Atlas Foods - 02/23/2008

Atlas Foods

2675 NE Village Lane

Seattle, WA 98105

- University Village -

This morning I skipped the sleeping in and rolled out of bed. There are few things in life I actually enjoy getting out of bed for and I've discovered that this new breakfast thing is one of them. In fact, there are a lot of new things I've discovered about myself since the implementation of Breakfast Mission 2008. Or maybe they're just things I've never noticed before....

Here's a little diddy on Judy. I've never been a breakfast person. I probably ate it when I was a young tot because me mum was still ushering me out bed and making me breakfast. But as I grew up and was able to prepare food for myself, I stopped eating breakfast. I would say this started around the age of 12. I have now realized that it was the love of sleeping and not wanting to get out of bed that truncated that first oh so important meal (so they say). I would always just stay in bed until the very last possible moment. So I had a choice. Breakfast or sleep? Sleep!

But now, I'm really enjoying Breakfast Mission days. I look forward to it all week. Could I do it everyday? Maybe.

Now back to the French toast diddy. Since I was at The Hi-Life last week, I decided that I was going to hit all of the Chow Foods restaurants consecutively. Lets see how they compare.

I'm becoming an expert at requesting for half-orders when it's not even offered on the menu. What do you expect when places keep offering more than one kind of French Toast on the menu? This is what Atlas Foods did. Although I have to say, I almost missed the second Frenchie offering.

There was the obvious Challah French Toast. Vanilla-molasses custard batter, griddled golden brown & topped with orange butter and served with fresh fruit. I looked at the menu a little closer and then I noticed Le Texas Toast. Three slices of thick Texas toast dipped, griddled up & topped with honey butter. Served with two eggs and a grilled chorizo link. Dipped and griddled? Sounds like French toast to me!

Because Le Texas Toast was served with eggs and fancy sausage I took that for the whole order. I was able to get a half order of the Challah French Toast. I think my waiter gave me the, "you're crazy" look when I asked for it.

The Challah toast had really good flavor. Really no need for the REAL maple syrup. The vanilla flavor paired up extremely well with the orange hinted butter. Still not griddled up as crispy as I would like, but the bread did have a much better texture than the Columbia bread last week at The Hi-Life. Very soft and fluffy.

Next we have Le Texas Toast. It was Le disappointing. I've had thicker Texas toast and I've had it Frenched up better at my local standby joint. I only ended up taking a couple bites out of it. Luckily my sis ate some. The rest I boxed up for my little cousin. It was just too soppy. I think to some pallettes, they might get the soppiness confused with greasiness. I should have picked the Challah toast for the full order!

Hmmm...I'm starting to have doubts about Chow Foods (for French toast anyways).

Rating: 3 out of 4 Js.

The Hi-Life - 02/17/08

The Hi-Life

5425 Russell Ave NW
Seattle WA 98107
- Ballard -



Just by walking out of the house on this particular morning, I knew that breakfast was going to be good. There's just somthing about nice weather that just elevates my mood. It felt like spring. Sunny and warm(er).

On this Sunday I found myself in Ballard again. I never realized how many restaurants there were in Ballard. I would have never picked Ballard as the place to go for food, but this French toast experiment is slowly changing my mind about Ballard.

Another thing I've learned from this experiment is how many places in the Seattle area I've yet to see after all my years living here. I think I'm going to have to make explore my surroundings as another experiment.



But back to my fancy French toast. "Fancy French Toast" is exactly what The Hi-Life put on their menu. And for the fancy description: "Vanilla custard dipped Columbia bread griddled and topped with espresso-mascarpone & sugared hazelnuts". All that served up with REAL maple syrup. Did it taste as good as it sounded? Almost.


The custard batter was captivating. Rich in vanilla flavor. The bread itself was inviting as well. The sugared hazelnuts, very fun. Espresso mascarpone? Inventive! It was how the toast was cooked that disappointed me a bit. There was no crunch to it at all. Makes me wonder if there was even any griddle lovin' involved. The toast wasn't soggy though. It was just really chewy.


Don't get me wrong, I still finished a lot of the toast. The server was nice enough to let me get a half order. I ordered a half order because the fancy Frenchie didn't come with anything else. I'm also learning that I really like other stuff to eat with my Frenchies. So along with my French toast, I ordered the "Oeufs Francais". Translates to "French eggs". At The Hi-Life, the French eggs breakfast is, "Baked eggs en casserole with caramelized onions, spinach, gruyere and leek cream. Served with croissant and fruit". I was very happy that I ordered this instead of my usual Judy eggs (over medium). It was délicieux.


Rating: 3 out of 5 Js


PS. The Hi-Life has 5 other sister restaurants (all run by Chow Foods) in the Seattle area. All 6 restaurants made the Seattle Met 50 list....sounds a bit fishy....Could it be that the owners of Chow Foods were featured in the same issue.....???? I'll let the French toast speak for it self.

