Critic's Review
On a 72 degree morning I thought about having breakfast outside, and this is the new place in town. So I came down and arrived at about 11:30.
The previous restaurant had a big outside patio, probably not properly permitted; this place just has a couple of tables on the sidewalk. The chairs didn't look comfortable and I was afraid there would be smoking, so I opted to grab a table inside.
Not a bad crowd for late morning. In the afternoon the sun is bad here (I remember from the previous locations); there's not much of a view from the venue stuffed into an inside corner space.
Calling the service here clunky would be kind. There's a server girl and a dude who seems to be the owner who sort of get in each other's way. The server girl brought me a menu and offered me water; I notice that it was served in a cheap plastic cup so I wasn't keen on it; I asked for coffee. This created a confusing sequence, as coffee is included with breakfast. So apparently they have to know what you're ordering before they can bring you coffee. I told her I was having breakfast, so she brought the coffee.
The high priced breakfast also comes with orange juice, also in a cheap plastic cup. While I was waiting for the girl to bring me the OJ, the dude asked me if I wanted orange juice and brought me another OJ after I already had one. Awkward.
The Coffee is very good.
The OJ is served warm; freshly squeezed but it's better chilled.
The menu is weird; it's like they elevate the prices by including OJ and coffee; the scrambled eggs prices are about the same as the Benedicts; I ordered eggs Benedict hoping that the French might know how to make hollandaise sauce.
They play soft Christmas music; probably something different in March, but it was pleasant.
The eggs came out in 12 minutes.
The menu says this comes with asparagus and roasted tomato; I don't have to explain how sad this plate looks. 1 asparagus spear is ridiculous; they didn't even trim the tough end. When you get a big bunch of asparagus there's usually a few stalks that you just throw away; this was one of those. Stringy and inedible.
The tomato was equally bad; it would have been nice if the garlic clove was roasted but it was just a warm clove. It was a bad tomato to start with; maybe I got 2 bites out of the tomato with very little taste.
The eggs were properly poached; the first thing you do with eggs Benedict is pierce the yolks so they run over the muffins.
At first I though one of them was soft boiled, but it was fine. The hollandaise, unfortunately, was a bland yellow sauce without much taste of butter or lemon. Not much better than the junk you get at a diner made by a short order cook.
The muffins were very dense; I had trouble cutting them with the butter knife provided. Not very much food in this dish considering the waste.
I wasn't sure if refills were included and my cup was empty. The dude came over and I asked for my check; he offered me more coffee and I took it. The dude next to me ordered the Huevos Rancheros and I wanted to see it come out; I was afraid to order it myself. Not surprisingly it looked nothing like what you'd get in a Mexican restaurant but it looked decent; served with french bread.
Another example of a dish here; scrambled eggs and cheese for $13.95.
A $5 breakfast plate.
The check comes in a yellow tin cup. Gimmicky and weird.
A lot of money for not much food. I doubt I'll ever be back again.
Conclusion
This place jacks up prices by including unwanted orange juice with every breakfast (usually a $4 or $5 option), and it's not even chilled. Too bad for you if you don't drink coffee, because you're paying for it anyway. Obviously 1 dried out asparagus spear is a garnish and not actual food; for the price the food served was insultingly sparse.
There's no privacy or booths anywhere in the restaurant; other than the French Atmosphere there's no much of interest here. Small portion breakfasts are the opposite of what I'm looking for.
It certainly explains the bad Hollandaise.