Orginal Pancake House - 01/27/2008

Original Pancake House
8037 15th AVE NW
Seattle, WA 98117
- Ballard -

Get ready for my first not that great French toast review. But I guess that's what I get for going to a pancake house for French toast.

Everything else about Original Pancake House was great. There was a covered porch area where they offered free coffee and baked apple pancake while you waited. The dining room was so quaint and cute. It was like sitting in Grandma's kitchen.

So I feel a bit bad for what I'm about to say next. The only good thing about the French toast was that it was available in a half-order. And of this half-order, I only choked down one slice.

The main problem with the Original Pancake House French toast was that the bread was sliced too thin. When you bite into the toast, all you can taste is the outside. There was no bread center for you to bite into. The egg batter that was used had no flavor to it either. The menu claimed that it was a sourdough bread French toast, but I could not taste the sourness at all! I was sooooo sad....

So the lesson I learned this day: Do not order French toast at the Original Pancake House. Try anything else.

Because breakfast was a bust for me, I found myself at the the Southcenter Sushiland later that afternoon gorging on pieces of raw fish. And that was a good thing.

Rating: 1 out of 5 Js

El Greco - 01/26/2008

El Greco
219 Broadway Ave E
Seattle, WA 98012

My fourth week in, and I'm still not sick of Frech toast! This particular week I had French toast 3 times. One of those time was for dinner. I have to to confess, I was craving it. Being the lone ranger I am, I even ate my French toast dinner all by my lonesome.

Anywho....back to business. El Greco did not disapoint! My buds and tummy was extremely satisfied. It was worth waiting until 2:30 in the afternoon for my first meal of the day. But that was due to me having to decorate a cake in the morning. By the time I arrived at the restaurant, I think the rush had already come and gone.

It was a toss up between who had the better French toast. El Greco's sister restaurant (see last week) Geraldine's Counter served up a scrum-diddlely-umptious Frenchie. After tasting El Greco's Frenchie, you could tell that they were the same recipe. Sooooooo Gooooooood. The same crunchy outside with the same soft, chewy, center. Soft, but not runny. Soooooo Goooood. The toast was made with a sourdough bread and served with a berry compote and crème fraîche. And I was also given the option of drizzling my toast with REAL maple syrup. Even better.

For the first time since my venture began, I polished off the entire full order of French toast. One of the very nice things about El Greco (and Geraldine's Counter) is that the portions are not outrageously huge. It was just enough. Everywhere else I have only been eating about half the amount of toast served. Who really needs all that food anyways? I've been trying really hard to just satisfy my food cravings and moving on.

Next time you're in Capitol Hill during breakfast time, make an effort to stop at El Greco.

Rating: 4 out of 5 Js

PS. Did anyone notice that I combed my hair and the makeup?

Geraldine's Counter - 01/20/2008

Geraldine's Counter
4872 Rainier Ave S
Seattle, Washington

This Sunday morning, I woke up early for a change. I also put on more makeup on my face for a change (a bit off the topic......although the two people i've polled say they can't tell....) I dragged my sister out of bed and off we headed to Columbia City.

We arrived at Geraldine's at a good time. We didn't have to wait for a table. In fact we even had a hard time to decide where we wanted to sit. But as soon as we sat down, the restaurant starting filling up.

Guess what I ordered. Yummy, French toast! Sourdough batard French toast to be exact. This was a new experience for me. I'm not a big fan of sourdough. In fact, I can always not eat sourdough. The toast was really different from the others I've tasted. It was really crispy/crunchy on the outside, but yet had a nice chewy center. Geraldine's fruit topping of the day for French toast was cinnamoned apple. Very subtle. And they served REAL maple syrup. But ultimately, I didn't even really use it. The egg batter and the apples gave it just enough sweetness. I really enjoyed the sweetness of the egg batter and apples against the tartness of the sour batard. I guess opposites really do attract....

I'm also surprised by the fact that I'm not sick of French toast yet. I think I'm more in love with French toast now. Sometimes I find myself thinking about French toast and how I wished more places served it all day. Sometimes I even want it for lunch and dinner. I'm beginning to even think that I need to beef up my French toast skills and make sure I always have a good loaf of bread in the freezer so that I can get my fix. But first I need to work on the skills. There's nothing worse when you're craving a food, decide to make it yourself and have it come out tasting like poop.

