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| - Yoli's has recently been popping up on Yelp's 'Best Of' front page. Many people are mouthing out and as the food whore that I am, I needed to go out and try it for myself.
My previous research told me that there were many 5 stars and 3 stars reviews regarding the ambiance, service and food. It seemed that the place had be 5-stars for a while but trending analysis showed a decline in the late 2011- early 2012. Alright enough nerd talk- it was a Saturday morning, I was starving and I needed a place to have brunch with my lady friend in town.
When it comes to brunch at Yoli's, you really need to leave all your expectations at the door. The neighborhood its in is a little sub-par, the parking situation isn't grand and the interior and patio decor resembles a home that stopped paying for landscaping services a long time ago. The tables outside are all basic basic plastic, they are not squeaky clean (or perfectly leveled) and the seating is pretty limited. If you are coming to Yoli's, you are coming here for the food and nothing else, this ain't no brunch at the Four Seasons.
Their menus are strictly breakfast/brunch related but at a 2-sided page list, their breakfast choices do have a large variety of flavors and prices. The food is on the stealthier side with skillet dishes, omelets and diner-style potato sides. My friend and I ordered their most popular dish, the El Monte- Hawaiian french toast sandwich filled with egg whites, turkey, bacon and cheese with a 'spicy orange marmalade'. At about $7, the sandwich was pretty large and filled me up easily after just half of it. The french toast itself was soft and spongy and the bacon had some crisp, but the turkey was very thinly-sliced deli meat so it didn't have a lot of flavor and the spicy marmalade was tasty but not spicy at all.
The service was a tad slow but the lady was very very courteous and nice to us, she just didn't stop by very often so we had to wait around for our drinks and our check for quite a while. Overall I wasn't blown away with Yoli's but I would recommend as a place with decent portions and good prices. As of now, a 3.75 stars on my book.
I am a big supporter of local restaurants and I love seeing a family-owned business thrive. With a little bit more decor, faster service and a cleaner environment this place can return to be the GEM that people used to talk about. Yoli, if you are reading this- I hope you take this advice, we all want to see you succeed so we hope you can get back on that horse and impress the hell out of us. Good Luck!!
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