Review: Eggsmart

I’m unsure whether the name Eggsmart is a fusion word for either Eggs mart or Egg Smart, but if I had to chose based on how I felt after eating at this restaurant, I’d go with the latter of the two. Eggsmart is a relatively new Ontario based brunch franchise with a few locations popping up on the radar. The one I went to was one of it’s newest locations at the intersection of Bay and Elm St. Taking over the shady spot that Coffee Time had for years, Eggsmart lies across the street from the extremely cheap Bay Street Hotel, and is destined to become a good breakfast/brunch spot for its guests.

Antony and I couldn’t believe that the previously vacant Coffee Time had finally been renovated and opened into a new restaurant, so we couldn’t resist the urge to go in and have a bite to eat. We were greeted with an extremely friendly waitress who promptly sat us to the desired seat, “near the sun but not directly in it”. She was very attentive to our needs and was not too intrusive.

Inside Eggsmart

Even though it’s largely a breakfast place, the Eggsmart menu does come with more lunch oriented choices, such as sandwiches, salads, and wraps. But I was feeling like a brunch this time so I ordered the Sausage Scrambler, a bowl of scrambled eggs mixed with sausage, cheddar, green peppers, and onions. It came with a side of excellent texas toast, and home fries. The Sausage Scrambler was an excellent choice, with it’s nice blending of the two tastiest brunch vegetables. There was enough in the bowl for it to be filling too, and I had more left over to share with Antony who also liked the dish. The texas toast came buttered, but was slightly drenched in it. Antony noted that sometimes it’s best to ask them not to butter your toast.

Sausage Scrambler

A container of jam packets sits at each table, so you never have to worry about being short of jam. And the home fries… they were excellent! Soft in the middle, crispy on the outside, and they had just the right amount of seasoning (a bit of salt and a bit of spice) to make them really good. Antony said his home fries came out a bit too salty for his taste, which he told the waitress about. She quickly had them replaced with no hassle, and even inquired later how they tasted. Antony said they were excellent and was glad that there was no problem getting them replaced.

Antony had the traditional breakfast, 3 eggs served with choice of meat (bacon, ham, or sausage) choosing “bacon, extra crispy and eggs over-easy” as usual. His eggs came in perfect shape, with the yolks intact and waiting to be punctured releasing their slimy, yolkie goodness. His bacon was perfect and his request was met, it came extra crispy! Each dish also came with a slice of orange twisted with a slice of melon, a great addition to the meal.

Traditional Breakfast, bacon extra cripsy

We both were extremely satisfied with our meal, and even more satisfied with the bill. The grand total of all this good food for the both of us? Just shy of $14. It’s been ages since the both of us have had great food at a sit down restaurant for under $20. In fact, I don’t think we ever have outside of a fast food restaurant. While looking at the small bill, I’d also like to say that you better make sure to tip your waitress. At $14, I felt stingy leaving the usual 15% tip, so I went ahead with Greg’s Twoonie Rule (that you should usually try to give a toonie per person), and gave her a $4 tip. This place is also open until midnight, and I’m a sucker for great late night eats, so I definitely plan on going back again. [Edit: I recently went by Eggsmart about a week ago, and unfortunately, they are now only open until 3pm. I guess staying open until midnight wasn't viable for them.]

Here’s something cute. On the way home later on in the day, I walked by Eggsmart, and caught a picture of an Eggsmart Smart car in the parking lot across the street. Once again, reaffirming, that these guys are smart.

The Egg-Smart car

Average Price: $6 per entree
Hours: 6am – 3pm
TTC Directions: Get off at Dundas Station, walk west on Dundas St. until you reach Bay St. Walk 2 blocks north to Elm St.
Website: eggsmart.ca

Review: The Croissant Tree

I’m never really satisfied with these little sandwich and coffee chains that we’ve got around the city. Druxy’s, Cultures, Bagel Stop, Coffee Time, the list goes on. Unfortunately, Croissant Tree does little to stand above the rest.

CROISSANT1

With only a handful of locations, all based in Toronto, the franchise isn’t exactly in your face unlike the bigger guys such as Tim Hortons, and most locations are tucked in small street corners or within malls. According to their website [Psst, your Joomla favicon tag is sticking out!], the name has been around since 1981.

Having one right nearby where we work, Ashley and I decided to finally try it out. I’ll admit that they do have a nice patio, but we didn’t bother sitting outside with the weather being a bit breeze.

Pasta Salad

Ashley ordered a simple pasta salad (if you’re wondering why there’s no tomatoes, it’s because she requested to leave them out) which she described as excellent, and not too tangy. I, myself, went with a bit of comfort food, grilled cheese and a fruit salad.

Fruit Salad and a Panini Pressed Grilled Cheese

I wasn’t expecting much to come out of this grilled cheese, as it’s a simple sandwich to begin with. Two slices of bread and some cheese, possibly butter the sides and pan fry it til crisp. Well at Croissant Tree, they don’t pan fry, or butter it. They just shove it in a panini press, and wait for it to toast. Not that I don’t mind, as the less butter and frying, the better. But this is a grilled cheese.

