Captain Mauri's Counterculture

I used to come here on a regular basis because it was near my house and alright food. Kind of overpriced though. The main reason I stopped coming is because the women staff are unfriendly when I'm nothing but nice.

I love this place and think the food is GREAT and FILLING AND HEALTHY!

HOWEVER!!!! They do not take any form of payment besides CASH!
This is annoying, and many time I pull up to get a sandwhich, and notice I dont have any cash on me, and decide to go to another restaurant down the street.

Please get with the times and get a card reader

I stopped in here after a morning surf session to get some much needed sustenance in my stomach. My buddy swore by the place and told me it was a great vegetarian spot. Although I'm not a vegetarian I like to check out these sorts of places to see what they have to offer. Most of the time they are either a bulls eye, or a complete miss- the kind of miss where someone is pulling a dart out of their shoulder. This place however hit the target directly on.

Counterculture is located on a nice little stretch on Del Mar with an array of restaurants, shops, and a farmers market from time to time. It's a nice area to grab a bite to eat and pick up some surf gear at Jacks or one of the other thousand surf shops in San Clemente. The place itself is quite plain with a sort of a minimalist modern feel coupled with photos and paintings of the pier, waves and sunsets. The menu has a pretty diverse selection of smoothies, soups and sandwiches. I decided to go with the soup and sandwich deal- potato soup and the avocado and jack sandwich with an americano to wake me up. The soup was not only delicious, but also exactly what one can use after being out in the ocean for a few hours in the morning. The cold sandwich was a nice counterpart to the soup- on top of the avocado and jack there were also sprouts, lettuce and tomato. It sort of reminded me of a vegetarian BLT with the textures and way that the flavors pop out individually. I will say the americano woke me up, but was far too watered down for a single shot of expresso. I like my coffee bitter and this just didn't cut it in my book. Among the other items ordered there was a BBQ vegi burger and a few other soups and sandwiches. I had a bite of the burger- which was very tasty.

All around I say this is a great place in San Clemente to grab a light, healthy and tasty lunch. The food and smoothies are great, the coffee is meh, and the location is premo. The only thing to keep in mind is: CASH ONLY. However, they have an ATM if you're heavy on the plastic and light on the green.

Cheers.