Exceptionally slow service. Waited for over an hour for our food. Would not recommend.

This is a wonderful place with friendly staff and many good vegetarian options that can also be made vegan upon request. Food was delivered quickly and our waters we're always full. Bathroom signs are so adorable and the bathroom is clean. Beautiful! Will come again! read more

I went here with a friend of mine for the first time on a Wednesday afternoon. The place was relatively empty so we were sat at a table immediately. We looked through the menu and after asking the waiter if the tempeh was good we decided on the tempeh taco's. We then preceded to wait 45 minutes to get our food. Entirely to long in a restaurant with only a few people in it. Now I must admit these days I'm a firm believer in eating meat. But I was also a vegetarian for six years. I know what good veggie food should taste like. The tempeh taco's were served with a side of black beans and rice. The rice was cold and the beans were completely bland and unseasoned. Beans and rice is a staple of vegetarian diet. You NEED to get that one right. If done well tempeh can be delicious but I guess to counteract the bland cold beans and rice they had to over salt the tempeh in the taco. It was just about the saltiest thing I have ever eaten. The corn tortilla was also cold. Sunlight cafe, The perfect place to go if you like bad service and cold, tasteless or incredibly over seasoned food!!!! read more

I wanted to treat myself to a vegetarian restaurant in my neighborhood. I have been to over 40 veggie restaurants in my 15 years of not eating meet. I wanted to try something new. I was hungry and wanted to enjoy a meal. I got their Huevos Rancheros. They were bland and the yolk was runny. I then return it to get a waffle. It was burnt. I use to enjoy this place. Now know better to go back. Sorry to the Sunlight Cafe. I was not impressed at all. I want a refund to go to some place else that has good quality food. read more

I came here for brunch and it was delicious. I ordered the huevos rancheros. Service was quick and polite. I suggest going early to avoid crowds read more

Tasty, beautiful, good-for-you eats! I'm more of a flexitarian, but really enjoyed creative menu choices. Sunlight nachos with veggies, black beans, brown rice, and more was a standout. Yum. Don't be afraid to ask Steve there for a recommendation. Everyone as friendly as the day is long. Steve turned me on to steamed veggies with lemon tahini--delish and a small is a big lunch-size serving. Don't miss this Ravenna gem. read more

If your Sunday morning itinerary was going to include a delicious vegetarian brunch in a quaint, cozy restaurant with charming, helpful servers.....well, so was mine. Then I went to the Sunlight Cafe, and my plans changed. I cannot comment on what happens the rest of the week, but Sunday was horrendous. I have been working in restaurants for six years now, I cut slack when slack deserves to be cut. Rudeness is never excusable. quick rundown: Waited thirty minutes for a table (excusable). Were pointed in the direction of our table....which was still dirty. The old man working yelled at someone, then pointed to a two seater table and told US to pull a chair over and walked away (inexcusable). Waited nearly fifty minutes for our food. Would have been almost okay if I hadn't spent that fifty minutes staring at the bottom of my empty coffee cup while my compadres waited for beverages that never came. Old man walks up with three plates and ACTUALLY SAYS, "Im too busy to deal with this, you guys figure it out". I was speechless. Three plates, dude....and you aren't even our server. Oh, and stop ordering me around, I'm not your employee. Food was good, but not, hour later-terrible service-still uncaffinated due to my empty coffee cup-good. read the other reviews, and spend your money at a place that tries to be happy. read more

The food here is alright, not great. The breakfasts aren't bad, but the coffee kind of sucks. I would give the place three stars for the food, but the service is a little ridiculous. I've waited an age and a half for cream for my coffee, and the people barely speak to you or acknowledge that you are human. Since the food is just mediocre, I'd much rather have mediocre served to me by someone friendly. read more

I came here with my friend for breakfast. It was midweek, so there were only 2 or 3 other customers in the entire place. We sat down in a booth, excited for that first cup of joe. And, well, that's about it. We sat. And sat. And sat and sat and sat. Nobody would bring us a menu or speak to us, even though we were in plain view of the counter/employees. "Did we forget to use the secret password?" I asked my friend. He laughed, but I could tell he was getting really annoyed. After about 6 or 7 looooong minutes, we were totally irritated so we just got up and left. I saw one of the waitresses turn and watch us leave without saying a word! VERY weird. I was so offended, I will NEVER go back. Never. Ever. ever. read more

My favorite restaurant in the world. I have never been disappointed. The lemon Tahini dressing is amazing. I usually get the soup, salad and bread combo, but have tried most of the menu. read more

