Toscano's

Today we had our second breakfast at a grill called Toscano's on St. Joseph Blvd. in Gatineau (yes, across the river!).

The first time I was mildly OK with the place; parking was hard (it's busy), you have to line up to get a table (which I hate), service is hit and miss and the food was ok for the money. I wasn't bowled over.

The food was well presented though and that led to an encore visit today; still had a hard time parking but the line up was very quick. The food took a long time to come this time but when it did it was very good.

Here are the pics:

To me this place is a QB version of a Dennys or Coras so it's all ok but just a bit unimpressive. It could be excellent, but it doesn't quite make that, it's 'good'.

I don't need a 'buzzy' place to enjoy a breakfast; for me Cozy's wins out.

next week (12th Dec) it will be Cozy's as we will be attending the Shanghai Craft Sale.

McDonalds!!!

It had to happen didn't it?

A couple of us decided to 'slum' it and try a fast food breakfast for a change 'down'. McDonalds on Merivale was chosen as it's one of the newer locations.

We found seats by the TV and the fire that was almost like a VIP 'club' area with nice tub chairs.

The rule wrt ordering more than one breakfast was suspended this week and therefore we could sample the range of the menu.

Breakfast burritos, sausage and egg McMuffins 'Big Breakfasts' were all sampled and enjoyed.

I like McDonalds' breakfasts but I'm not keen on their burgers. However, their coffee is outstanding and to my mind is the best 'drip' coffee out there. Burger King could learn a thing or two from the golden arches on that front!

Not everyone saw the reasoning behind doing MaccyD's but I have to say it was a great success and I'd do it again anytime.

Zen Kitchen

Ok, so it's been a while; we spent a lot of time just doing Cozy's and the Fontenelle so it seemed crazy to just blog about the same places. However, a couple weeks ago we had a change and breakfasted at Zen Kitchen.

The food here is amazing and fast becoming a local sensation. Some may have seen the TV show that charted the road that the owners took to make the restaurant happen; "The restaurant Adventures of Caroline and Dave".

The food is 'fine dining vegan' and they recently started Sunday brunch.

Here are some pics of the food we ate:

I had the burger with the most amazing fries and home-made ketchup. The apple fritters were good, as were the pancakes.

A couple of us had deserts but my bread pudding wasn't moist enough and to be fair I really missed some real cream on it (but that is not ZK fault).

All in all we like Zen Kitchen as a once in a while breakfast haunt.