Earwax Cafe

Pros: The decor is really fun, and the staff is casual but efficient. Our nice waitress let me order off the kid’s menu, despite the fact that I am not kid-sized.

I start with the good aspects of Earwax because I want to say something good about this place, but that good thing will not be about the food.

I ordered a mocha cappuccino, and it wasn’t as hot as I would’ve liked, but more importantly, it just wasn’t very good. Strange aftertaste. And the foam was more like a shield than anything.

Food-wise, I got a grilled cheese sandwich with soy cheese and fries. The sandwich just had a whole bunch of problems – again, it wasn’t warm enough, the rye (?!?) bread tasted too dry (not enough fat in the pan) and the soy cheese was just all wrong. Don’t get me wrong – I love soy cheese normally, but this sandwich needed some sprouts or tomato slices or avocado to spruce it up. Non-melted, lukewarm soy cheese on dry rye bread is just so tragic.

But the thing that got me was the boring fries. The serving was generous, but I got bored after my fifth lukewarm, dull fry. They tasted like the fries you buy frozen in the freezer section of a grocery store.

In conclusion, I’ll probably go back, because I want to support them and their plethora of vegan dishes, but next time, I won’t be shy about asking the server to stick everything – coffee included — in the microwave for 60 seconds.