Rudy's Can't Fail Café - Emeryville, CA

In the shadows of the famous Pixar Studios stands Rudy's Can't Fail Café.  It makes sense.  The place is definitely artsy-hippie.  There was a glass case probably 1-foot high and 20 feet long with a bunch of barbie dolls and other dolls the same size with waitress uniforms and "I am Rudy" buttons on.  I thought for sure that there must be a good story behind it but the waitress said that it was just the owner's wife expressing herself.

The crowd was a mix of all kinds of people.  A few that walked in looked like they could be an artist; an intellectual grunge, a bit of an attitude and hardly two nickels to rub together.  Although if they were from Pixar, then they definitely had more than two nickels in their pocket.

There was an English 20-ish year-old guy behind me who was trying to impress a couple of American girls eating with him.  I found it mildly entertaining.  He was working very hard at it.

There were lots of black clothes and tattoos.  One tough looking guy with long hair, an all-black kilt, black shirt and motorcycle boots looked like he was on a date.  I could imagine him walking into a biker bar just to pick a fight but, more likely he was dentist or insurance salesman.

The Rolling Stones were playing on the radio much too loudly.  I thought that it was an odd choice of music for an artsy place like this.  I expected some kind of indi-music.  They then switched to 1980's heavy metal but oddly turned down the volume for it.

I had the meatloaf special.  It was kind of like a meaty bread pudding more than the meatloaf that I am used to.  It was spicy in a pumpkin kind of way with a light dabble of cranberry sauce.  It was served with mashed potato with a mushroom jaeger schmitzel-ly sauce and a big helping of vegetables.

I thought that the meatloaf was really pretty tasty.  I ordered a ginger ale that caught my attention on the menu.  I figured it must be some cool California thing.  It turned out to be from Teterboro, New Jersey.

Service was pretty good.  At first I thought that it was just okay if not a little bit slow.   Then I figured out that my waitress saw me pecking out this restaurant review on my iPhone and was just leaving me alone to take my time.  I thought that was pretty cool of her.

I would rank Rudy's 7.5.  It is worth checking out but, it is probably not bucket list worthy.  If I was doing a tour of Pixar then I would come here again.

Rudy's Can't Fail Café
4081 Hollis St
Emeryville, CA 94608
(510) 594-1221