Pet Peeve At Restaurants That Serve Breakfast

[bigvalboy]

I don't care for scrambled eggs, but my pet peeve is places that try to serve pancakes/waffles without real maple syrup. I don't mind paying a bit extra for it, but if you don't have it, don't bring me no Aunt Jemima!

Yes yes yes....Friends think I'm crazy for spending the extra money to buy real Maple syrup, but once you taste it, you will never go back.

[whipped guy]

...but once you taste it, you will never go back.

As with so many other things... Actually I never knew what real honest to goodness maple syrup tasted like until I was in college and I asked a good friend who was from Vermont to get me some. I initially did not like it at first as I was used to the store bought high fructose corn syrup imitation stuff. However, once I realized what maple syrup was actually supposed to taste like, as with so many other things, once you have experienced the real deal there's a so absolutely no going back!

[seeker630]

Yes yes yes....Friends think I'm crazy for spending the extra money to buy real Maple syrup, but once you taste it, you will never go back.

 

+1

 

I also like to buy the B-grade sometimes - it has a slightly different taste.

[+ Gar1eth]

Oooo! Can I chime in with a peripheral restaurant pet peeve that's been driving me crazy? It happens all the time at all meals of the day, so I'll apply this example to the breakfast topic. Restaurants of America: PLEASE STOP STACKING MY FOOD!! Please put my toast on its own side plate - NOT draped over my eggs. Since you insist on adding garnish, please do NOT place a big chunk of cold, dripping wet melon (or any other kind of fruit) right on top of my warm dry eggs. Put the bacon on its own plate, too - I don't like covering it in pancake syrup. And while I'm grousing, please don't make me ask for coffee creamer - just have it there at the table. And yes, you should be 'leaving room in my cup for cream' whether I use it or not. What's the alternative - you fill it to the brim so I can't help spilling it? >>End rant<<

:-)

 

NO, you can't "CHIME IN!!!! Start your own thread. This one's mine!! Actually, I'm kidding--really I was. Come right in--the water is fine!!:o

 

Gman

[+ Gar1eth]

Ditto to all of the above....and may I add that when you bring my toast, is it really too much to ask to bring the butter. I always have to ask for butter, then by the time it arrives the toast is cold and the butter won't melt.

 

Their excuse for that is that they slop that fake melted stuff on it usually right before they bring it to the table. But I agree with you.

 

Gman

[+ Gar1eth]

As with so many other things... Actually I never knew what real honest to goodness maple syrup tasted like until I was in college and I asked a good friend who was from Vermont to get me some. I initially did not like it at first as I was used to the store bought high fructose corn syrup imitation stuff. However, once I realized what maple syrup was actually supposed to taste like, as with so many other things, once you have experienced the real deal there's a so absolutely no going back!

 

I'm that way with mayonnaise and salad dressing. At home until I was in high school, Mom bought Miracle Whip. My grandmother always used Hellmans. Finally Mom started buying Hellmans. I don;t even know exactly why you would buy Miracle Whip with Hellmans around. Also don't get me started on Kraft mayo--it's too smooth.

 

Gman

[+ poolboy48220]

I didn't taste miracle whip until I was 18 or 19 and I thought it was something that had gone bad.

 

OK, my pet peeves - both with sushi places. 1) stop putting that stupid little plastic fake grass or whatever it's supposed to be on my plate. It's dumb and it's in the way.

2) WRITE YOUR MENU IN ENGLISH. I hate trying to decide on which roll when they give five of the six ingredients in English, but then the last one is Japanese. is it fish eggs? Is it pickled radish? Is it some new kind of eel? If you're going to do that, at least put a glossary someplace on the table or on the menu.

[Irtwo]

My pet peeve is eggs which were obviously 'scrambled' only after being broken onto the grill - they're more liked chopped up fried eggs!

 

I've only encountered that at a few diners in NYC.

 

I've encountered that at a LOT of diners in NYC. The same with fried eggs, where I've been to diners where they purposely break the yoke. I don't know if its some new trend or what. The only way to get unbroken fried eggs is if you order them sunny side up.

[Decatur Guy]

My breakfast pet peeve is the obsession with breakfast food in general.

 

I had house guest a month ago, and she INSISTED we start off our Sunday at a popular breakfast place. I warned her I had never gone by there when there wasn't a long line outside the door, and why didn't she let me scramble some eggs and make some toast ... but nope, she had to go to this place.

 

Sure enough, we waited an hour just to get served. It was almost two hours by the time we were done and we were off-track for the day, which she had the nerve to grumble about later. And yet, she was practically having orgasms about how good the breakfast itself was. Now, I'll grant you it was a cut above for sure. But it was hardly worth the wait.

 

Now, I seemed to have been surrounded by people like that all my life who don't mind spending mind-boggling amounts of money and time on a meal that I almost always skip and that I see as by far the most pedestrian and least interesting assemblage of food each day.

