WOW! I was visiting from LA and staying in Gardnersville, and the host and 2 other persons in town that all don't know each other independently recommended the Cowboy's Cafe. Now the first thing that you need to know is that you DO NOT need to be a Cowboy to eat here...but it helps. At the counter, I sat down next to Cowboys who were their regulars and being my NY/LA friendly self, I tried to put on my best Western rodeo attitude and started off with, "Howdy!" to the Cowboy next to me on both visits. Well...their response was to look up, "Hello" me back, and quickly return their face to the paper they were reading. I don't know how to take that? I did get another guy to divert later in the meal to talk about the SF Giants since he was wearing a Giants Baseball Hat, so there was some sign of life. But it kind of was like, "pulling teeth." Anyway..the food: The Buckwheat Blueberry Pancakes are the BEST! Very hard to find this combo on a menu anywhere. They have it here. Get it! Next day, I returned for an Egg White Veggie Breakfast Burrito--Excellent. I saw many folks getting the Burrito both days. Sides of fresh fruit and egg whites were excellent too. Service is lightening fast, food came out fast both days. The only thing that had me scratching my head each day was the price structure: It was $15 each visit with Tax ad Tip which puts pricing on line with most breakfast places on or near the beach on So Cal. But is it just as expensive to operate in Minden as the beach? Didn't seem so, but maybe it is? Or maybe food costs are high all over? Seemed 25% more than what should really be charged? And built in that price are up-charges for egg whites both days. For example. A $10.00 burrito that comes with eggs goes Ch-Ching when you say the magic words "egg whites" and ends up being $12.00. Parking is easy in their parking lot. This is a very small restaurant--come here alone or with not more than a party of 4. Folks walking in with 6 or 7 had to wait a long time until they were able to come up with a way to get everyone together--it's just not set up for that or large groups. If you are in the Minden or Carson City area, don't let your stay go by without a visit here if you like great food. read more

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Great Customer Service delicious food and great prices. Muy bonito lugar para desayunar sabroso y muy buen servicio.

A double bacon cheese burger and a ham steak breakfast was our order. Overall the food was very good. Excellent customer service. The lady that was our waitress was really friendly. Our order was done fast. Very clean cafe and comfortable dining. Very affordable prices and our plates were perfectly portioned. read more

Cowboy's Cafe - A double bacon cheese burger and a ham-steak breakfast. - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Minden, Nevada

This was our first visit, and we'd go back. We can be a bit particular, and they were able to meet all of our needs. It's important to note that we were there on a Wednesday around 8:30, as I'd suspect that the weekends are a lot busier. First, the food tasted good. I had the pancake sandwich, and it was comprised of two pancakes, two sausages (I chose the patties), and two eggs over easy. It came just as I requested, two plates, as it is (in my mind) very bad to cross these tastes prior to them arriving in my stomach. Lea requested the veggie omelet using egg beaters and extra onions. Again, no problem. Her omelet provided the choice of potatoes or sliced tomatoes. On this occasion she chose the potatoes and she enjoyed them. The service was great. I love water, and my glass was never near empty. I also had a glass of their fresh squeezed orange juice, and it was very good. Lea had coffee, and her glass was also never near empty. The place was clean and neat. It has an array of cowboy items on the wall, and it felt very comfortable in the room. We'll be back, as we do enjoy the hunt for a decent breakfast place. It's nice to report that there are three or four respectable options in town. read more

I would've given them one star, but the servers were very nice and try it to speed up the kitchen. It was over an hour and a half before we got served. They were kind enough since we waited so long to takeoff our coffee charge. Unfortunately when we got our food it wasn't worth the wait. We got pancakes that tasted like old sour milk. They did however they replace it with a waterfall. read more

Service was a little slow (we waited 40 minutes for our order), but the servers themselves were very friendly. The food was great; I had what might have been the best chicken fried steak I've ever had!! The biscuits were similarly delicious. My wife really liked her eggs Benedict as well. The only ding I could mention is that the hash browns could have been a bit more crispy. I would definitely eat here again. read more

