Cafe Zen

Ooooom. Cafe Zen is in the Kits/Cornwall area, it’s a great place to stop in for breakfast if you’re hanging out on the beach. We actually found this place using the urban spoon iPhone app. They had really great reviews so naturally we gave it a try. Cafe Zen doesn’t exactly look how it sounds, it’s a large-ish space with lots of  wooden tables covered in tartan plastic tablecloths. I wouldn’t say this cafe has any kind of theme, except maybe comfort and simplicity, without trying to hard. There were customers eating alone, on a morning after date, and even people reading quietly.  The service was friendly and our food arrived in 5 minutes, seriously. You can guess what I ordered, and I’ll tell you it was delicious, bright yellow hollandaise, chunky cubed potatoes, and salad? Their menu had lots of different kinds of benny’s and they also let you mix and match, you could have half bacon benny and the other half could be avocado and tomato benny, or whatever you want! That’s something I haven’t seen before, and I appreciate it since I am picky eater. I was not able to finish my benny this time, I don’t know what happened but I think I had a benny overload, so as you will can in the picture, there is still a lot of food left on my plate. Want some?

Cafe Zen
1631 Yew St

Dutch Wooden Shoe Cafe on Cambie

The Dutch Wooden Shoe Cafe (phew, that’s a mouthful!) is comparable to Slickety Jim’s in the way that the interior is completely covered in kitschy decorations and vintage memorabilia, but the Wooden Shoe is also covered in funny and embarrassing  photo’s of their past clientele. It’s pretty tacky and also distracting trying to have a conversation, without your eye drifting to a funny photo of a family posing mid-bite, during their breakfast. The menu was limitless, they had so many options of omlettes, pancakes, benny’s, and breakfast combinations to choose from. I could have almost any topping I wanted on my benny like ham, salmon, veggies, bacon or spek – Spek is dutch style bacon that is so crispy it almost crumbles in your mouth, I urge you to try it! The Spek Benny I ordered came on a crunchy toasted biscuit (which I believe is essential to a good benny), creamy hollandaise and tiny cubed hash browns.

I don’t have any complaints but take note: this isn’t the kind of joint that charges less than $10 per meal, so bring at least a twenty if you’re looking to have orange juice $4 or coffee with your meal. Also, I dare you to bring your own camera and take a picture to post on their wall!

The Dutch Wooden Shoe Cafe
3292 Cambie St

Hot Cereal

This post is different from all the other breakfast posts because it has no egg in it! Ok, what I’m trying to say is that if you need a little break from the usual eggs + bacon scenario, then listen up — Hot Cereal is the new alternative. What is ‘Hot Cereal’ you ask? Well it’s similar to porridge or oatmeal and contains a few more ingredients like wheat, rye, barley, flax, millet, oats, buckwheat, apple cider, and salt, to be exact. It’s very high in fiber and gives you a great kick of energy in the morning! You can enjoy it many different ways, by adding your preferred type of milk (cow, soy, almond, rice), raisins, brown sugar and my little secret — a small pat of butter. Mmm. You can buy Hot Cereal at most health food stores or you can find it already prepared at Capers or Whole Foods before 11am. It’s great if you’re on a budget but still like to enjoy breakfast out and about. At 89 cents per/100g enjoy comfort for your tummy and your wallet.

Hot Cereal $3.52
Capers Market 2285 West 4th Avenue

Seb’s

This morning I had the pleasure of dining at Seb’s Market Cafe on Broadway. This is a popular place for the broadway/main st. crowd so as soon as we entered we had to put our name on ‘the list‘. Seb’s serves organic everything, and fair trade coffee. But the fruit smoothies are really what you’re after. Made with juice, milk, or soy and a medley of different fruits these $3-$5 smoothies are homemade delicious. I can’t vouch for all the flavours but the blueberry banana soy was full of flavor and whipped to perfection. The menu serves everything from eggs & bacon, benny’s, banana french toast, inventive omlettes like duck and cranberry, bacon and caramelized apple, asparagus and mango,  spinach and chevre to several light lunch specialties (but we don’t discuss lunch here). I ordered Seb’s benny, which comes on a savory biscuit, with your choice of topping (I must say the variations were quite surprising — elk medallion, thick-cut black forest ham, grilled portobello etc! As a classic eggs benedict lover, I got black forest ham. The thing that I wasn’t too thrilled with was the fact that they don’t serve regular hollandaise sauce with their benny’s. Instead you get a choice of coconut curry, chipotle, or havarti sauce. Don’t get me wrong I’m all about experimenting and trying new things, but please, if you want to be inventive with a classic dish, at least offer the original sauce for those of us who just want to eat something they know is going to be good. Nonetheless I went for the havarti sauce, which sounded the mildest out of all the sauces, and when our food arrived it was pretty underwhelming. But maybe I had it coming since I went for the safest sounding sauce which was just cheese sauce.

