PaiGu

When I was going through my brunch phase, The Drake Hotel was recommended to me on more than one occasion. However, it’s location in West Queen West made it a little inconvenient by subway, so I never made it there. This Sunday, when my friends asked me to meet them for brunch at a place of my choosing, The Drake Hotel immediately came to mind.

Low-back pale-green couches line the edge of the window, wrapping around on either side like fallopian tubes. A large painting of jungle animals hang on one wall. The rest of the space is dominated by a bar, high tables and chairs, and distractingly large post-modern chandeliers. The place is as hip as its West Queen West locale, although the clientele varies from tourists to Queen West hipsters to old couples. » Read the rest of this entry «

Future Bakery & Cafe is practically an Annex landmark, but I had never heard much about it, other than the occasional comment from a local. Perhaps they were keeping it a secret, because many locals know about the place, but there are few reviews written about it.

This is the sort of place where you can sit for hours with a friend or a book and no one will kick you out. It is the sort of place where you can have homemade dessert or hearty Eastern European fare. It is the sort of place where re-fill coffees are free and there are always more than six types of cake. It is my kind of place.

The scrambled eggs were over-scrambled, and the eggs benedict were nothing special (packaged ham? Really?). The crepes were awful – a little too thick, and absolutely drowning in strawberry jam. Each bite required half a glass of water.

One thing I can say for sure though, they have great home fries. Seriously, best fries I have ever had. They’re not too oily, crispy on the outside, and very well seasoned.
They also have great orange juice, although their coffee is hit and miss. When I went, they had macadamia nut coffee – definitely a hit!

Futures is also known for having great cheesecakes, although the crepes drenched in strawberry jam were more than enough sweets for us.

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483 Bloor Street West
Phone: 416.922.5875

In the spirit of fair competition, I visited several other breakfast spots this weekend, one of which was Over Easy. I’d been to Over Easy on Bloor before, although I had been hungover and the only reliable memory I have of my meal is that the portions were big.
This time, I was very sober and very hungry as I made my way down Bloor Street on a Monday morning. Weekday mornings do not suffer from the same long line-ups as weekend mornings, the place was practically empty this morning.

A server immediately came to the door to seat us and give us the menus. The place was painted a yellow-cream colour, and decorated with a lot of roosters. The front portion has many booths, which allow for some privacy, although the back portion is open and more cramped with rickety tables and chairs.

My companion settled on the corned beef hash and I ordered the Western omelet. A bread basket came soon after, although half the toasts were badly burnt. I was appalled that they could serve such badly burnt toast. Even at home, I would have thrown them out.

The corned beef hash was the first to arrive. The beef was tender enough, although the mish-mash was thrown together with such carelessness that it tasted like leftovers. The poached eggs were appallingly rubber-like, even though the yoke was not cooked through.

The Western omelet was very satisfying. The omelet was thick and cooked to perfection. There weren’t a lot of veggies and ham, but that meant the omelet held together nicely. The home fries, however, were a disappointment. Unexciting little potato cubes lacking in flavour and crispness.

While my omelet was good, the appalling state of the poached eggs on the corned beef hash and the incredibly burnt toasts were hard to overlook.

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