The Lazy Susan Café is a charming house in downtown Cannon Beach, cozy and filled with old-fashioned whimsy. It feels rather like sitting in your grandmothers dining room and reminds me of a dollhouse I used to have as a child. Its a small, quaint place, and on the day I visited was extremely busy. Im not sure if the number of patrons present made it seem so, or if it was the restaurants small size and few tables, but on this day the cute cottage was bustling.

As a first entrée I sampled the ham and cheese omelet with house potatoes. I was hoping for large chunks of ham, but it seemed instead to resemble deli-style ham. The cheese was also a little sparse for my liking, but the omelet itself was cooked perfectly, very fluffy and not overly cooked, as can often happen with omelets. The house potatoes seemed very soft and a little bland; I prefer potatoes of this type to be sautéed to near crunchiness on the outside, with pleasing softness in the middle. The addition of garlic or onion, or even just more salt and pepper during the cooking process, would help add some needed flavor. I also found it curious that no option for toast was offered, as is typical with most egg dishes. I was told that the café doesnt offer toast, but English muffins instead. I was satisfied with the muffin, but not pleased to find, upon receiving the bill, that I had been charged extra for it. Many diners, including myself, expect to find toast alongside their eggs, and I find its exclusion odd.

A fellow diner ordered the oatmeal waffle delight, an oatmeal-based waffle topped with fruit and whipped cream. The overall taste was very pleasing, but the waffle itself lacked much flavor. And while I enjoyed the waffle, if I ordered it again I would ask what fruits the waffle would be topped with, depending on the season. On this occasion the waffle was topped with apples, honeydew, oranges, and pineapple. The combination of these fruits was a little strange to me, but with syrup and whipped cream on top, it was palatable.

I also sampled a lunch item while visiting the Lazy Susan Café, the tuna-apple hazelnut salad, served on mixed greens and topped with curry vinaigrette. I typically enjoy eating tuna on salads, as it provides a sometimes welcome alternative to chicken and packs a good protein punch, but in this case I did not feel the flavor of tuna married well with apples or hazelnuts; chicken would have been better. The curry vinaigrette was tasty and complex; I love curry and would love to try the dressing on a different salad, say a Thai salad with bean sprouts and shrimp. Something about the flavors of the tuna and curry and the way they meshed with the apples and hazelnuts didnt quite gel for me.

A house-made marionberry scone was the highlight of the trip, a giant, softly sweet pastry chock full of berries, more than could be eaten in one sitting.

As a side note, I dont usually comment on the payment methods accepted by each restaurant I review, because these days most any establishment accepts both cash and plastic. The Lazy Susan Café, however, only accepts cash or checks. I was surprised by this on the day I visited, and I didnt have enough cash in my wallet to pay for the meal and no checkbook, so I had to visit an ATM across the street from the restaurant and pay an additional three-dollar surcharge, since Im not a member of that bank. I would imagine many folks find themselves in a similar predicament, and this extra step feels like an inconvenience. While credit card terminals are rather costly to run, there are lots of other options these days for accepting credit card payments. Credit card readers that can plug into a smart phone, for example, such as Square Up, provide the best of both worlds: convenience for customers, and easy, inexpensive transactions for the restaurant. This is a minor point that has nothing to do with the quality of the food, but a valid point nonetheless.