Mitzi's Cafe

100 Sorauren Avenue, Toronto, Ontario                                                   RATING: Good

"Neighbourhood Delight"

This restaurant sits smack dab in the middle of a vibrant bedroom community in upper Parkdale. Built into the main floor of an old house, the huge front windows let in a lot of light and the surrounding trees gives it a homey yet still urban atmosphere. We arrived shortly after their 9 am opening which was fortunate because it filled to capacity quickly, including the eight or so tables on their covered patio. Clearly their baked goods were well sought after because I watched a steady stream of customers arriving for take-out  muffins, bagels and pastries. The table beside us ordered the french toast with banana and whipped cream which had me shamelessly ogling. 

Within seconds of being seated we were served delicious bottomless coffees and left to peruse the chalkboard menu. I didn’t want anything elaborate because I’m watching my calories so I chose a basic Mitzy’s breakfast consisting of poached eggs, bacon and rye toast. The meal came with a side of mini-potatoes that were tossed in a dark sauce which I can’t comment on because I didn’t try it. A complete no-no for a food blogger but I just plum forgot about my duty to try everything on my plate. The poached eggs were served in a tiny bowl set in the middle of the plate. They were perfectly cooked because the yolk was soft and runny, although they didn’t ask my preference so it’s a good thing I like them cooked that way. The only downside to a runny poached egg served in a bowl, is the likelihood that they were cooked in a pot of boiling water with vinegar added to keep the white attached to the yolk. You guessed it, runny yolk and vinegar is not appetizing but I come across this unfortunate combination fairly frequently.  Mitzy, please I beg of you, invest in a proper egg poacher because not everyone likes eggs that taste like vinegar.  

The bacon was well cooked and delicious, and the rye bread was either homemade or purchased fresh from a local bakery. It was finger smacking good to the last crumb.  My breakfast mate ordered the same meal as me, except her eggs were in an omelette. They must have used 8 eggs in her dish because it could have fed three people. She barely got half way through before requesting a doggy bag. It seemed like there was a teenage boy behind the grill who was anticipating his own breakfast, but I will quote my husband and say "never complain about there being too much food".  Fair enough.

We sat for 2 hours and watched as a line formed and then disappeared. Never were we encouraged to hurry up and finish so they could seat someone else. 

My breakfast came to just shy of $14 for a basic bacon and egg breakfast with coffee (the latter is separate).  That’s not cheap, but the quality of the food is good and the atmosphere is pleasant. 

I would definitely give this establishment my repeat business.

Restaurant website:  http://www.mitziscafe.com/

Easy Restaurant

1645 Queen Street West, Toronto                                                       Rating: Fair to Average

“Overwhelmingly underwhelming”

This little west-end hole-in-the-wall offers typical brunch fare and serves up a delicious cup of coffee. It’s a trendy Queen Street West diner so the prices are on the higher side. I’ve patronized this establishment numerous times and I’ve always ordered the Easy Rider Breakfast ($10.95) which is a typical meal of bacon, eggs and toast. Despite the fact that I'd never been disappointed with this choice at Easy, I decided to branch out and ordered the Eggs Benedict ($11.95). What could go wrong? Two poached eggs with grilled peameal bacon on an English muffin and accompanied with either salad or homefries. I’m not a salad-for-breakfast type person so I opted for the homefries.  With ordering safely under our belts, we did some catching up while sipping our delicious coffees. There's real pleasure in sitting in a cozy warm diner on a cold winter Sunday morning.

Our food arrived fairly quickly and we dug in with relish. That it arrived quickly was the good part; the bad part was the food. I don’t know what happened on this particular morning at Easy, but the chef must have dozed off while tending the grill because the slice of peameal bacon was a dried up piece of charred wood. It was cut too thin which meant there was a greater margin for error and unfortunately the chef wasn’t up to the challenge of pulling the bacon off the grill before it was charred. The overcooked bacon was accompanied by undercooked home fried potatoes. They were so unpalatable that I couldn’t eat more than a few bites. I kept hoping to spear into a tender spud, but each bite was a crunchy experience so I eventually gave up.  Cooking school 101: chefs must test the food to ensure that it’s properly cooked before sending it out to unsuspecting patrons. Fortunately the eggs were cooked to perfection, but unfortunately there was an overwhelming sour flavour that detracted from the taste. I couldn’t tell if it was the hollandaise sauce or if the chef added vinegar to the water when poaching the eggs.  It’s an amateur approach to poaching and ruins the flavour of eggs.

It was an underwhelming food experience that I doubt I’ll repeat.  I do like the place, so I’ll switch back to the Easy Rider Breakfast next time and avoid this particular menu item.  This establishment gets a Fair to Average rating because it only takes one bad experience to ruin an otherwise Good experience. Better luck next time, Easy Restaurant.

www.easyrestaurant.ca/

Butler's Pantry

591 Markham Street, Toronto, ON                                                                   RATING: Excellent

"New favourite brunch locale in the Annex"

I have visited this location of Butler’s Pantry twice for brunch in the past month with a fellow foodie. We meet regularly to have a good meal and do a lot of catching up.  ‘Catching up’ venues need to be comfortable, not too loud, with seating spaced out sufficiently to avoid people overhearing personal girl-stuff gabbing.  Butler’s Pantry gets a gold star on all counts. 

We came upon this restaurant by accident when we couldn’t get into our first choice.  My friend, local to the area, remembered Butler’s so we popped in out of the cold to check it out.  The menu looked promising, although there wasn’t a soul in the place which can be a serious red flag.  We were famished and decided to take a chance.  The waitress sat us in a cushioned booth at the front of the restaurant beside floor to ceiling windows.  The wait staff is very pleasant and have attained a wonderful balance of neither hovering, nor ignoring. 

Mugs of aromatic freshly brewed coffees were set in front of us.  I added cream and took a sip of Java-heaven.  Was this coffee really that good, or was I in some kind of withdrawal needing a fix?  

They have a full brunch menu that I would like to have sampled in its entirety but I settled on the Eggs Benedict ($11) which was accompanied by three (probably from frozen) hash browns.  But so what if they were frozen?  They were crispy and not super greasy and didn’t even need ketchup.  The eggs were beautifully prepared because they were cooked with a soft yoke and well cooked whites.  Just the right amount of hollandaise sauce was spooned over the top.  The eggs were set upon a layer of crispy bacon atop the usual English muffin.  It was a delicious breakfast. 

My ‘catch-up’ friend ordered the Benny Gone Veggie which replaced bacon with spinach and the hash brown with a salad.  But she asked for smoked salmon which she thought was going to be inserted where the bacon would have been.  Apparently the waitress thought the same thing because she apologized for the placement of the salmon - a blob on one side of the plate -  explaining that she didn’t want to ask the cook to move the salmon after the dish had been plated.  Fair enough – it would have been a messy looking Benny.  But the only nit was that there was a charge of $3.50 for the salmon and it would have been nice to have been given a heads up about this. 

Happily that was the only nit that we had in our two visits and I’m really just being picky. This place is a ‘must-visit’ location for brunchers in the Annex area (university district) of Toronto; however, one word of warning is that this venue is not for the student budget because our bill before tip was $31.00. 

My ‘catch-up’ friend and I will definitely be back to sample more of that delicious menu. 

Restaurant website:  http://www.butlerspantry.ca/