rev:text
| - We almost never go out to breakfast except on vacations. While up from Cincinnati for a long Cleveland weekend, we saw that Grumpy's was just a few minutes from our downtown hotel. The hotel itself had one of those dining areas that was almost comically sterile and generic--and overpriced--so there was no way we were dining there.
Cincinnati's a crappy breakfast town. There just aren't that many options outside of the chains, and most of the ones that do serve breakfast food make you wait for brunch hours, which we don't do. (Some folks down here even get all geeked up about this chain called First Watch, which to me is little more than a Denny's with a few California-cuisine pretensions.)
Anyway, by these standards, Grumpy's is pretty good. Brightly colored decor, relatively cheery atmosphere and service (notwithstanding the restaurant name), reasonable prices, and, on this visit, competent if uninspired breakfast food. Breakfast burrito came with a nice spicy chorizo, but the meat pretty much overwhelmed the salsa or any other flavor. Home fries were probably above average, but not by much. The wife reported that the blueberry pancakes were terrific--better than almost any she had had other than her mom's (which suggests they were pretty great). After too many beers at the ballyard the night before, coffee wasn't going to agree with me, so I can't report on that.
Based on our experience, the two-star reviews seem pretty harsh. I'd say that, if it Grumpy's was nothing to write home about, it wasn't bad at all and would actually be a pretty nice option back home.
|