Ridiculous wait time! Yes the world is short staffed. Businesses need to be able to adapt. This one however, has not. Food was not worth the wait either. Truly mediocre. read more

Owners are cheap they order food from delivery service and tip like crap 5% is trash when we pay for our gas and make very little it's just like your servers would they be happy with a 5 % tip image that after paying 10 bucks for gas or food they were serving you should know better food is good but where else are they cutting cost good luck I won't be eating here anymore I always tipped your servers 30% for doing far less work if you want to save money go get the stuff from Costco yourself nothing worse than being cheap and lazy read more

The food was very good had great taste. No long waiting very clean restaurant organized staffing restroom clean. The outside is very simple but inside is very welcoming love the decoration. read more

We are there a year ago plus the service and food was great... but I believe they have new owners, we were over charged for a half order. The fries were under cooked when brought up to the waiter he was on my bad! We were like oh ok did not try to fix the problem. He said this is the first time being a waiter, uh yeah we could tell. Sorry to say we will never go back there. Too bad last owners were great. read more

Great breakfast stop! Not only the quality of the food, or the speed of the orders, there are times you're entertained by the loud and comical banter of one of the servers! read more

Wow, I do not know where to start here Definitely bring a healthy appetite and a whole lot of patience. The wait time when we got there was forty five minutes. I highly recommend not getting discouraged and stick it out. The waiting area inside is extremely small, so you may have to wait outside. When we were seated, coffee was brought to the table, and our orders were taken. We started talking with a cinnamon roll which we split. It is huge and so delicious. I then ordered a stack of pancakes, with a side order of chorizo. The pancakes were delicious, made from buttermilk batter. The chorizo was good also, a bit greasy, but delicious. I hope to make it back soon. read more

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The perfect hole in the wall breakfast place. Food is good, staff is friendly and it's a very homey atmosphere. We got the blueberry pancakes and chicken fried steak. Can't recommend the steak enough! Perfect hangover food read more

Came here on Sunday at about 9:30am and was able to get a table quickly which was great. I ordered the two eggs with the burger patty and a side of fruit. The fruit is an extra $1 and honestly not worth it. It was that weird sour fruit mix you get at breakfast places with fruit that was not cut recently and kind of iffy. The burger patty and eggs were great, no complaints. I ordered the patty medium rare and actually received medium rare which is surprising to me because that's not usually the case with patties I have found! The person I was with got a Denver omelette with hash browns. We both got coffee and thought it was very good. The menu was impressive and had a ton of stuff on it. I desperately wanted blueberry pancakes but I'm on a terrible diet so had to skip those. If I was driving through Minden again in the morning or for lunch I would stop by again to try the pancakes and lunch items. Service was fine, not remarkable and not bad. We got our food and were served quickly. I enjoyed my food and would return. read more

Cowboy's Cafe - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Minden, Nevada

We were in Reno for the Ultra 4x4 car race on Saturday and met a few local people at the race who raved about this breakfast place. So, we decided to drive 45 min from Reno to check out Cowboy's Cafe in Minden on Sunday. WoW! This place is awesome! We really like to support this Mom & Pop place. Yes we had to wait for our table but it's all worth it! Service is amazing. Food got to the table fast! Everyone works super hard and efficiently. Our coffees were tasty, fresh, and hot. Must order the Belgium waffle and blueberry pancakes. The chef cooked them perfectly. Love all decors, especially those riffles and guns and cowboys' artifacts like the pretty horse bridle and I also appreciate the American flag. Definitely will return soon -- need to try the biscuit with gravy!!! read more

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Traditional breakfast with a side of Nevada cowboy (complete with shotgun shell cross). But it means your coffee cup is never empty, they only stock 1/2 & 1/2 (no yucky sweetener creamer to pick through). And be prepared for your plate to also contain tomorrow's breakfast leftovers even when ordering a short stack of pancakes . read more

