Greenlake Bar & Grill (beware, link will take you to self starting video with audio)
7200 E Greenlake Drive North, S

Honestly, I hadn't even committed to stopping for breakfast. I was cutting across from my swimming class to Aurora Ave to take it home.  And this place caught my eye just as I spied a nearby parking place.

Choice was removed and in I went. I was ushered to a nice little spot and brunch began.


Food:  The price is sure right.  They have a breakfast happy hour!!

The menu has lots of great options.  Plus I heard the table next to me take those great options and order only egg whites, no cheese, dry toast oh and a virgin mary.

I went for the Shrimp & Potato Cake Benedict.  It looked good.  It tasted good*3!  The eggs were poached perfectly and the potatoes were, indeed, very crispy.  That little shrimp and potato cake was wonderful.

And then I got $4 off.  I mean really it was delight after delight.

Service:  My service was perfect. My coffee stayed hot. When I was done, the check arrived promptly  Nothing fancy, nothing missing.

Everything else:  This could be my new favorite place for a while.  I want to try the other stuff on the menu and the location is just handy.

What a treat of a find to stumble across!

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Stopsky's Delicatessen
3016 78th Avenue SE
Mercer Island, WA 

This is a blog about brunch in Seattle and Mercer Island isn't Seattle and I went back and forth about adding this one.  I haven't had a good place to review in a while and Mercer Island is really close but mainly it's my blog and I can do what I want!!

I had been here before.  For lunch once.  It was delicious.  And I had another errand on Mercer Island so it was a natural return.

The menu is full of delicious looking options.  The deli is Jewish but not kosher which is my kinda place.  I was really torn about what to order and probably should have gone with the cold fish plate but opted instead for the salami scramble.

Food:  It was good.  And one of the best scrambles I've ever had in a restaurant.  The eggs were perfectly done.  My experience is that scrambles are usually cooked to death.  This sure wasn't.

It needed some salt and there wasn't any on the table and I didn't bother to ask.  The latke was good but, honestly, I can get as good at Trader Joe's.  The toast needed a lot more toasting and butter.

But it was good.

Service:  The service was excellent.   It was efficient and my coffee never even got close to cold.

Everything else:  I love that it opens early (8 on Sundays) and there was no waiting.  I got a great table.  There are lots of little kids but none that caused me to wish it was a bar where no kids are allowed.  It's a comfortable, nice place to eat.  Lots of regular customers which gives it a nice atmosphere.

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Boka Restaurant & Bar
1010 1st Avenue

Several years back, I ate brunch at Boka every single Sunday for about a year.  Everybody knew my name.  I've been back once or twice since but not in a while.  Until today.

I saw that they have croque madame on the menu now.  It's a nice little walk from my house so what the heck!

Food:  It was fair.  The brioche needed crunch.  The egg was cooked too long.  The presentation was sloppy and the ham was really blah plus dry.  If the croque madame at the Bastille is a 10 (which it certainly is), this is a 2.

Service:  The service was excellent with one minor flaw.  My coffee was topped off every few minutes. I had lots of good ice water.  I wanted some time to relax before eating and asked the waitress to slow down my order which she did perfectly without even a hint of fuss. I got my bill promptly and did not have to wait long at all to cash out.

The only weirdness was a pet peeve of mine...  I get that severs need and should take breaks but don't tell me about it.  This waitress, twice - once with me and once with the table next to mine - interrupted out meals to announce she was going on break.  I am not married to a server.  The relationship I want is with service. If you are going on a break, go.  Quietly.  Just make sure I have service while you are gone.  I probably won't even notice.

Everything else:  I have to say that the Boka is one of the nicest feeling places in town.  It just envelopes you in comfort and class. It feels so nice.  I love the ambiance a whole lot.  Next time I'll just order something else!

Lucky Diner
2630 1st Avenue

This was not my first time at Lucky's but it was my first time for breakfast/brunch.

It will absolutely not be my last.  This is a lovely little bright spot in Belltown.

Food: They have a specials menu as well as a regular menu for breakfast, lunch and inner. I'm pretty sure they are not time restricted.   I opted for the Cali benedict which was just wonderful.  The first bite revealed that the avocado was stone cold - a bit of a shock but turned out not to be an issue.