Peso's Kitchen & Lounge - 02/16/08

Peso's Kitchen & Lounge
605 Queen Anne AVE N
Seattle WA 98109
- Lower Queen Anne -

Okay, so I didn't make it out of the house for my Frenchie on Friday. Deep down, I knew I wasn't going to make it for breakfast. I didn't have to work on Friday, but I had a lot of things to get done. In my heart of hearts, I knew that I would be sleeping in instead of getting breakfast. By Tuesday I was craving French toast. I was getting gas for the truck and right next door was my locat French toast standby. So I gave in. I gave in and it was lip smackin' delish.

Fast forward to Saturday. I got to wake up on my own. No buzz buzz buzz. I felt good. I felt rested. I felt hungry! (plus it was nice to wake up to a bed that just had blankets on it and not an Everest mound of clothes) I heard the roomie upstairs so I went and grabbed her before she started heating up food.

The roomie would only go on one condition. She wanted a bloody Mary. So I went a skimming the list for a place that had a bar. Hmmm...found one! And they have caramel French toast? Sounds delightful!

Peso's Kitchen is located at Lower Queen Anne. My first concern was parking. Second concern was the wait. Queen Anne can be pretty hoppin'. Third concern, breakfast in a Mexican restaurant? To my surprise the breakfast menu offered a fusion of your tradional American breakfast with Mexi twist.

My biggest dilema at Peso's was that they served two different kinds of French toast. Which one do I choose? The crème fraîche stuffed French toast with the cinnamoned butter and strawberry reduction or the caramel glazed French toast? Oh the hard choices we have to make sometimes. Now I wanted to try both, but I didn't really want to get two full orders of Frenchies though....Should I ask and see if I receive? I asked our waitress if I could get a half order of each Frenchie and she said yes! Woo Hoo!

I am so happy I asked for the half 'n' half. Both French toasts were equally scrumptious. And I scarfed both of them down equally. There have not been many breakfasts where I clean up my plate, but I did today. Three slices of French toast. Two eggs, over medium. Two slices of bacon. And a gi-normous mug of coffee. I was stuffed, but oh so satisfied and gratified.

Both French Toasts were thick and crispy on the outside with the nice soft chewiness to the inside. I think Peso's is the first place I've been too that didn't serve their French toast with maple syrup (real or fake). The caramel glaze and the strawberry was just enough and almost not even necessary. The egg batter was almost sweet enough.

Everything on the breakfast menu sounded amazing. I'll be back again soon for another meal of the day.

Rating: 4 out of 5 Js

PS. I hate how I look like i'm about 12 years old in this picture! Do I really look that young in real life?

So Sad......

No French Toast! Week of 02/04/2008.

I am so sad. No Frenchies for Judy this past week. Too busy! But that's okay. I'll just have to do some overtime this week (isn't that just the story of my life in every aspect?)

Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday!

Bring it on!

Cyndy's House of Pancakes - 02/03/08

Cyndy's House of Pancakes

10507 Aurora Ave N

Seattle, WA 98133

- Greenwood -

My alarm was set for 9:30am. I was so sleeeepy. Buzz. Snooze. Buzz. Snooze. That was the pattern for the next two hours. I had already decided the night before that I was skipping French toast.

While I was half asleep in the shower, I decided that I needed coffee (which has turned into a 7 days a week habit for me, I used to only drink it M-F, but I am proud to announce that I've tapered myself down to only 4 packets of sugar for each cup of coffee!). So I might as well have French Toast with my coffee.

So I started thinking. Where should I go? I'm by myself. Save a nicer place for when you have company...I've got it! That shacky looking place on Aurora!

I can't tell you how many time's I've driven by Cyndy's House of Pancakes. All those drive bys and why did I ever stop in? Because the place looks kinda scary on the outside. Old and dirty. So scary looking that I always that the food would SUCK*.

Boy was I surprised when I walked in. My eyebrows actually did that rising thing and a semi-smirk appeared on my lips. I spent the next hour trying to figure out how I would describe the interior of the restaurant. Here's what I came up with. It looked like what I think a house basement would look like from the 60s. Maybe 70s. The inside of the restaurant was covered in a dark wood veneer wall panels and there were funky looking flower things hanging in the back wall. And the strangest thing about the decor were the scary looking bird/lizard kites hanging up by the ceiling. Go figure. But that's enough about odd decor. To the food.

The French toast plate came with 2 eggs and 4 strips of bacon. Four strips of bacon? I asked my waitress if I could sub out 2 strips for 2 sausage links. No-can-do. Apparently I could get all bacon or all sausage, but I couldn't split the choice. Okaaaay....bacon it is then. But who on earth can eat 4 strips of bacon? I soon found out why it was 4 strips. They were paper thin! Paper thin and not crispy! Ugh. Good thing I was there for the French toast.

My toast was served with a myriad of deliciously artificial flavored syrup. Well, three different kinds to be exact. Maple, boysenberry and coconut. Coconut, you ask? Yes, I know. I questioned it too. But to my surprise, it tasted pretty darn good. All three fake syrups tasted pretty good. And it all tasted great with the 3 cups of coffee (w/ only four packets of sugar per cup I would like to remind my readers again) I chugged down.

For basic French toast, Cyndy's did a decent job. Nice, thick egg bread. Soft and fluffy with a nice chewy bite to it. The decor didn't do the toast justice.

I'm glad I didn't skip out on breakfast.

Rating: 3 out of 5 Js.

* Specially selected word choice dedicated to CWT.