Coming off a fast food binge is best done gradually, but despite requests to cover Custard King, Dairy Maid and The Corral – quality drive-in style burger and ice cream spots (I promise an article covering all three someday), I had to get to a table.

Serendipity Caffe in Warrenton seemed like a nice middle-of-the-road breakfast and lunch spot to ease back into the comforts of handheld menus, never-ending cups of coffee, predictable café staples and hopefully some pleasant surprises. Besides, I’d always heard good things since the restaurant debuted in 2002.

Boasting large windows, the wide open space of the dining room (previously a bank, vault still present) is well lit even during a storm. Books, magazines and wall-mounted paintings of varying quality serve to interest the restless. There are also several sections to choose from (Serendipity has a “seat yourself” policy): high tables with stools, deep half-circle booths, a loveseat by the door and plenty of tables. There is even a drive-through window to get your coffee and muffin on the go.

As with countless other restaurants I’ve patronized and worked in, things go slower at Serendipity when business is slow. In the morning when the place is fully staffed and filled with customers, everything is well-paced; workers are “in the zone.” It’s on the afternoon visits when the place is empty that sidework and the hurry to close seem to take precedence over water refills and other service amenities. Besides that, service was hit and miss even when attentive: One server was courteous and apt, another displayed a lackluster attitude and was less than interested in answering our questions.

Apart from the service snafus, I enjoyed most of my time at Serendipity Caffe. Some of the food was pleasantly predictable, while other dishes were more noteworthy. While I’m pleased to report that nothing I sampled could be categorized as below average, there are still things I would change.

Serendipity serves a great breakfast. Eggs are properly cooked to desired doneness, pancakes successfully straddle the fine line between fluffy and dense – which is how I like them. The waffles are crisp on the outside and chewy but not doughy within – just right. And while my luck with omelets has been disappointing of late, it’s been redeemed at Serendipity, where I had a delightful mushroom and swiss two-egg ($6.99, add $1 for a three-egg) that was perfectly cooked. I asked for very dark, almost burned toast, as I always do, but what I received was the usual limp, barely toasted bread that I’m always looking to avoid.

The restaurant also serves a Monte Cristo sandwich, which I love and always order when I see it. Serendipity’s version ($8.29) of the ham, turkey and cheese sandwich on French toast does justice to the Monte Cristo Greatest Hits of my memory. The chef was willing to leave off the powdered sugar as requested, but I still dipped a corner into the blackberry syrup that came on the side to reassure myself that I’m never going to be a sweet-meets-savory guy.

A one-third-pound Southwest burger with onions and mushrooms ($7.99) was enormous, easily 5 inches high and 6 inches around. And I only mention that it was cooked far past the ordered temperature because my waitress attempted to memorize our large order. It’s part of the job for a reason.

And while the large burger was good, it could have been better. Just a little seasoning would have spruced up the beef a bit, the fries as well for that matter. And none of the sandwiches come with a pickle, which is industry standard for such fare. Even my garden-variety cold pastrami sandwich ($5.99) could have used a side pickle spear to give it a little panache.

My favorite sandwich was the Ultra Croissant ($7.79), a large pastry containing turkey, avocado, swiss cheese, lettuce and tomato. And while I’ve never been a big fan of tortilla wraps, I found the California Wrap ($7.49), with chicken strips, avocado, shredded cheddar and jack cheeses, lettuce and tomato, to be a nice change of pace, as well as plenteous enough for two to share.

Besides fries, sides include cottage cheese, a generic, slightly sweet potato salad and those house-fried potato chips that are currently en vogue. If you haven’t tried these, they come to restaurants frozen in bags like factory fries and get finished in-house. They are slightly thicker than most potato chips and you’ll usually come across a telltale undercooked chip that will give them away. They are best cooked fresh to order, which wasn’t the case at Serendipity (during my visits at least), but still a nice touch, and much better than Lay’s.

Salads are satisfactory and large for their price, but a recent BLT chicken salad ($8.29) was not tossed as advertised, making overflowing bowl quite unwieldy. The music is a bit loud for my taste, especially when Britney Spears came on. A couple of notches lower and I’ll be happy.

My complaints about the Serendipity Caffe are of the kind that most diners easily forgive or don’t even notice. Nothing major. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it.

– The Mouth

mouth@coastweekend.com