It makes me wonder what this latest food phase says about me. It seems lately I'm going thru a lot of phases, I guess there could be worser things. Pretty soon I'm going to have to make myself go thru another phase just to counteract the French toast. That thing called going to the gym. A bigger butt? Now that is a worser thing.

Rating: 4 out of 5 Js

PS. Geraldine's Counter has a sister restaurant. El Greco in Capital Hill. That will be my next destination. I want to compare....

Maltby Cafe - 01/13/2008

Maltby Cafe
8809 Maltby Rd
Snohomish, WA 98296

For the first time in months and months, I slept in. It was great. I watched a couple episodes of SpongeBob and didn't even roll out of bed until noon. To my surprise when I looked outside, it was sunny! This instantly elevated my mood ten-fold.

Not only was this the first time in a while for sleeping in, it was also the first time Judy's had some time to herself in months. I was looking forward to just a few hours to myself. No work. No peeps. Just Judy.

I know some people that say they could never go out and eat by themselves. I really don't mind at all. Sometimes I find that there is nothing more peaceful than me at a table by myself and some sort of reading material. I told myself this morning that I was going to tackle "War and Peace" in peace.

I've driven by the Maltby Cafe several times. I was really lucky that it was so sunny out. I really enjoyed the 20 minute drive out to Snohomish. When I arrived, I was scared. Even though it was so late in the day, I still had to parade into the restaurant with about half a dozen of people ahead of me and behind me. They were buuuuusssssyyyyyy.

But luckily for the lone ranger they had counter seating. I walked right in and didn't even have to wait. After a scare with the really wobbly seat, I settled down with my much needed cup of coffee. My eyes honed in on the Maltby Bread Fruit French Toast. "Two thick slices of Maltby bread French toast topped with fruit (seasonal) and Maltby crème fraîche."

The seasonal fruit for the day was marionberry. I asked for the berries on the side. Not too sweet, not too tart, not too pulverized. The crème fraîche was surprisingly different. I've never had crème fraîche like the Maltby's. I guess it was more of a whipped crème fraîche. Nothing like what I've had before. Very sweet and almost buttery.

What the heck is crème fraîche (krem-fresh) you ask? Merriam-Webster says it's, "heavy cream thickened and slightly soured with buttermilk and often served on fruit". Most crème fraîche I've tried have always had the consistancy of yogurt or sour cream. I would describe it as a not so tart, slighty sweet sour cream. I was really puzzled by the Maltby crème fraîche. I kepted scooping some up with my knife and licking it. Ultimately I decided that the Maltby crème fraîche tasted like what happens to my sweetened whipped cream when I over beat it. I guess it was pretty good.

On a somewhat related note. You can get the world's biggest cinnamon roll at the Maltby. That thing was bigger than my head. Unfortunately, it did not compare to their French toast. Supposedly the Maltby Cafe is famous for their cinnamon roll. But trust me, get the French Toast.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Js

Chace's Pancake Corral - 01/05/2008

Chace's Pancake Corral
1606 Bellevue Way SE
Bellevue, WA 98004

Who would have thunk that less than two miles away from the super chic Bellevue Square Mall would lie a shack that served pancakes and your other breakfast staples.

I loved the name of the restaurant, but does it states its claim? Here's what Merriam-Webster says about a corral: 1. a pen or enclosure for confining or capturing livestock and 2. an enclosure made with wagons for defense of an encampment.

I guess Chace's is a little bit of both if you substitute the livestock and wagons for pancakes. Chace's did offer quite a confinement of pancakes. The simple and straight forward menu offered about a dozen different kinds of pancakes ranging from buttermilk to buckwheat. And what else goes better with pancakes than a vat of "pancake sauce" kept warm in a hot beverage container? Nothing! (the pancake sauce contraption was the first thing I noticed when I walked in...)

But even with all those pancakes, of course I went straight for the French toast. The bread looked like Texas toast, but tasted so fancy. Thick, light and fluffy. Yummers! Chace's served their Frenchie with a wild berry syrup. I couldn't tell if it was real or artificial, but it tasted good. The second coolest thing about this place was their butter. They serve it out of a piping tip! It was the prettiest butter that has ever been served to me.