My companion had vegetarian biscuits and gravy.  He said it was good. It did not look good but I have moral objections to vegetarian food.

The menu seemed to be full of wonderful choices... next time.

Service:  Our waiter was cute and really really nice. He won the coffee race by a mile. I never saw the bottom of the cup.  We got our order very promptly, and our bill, too.  Good good service.

Everything else:  This is just a bright and chipper and fun place.  Giant windows let you monitor all the comings and goings on 1st ave.  The staff is great.  The seating is comfortable.  They don't have a good spot to wait for a seat so a line makes it seem pretty crowded.  This could be an issue if they get really popular which they just might.

Oh and the bill came nicely divided without our even having to ask!!

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Harvest Vine
2701 East Madison Street

It has been a long while since I added any new brunch places!! I don't go every weekend day any more plus, I've been doing a lot of repeats recently.  But today is a totally net new place!

It might be my first time ever having Basque food.

Food:  I had no clue what most of this was and as I got there just as they opened, I couldn't even peak at the plates others ordered.  So I punted with Revuelto de Champiñones.  And coffee.

It was a great choice.  Delicious.  I could have used a side of bacon or some other meat to go with it.  It was really not quite enough food.  But it was really tasty - wonderful delicate flavoring.  And the toast was perfect with it.

Service:  The service was pretty good - my coffee cup was constantly topped off.  The food took a long time to get to me and because of the seating, wait service wasn't really comfortable.

Everything else:  It's a tiny tiny place - maybe 50 seats.  All of those seats were counter/bar height and not at all comfortable.  Most are squeezed in around a bar which surrounds the working kitchen.  Had the chairs been more comfortable and less crowded, it would have likely been a much better experience.  I did not linger - my thighs, cut off because I had no where to put my feet, were losing blood!

I can't see going back until the seating is better which is a shame because I think I like Basque cuisine!

I was charmed by the sugar cubes.  It's been a long time since I've seen them served anywhere.

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Bastille Cafe & Bar
5307 Ballard Avenue Northwest

For the past several years, I've joined my neighbors for dinner here on Christmas Eve.  It's always a wonderful evening.  When they started serving brunch on Sundays, it went on my list.  The down side is that it is smack in the middle of the Ballard Farmer's Market which is year round so getting to the place is a bitch.

But, today, I proved to me that the enormous hassle is well worth the effort.

Food:  The menu has several items that looked like Must Tries and then the nice waiter came by to share 3 specials.  It would have been a torturous decision except the menu had my achilles brunch heel - Croque Madame.

And it was perfect.  Just perfect.  There used to be a place in West Seattle that had the best but they retired it off the menu.  But even the memory of it isn't as good as this was this morning.  The perfect ham, the perfect cheese - the egg was done... perfectly.  OMG

The waiter did tell me that it was perennial on the menu so I could feel free to experiment next time knowing that I could come home to the Croque.  (He also told me of another place near by - Anita's who also served Croque Madame.  But, I have no need to top perfection.)

Service:  Impeccable and exceptional.  In every way.

Everything else:  This restaurant has the secret sauce.  It was really loud but the noise became background music in no time.  There was a table with two unruly kids next to me and they didn't bother me a bit.  I read my book and enjoyed my meal.  Oh, I had forgotten to load up the Kindle app on my tablet with my current book but I looked and they had free WiFi!!

Seriously, this is absolutely my new favorite brunch place ever.  I may have to come back here a few dozen times before I even try anyplace else again.

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Bill's off Broadway
725 East Pine Street

I have always wondered about this place and thought it might be more than a college dive bar that served food as an afterthought.

It's not really.

The bloody mary did look great, though.

Food:  I walked by the kitchen passthrough window and saw the breakfast pizza which looked so delicious that I really did not consider anything else on the menu.

The guy at the next table had some pretty sexy looking french toast, however.

Anyway, the breakfast pizza turned out to be all looks and no taste.  I was brunching with a friend who had the eggs benedict and she reported some missing taste in her meal as well.

Service:  On a scale of 1-10, I'd have to give our service a 2.  We got our coffee and our food eventually.  And my coffee mug, once I got it, stayed topped off.  But, really, service is not their core business, I don't think.

Everything else:  If you are in the 'hood and dying for a bloody marry, go for it.  But keep on truckin' if you are looking for a good meal, clean tables, service of most any kind.

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