Noe Jose Cafe is all about familia y amigos — family and friends.

Cooks, wait staff, and brother owners Noe and Jose Ochoa all strive to make a lasting connection with customers.

Judging by the lunch rush and lines out the door for weekend breakfast, it appears the strategy works.

“Saturday and Sunday, we are slammed,” said Jose Ochoa. “There was this one time, we had 87 names on our wait list. Now, it’s only one name per group of people, so you can imagine how many people were really waiting in line.”

The cafe was voted Best Family Restaurant in the Best of Whidbey contest.

The young brothers, Noe, 23, and Jose, 21, opened the three-meals-a-day eatery in April 2017 with financial backing from their parents.

The cafe name is a play on words of their own names — Noe is pronounced “no-way” and Jose.

Noe Jose Cafe Family Restaurant is located inside Oak Harbor’s Harborside Village on Pioneer Way in a space where many restaurants have come and gone. That they’ve managed to not only survive but thrive 18 months after opening seems a surprise to many — including the owners.

“It’s going great. It’s booming.” Jose said in a recent interview. “It’s an amazing feeling.”

Noe Jose Cafe offers a variety of styles of food — from American diner favorites to authentic Mexican cuisine — to satisfy many tastes.

For example, papas con chili with chorizo served with rice and beans and a mushroom Swiss burger were the two specials advertised recently on the cafe’s Facebook page.

The brothers say they don’t really know what they’ll feature from day-to-day or week-to-week.

“We kind of choose that morning,” Jose said. “Friday and Saturday, we’re hoping to do prime rib specials because that’s always popular.”

Ribeye and prawns, grilled cod florentine and shrimp albondigas soup are just some of the specials that pop up in mouth-watering photos on their Facebook page.

Mo, also known as Silvia Acuna, has been in the kitchen since day one. She is the one cooking, frying and baking the Mexican entrees. There’s also an aunt and two other cooks serving up breakfast, lunch and dinner every day.

Acuna makes meals passed down from the kitchens of her Mexican family. Pozole, quesadilla michoacan, chicken taquitos and thick homemade flour tortillas are just a few of her flavorful favorites.

“My mom’s menu just got bigger,” said Jose, one of Acuna’s six sons. “For a lot of customers, most of the time, they go straight for my Mama’s cooking.”

Many customers who live beyond Oak Harbor and drive in for grocery shopping and other errands have added Noe Jose Cafe to their list of stops. For others, it’s their destination.

People such as Durand Dace from Clinton, who recently left an online comment long on praise for the food, service and friendly atmosphere.

“The entire experience at Noe Jose was among the best I’ve ever had and every aspect of this family-owned restaurant was spot on,” Dace wrote. “As for the food, it is indescribably fantastic.”

Traveling to Oak Harbor from their home in Clinton, Dace said his family decided to give it a try for breakfast because of its good reputation.

“I was in love from my first bite,” Dace wrote. “Tortillas were dreamy, the food hot and amazingly fresh … the huevos rancheros were layered perfectly and were so flavorful.”

They’ve gone back a few times.“For us to make a journey just to grab breakfast, that says something,” Dace said in a phone interview.

Dace also complimented the work ethnic of Noe and Jose Ochoa; they each take one day off a week and they’re often at the restaurant throughout its 12 hours of business.

“Exhausting? Sometimes? Yes,” Jose admitted. “But at the same time, it’s ours.”

Noe Jose Cafe Family Restaurant is located at 830 SE Pioneer Way #106, Oak Harbor, inside Harborside Village on Pioneer Way. The hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily except Sunday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Noe Ochoa checks on how customers Bridget and Lyle Zimmerman are enjoying their meal. File photo

Silvia Acuna is the mother behind “Mom’s cooking” at Noe Jose Cafe, where she creates authenic Mexican dishes for her sons’ restaurant inside Oak Harbor’s Harborside Village.