Mother's Market Kitchen

You have a menu in vegan/vegetarian/omnivore, with a huge list of options for all three. Many to explore on the menu, and the waiter was very well informed about vegan items

I've been eating at the mother market café for at least 10 years. It was the best and only place in Orange County for a good vegan breakfast. Last year or two it went under new management and changed the menu completely and took away popular favorites. I've eaten twice a week here and now I'm just going once in a while and I'm pretty disappointed every time. Not sure why new management came and changed everything, but I know many people like me who were often visited for many years that were also sad by this change.

Where to begin let's start with the restaurant... I had ONE horrible experience in 2010 11 where my meal was infested with dead fruit flies/gnats/Fungus gnats (whatever they were). I literally could count 15 before the embarrassed waitress took the plate away. Sure that may have been a one time thing BUT i will never eat at there again. Now onto the store... I LOVE that I can find almost everything Vegan at Mother's All Mother's are like that so let's stick to this particular store IT'S SMALL. Not much anyone can do about that... Honestly looks like a hole in the wall instead of a market based on how everything is piled on the shelves. Also isles are very small and cramped annoying looking for something constantly having to get out of peoples way so they can walk by. The entrance is awkward once you walk in registers with people checking out are literally in the entrance way. ON TO THE GOOD: The worker bees their are always super helpful!!! Very nice! Always saying Hi! Always asking if they can help! Parking is never an issue! Greenpeace is outside that store often but as long as you know the password they will leave you alone. Bottom line if you want 1 or 2 items go to this store... If you want to go shopping GO TO THE ONE OFF OF Newport Blvd in Costa Mesa! It's MUCH BIGGER, MORE ORGANIZED, MUCH MORE PRODUCT. Oh one more thing... It takes much longer than the Costa Mesa store to get a juice! Usually because it's one person and they are usually off to doing work in another part of the store like the restaurant. I can get a juice at the Costa Mesa store in 5 7 mins even if there is a line where it takes 10 15 at the HB store with no line.

I really wanted to love this place. We've tried three different meals from the restaurant and they've all been underwhelming. Someone please give the kitchen some salt and seasoning! Whipped yams were more like yam rocks. There's a ton of potential here I hope it gets better. The one time we ate in house our server was super, super nice and accomodating. The Ginger's Ale is to die for good! I'll be back for more of the drinks wow. Also need to expand a gluten free menu, which they've said they are working on.

Mother 's is both a full service restaurant and a grocery store and a health supplement store. Don 't think it 's just a deli or a juice bar. I shop there every week and eat there at least a couple of times a month. Regarding the restaurant they have a great selection of vegetarian and vegan meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They also have a gluten free menu (although it 's a bit limited, but so is almost everyone 's). Their food is usually excellent, portions large, and their prices are very fair. The only downsides are that service can be very slow and I 've had food that wasn 't as hot as it should be sometimes. Their market is good, but way too small (the aisles are very narrow, it 's usually crowded, so you must have patience when shopping there). Their produce is usually well marked with green signs for organic, and yellow signs for non organic (I wish they would do the same in the rest of the store). The issue about bad service is true. Mother 's tends to hire very nice people, but they don 't seem to have experience or training in good customer service. Once you find someone available to help, they seem to try hard to help but they are very slow and frequently don 't have that much knowledge. This seems to be the case in the restaurant, in the store, and at the check out. Sometimes the service is normal but usually it 's pretty slow. Mother 's gets 4+ cows for their food quality and selection in the restaurant, but only 2 cows for their service.