Next time I make it out to Bellevue in the morning, I would definitely remember Chace's Pancake Corral.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Js

Jade Garden - 01/01/2008

Jade Garden
424 7th Ave S
Seattle, WA 98104

I started the new year at Jade Garden. Not a new place for me. It's the only place I go to any more for dim sum.**

** For those that don't know, dim sum is a type of Chinese cuisine that is served during the morning and early afternoon. It is made up of a variety of light dishes served in small quantities. Think of Chinese style tapas. These appetizer sized dishes usually consists of dumplings, buns, things shaped into round shapes, desserts, fried goodies, etc.... These delectable delights are pushed around on carts and you can make your selections table side. With dim sum you have to have tea. Chinese people don't say, "Let's go out for dim sum." We say, "Let's go have tea!"

Dim sum is definately my favorite style of Chinese food. Ever since I was a child, I would always ask my parents on the weekends if we could go, "yum cha" (have tea). One of the hardest things for me when I was a child was when my family moved from Seattle to the middle of no where (Mount Vernon, WA). There was no dim sum to be found for 60 miles around. It sucked.

But fast forward to today and dim sum is back in my life. I think Jade Garden opened up a few years ago. I don't even recall the first time I went there or even whom I went with. These days this is the Jade Garden routine: They are so busy on weekends that someone has to get there at least half an hour before everyone elses arrival time to put a name on the waiting list. Don't even bother trying to make reservations. You'll just be waiting as long as the rest of us (most likely outside of the restaurant because it gets too crowded inside).

On this particular day there were five of us eating. My roomie and I headed down to Chinatown first and arrived at the restaurant at about 11:30am. After my five minute battle to the waiting list, I had to put down my party info by myself. The two hostesses were so bombarded by customers that it probably would have been another five minutes before I could get someone's attention. Believe it or not, there were 17 walk in parties listed before mine.

Forty-five minutes later and a trip to the bakery and the BBQ place and the arrival of the rest of the party, I'm still waiting. By this point, I was not leaving until I had a steamed shrimp dumpling shoved in my mouth. Long story short: I waited almost one and a half hour for a table at Jade Garden. How long was I there to actually eat: One hour.

Was it worth it? Yes, it was. I think the reason why dim sum is my favorite food is because of the variety. Since everything is served in small servings of three or four, I can have a bite of a dozen different things. I love variety. Whenever I go out to eat with friends, I always insist that everyone orders something different. With dim sum, you don't have to worry about that! I had dumplings, noodle wraps, rice, buns, fried dumplings stuffed with lotus seed paste, chicken feet, spare ribs, shrimp cakes and more! What was missing? French toast. I couldn't find anything similar to French toast. Oh well. I was still definitely satisfied.

The food was so good that it didn't matter that I waited so long for a seat. It didn't even matter that the staff was so crazy busy that the service wasn't quite up to par that day. All that mattered was that I got that shrimp dumpling stuffed in my mouth.

Rating: 4 out of 5 Js

Portage Bay Cafe - 12/31/07

Portage Bay Cafe
4130 Roosevelt Way NE
Seattle, WA 98105

On the southern outskirts of U. District lies the Portage Bay Cafe. I'm surprised that I never noticed it before because my sister use to live right by there. I would have to drive by the cafe to get to her place. I'm so disappointed in myself that it took me until today to discover Portage Bay.

Why you ask? Because today I came across the best French toast I've tasted ever since I've been on this Frech toast kick. The only reason why I even decided to make Portage Bay my first restaurant to try is because the breakfast issue of Seattle Metropolitan featured a picture of French toast from Portage Bay that looked absolutely marvelous. And to my delight, when my waitress brought out my French toast, it actually looked like the picture in the magazine!

My order this morning consisted of three thick slices of graham cracker encrusted (brilliant idea! i'm stealing it!) challah bread with a mixed berry compote and a vanilla custard sauce. My toast also came with a trip to the toppings bar. At the toppings bar, there were a variety of berries, nuts, butter, fresh whipped cream and so on that you could pile on your plate. The best part was that the Portage Bay Cafe served REAL maple syrup! The order was so big that I couldn't even finish my second sliced of French toast.

When my three friends and I arrived there was a long line of people waiting to be seated. But apparently there is a seperate back room seating available. We were quickly offered a table in the back room if we wanted it. The hostess apologized during the walk to the back room for the storage shelves we passed by. **

**Here's my whole philosophy when it comes to a restaurant table. Shouldn't you be going to the restaurant for the food? Does the actual location of the table really matter? If the food tastes like crap, does having a table with an exquisite view make it taste any better? NO!! I say, the sooner you can get grubbin' the better!

Portage Bay Cafe has set my French toast standards pretty high. I'm definately looking forward to what else awaits for me!

Rating: 4 out of 5 Js