BOOM

The last time we went to Boom, the service was mediocre. But we weren't doing this blog then so they lucked out and get a "get out of jail free" card.
It doesn't happen that we sample the same food at breakfast. It helps give a more broad review of the fare offered by said restaurant. But personally, I've had my fill of greasy eggs breakfasts for now. It was time to expand my breakfast horizons, even though french toast is pretty typical breakfast food. Well, it can be mundane, but sometimes french toast, with a little creativity, can be the shit.
A couple of years ago I was introduced to Boom's "Crunchy French Toast". If you haven't been here, it's basically french toast with corn flakes on it. Simple, but you'd never think of it. That was pretty ef'n good. But this time, since we'd both had that, we went for the other flavours.



Liz got the Chocolate and Banana french toast, which was "amazing", she said. Just look at the picture and you know you can't go wrong with it.



I got the simpler strawberry french toast. There's nothing wrong with keeping things simple and to the point, as in this case. Fresh fruit on french toast is always a winner.
The rest of the Boom experience was pleasant. Coffee service was quick and tasty. Not the best coffee I thought, but I did just drink coffee in Amsterdam for 2 weeks prior. No big deal though.
Great food. Service was good... this time. Price is a bit more than average. $30 for two people.
Overall, I give Boom a 7.5 out of 10.

808 College St., Toronto, Ontario

Coentunnel, Amsterdam

I had to take care of some import/exporting business this morning. So a trip to the Coetunnel at 2 Deccaweg near the UPS in Amsterdam was the only option.
The only breakfast items on the menu were Omelettes. I takes a lot to impress me with an omelette because it's not that hard but you can really ef it up and plus, I can whip up good one once in a while.
Liz had the cheese omelette with fries. Apparently all the cheese was delicious. I got the ham and cheese. At first I thought I would get a spinach omelette but my dutch is brutal. It was alright I guess. I was hungry so I ate it. That's how good it was. Pretty blah. The best thing about the meal was the fries and mayonaisse.

Service is horrible and the food made by a 5 yr old. Plus, the price was in euros. Great.
3/10.

Bredero's Cafe

...sorry, address unknown
Nieuwmarkt, Amsterdam

After 2 somewhat unsuccessful breakfast excursions, today we happened upon Bredaro's Cafe. We were on our way to the Pannekoeken-Upstairs in the center of town but found it to be closed, much to our dismay. NOTE: If you ever come here, don't rely too heavily on the Lonely Planet guide. So far, it's let us down twice in terms of wrong business hours published. Pretty disappointing.



Next to the Diablo sex store, it's a stark contrast from the surroundings. Lots of people walking by, including one especially entertaining woman, so the patio view was great. Plus, today was the first sunny day in about a week, and made for great photos.

I ordered the bacon, mushroom and cheese pannekoeken (pancake) and Harry got the traditional English breakfast. And, much to our surprise, both were pretty tasty! The problem we have now is distinguishing HOW tasty: is it only in comparison to the other let-downs or does it come to a Mel's or Coach House or Purple Onion level of breakfast-perfection?







Of all, I'm going to hit this up with a 6/10. Harry's breakfast was huge and he said it was some of the best bacon he's had. Mine was great too but didn't blow my mind. Plus, as the roster of 'bacon-and-egg' dishes we've eaten rises, the bar becomes harder and harder to push.

However, thank you to Bredero's for thus far, our best ont bijt experience in the Netherlands.

Easy Restaurant

1645 Queen Street West
Toronto, ON

We visited Easy a while ago, but somehow the review didn't make it up yet (as have a few) so while sipping some wine in Holland, I'll let you know how our meal went.

Mediocre, at best, after several raving reviews. Sometimes I start to wonder if we need to really stick to the 'house specialty' to get the best experience but a breakfast joint should do everything pretty well.

Big points for the crunchy french stick pieces that we got instead of the usual toast. I was pretty 'meh' on my eggs benedict: the hollandaise was yellow as a canary, thick, greasy, and believe it or not, completely flavourless. That is what stood out to me: how incredibly free of flavour such a rich looking dish was. Even the potatoes, which looked heavily spiced, just tasted like the orange grease that they came in. Plus, the poached eggs were full of water and so everything just became a mush. I hate when you're looking forward to a meal that much only to be forced to leave half of it untouched.

Harry's omellete was good.

The place smells like a damp basement and was pretty unclean. The service was extremely friendly and cheerful, mindful and gave us a TON of refills on our coffee. The orange juice was tasty.

I am going to go again to try the huevos divorciados that they even advertise on their website, easybreakfast.com.