I went to the Sunlight cafe to nourish my tired body after a night of dancing and shenanigans. I and 3 friends arrived to a full restaurant but only waited for a couple of minutes before being seated. The service was ever so slightly scatterbrained, but super friendly and the staff was adorable and nice, constantly offered to refill our coffees, and generally endeared themselves to us. Breakfast itself was lovely. I had the huevos rancheros, no salsa, but with avocado. I like avocado on everything, and it was perfect with this huge mound of black beans that I was faced with. I couldn't even finish it all, because there was so much food. I think my 3 breakfast companions also ended up bringing the rest of their food home. We shared a date muffin that was out of this world. We drank a lot of coffee and it revived us in a major way. I got out of there for a little over $12 for a big breakfast, coffee, large orange juice, and added-on avocado... not bad! On top of all that, this place is all vegetarian and has several vegan options, which means I can come here with my friends who don't eat animals it won't be a pain to find something they can eat for breakfast. read more

I live fairly close to this diner and always pass by but never stepped in. My apartment was undergoing some maintenance early Saturday morning so I figured it would be the opportune time to drop in. The tofu/tempeh scramble caught my eye so I ordered that, coffee and their yogi tea (cardamom, cinnamon, etc). The scramble was a near heavenly experience. The flavor combination was perfection. It had a bit of a spicy taste but not in the bad kind of way! I had opted for the cornbread in place of the English muffin but I wasn't impressed. It didn't taste anything like cornbread and was rather dry. Some of the sides on their menu include black beans and guacamole. Two of my absolute favorite things! They have lots of options for those on a specialized diet and even though they were quite busy I never felt unattended too. I like that they have several seating options as well (booths, table and a bar). Its also a great location with really large windows. I'll be back sunlight cafe not only for your food but the little bit of sunlight I find when taking a bite :,) read more

we loved the artsy ambiance, little slow service on Sunday eve. We ordered highlander plate, tacos and nuttburger. All three of us were happy and satisfied. Slow service was good for us as it allowed us to catch up with friend. Will definitely go and recommend. read more

I've been coming to the sunlight cafe since I was a really little kid. I am definitely a regular and I love this place so much! The staff is super friendly and the food is the best vegetarian in town. Always fresh and healthy. For those people who go on yelp and bad mouth this place, if you want a fancy formal stuck up restaurant then go downtown to the Capitol grill or something. Sunlight cafe is exactly what it is, a laid back, mellow, vegetarian hippy restaurant. Accept it for what it is and stop complaining and enjoy your short precious life. read more

This is probably one of the worst meals I've had in Seattle. My boyfriend got rancheros with"ranchero sauce" that was literally Italian marinara sauce. Corners were cut. My burrito was gross. Covered in salt to make up for the fact that there was no taste on any of it. Service was subpar at best and the overall atmosphere was dirty and dingy read more

I'm almost certain the "eggs" are from a bag, they tasted and look exactly the same as the ones I had in boot camp. The potatoes had a very unique (not in a good way) taste to them and the ketchup was terrible. I've had organic ketchup before and the one here tasted like someone just took tomato paste and added water. The coffee was terrible. The only good thing was the waffle. My partner ordered vegetarian rancheros and her beans were very salty. The service was okay, but were not coming back here. I wouldn't recommend this place. 2 stars for the service and the waffles. :( I have hopes for this place. If y'all can please step it up. Good luck! read more

I really wanted to love this place. I went for coffee here on a job interview once and have been dying to come back and eat some of the awesome dishes I saw in the menu. I finally got my chance Sunday morning. We had an hour and a half to kill before a friend's softball game and were in the neighborhood so we popped in. Big mistake. It started off bad and got worse. The hostess made the mistake of thinking we were with a large group ahead of us at the door that she couldn't accommodate right away (easy enough) and walked away from our small group of three. I had to holler across the room at her several times to get her attention so that we could be seated. When she finally heard me, she was very apologetic and seated us right away...but we were then promptly ignored for over 5 minutes before our server made it over to take our drink orders. I should interject here that the place was by no means packed. They were probably at 2/3 capacity, at most, and the place isn't that big. There were many open tables. The coffee and orange juice we ordered came quickly enough and we place our food order right away but I then had an additional 20 minute wait for the mocha that I ordered with the original beverages. A sign of things to come...we waited another 20 minutes or so after my mocha finally showed up for the first of our food to arrive (that's right, about 40 minutes from the time we ordered it), and that was only the two pancakes for one of our party, then we waited another 10 minute wait before my food showed up (that's at 50 minutes now), and my son's french toast still wasn't up but it was time for him to leave so we had to ask for it to be wrapped to go...and got the pleasure of waiting ANOTHER 10 minutes for that! 1 hour for french toast?! Total insanity...and he got the pleasure of eating it reheated later because they couldn't manage to serve it in a reasonable time frame. I had the Huevos Rancheros with the works and they were just alright. Definitely not worth the wait...not worth eating in shifts...and certainly not worth missing my best friend's softball game! My frustration was evident though I remained calm...but the staff was unapologetic. I couldn't believe it when they didn't even discount the French Toast for taking so long. I would like to say that I'll give this place another shot sometime because I see how well loved it is here (maybe I just caught them on an off day?), but the truth is that I probably won't. Seattle has too many good restaurants to risk another experience like this. read more