My fruit salad was good. The fruit was really fresh and it did contain the usual coctail of fruits: melons, grapes, kiwis. What it lacked were berries, and there was hardly any kiwi in the salad.

The lone kiwi in my salad

Overall, it was a decent quick lunch for under $10 without any frills. The upside is that the location we went to near Church and Bloor has a nice patio, which will be perfect once the warm weather rolls around and stays.

Average Price: $4-$5 per sandwich, $8 for a combo with a salad

Review: Maggie’s

Nestled in the heart of the Bloor and Yonge area, amdist a backdrop of a rising village of new condominium developments, sits a quaint little brunch place by the name of Maggie’s.

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Maggie’s, a sister establishment to the Maggie’s on College near Bathurst, offers a standard variety of brunch fare, from colourful omelettes to their famous triple decker grilled cheese sandwiches.

Being so close to where I work, Maggie’s has become a lunch time staple of Ashley and I. Why do we keep going back with so many other lunch time options in the area? For me, it would have to be due to the copious amounts of fruit that get served on the side of most entrees. They’re usually not that busy, being just far enough down Charles st. to be out of eyesight from the Yonge street traffic. They’re usually overlooked by the far brighter and flashier stuff located on our city’s busiest strip.

For starters today, Ashley and I each ordered a drink which we felt would suit our meals. I’m having their classic breakfast, so I decided to order an orange juice with it. At $2.25 for a small, the drinks carry a bit of a price tag. For an additional 70cents, I could upgrade my orange juice to a “fresh squeezed” orange juice. So I did just that.

maggies2

Deciding on her grill favorite, grilled cheese sandwich, Ashley went with a comforting cool glass of chocolate milk. Ashley claimed that the chocolate milk tasted just as good as the one that comes in the carton, directly from the factory, but later on we noticed that the chocolate was starting to separate from the milk at the bottom of the glass, much like powdered instant chocolate milk does.

Our entrees came pretty quickly, which is a good thing considering they are a brunch place in downtown Toronto which serves the 1 hour limited time lunch crowd. I ordered the classic breakfast meal which came with a choice of sausage, bacon, or ham.

Classic Breakfast

I chose multigrain toast and over-medium eggs so that I could dip the toast in. Yes, I know the standard is to order over-easy eggs for toast dipping, but I’ve gone to too many restaurants where the yolk has broken prematurely during transport from the kitchen to my table, so it’s usually safe to get over-medium to ensure your yolk safety!

Unfortunately, my plan backfired this time, and the yolks on these particular eggs came out hard. So much for toast dipping. The other option that came with this meal was which breakfast meat you wanted, from ham, bacon, and sausage. I was never a fan of bacon, and 9 times out of 10 when sausage is among the side options, I’ll take it over any of the others. These sausages were done really well, not to greasy, and cooked just enough to give the edges a light crisp. On the other hand, they were just your average sausages, no hint of them being glazed with honey garlic, or any other type of specialty flavour. But they are better than the standard frozen breakfast sausages, which most other brunch places drop on your plate.

Triple Decker Grilled Cheese

Ashley went with the Triple Decker Grilled Cheese. Three layers of break stacked with double cheese in between. The sandwich came nicely grilled, with a light brown tinge on the outside, but not overcooked so there was still a soft moist feel inside the bread itself. And did I mention the cheese? There’s enough cheese on this baby to make 10 Grilled Cheeses for a summer camp mess hall.

Both meals came with a side of garlic fries. The fries themselves are sometimes a hit and a miss. Usually crispy enough to satisfy my need for crunch, they also can contain too much chunks of minced garlic on them. Today, though, that was not the case, and the fries were perfect.

Also note the amount of jam you get on the side. Most places tend to be stingy and leave you clamoring for more packets of jam. Our server left us with enough jam to satisfy our spreading needs. Not that I had much spreading to do given the size of my pieces of toast. Yes, they were pretty tiny compared to the size of the bread used for Ashley’s Grilled Cheese, but that could be because it was multigrain toast as opposed to the white bread of Ashley’s sandwich.

The fruit side was a nice melody of strawberries, oranges, melons, a slice of grapefruit, and a kiwi to top it off. I always feel like if they’re going all out in their fruit side, why not add a few grapes to the mix?

As for the service, if you happen to go around 1:30pm (they close at 2:00pm), expect to be largely ignored unless you’ve mastered the fine art of waving your arms in the air like you’re on a rollercoaster just to get the servers attention. They’re too busy cleaning up to check on you, trying to get everything done by 2pm so they can head out of the place. Don’t most establishments clean after they’ve locked the doors?

It’s good to note that they’re very vegetarian and vegan friendly, with a nice vegan selection within their menu. Overall, Ashley and I enjoyed our meals and left satisfied and stuffed. Our only quip today was with the service, with 2 servers and only 4 patrons, it’s a puzzle why we were left alone completely after our food arrived.

Average Price: $8 per entree
Hours: Mon – Sun, 7am – 2pm
TTC Directions: Get off at Yonge/Bloor station, and walk south on Yonge two blocks, turn left at Charles St.