Meh. 4/10 this time. Sorry guys, we really, really wanted to love you but just couldn't do it.

Sara's Pancake House

Raadhuisstraat 45
Amsterdam

I had decided late last night that I was going to give pancakes another shot. I've hated them since I was young, and try to stay away from them at all costs. But, I read on some travel website that you have to get them once in Holland, and so we picked Sara's as our first shot.

Service was terrible, but what I will say is that it seemed to be a staff of one taking care of the entire place. She seemed far too frazzled and a mysterious man would surface occasionally from the basement, wiping tables and giving people menus with a glaze over his expression.

I could tell pretty quickly that the woman was overwhelmed and knew it would be a bit. However, I didn't expect to feel as though I had ruined her entire day by paying her our patronage. She threw her hands up and complained loudly, scolding the skulky dude on the regular.

First we watched our coffee go to the table next to us, and when denied was dumped out. Finally the waitress/cook/floor manager came over and asked what the problem was. I told her there was no problm, we just hadn't been offered them. We then received espressos in their place and one too many orange juice. Bad start, but forgivable to a degree.

I started to get more uncomfortable when people were up and leaving after not being acknowledged for 10 - 15 minutes. At another point, the waitress barked at some customers coming in that she was closed, when she obviously was not. Just tell them it's a long wait, don't boot out a paying customer.

Harry's food arrived, the Canadian pancake, and it looked awesome. Mine arrived but wasn't what I had ordered. After some arguing with the girl, I finally agreed to eat what she had prepared and insisted I had ordered. This is when she took the food away from me and said "No, only a minute for another one."

Harry's was delicious and like a thicker, savoury crepe. Not what I expected from a pancake house. Mine was small, and I was pretty hungry soon after but tasty.

Not sure how Harry felt overall but I think he enjoyed the meal. I'm going to give it a 3 / 10 simply because the atmosphere and resentful service took away from what should have been a fail-proof meal.

Overall Price: Jesus Christ, 25 Euro!

Barney's Breakfast Bar

Open: 7am - til late

Haarlemmerstraat 102

Barney's is known for serving an all day breakfast in both a single bar as well as a coffeeshop next door. We walked into what felt like madness. The place was busy as hell so instead of give up on our empty stomachs, we braved the outdoor patio. After all, we'd be referred there by a few websites and the overall allure of the adjoining coffee shop was just too much.

After a tram ride on car 13, we were treated to a menu of yummy coffee (seriously, so good) and the promise of bacon & eggs. A classic that is easy to compare to what we get at home.

This meal was below average. Very sub-standard at best. For how nice the location was and how quaint the interior, the food seemed to be glorified McDonald's. The hasbrowns tasted like frozen egg-rolls. The eggs were quite un-cooked and the bacon, even less-so. The toast was good, and Harry thought the scrambled eggs were pretty awesome. Just don't go for the fried. I guess I'm not big fan of 'sunny side up' no matter how you do it.

I think we decided to pin this place with a 5/10. BUT, have no fear, Barney's coffeeshop redeemed the breakfast bar with an impressive roster of Cannabis-cup winning marijuana strains including Willie Nelson, which I'm pretty sure won 2005's cup. Smoked amazing and made for a great day of sight seeing. So big ups to this.

The price ran about 8,50 Euro per meal plus 2,00 Euro coffees. Pretty disappointing.

DID SHE OUT DO THEM ALL?

Since I've had french toast at a few different places now, I'm allowed to give my opinion on which is the best. Unlike a few weeks ago, I was a freedom toast virgin.

Bonjour Brioche was pretty awesome except for the size(just too much left to waste), and Mel's is straight up, no frills, but always good. Oh, I can't forget Boom's Crunch french toast which is quite delish also and a little walk on the wild side with some corn flakes for texture.

But come on, have a look at the picture and I'll explain why I think, this is the BEST french toast I've had so far on the Breakfast Tour.

First of all, this isn't from a restaurant but from the kitchen of the better half of this blog. That's a bit of bias but well justified. It started off with some delicious dutch crunch bread (wow, I'm really doing well segwaying into next weeks blogs!), delicious raspberries, strawberries and bananas from the grocery store, a bit of whip cream, and lastly, free range eggs. Top it off with some pure Canadian maple syrup for the dressing. Sounds like it's kicking ass already, eh? But wait..

I was expecting, you know, one slice with some fruit on top, and I would've been quite delighted with that. But man, not a triple threat that was thrown in the oven to bake apres le point of no return that others would've been satisfied! Mon dieu!

Sorry everyone, you'd better step up your game.

BT rating: 9.5 out of 10.
Total cost for two with smoothies: $18.70.