The food here is terrible. The waffles I had were way over cooked, the mimosa tasted like grapefruit juice that had gone off and the coffee was always cold. The staff was not organised or polite and was very rude when they couldn't understand my accent. read more

I was so underwhelmed... This place has been here forever they should be so much better!!! Took my newly Vegan daughter here for brunch Sunday, so disappointing. Nothing seems special or very detailed, seems way too mainstream for what should be a Seattle Institution. Are my expectations too high? Home fries? Really, that's the best you can do? Brief menu, slow service, boring/old/tired decor, staff was "just okay". I expected enthused/passionate vegetarians with something special to offer, but not here.... read more

Quaint little place to grab coffee or a bite to eat. My favorite meal is the vegetarian lasagna (only available after 4pm). Their desserts are truly amazing and rotate daily! read more

I seem to be on a Mexican-food kick whenever I'm here, so I can report that the polenta and the enchiladas are spectacular. I don't usually like beans, but their black beans are delightful (I think they're somehow daintier than other place's beans.) Great service, and super accommodating to sitting at a lap top and working while dining. Plus free wifi, woot! read more

This is a cute little place in our neighborhood, so I was excited to finally try it out for breakfast. One thing to point out is that this place is Vegetarian - so don't expect to find sausage and bacon. But I was okay with that. The menu has quite a few options - waffles, pancakes, and egg dishes. I opted for an egg dish with "home fries" and a cinnamon roll. The eggs are just basic eggs - so they are bland, bland, bland. But the home fries (thick wedgey potatoes) are quite tasty. The "cinnamon roll" was a HUGE let down. First, it doesn't come with frosting! Uh...you can't call that a cinnamon roll! It did come with a big blob of butter on top - but that hardly helped make up for the major dry, flavorless "roll" on my plate. I had a few bites - after I drizzled a ton of honey on it - and I couldn't stomach anymore. My hubby had the Huevos Picante. It was a hearty portion, but again, lacked flavor. read more

Limited menu options... lukewarm water... rude and snotty waiters/esses. My food was served to me still cold in the middle so I politely asked them to put it back in the oven for a couple more minutes... apparently a couple of minutes means 20 minutes. By the time I got my food back everyone in my party were done eating and my food was a couple of shades too brown for my liking but I was starving so I ate it anyways. I ordered the eggplant and polenta, which was decent except for the fact that there were at least 100 cloves of whole garlic inserted throughout my dish which will probably make me reek for a couple of days at least. One thing I did like about the menu was that you could order ala cart which still comes with a big piece of homemade bread. At the end of our meal we asked one of the waiters (after he completely ignored us b/c he was too busy sitting and chatting with friends) to split our bill up for us. He almost seemed like he was going to do it until he told us it was our job and that he wasn't going to figure out the tax for us and then repeated, again, that it was our job. To top it all off another waitress said, and I quote "We're known for our food, not our service" read more

I came to Sunlight Cafe because it is close to work and there aren't many lunch options. I mention this because I am a hard core carnivore and would not normally choose a vegetarian restaurant. With that said, this place is fantastic. I had an amazing tofu soup that had rich favors of shiitake mushrooms, coconut milk, and just a tad spicy! I completed my meal with a half of avocado, sprout, cheese sandwich on toast that was really tasty and filling. A solid 3.5 stars, and I will return! read more

Just not up to scratch these days. Tepid soup, brown lettuce, general mush. All at a price sure to make you wish you'd gone elsewhere.

Mediocre food and appallingly nasty service. Really mean and nasty server. If you are vegetarian/vegan you are better off going to: Chaco Canyon Organic Cafe Araya's Vegetarian Loving Hut Plum Bistro read more

I love this cafe. It smells so good inside. They bake their own bread and it's wonderful. I like getting the soup, salad, bread combo. I've also enjoyed the tempeh burger, and the portobello burger. There was a place on Capitol Hill in the late 90's called The Green Cat Cafe that I loved, and the flavors of Sunlight Cafe take me back to that time, a sweet nostalgia that enjoy visiting often. read more

So there are only 2 things I agree on with other reviewers- 1) Service is slow 2) Lots of regulars I've been there twice in the last week and ordered the VEGAN HIGHLANDER both times...because it was that good. I'm hoping I'll branch out to some of the other menu items b/c it all looks so delicious. read more

This is one of my favorite places! They are kind of retro and I love all of their art. They have amazing sesame waffles so you should definitely try them. They also have a lot of vegan options and can make almost anything on their menus vegan on request. Great patio for the summer and cozy inside seating. read more

I love this place. Delicious and fresh and healthy. I love hanging out here and feel very at home. It's like a family at the Sunlight Cafe!

