I have mixed feelings about this place.
On one hand, it's a very cute place off the beaten path with very affordable brunch selections and excellent service from the sweet lady who works front-of-the-house. As someone who always tries to support small businesses, this is typically where I like to spend my money. Also, their Moroccan Eggs dish is splendid, and their coffee is also excellent.
On the other hand, I had a very strange brunch experience here this weekend. It wasn't very busy and we were seated at a cute table by the window near the entrance. I ordered orange juice and the Crab Eggs Benedict ($11 vs. $6-7 for most other brunch items).
When my order came, I noticed the eggs were pretty well made, and that there was some kind of gray-colored rectangular "crab cake" placed between the 2 eggs. When I took a bite from this patty, I noticed that it was almost all breading, with sparse bits of red onion, red pepper, and very few strands of crab meat inside. As I dug through the patty, I noticed that the total amount of crab did not even make up 1/15th of the patty. The patty was very moist and bready, and did not possess any particular flavor.
When the nice lady came over to ask how we were doing, I was honest and asked about this curious patty, because the menu clearly indicated that this dish came with "Jumbo Lump" crabmeat, but there were only thin, short strands in a bready patty. The kind lady told me that she would ask the chef.
Two minutes later, a tall, heavy-set man came up to my table holding an open can of crabmeat in one hand. He pointed to the can and said, "This IS crabmeat!"
I agreed, proceeded to politely show him the few strands on my plate I was able to extract from the patty, and said that there was some crabmeat in my patty, but that it was mostly bread filling.
A the time, I was thinking that he might have forgotten to take the crabmeat out of the can while making my rectangular "crab" patty. He then pointed to the filling and argued that the filling was crabmeat.
When I told him that I could see that it was obviously not crabmeat and that it tasted like bread filling, he became upset and raised his voice, saying "I've been cooking for 28 years! And that is crabmeat!" There were 2 other parties seated in the restaurant.
The man (who is apparently the chef-owner) went back to the open kitchen and glared at me for the rest of our meal, throwing loud comments about how crab costs $26/lb and repeatedly making comments about my race and gender. (Next time I come here, I might need to go undercover as an older Caucasian male, instead of coming in as myself, a younger Asian female. Or maybe I could come in as a Yeti.)
Crab is widely known not to be cheap, and so I sympathize. However, I would suggest charging a bit more for the dish and include a bit more crab, or to remove it from the menu altogether. The rectangular bread patty with small bits of crab was just very difficult to eat. I've been eating for about 28 years and don't recall any instances where crab tasted like bread filling. Also, I think the chef could find canned crabmeat for much cheaper than $26/lb in the Philadelphia area. (Maybe in Chinatown? For like 99 cents a can?) He might be better off exploring a business relationship with a new distributor.
The nice lady offered to give me another item on the menu, in response to which I picked French Toast. (She comped the eggs benedict and charged for the toast.) But by the time the French Toast arrived, I no longer had an appetite and we just paid and left. read more