The Joy of Eating Cafe in Suisun City, Calif. Still Has the "New Restaurant" Smell to It

As my wife and I choose to expand our local restaurant pallets, we've decided to take a trip to a quieter part of the East Bay area. We decided to try out the Joy of Eating Café 2 located in the waterfront area of Suisun City, California. The original Joy of Eating, located in Vallejo, had so many rave reviews online and from people we've spoken to that we assumed the recent addition under the same name should boast the same reputation.

Décor. Upon entering the Joy of Eating Café 2, we noticed it still had a "new restaurant" feel to it, which can be good or bad. In this case, it was mostly good. Joy of Eating Café 2 had only been open since the spring of this year, so we expected it to be fairly clean and it was. The tables were well organized and the window view was absolutely amazing. You could see the boardwalk around the water, a cruise fairy and several little, furry creatures taking a mid-morning stroll around the area.

There were a few kinks that we assume will be worked out in the coming months. The sound system was a large boom box at one end of the restaurant. On our end, we could hear bass lines from whatever song was on. If you were seated close to the boom box, you could barely have a conversation. A few carefully run speaker wires through the tiles of the ceiling will take care of that problem, but until then the music will probably be a distraction.

The other issue we had was seating close to the door. Today was unusually brisk, so every time someone entered the Joy of Eating Café 2 I got a nice, stiff breeze on my neck. There were more than a few people coming in to have a meal so I just kept my jacket on throughout our dining experience.

Other than that, if you like trains and trolleys this is the place for you. The entire restaurant is decorated with trolley cars, train cars and railroad décor. Even the menus are designed with trains in mind, offering train-themed meal categories. It is refreshing to see a restaurant with some character to it.

Service. Our hostess was very quick to seat us and seemed friendly enough. She looked like a pro and bounced around the restaurant taking care of many meals at once. Our server was even friendlier, always coming to the table with a smile and seemed to enjoy her job. However, she did seem distracted by other tables she was serving or helping. This lead to delays getting back to our table, such as the time between us ordering drinks and ordering our meal and when we got our ticket.

However, there were only two waitresses working seven tables for about 15 minutes until a third woman who looked like a customer went to the back room and got dressed to serve, so that may have been an issue since she seemed new. The hostess/waitress seemed clearly frustrated with her, talking under her breath and frowning when her new counterpart would walk by. But in the end everything was good and we weren't there exceptionally long. Also, our food came pretty quick: about 8 minutes after we ordered.

Food. I ordered the French toast breakfast combo because it was made from their "famous bread". My combo came with an order of sausage and one scrambled egg, but you could get potatoes or bacon instead. My wife ordered the blueberry pancake combo with bacon and scrambled eggs. We try to order completely different meals so we can sample and compare each other's food.

The French toast was indeed excellent and some of the best I've had in awhile. The slices were perfectly cooked, not over-sprinkled with powdered sugar, and had an even texture to each bite. I didn't taste any over-egging (as does happen with a lot of French toast in restaurants). The bread had a flavor I hadn't tasted before, darting between rye and sourdough. The scrambled egg had no flavor and the sausage order was actually one patty that seemed pre-made and de-thawed but still had some spice.

My wife's pancakes looked great on the outside but were not thoroughly cooked. Her blueberries got clumped in the middle which made the pancake batter stay gooey and uncooked once you got an inch into them. The waitress took them back with no problem and my wife ended up enjoying the same French toast I had. Her bacon was pretty flavorful and tasted like the chewy ends of a Christmas ham. The pieces were a little salty but worth every bite. I'll order these instead of the sausage patty next time.

I would be interested in eating here again in a few months. I think once management establishes the building a little more and the crew spend more time together, The Joy of Eating Café 2 can assume the reputation the original restaurant has. It isn't a bad place to eat and the view can't be beaten, but there are just a few little kinks that need to be worked out before I could say I had a truly joyful experience eating there.