 

i just don't see what's all that special about eggs, toast, grits and bacon.

 

(Gosh I sound awfully cranky, but that's how I feel!)

[Daverwr]

I'm going back to scrambled eggs -

 

I was a guest in a very upscale hotel in Melbourne, Australia for a couple of months. Each time I ordered the scrambled eggs, they were the most decadent eggs I'd ever eaten. Finally, I asked the chef to show me how to make the seemly easiest food to cook. (When you are at a hotel for a few months, you get to know pretty much the entire staff.) He showed me his secret.

 

After mixing the eggs well with a beater, you pour all but a few ounces into the pan. When the eggs in the pan are fully cooked, you remove the pan from the heat a quickly stir in the reserved raw egg. Mix and immediately turn onto a warm plate. The eggs are the most moist scrambled eggs you have ever eaten. Salmonella be damned! (Sorry, BVB!)

[AdamSmith]

Tend to agree with Decatur Guy. On top of everything he notes, going out interferes with the pleasure of taking the after-breakfast poop on home turf. http://www.poemhunter.com/best-poems/wystan-hugh-auden/the-geography-of-the-house-2/

[bigvalboy]

I'm going back to scrambled eggs -

 

I was a guest in a very upscale hotel in Melbourne, Australia for a couple of months. Each time I ordered the scrambled eggs, they were the most decadent eggs I'd ever eaten. Finally, I asked the chef to show me how to make the seemly easiest food to cook. (When you are at a hotel for a few months, you get to know pretty much the entire staff.) He showed me his secret.

 

After mixing the eggs well with a beater, you pour all but a few ounces into the pan. When the eggs in the pan are fully cooked, you remove the pan from the heat a quickly stir in the reserved raw egg. Mix and immediately turn onto a warm plate. The eggs are the most moist scrambled eggs you have ever eaten. Salmonella be damned! (Sorry, BVB!)

lol.... Well that's not for me, however for some of the other members here who are true connoisseurs of the 'omelet' that sounds absolutely brilliant.

[whipped guy]

My breakfast pet peeve is the obsession with breakfast food in general...

i just don't see what's all that special about eggs, toast, grits and bacon...

DG... I totally agree that traditional breakfast food is over-rated... I never used to eat breakfast, but then came to the realization after getting into nutrition, that actually it was important to eat some sort of breakfast. But it wasn't gonna be "eggs, toast, grits, and bacon"!!! Now this may sound boring, but every morning I have natural fresh ground peanut butter (I get it at a place locally) that I spread on matzo. I sprinkle miller's bran on it, and top it off with a glass of non-fat milk and a fist full of vitamns... Works for me... when on the road I go for a continental or oatmeal type breakfast.

 

When I do the big "traditional" breakfast thing it is usually part of a deal at a hotel... and it is almost a treat of sorts in the sense that it is something different from the norm... but nothing I would want to do more than two or three times a year... and after eating all that cholesterol I usually feel miserable for the rest of the day... At any rate, it reminds me why I hate breakfast food in gerneral...

[Decatur Guy]

DG... I totally agree that traditional breakfast food is over-rated... I never used to eat breakfast, but then came to the realization after getting into nutrition, that actually it was important to eat some sort of breakfast. But it wasn't gonna be "eggs, toast, grits, and bacon"!!! Now this may sound boring, but every morning I have natural fresh ground peanut butter (I get it at a place locally) that I spread on matzo. I sprinkle miller's bran on it, and top it off with a glass of non-fat milk and a fist full of vitamns... Works for me... when on the road I go for a continental or oatmeal type breakfast.

 

When I do the big "traditional" breakfast thing it is usually part of a deal at a hotel... and it is almost a treat of sorts in the sense that it is something different from the norm... but nothing I would want to do more than two or three times a year... and after eating all that cholesterol I usually feel miserable for the rest of the day... At any rate, it reminds me why I hate breakfast food in gerneral...

 

Yeah, when I say I skip breakfast, I mean I skip the traditional breakfast. I usually eat a little yogurt or cereal or a banana when I first get up. But I work at night, get up around 10 a.m., and "lunch" is my first real meal of the day. It's more like a "breaksnack."

[+ Gar1eth]

I'm actually not a big breakfast aficionado. For years, I skipped it totally. Anything I ate in the morning - even if it was just a banana ( sometimes a banana is just a banana) would give me terrible heartburn. Thank gosh for Prilosec. But even before the heartburn, I skipped breakfast for years. I ate it at home when I was a kid. But I even think by the time I was in high school with my siblings long gone- my Mother stopped getting up extra early to fix a family breakfast for me and my Dad. And I almost never ate breakfast in college. About the only time I was ever up early enough in the dorm was if I had been up all night studying for a test. I always liked scrambled eggs- but didn't try omelets until I was an adult. And in fact for years I said that I'd prefer dinner food for breakfast rather than breakfast food for dinner- and when it comes right down to it, if it wasn't extremely spicy (gotta watch out for the heartburn), I still feel that way.