Cowboy's Cafe - Denver omelette with bacon, this was all hubby could finish. - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Minden, Nevada

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We stumbled across Cowboy's cafe on our drive through Minden. Friendly folks as well as great food. Fun cowboy atmosphere. One not to miss for killer breakfast. Cowboy Benedict is awesome! read more

Sorry but worst meal I have ever paid for. Hot Meatloaf was supposed to be warm, on a slice bread with mashed potatoes and corn or peas. It took a very long time to get food. Especially when potatoes were cold, gravy canned, no vegies, not bread and a very unpleasant tasting and odd slab of a overcooked, old (?) meatloaf (also not hot) I thought the meat was bad but my companion said the taste was the grease gone bad? I was afraid I was going to get sick. Mind you, I can eat anything. Puny little salads. His chicken and pineapple sandwich was pitiful. Small Bun, chicken, pineapple. Presented on a oversized oval plate looking lost and stabbed with a knife. No side lettuce or tomato for garnish or eating. Good coffee though. I generally don't post to yelp unless It was exceedingly good or bad. read more

Good little breakfast spot that feels like small town living! Our waiter was the sweetest older guy and the food was very good. Good portions and good prices. Funky decor but who cares... better then Denny's! read more

Kinda grimy and old greasy atmosphere. Was hoping for a fun old-timers style deli and instead found a dated Denny's kind of food. Love the old cowboy Art and historic Ness of the place but the quality of food could have been better. It may have been that we went wrong a tough time we would try it again simply for the nostalgia read more

Food was VERY good, service was excellent, liked the overall homey feel to the place. Only downside was their hours. We made a return visit after our great first experience, and they were closed. Sign on the window said that they should have been open. It wasn't until going online that we saw their odd two days closed. Let me reiterate: Food and service were great, just check for the days they're open. read more

Best biscuits and gravy ever. Menu had many breakfast options and service was good. Thank you. read more

Cowboy's Cafe - Best biscuits and gravy ever. Service was good and menu provided many options. Thank you - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Minden, Nevada

Excellent breakfast place. Best eggs Benedict around! It's one of our favorites! The burgers are pretty great too!

Great breakfast surrounded by cowboy pictures and decor. The place was packed on a thursday am so the community supports this place. We both got the blueberry buckwheat pancakes and they were perfect read more

Tried the buckwheat pancakes this time...I am a huge fan of buckwheat, a rare find on menus. The flavor was great , but I prefer them thinner. Alwasy great service and hearty portions at this local fave. read more

The place to go for good, traditional breakfast. Good and friendly service. I have not had a lunch item there but the lunch being served to other tables looked very good. read more

We went to cowboys cafe while camping nearby. It was my son-in-laws birthday. The waitress was very attentive. She was so pleasant. We had 6 children with us under the age of 12. So I know she was busy with us, but didn't show any exasperation. It made our morning so pleasant. read more

Babe and I enjoy the Cowboy's Cafe as one of our select cute morning breakfast dates. My personal favorite is the blueberry and buckwheat pancakes. Love starting my day with a short stack of these babies!! read more

We were driving back up north and ended up staying in this city for a couple days. I'm glad I found this place, thanks to Yelp! This place seems to be a local favorite because all the servers seemed to know some of the customers. We got an omelette and a Belgian waffle and both were so good. The omelette was so fluffy and the Belgian waffle was perfectly crispy. Everyone was so nice and the food was filling (huge portions!). Would definitely recommend if you are in the area. read more

Cowboy's Cafe - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Minden, Nevada

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Absolutely love this place! Nice staff, quick service, amazing food. Have yet to order something I didn't like. read more

Cowboy's Cafe - Sausage and cheese omelet - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Minden, Nevada

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Poor quality burger overdone, meat was chewy. good and attentive service, very average ambiance, expected better quality for a small town diner. read more