This may be my favorite restaurant in the Universe! Over 30 years in business, they have perfected their recipes - especially the Yogi tea and the Savory Tofu and Lemon Tahini dressing. The soups are unique and tasty. The atmosphere is relaxed and alternative. If there was anything they could do to take perfection to the next level it would be to identify what sweeteners are used in each dessert. Writing about the Sunlight Café just makes me want to go back sooner :D read more

A lot of complaints about the service on here, but the service was pretty good when we visited. But the food is... lousy. I think I can make a better breakfast at home. Which is weird, because they even use the same ingredients I would use. Everything was soggy and bland. Yick. Cheap, though! read more

I love this place! The atmosphere is great with big windows, bright colors, and they always play great music. The food is fresh and delicious, I always feel better after eating here. Brunch is the best time to go and if you're into veggies at breakfast get the Euripides with tofu, it's got tons of roasted garlic cloves, feta, and fresh spinach. I'm normally into eggs and would never order tofu for breakfast, but this dish is really incredible...especially after a indulging in an unhealthy weekend. They do get pretty busy so the service isn't always the quickest but well worth the wait. read more

This is the best vegetarian food I've ever had. They know how real people eat. It just feels like they take this whole veggie thing seriously and want you to actually enjoy your food. I had the tempeh tacos and they totally knocked my socks off. And my little salad was chocked full of healthy, delicious goodness. The tahini dressing was wonderful - I loved the whole thing. What a wonderful meal I had. And the waitress was a really great, friendly gal. No Seattle pretention - just good eats in an honest-to-Pete cafe. I was very happy. The only thing I was surprised by were the prices (slightly high), but the quality and service were extraordinary! YAY! read more

So many great choices. Our 7 year old loved the French toast. No need for syrup with the honey butter. I had the Euripides for brunch and wonderful kalani coffee. Healthy and happy. Sat at the bar watching buzz of kitchen. Definitely a hippie joint that we loved! read more

AWFUL service. Seated at 11:10am, no food by 12:20. After having paid around 12:10, we just left. Very frustrating, nobody acknowledged that they'd just left us there. The waitress said she'd check on our order and avoided our eyesight for the rest of the time. Not even a thumbs down or thumbs up to acknowledge we were waiting to hear how things were going. Eventually it was time to go to the track meet so we left after having paid, with no breakfast. read more

For breakfast in the neighborhood, this place is one of my favorites. All the food here is so good: the baked goodies, waffles, eggs, soup... The one time I've been there at lunch the menu was small but the veggie black bean burrito was still decent. The ambiance is nice and I love the big windows on sunny days. I also really like the area, definitely a cute neighborhood with lots of storefronts. A word of warning, the don't have ketchup they have some sort of all natural tomato paste that is delicious. They also don't carry Coke, but my dear dining companion settled for an OJ which he found to be on the small side. It's pretty close to several places I've lived, though parking can get a bit dodgy. read more

I loved this place. We went for lunch (8 of us). Because I rarely have the opportunity to find recommended vegan, I chose the vegan highlander for lunch. It was wonderful. It consisted of tofu, tempeh, breakfast potatoes, onions, and bell peppers over fresh spinach leaves. It was delicious. It came with a half of a whole grain english muffin that was good. It comes buttered, so be warned. The service was fair. read more

I adore Sunlight Cafe, I have heard it is the oldest Vegetarian restaurant in Seattle. I've been going there at least once a month for the past year. It is a great location for me.. just a 5 minute drive and right across the Whole Foods that I frequent anyway. It is cute and cozy, its not fancy but thats what makes it so great. We already have an abundance of snotty.. fancy..its expensive because of the name restaurants in Seattle. This place is all about great food and its reasonable priced. The employees are very nice and sometimes the guy/gal who made your food will bring it to your table, which I really like for some reason. Whenever I have friends, family come into town we always make time to stop in for dinner. I have yet to go in for brunch but I do look forward to it. read more

SO nice to discover another vegetarian/vegan restaurant! Lots of options and the food is freaking delish. The service varies. I have gotten attitude from the staff before, as well as mistakes with what I ordered or how I wanted to pay. However, sometimes I am greeted with a smile and the service is fine. Just depends on the day I suppose. I will put up with it for the food... which is awesome. read more