Aside from the food, the atmosphere was friendly and relaxed, lots of browns and rich colors, eclectic paintings covered the walls. The all female staff was friendly and helpful. And even though it was a full house, our food came within 10 minutes — I like that!

Egg Benny w/ Havarti sauce and homecut fried potatoes $9.5
I think I will have to give Seb’s another try, and be a little more adventurous next time. I definitely think there is something unique here,  a new spin on some classics with a little bit of french flare.

Seb’s Market Café
592 Broadway East

Theresa`s

This post is for the regulars on Commercial Drive. I`m sorry I have been neglecting your neck of the woods, but to be honest if you live in the Drive neighborhood then I am sure you have already heard about Theresa`s — and if you haven`t then you better listen up. I first heard about Theresa`s from a friend, and then read about it shortly after in the Strait newspaper. It didn`t take long for word to spread about their amazingly delicious stuffed french toast, orange cornbread pancakes and garlic roasted potatoes (watch out for whole garlic cloves camouflaged in your taters). It was a milestone moment in my life when I bit into that warm and gooey piece of strawberry and cream cheese stuffed toast, made with incredibly sweet strawberries swimming among warm fluffy mountains of cream cheese, wrapped in two thick slices of bread and pressed into a panini. Let me say that I am certain they are using Philadelphia cream cheese because it was no doubt — a little taste of heaven. Among other delicious treats were their sweet maple sausages and yummy fair trade coffee. Theresa`s is special because of it`s worker run and owned approach. The employees each have a share in the company and they do everything from cook, cashier and serve. This means that you must order at the counter, set your own cutlery and pour your own coffee. So don`t be fooled you also play a big part in Theresa`s cafe.

:: 1260 Commercial Drive

Roundel Cafe

Looking for something new, hidden, and colorful? Well let me introduce you to Roundel Cafe on East Hastings. This place might not be new to everyone but I have been lucky enough to just discover it recently.  A cross between the Templeton and your mom’s kitchen in 1980, Roundel shows its personality with bright colored walls and retro furnishings, not to mention auditory self-expression from the bubbly and “eccentric” staff. What sets this cafe apart from its equally vibrant neighbors is its nutritionally flexible menu; they offer a variety of different substitutions like wheat and gluten free corn pancakes, granola with soy, and veggie bacon. So if you are unfortunate lucky enough to have your eyes opened by someone you know that is allergic to wheat or dairy, then do them and yourself a favor and take them to Roundels for breakfast, lunch or even just a beer (they also serve beer). Mmm beer for breakfast. Roundel Cafe 2465 East Hastings Street – Corn pancakes + corn syrup $8 – Organic granola w/ soy and bananas $6.75

Joe’s Grill

Let me first say that the title of this post should have been ‘Malone’s Sports Grill’ (on Cornwall) because we actually went to Malone’s and sat down ready to have a big yummy breakfast but for everyone’s information, malones only serves breakfast until 12pm. We arrived at 12:48. So we walked up to Joe’s Grill, where we’ve dined before, but my accomplice was particularly sick that day and probably didn’t get to enjoy his meal as much as he would have liked. So we gave it another shot We arrive at Joe’s and the sun is shining, there is a decent lineup out the door. We think about going somewhere else but in the end stick it out, and surprisingly get a booth after only 5 minutes. When ordering, I am torn between the chorizo benny or the Waffle combo, but I decide to try something new and go with the Waffles. Our meal arrives pretty quickly and we dig in. My combo meal consists of 2 belgian waffles, 2 poached eggs, 2 sausages, 2 strips of bacon, and a small bowl of fruit. Every thing tasted great, the sausages are excellent, not like the cheap shriveled up ones you’d get at Ikea (not that I’m knocking IKEA breakfast, best deal in town for $1, stay tuned for that review) But since I’m being a critic here I have to say that this combo was missing some whip cream for the waffles, even though they slid me a bowl of individually packaged whipped butter (not the same) and it also was missing their prized pan-fried potatoes!(Not included, but should have been) Don’t even get me started on these potatoes, they are perfect. Crispy, thick, thin, seasoned, and oh so delicious with ketchup or hollandaise. Side Note: I’m eating an apple as I write, and it hurts me to remember this. Waffle Combo $8.45 Joe’s Grill 2061 W 4th Ave, Vancouver