Went in this morning for breakfast. Checked in with the waitress, there was two parties ahead of us, she took our name, and told us to wait about 15minutes. After about 20minutes, someone comes out and grabs a group of 5, that came way after us, they even said to the guy, us or them they've been here longer. I asked what the name was, the guy says Joe, I said we're Jill for 4 people. Easily confused, happens a lot. He said he's looking for Joe. uggh, he took the group of 5 and said we'd be next. WTH?? He could've easily taken us, and had the other party wait to rectify this situation but he didn't, I guess customer service means nothing anymore. read more

Friendly staff, good food, and good service! Ambiance was fun, clean, and made my special order with no problems. Thank you!

Oh, dear. My first one star review. I feel so sad to have to do it, but there's no other option. This was a terrible, horrible food experience - I shudder as I have to relive it to write this review. To be clear, it was only the food that was horrific. Nearly everything else about our experience was okay. The restaurant is clean and cute, we were seated quickly, our order taken and delivered expediently, the waitress was a cheerful, bubbly little soul that kept our water refilled and checked on us often. She didn't clear tables very well; she was busy chatting up tables, but I guess it's good that she was focusing on being so friendly to the locals. So all that was fine. But the food. Oh dear, I don't even think I can call the DOA horror that came out on those plates "food". More like the cremated remains of something that once seemed to think itself food :( I felt tempted to call the CSI Breakfast Unit, but then reasoned there wasn't enough dna of the meat and veggies left for them to work with. I ordered corned beef hash and poached eggs with home fries instead of hashed browns ($9) The "poached" eggs were very hard, cooked well past the point of even being hard boiled. The potatoes were terribly greasy and so burnt, not even their next of kin would have been able to identify them. The sad little remains of what used to be thin slivers of onions lay like burnt little matchsticks about the plate. And the corned beef... well, women and children might be reading this, so I will refrain from a graphic description of that hot mess. Just pull any paragraph from a Steven King novel, and insert it here. My dining companion had the "Cowboy Benedict" ($10) which claimed to be a huge biscuit topped with 2 sausage patties and 2 scrambled eggs, covered with country gravy and hash browns. In reality it was: two small, flat, hard, dry, generally unpleasant freezer-fake biscuits topped with preformed, pre-made, greasy disks of evil and 2 'okay' eggs, barely covered in store bought nasty salty gray stuff, served along side a bit of hashed browns that, while white and greasily undercooked in the middle, were completely destroyed on the outside and tasted as if they'd been deep fried in burned, rancid oil. I'm not kidding. They actually tasted spoiled. Even the toast was inedible because it was drenched in margarine, and I mean drenched. Like the pieces had been completely submerged in a bowl of hot, melted grease before being served. Blech. If you don't believe me that our food was burnt to bejesus, check out the photos. Can't argue with that proof. Since it's so visible that the food was destroyed, I wonder how that sweet waitress could, in all good conscience, bring such burned and blacked potatoes and hash like that to the table. Well, maybe it's because she was rather ditsy. When she poured us more water, she overfilled it and spilled water and ice all over the floor, then just stared at it, shrugged and walked away. Check out the interior photo: you can see big chunks of ice still on the floor by where we sat. The photo also shows it took her a long time to clear tables after other patrons left, even though it wasn't busy. LIke I said, that was probably because she was busy visiting with locals (which I'm sure they like, this is that kind of friendly place). I read another review which said the food here vacillates wildly from good to bad, depending on the day. Well, we lucked out and caught them on what must have been their worst day ever, because this food was absolutely inedible. What little we struggled to put in our mouth and swallow threatened to come back up immediately. Those bites totally ruined the entire day for us, because for hours we bemoaned that all we could taste was those nasty, hideously burned potatoes, no matter how much gum we chewed. This was a horrific experience, and the little bit of burned food you get is totally not worth the hefty price tag. Not to be mean, but I'd rather eat out of a dumpster than attempt to dine here again. Sadly, abominable food coupled with ditsy service = 1 star. Sorry, Cowboys, but you'll have to ride off into the sunset without us - we can't take the risk of coming back after an experience like that. read more

