Sunflower Caffé was in the historic Sonoma Plaza, in the old home of Salvador Vallejo.  They are open daily for breakfast and lunch.  In addition to food they offer a good selection of wine, beer, cider and coffee drinks.  It’s a small place with a few indoor tables and the bulk of the tables are on the patio in back.  They do have heaters for cooler days and umbrellas for sunny ones.  The food is local, when possible, and organic.  We were there when they opened so we were able to get an indoor table and the service was fast, friendly and efficient.  The place was very popular with a line starting about 30 minutes after opening, but people came and went frequently.   The food was okay and did seem to use great ingredients but the flavor profile was mostly mild.  It’s on the pricey side but then it is California.  For us it was convenient, open and worked with our flight schedule, but depending on business I don’t think I’d wait an hour to get in.  However when you’re there it will make you a quick breakfast.

Set-up

 

Food

The Kougin Aman pastry was not what I expected.  It had a layer of almond apricot jam on the bottom of it and no crystalized sugar on the top.  The pastry was good but not rich with buttery layers.  I liked the flavor of the jam but it changed the texture of the roll from the usual.  The pastry was good but not the layers I had my mouth set for.

 

The buttermilk biscuit sandwich was filled with soft scrambled pasture raised eggs, cheddar cheese, chives, shallot & leek conserva, gochujang aioli and served with dressed greens.  I was trying to decide between this and the bacon pecan waffle and our server strongly recommended the biscuit sandwich, so we both got one.  He said they make the biscuits every morning and were delicious.  Their biscuits were fresh and fine and filled with nicely soft scrambled eggs that were kept moist.  They were scrambled with the chives, leeks and shallots and the aioli was the red paste on top.  It could have been more strongly flavored but overall it was a moist sandwich but needed to be eaten with a fork and knife, not the hands.  The dressed greens were very lightly dressed and some of the stems were browning.  It was an okay accompaniment but dull.