that suggests a 90 minute hanging around time: that includes the meal, the gossip, the meaningful philosophy, the refills on the iced tea. So for me, of course, I go when it’s not busy because I would never make that deadline.
Dipsea has kids’ menu too! On it you will find a cool follow-the-dots (no, I’m not going to tell you what the picture comes out to be) and an Oreo Cookie maze. If you’re good, Dipsea will provide crayons. If you are bad, call me.
The Chinese chicken salad ($9.50) is filled with mucho small shredded stuff, a generous amount of chicken and yum-o-matic dressing. I hate it when salads have such big pieces that you are, like, opening your mouth Godzilla-fashion and trying to stuff one huge lettuce leaf into it, all while the dressing falls on your lap. Anyway, this salad was just right.
My son, with whom I was enjoying a chatty discussion of the meaning of life and several refills of the excellent, strong iced tea, ordered the grilled chicken sandwich ($9.50); nestled cozily in fresh sourdough and smothered in all the requisite Marin sandwich fixin's, which in Marin are called condiments, Myson declared the sandwich to be great. It came with a pile of crispy, light, hot french fries. I was forced by a power beyond this world to steal fry after fry while my skinny son pretended not to notice his demented mother literally taking food from his mouth.
Dipsea has beautiful breakfasts and an inviting dessert bakery display. Of course, I used up my calories on the fries so I have no idea how the desserts taste.
Reachable by bike, auto, or kayak, the Dipsea is the place to prove you are a cool Marinite. Go there. Dipsea Café, 200 Shoreline Highway (Stinson Beach exit off 101), Mill Valley, Marin County, 415.381.0298. Open 7 days a week at 7am for breakfast and lunch only (M-F ‘til 3pm; Sat and Sun ‘til 4pm).
-- Jolie Kanat
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