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Cowboy's Café in Minden was the last stop we made before driving home from Nevada on New Year's weekend. I wanted something moderately light since I expected to spend the next 4 or 5 hours in the car and I was driving. Our friendly waitress brought me some hot coffee (perfect!) and took our orders. Husband went straight for the biscuits and gravy plate and I ordered two eggs and hashbrowns. It came with toast also which I had hoped to switch for tomato slices (they were the same price on the "sides" menu), but I ended up having to give my husband the sourdough and ordering a side of tomato for myself. I received a coffee refill without having to ask for it: EXCELLENT! Food came and I would have liked to see tomato slices just a little bit thicker than what I got, but the plates were otherwise full of food. My husband's plate was smothered in gravy with large biscuits underneath. My two eggs were cooked perfectly over-medium, and the extra-crispy hashbrowns were delicious, but unexpectedly greasy. I actually stuck a napkin under one edge of my plate to drain the oil to one side so I could eat off the other. Overall, pretty good food and terrific service. Even had a manager (or owner maybe) come say hi and make sure we were happy with everything before we left. Love that! read more

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Ate breakfast here this morning because my ex told me about this place and said my daughter loves there chili cheese omelet w/extra cheese. The portions are a good size and you really can't beat the price, and this is my breakdown of why I gave it 5 stars. Service - Great, and our waitress was ahead of us every step of the way, like ordering, refilling my hot water, checked on us and perfect timing in giving us to go boxes. Ex hub had - meat lovers scramble w/spinach & mushrooms. Big portion tasty Daughter had - her chili omelet. It was delicious I had the 2 eggs poached w/cornbeef.- very good An extra meal - Scramble eggs w/ chicken fried steak and gravy- HUGE w/alot of gravy and Soooo delicious! Of course w had lefty's to take w/us. Going to the counter to pay was a very friendly older man. So this was a nice cute place and a homey feel to it and I felt comfortable, being that some people in small towns I go to tend to look at me like I stick out a sore thumb, but not here. Great place, great price and will be back again before I leave in a week. :-) They don't have a website so I took the best pics of the menu I could because if your like me and like to browse menu's before going, I hope this helps, also pics of our food. :-) read more

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Since they changed owners its been awhile since we have had breakfast there. So we thought that we would stop in for breakfast all said and done 3 adults and a child under 4 with tip was 75.00 little pricey . Service and food were just ok ,its just not the same place. While I'm at it the pics of the menus and pricing that you will find online are old and outdated. read more

This is my favorite place in Gardnerville, we come here every Valentine's Day and we love the service. The food is amazing, and I personally have never been disappointed. We love it here and the coffee is amazing too. Cowboys Benedict is amazing and the Denver omelette. Although the location is hard to turn in it's always great when you get here! The food comes out quickly and the people are funny and nice. read more

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As usual it's a full house! But fear NOT, the tables turn quick! Service is always friendly, fast (never rushed) and ALWAYS accurate! Like orange juice? It's FRESH SQUEEZED daily here, and is a must have! FULL of pulp, so if you're not a pulp lover ask for the other orange juice which it's not fresh squeezed but still good! I always get breakfast here. The omelettes are perfectly cooked, never brown or runny! The chicken fried steak is amazing! If there's a special and it's something they "smoked", then you can bet that will be amazing too! Don gets the smoker going nice and early to ensure good eatin' for the day! Whether you are driving thru our staying nearby, Cowboys Cafe is a must stop destination. You can eat here every day of the week and get something different! If you're going out for the day, get something for lunch to go, you won't be disappointed! read more

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The only thing you need to know is ya gotta be hungry. The kitchen is where Heaven begins.