May 27, 2008

Food for Thought - Literally!



I LOVE breakfast. LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! So Saturday we decided to go out to breakfast which I was pretty darn excited about. We try to find cool hole in the wall places and Nate remembered a place he used to go to in Costa Mesa that he liked called the Side Street Cafe, but it had been years since his last visit. Now, I don't know if it changed or if his standards for delicious food were lower back then, but it was so NOT what my anticipation had built up to. Not that he said anything special to build up my anticipation, it's breakfast and so I'm automatically anticipating something delicious. After all, how do you mess up breakfast?? Well, let me tell you how. First, you hang up a three year old award for "greatest restaurant" (or some crap like that) next to where your customers eat. Then you serve them their slightly warm/cold food on plates too small to hold the already small portions so when you try to put syrup on the pancakes you ordered, it would only run right off the plate. Then you'd put two pieces of cold, undercooked bacon that have probably been sitting in a massive pile of cold, undercooked bacon since yesterday and put them on top of the pancakes since there's no room on the plate for them and make sure they taste like crap (I've never met a piece of bacon I didn't like until Saturday, cold or not, as long as the bacon tastes good I'm satisfied). Then you bring out the nasty bright yellow eggs on their own plate 5 minutes later than the pancakes (which is kind of a long time). And then you put an $8 price tag on it.

Now that I'm done complaining, here's your food for thought that occured to me as I ate my sad breakfast. Scrambled eggs. I love me some scrambled eggs and order them every time I eat breakfast. After eating here, I may start ordering a well done fried egg. I'm going to try to make sure I check out other peoples plates with scrambled eggs first to see if they look normal. Here's why: when my cold eggs came, I couldn't help but notice how ridiculously bright yellow they were. So I realized one of two things here - one: they weren't real eggs. Or two: they were real but made up of 90% cholesterol filled egg yolks. What are the chances that a small mom and pop place would waste all those egg yolks from the customers ordering egg white only dishes (which I saw was an option on every egg dish for an additional charge)?? Chances are slim and from the looks of the nasty eggs i got, I would be willing to put money on it. And if that isn't enough to convince you, I used to work at the snack bar at a golf course and know that they used to keep a tub of prescrambled raw eggs and would just use a laddle to scoop out some for the frying pan. Their eggs were good though and i can see the advantage of doing it that way, but I can also see how convenient it would be to dump all the egg yolks in there to save some $$.

I'm really not that picky of an eater, especially breakfast. But I gotta say that the food at girls camp easily would have given this place a run for their money.
What's mind boggling is I read some reviews online that raved about this place. Do yourself a favor and never go there. Hit up The Filling Station in Orange. It will change your life. Amazing food at an excellent price in a cute, quaint part of old town Orange.

6 comments:

Amber said...

You have to go to the Hone Baked Ham Cafe for breakfast. Hands down the best place I have ever had breakfast!I could write pages and pages about this place. And the bacon was to dye for (thick and delicious)! Like you, I love, love breakfast too.

Anne Marie said...

I LOVE how you describe your food! You are hilarious! I was laughing so hard. If you want another great b-fast spot, The Griddle Cafe in LA is great. They serve fantastic pancakes, french toast (even chocolate, yum!) and omlets. It won't let you down.

Emily said...

I love breakfast too! I make breakfast for dinner more than most people do!!!! Thanks for the info on the mom and pop shop, I will never go there for sure.

Jessica Martiele said...

Note to self: do NOT take Liz Sereno to Costa Mesa for breakfast tomorrow for visiting teaching. Bad idea. However, The Filling Station in Orange sounds yummy! Have you ever been to the Pancake House in Anaheim on Lincoln? I hear that's really good, but we haven't ventured there yet because the line is always out the door (albeit that's a good sign)...and I always love going to Mimi's Cafe for breakfast. Random, I know, but once you've had their breakfast, you'll never eat any other meal there. They have these roasted red potatoes...and killer-good sausage...and fresh-squeezed, uber-yummy OJ...excuse me, I think I need to go take a cold shower.

Kim said...

The Sugar Shack in HB on Main St is yummy! I LOVE breakfast too! I have not been to the Sugar Shack in years so...

Sarah said...

We just canceled our reservation to the Side Street Cafe.