Things that are universally good:Breakfast food
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BREAKFAST FOODS
I mean breakfast foods are the best kind of foods in the world. Why? I'm glad you asked:
It's hard to mess them up
You can have sweet or savory or BOTH
When else is it acceptable to have coffee and orange juice and water all at once?
No one judges you for getting something greasy
No one judges you for basically having desert for a meal
Fruit and sweets come together in perfect harmony
SAUSAGE
BACON
You get to tell people how you want things cooked without seeming like a tool
It's delicious and casual and usually pretty cheap.
So we've established that I love breakfast foods. And as I've said, it's hard to mess them up. Which is why it's so disappointing when someone does. I mean there are onl
y so many ways to make a pancake. And I'm not a chef but I think making one has to be like cooking 101. So if you have a job at A BREAKFAST restaurant and you can't cook a pancake, well, we have a problem.
Now, since living in Chicago I have been a few places for breakfast. Mostly I just go to the same place over and over again because it's close to my home and has yet to disappoint. In fact, it is amazing. This place is.....
So good. They have other kinds of food too, but the breakfast is killer. And yes, it has a line (especially sat. and sun. mornings from 10am-1pm) but they get you seated and fed and happy pretty quickly. I've never waited more than 20 minutes here, even when I've gone during peak hangover hours (see above) with a group of 6 friends.
The food is great. The servers are quick and get your orders right. The prices are right.
Try the crepes (I like the sweet cream cheese and strawberry ones) or the breakfast sandwiches. Also the mango-coconut hotcakes, a seasonal specialty that may or may not still be on the men, is like eating a slice of a fruity angel. Oh, and on Friday and Saturday it's open 24 hours.
Bottom Line: it's worth the line. If you really want to go there and not wait, then go on a weekday morning. You will get great service and have food on your plate within 10 minutes of walking in.
Now for the sad news. The sadness on Broadway is none other than.... Melrose Restaurant. Like I said, it's HARD to mess up breakfast foods. This place managed to do it. Although there was no line, no wait, and no problem getting a table, there apparently was a reason for this. The service was incredibly slow and our server messed up our orders in about 5 different ways. The food was overpriced for the quality and the portions were small. It's breakfast! Let's stuff ourselves like the Americans we are!
And the place was crawling with bananas. They must have been trying to get rid of 'nanas because my friend who ordered a fruit cup got an under-ripe banana in its place. My stuffed french toast, supposedly filled with mascarpone cheese and topped with strawberries was filled with.... you guessed it... bananas. I'm not a banana-hater (like some people I know) but there's a time and a place for them. And it's a well known fact that if you put even a sliver of banana in any dish, the whole thing is going to taste like them.
At the end of our meal we waited for our receipt only to find that we had to go up to the front, wait in a long line and then pay. Fine, except they couldn't split up our check in any way and wouldn't let us pay with more than 1 credit card. I get that, but at that point it was the cherry on top of an unsatisfactory dining experience.
So.... long story short. If you are headed to breakfast in Boystown, go to Nookies.
melrose is bonkers for bananazzzzz
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