 

Gman

[whipped guy]

Yeah, when I say I skip breakfast, I mean I skip the traditional breakfast. I usually eat a little yogurt or cereal or a banana when I first get up. But I work at night, get up around 10 a.m., and "lunch" is my first real meal of the day. It's more like a "breaksnack."

DG... got it... yeah the yogurt thing is my alternative breakfast when I want to do something different... like on a weekend... In fact non-fat Greek yogurt mixed with all sorts of possibilities has been my snack of choice as well. Great source of protein!

[Epigonos]

An interesting breakfast aside is that probably every community, of any size, in the U.S. has a breakfast restaurant that has achieved iconic status in its community. In Los Angeles The Original Pantry, currently owned by former Mayor Richard Riordan is just such a revered institution. The restaurant opened in 1924 and claims to have never closed. The day it changed location it served breakfast in the old location and lunch in the new one. It did, however, close once and only once and that was on Monday, November 25, 1963 for the State Funeral of President John F. Kennedy. The Original Pantry is best known for its breakfasts which consist of huge omelets, three eggs prepared however the patron requests, huge servings of fried potatoes, and loaves of grilled sourdough bread. The above are usually accompanied by a huge ham steak, six pieces of slab bacon or an extra-large serving of either link of patty sausage. Nobody but nobody ever leave The Original Pantry hungry.

 

Sears located in downtown San Francisco near Union Square seems to fill a similar role. The food is much like that of The Original Pantry in L.A.; downhome comfort food, however the portions aren’t quite as large.

 

Now for my question; name a similar type of restaurant in your area. Thus the next time I’m in your neck of the woods I will know where to have breakfast.

[AdamSmith]

Now for my question; name a similar type of restaurant in your area. Thus the next time I’m in your neck of the woods I will know where to have breakfast.

 

Great idea.

 

Three classic diners in southern Maine...

 

The Egg & I, Ogunquit. Best corned beef hash I've ever found.

 

Rick's, York. Opens early (used to be 4am, now I think 5am) to accommodate the local lobstermen starting their day. Grilled ham steaks larger than your plate.

 

The Maine Diner, Wells. Potential (tho less nowadays) for sightings of George H.W. Bush & co. Get the Indian pudding, even if it's 9am.

[+ FreshFluff]

Why arethr scrambled eggs so weird. I mean I know they often use a griddle. But, and especially at fancy places there are chefs. They should know that scrambled eggs are supposed to be light and fluffy. I mean if I wanted something the texture of an omelet, I'd order an omelet.

 

 

Gman

 

I feel the same way. I like mine fluffy, though not too undone.

 

There's a restaurant chain on the west coast that has the most amazing scrambled eggs with cheese. I wish I could find something like that in NYC.

[AdamSmith]

scrambled eggs with cheese. I wish I could find something like that in NYC.

Houndstooth Pub, 8th & 37th, offers them for weekend brunch. But it is always a crap shoot whether they will be quite good or quite bad.

[+ Charlie]

The Famous 4th St Deli in Philly was where politicians used to go for power breakfasts when I lived in the neighborhood, but I'm not sure it is still open.

[Irtwo]

FreshFluff, why did you change your icon? I loved that little white kitten you had.

[+ FreshFluff]

FreshFluff, why did you change your icon? I loved that little white kitten you had.

 

Thanks, Irtwo. Yeah, this one looks sadder, but I can't resist a fluffy orange kitten. The little white one may be back soon though.

[Decatur Guy]

If you like to stand in line with a whole bunch of other people for 60 to 90 minutes on the weekend for what is admittedly a good breakfast, try Flying Biscuit or West Egg.

 

Ain't worth it to me. I'd go to Waffle House or just wait 'til lunch. But those places above are good.

[JoeyBryant]

I'd go to Waffle House or just wait 'til lunch. But those places above are good.

 

What's the rave with Waffle House? We don't have many of those out West. But down South I know. The food at waffle house is okay (Dennys is better), but that environment is a bit too hostile. I don't like hearing about how much the employees hate their job and all the squabbles and how long they've been at work that day

 

One lady in North Carolina was a manager and sat next to me and asked while tallying up receipts (jokingly of course) "you're not going to bit me are you?" I came real close to filing a lawsu....complaint, especially since they have a large Black and White sign touting: "NO SEXUAL HARASSMENT WILL BE TOLERATED BY EMPLOYEES TO CUSTOMERS". but if it meant a free meal at waffle house, I'll pass. I think they purposely hire certain personalities. Just like McDonald's hires super sweet nice people.