Slickety Jim’s

Chat and Chew, as they say on their printed materials. This place is wonderfully tacky, the walls are covered with a retro 70’s floral print  then adorned with cheesy antique-ey ornaments, probably from the antique store on cordova. Tables are seated together tightly from the front entrance all the way to the back of the cafe which is where the kitchen is located. You can even watch the chef, flipping ommlettes in his straw coyboy hat (what the?) The waitress pours your juice from topicana cartons from the mini fridge thats located right in front. And they have a chalk board displaying some of the featured items or as they call it ‘Just in case‘ how cute, i wonder if they mean just in case you don’t like what’s on the menu. But how could you not! With names like “Society made me what I am”, “The Morning Yearning”, and “Cheezy Fun Guy!” This place was definetly creative and the food wasn’t bad either! I stuck to my benny regime and ordered what they called “The motor benny” 2 poached eggs topped with Ham, Bacon, Chorizo, Cheddar, and Hollandaise to go with some soft but crunchy pan fried potatoes (see picture).  Wow, delicious! Really! The hollandaise was butter, the eggs were firm, and the bacon was sweetly smoked. Everyones food came within 20 minutes, not the fastest but it was worth it. Beware of huge lineups on weekends though, we didn’t have one, but we went on a Monday morning and the place was still packed. Also, please note the coffee is very strong, like an americano or espresso, so make sure you ask for lotsa cream if you like your coffee light and smooth, like I do. The bill came to $12.95 inluding my coffee, but the breakfast alone was $9.50. I will definetly be back there again, after I have my arteries unglogged of course. Slickety Jim’s Chat n’ Chew 2513 Main St., Vancouver.

Elbow Room?

Elbow Room, a nice little cafe on 560 Davie street, in the heart of downtown. When I first heard about this place, people were always saying how rude the wait staff is to you, and how they make fun of you or tell you to get your own fuckin’ coffee, so i had to go try it! Ive now been there on two occasions, the first time my eggs benny was cold so lets forget about that and I’ll base this critique on the 2nd time round.  So we walk in, its a Thursday afternoon and the place is pretty empty exept for a young group of hip hop hoodlums and and two men (business meeting) in the corner. Our waiter is a 30ish year old, buzzed, blond, buff tattooed man, and he shyly tells us to sit our “asses in the back there”. Is that all? Then he comes over about two seconds later and asks if were ready to order already! What a little sheep. So our food came pretty fast (cuz the place was empty) and this time my eggs were warm and delicious. 2 poached eggs on a toasted english muffin with black forest ham, drizzled with the most vibrant yellowy-orange hollandaise I’ve ever come across, (the keep it in a little heating pot on the counter) Breakfast comes with these tiny 1 cm by 1cm hash browns, which are to die for. BUT I did pick up this little tid bit; once you take a bite out of the eggs you notice this odd underlying vinegar taste, that makes me think they probably poach their eggs in vinegar water….kinda weird. Maybe to cut the fat or something, but you cant help but notice. Also, if you want water you have to get it yourself, there’s a little stand in the middle of the restaurant where you help yourself. And another thing, make sure you finish your meal or hide it in your napkin, or pass it off to the guy/girl your eating with, throw it under the table and to the left, under the table and to the left, or else you will have to give a donation to charity. Not that its a bad thing. I watched the waiter as he told one customer “to stop lookin so fuckin’ lost” when he didn’t understand that he had to make a donation.

Eggs Benny at the elbow room is $7.95, hashbrowns not included, and you better get your own fuckin water !

Breakfast from HELL!

OK, but not really. Today I tried the eggs benny from Hell’s Kitchen on west 4th avenue. Its appropriately titled ‘Hell’s Benny’. Cute right? It was 2 poached eggs on an English muffin with chorizo sausage, tomatoes, and hollandaise sauce, garnished with avocado and jalapeno pepper, and hash browns of course! I was a little iffy about the avocado and jalapeno hollandaise (that was what they called it) so I asked our kind server if I could have regular hollandaise instead.  She told me that its not actually a “special” hollandaise sauce, its basically just a small piece of avocado and one small jalapeno placed on top of the benny… so much for special sauce. Nevertheless our food arrived, about 20 minutes later, not the quickest service. But it looked beautiful, and tasted superb. It’s a pretty small serving so if your a hungry (wo)man, I would also order some french toast or something to have on the side. Also, they go pretty cheap on the hollandaise so I had to ask for extra,  but for a sauce that was special regular, they still charged me 75 cents for it. Psh. What else would i dip my lovely golden hash fries in?? Ketchup? Well yes, that too. All in all I gotta say it was pretty delish and I’ll be back there again. Total cost was $10.95 for the Hell’s Benny (extra hollandaise not included) and I think it was worth it, especially if you are sitting on the patio Hell’s Kitchen 2041 W 4th Avenue, Vancouver