We read all the positive reviews of this restaurant and were excited to try it. So, this morning I, my wife, and our son sallied forth and ordered breakfast. We made a point of arriving at around 8:40 or so to beat the long lines that we read form after 9 am. And yep, while we were eating breakfast a number of large groups started filing into the place.
We found the staff warm and friendly. The room is large and attractive, brightly lit electrically and with natural sunlight flowing in from the large windows facing a gorgeous view of Silverdale and the hills beyond. The dining room is one huge, high-ceiling room and, unfortunately, that makes for a very loud and noisy room when the place is packed with diners.
I'll get to the food in a moment, but the first thing i found fault with was the water they serve in glasses. It's standard Silverdale municipal water and it tastes horrible, just like the water from most cities like Bremerton and Port Orchard. Surprisingly., the coffee made with that water was among the best I've had in restaurants. They use Rainshadow Coffee (out of Sequim) and today I became a fan of their coffee beans.
For breakfast, I chose the Ham & Cheddar Omelette from the French Baked Omelettes section of the menu, with a side of 4 slices of thick bacon. The dish was described in the menu has having diced smoked ham along with the cheddar cheese. It promised "plenty of diced smoked ham and cheddar cheese folded into fluffy eggs". Unfortunately, I could taste no hint of smoke in the ham; it tasted just like any other cooked cubed ham. As for the cheddar cheese, there was barely any in my omelette except for one small section--and even then it lacked cheese flavor. As for the fluffy eggs, my omelette looked impressive but was dry. When I bite into an omelette I want to taste fluffy but moist eggs--not undercooked--but moist. And to top it off, the entire dish was underseasoned. The eggs had no flavor. As for the bacon, although they have it made special for them and it was tasty but still wasn't as great as i'd expected. I also think I prefer the texture and taste of an omelette cooked in a skillet over one baked in an oven.
My wife chose one of the specials, an apple chicken sausage and sweet onion omelette. She had been deciding between the Garden Scramble and the Eggs Benedict but this omelette looked interesting. She asked our server for advice and was told that she should order the Special omelette since it's wasn't usually offered as a special and wasn't on the regular menu. My wife felt the eggs were both slightly undercooked and also lacked flavor, I had a taste and I agreed with the lack of flavor. If anything, I would've preferred to have my eggs cooked the way hers were. It also came with a wedge of honeydew melon and a pineapple wedge. If we return, she would like to try the Eggs Benedict since we make that from scratch at home. We like to compare our Hollandaise sauce with those served in restaurants.
Our son opted for the Eggs Casey, which is three scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese and chopped bacon on a croissant covered in mushroom sauce--which my son loved. In fact, he was the only one to fully enjoy his breakfast.
The common denominator among all three egg dishes that were made with cheddar cheese was that there was barely any cheese in any of the dishes. A menu states that an egg dish contains cheese then that cheese should be found throughout the dish and not just in small, scattered patches.
Our entrees came with a side of three buttermilk pancakes with a large dollop of melting butter on top, a small glass pitcher of maple syrup to the side of the plates. The pancakes were absolutely delicious, made from a sourdough batter and selected yeasts. My wife and I agreed that the pancakes lived up to their menu description and were our favorite part of our meal. Our son polished off all his pancakes. We were too stuffed to finish ours.
The staff operated like a well-oiled machine, each person pitching in to help with another server's table, refilling coffee cups and such. Our main server was was great, refilling coffee or bringing to the table a pot of hot water for my wife's tea, and clearing the table of empty dishes.
There was a small problem in getting accurate info on where to pay our bill, at our table or at the front desk. One server told us it was our choice but it became clearly obvious you take your check to the front desk to pay it. They need to work on standardizing procedures like these so new customers aren't confused.
Will we be back? My wife and I don't know for sure. She would like to try the Eggs Benedict while I'd like to give the burgers on the Lunch menu a try. Or I might try one of the scrambled egg dishes, I don't know. But my wife and I were disappointed with the food on our first visit here so we'll decide at a later date. read more