Foods from Grillman Fresh Eatery
Comments
2007 Feb 25
What happened to the Grillman?
Having a busy day yesterday we decided to do quick and basic for breakfast this morning. Broadways was full so we headed for the Grillman, having not been there for a while.
First disappointment was how tired the restaurant interior now looks. Dusty cobwebs in the pot lights, chipped formica everywhere, peeling seats. But since they do a good breakfast I was willing to overlook these things.
Coffee (which was good) was prompt and the service was great up until the cheque, which required me to eventually get up and put my coat on…nothing…walking over to waiter on the phone and making eye contact….nothing, and finally having to actually ask him for it. At that point he made his way over to our section and after giving some folks menus and taking someone else’s order he managed to give it up. I should note here that when we arrived the restaurant was not busy, nor was there any threat of that happening anytime soon; but by the time we left it looked like the after-church-crowd was arriving so we missed the heavy time.
As for the food. Its pretty hard to screw up breakfast but it can be done. It arrived with breathtaking quickness for sure, but this was after staring at the menu that was vaguely reminiscent of Cora’s except their prices were higher.
I’m not too sure what you can do to bagel-yoghurt-cantaloupe-and coffee to warrant a $10.50 price tag but I wasn’t about to find out. So I settled for their basic bacon-eggs-potatoes-beans-toast. Tasty enough and not bad value considering the bacon was of the see-thru commercial cut variety and the nondescript beans could have been missing and I wouldn’t have noticed. Why do they bother? What we both received was a thick gelatinous goop with few beans in it. The potatoes were your basic garden variety and I’m not too sure what level of acquaintance their toaster has with bread, but it was a short relationship with mine. Barely toasted and then the jam/pb/marmalade pkgs were heaped on top. Yum. Why do restaurants do this? At the very least they could put them on the side.
For $4. more my partner ordered the Hearty version of my breakfast. Barely justified, the extras included 2 sausages and one and a half pieces of sliced packaged sandwich ham thrown onto the griddle to heat up. They may want to rethink this one.
While standing waiting for said waiter to get off the phone (see above), I was able to notice an unused salad bar standing in the middle of the floor. I recall bringing friends to the Grillman for breakfast/brunch and the salad bar was always an option. Today it just looked like an old forgotten relic, all covered up with plastic, waiting, perhaps, for dinner?
All in all, I wont be back for breakfast. There is far too much competition out there for my breakfast dollar these days and if you cant do it right I will vote with my feet.
Having a busy day yesterday we decided to do quick and basic for breakfast this morning. Broadways was full so we headed for the Grillman, having not been there for a while.
First disappointment was how tired the restaurant interior now looks. Dusty cobwebs in the pot lights, chipped formica everywhere, peeling seats. But since they do a good breakfast I was willing to overlook these things.
Coffee (which was good) was prompt and the service was great up until the cheque, which required me to eventually get up and put my coat on…nothing…walking over to waiter on the phone and making eye contact….nothing, and finally having to actually ask him for it. At that point he made his way over to our section and after giving some folks menus and taking someone else’s order he managed to give it up. I should note here that when we arrived the restaurant was not busy, nor was there any threat of that happening anytime soon; but by the time we left it looked like the after-church-crowd was arriving so we missed the heavy time.
As for the food. Its pretty hard to screw up breakfast but it can be done. It arrived with breathtaking quickness for sure, but this was after staring at the menu that was vaguely reminiscent of Cora’s except their prices were higher.
I’m not too sure what you can do to bagel-yoghurt-cantaloupe-and coffee to warrant a $10.50 price tag but I wasn’t about to find out. So I settled for their basic bacon-eggs-potatoes-beans-toast. Tasty enough and not bad value considering the bacon was of the see-thru commercial cut variety and the nondescript beans could have been missing and I wouldn’t have noticed. Why do they bother? What we both received was a thick gelatinous goop with few beans in it. The potatoes were your basic garden variety and I’m not too sure what level of acquaintance their toaster has with bread, but it was a short relationship with mine. Barely toasted and then the jam/pb/marmalade pkgs were heaped on top. Yum. Why do restaurants do this? At the very least they could put them on the side.
For $4. more my partner ordered the Hearty version of my breakfast. Barely justified, the extras included 2 sausages and one and a half pieces of sliced packaged sandwich ham thrown onto the griddle to heat up. They may want to rethink this one.
While standing waiting for said waiter to get off the phone (see above), I was able to notice an unused salad bar standing in the middle of the floor. I recall bringing friends to the Grillman for breakfast/brunch and the salad bar was always an option. Today it just looked like an old forgotten relic, all covered up with plastic, waiting, perhaps, for dinner?
All in all, I wont be back for breakfast. There is far too much competition out there for my breakfast dollar these days and if you cant do it right I will vote with my feet.
tourist