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| - When my friend set-up brunch at Nellie's Cafe on Kensington I'll be honest, I wasn't too excited. I've heard some pretty poor things about the Nellie's "chain" here in Calgary and a quick scan of their reviews seem to support this. Nonetheless, this is the spot my friend picked and the company triumphed over the spot as a good enough reason to go.
Nellie's is located in a small strip mall/plaza on Kensington Road that resembles a log cabin and has an outdoorsy/mountain type feel to it. I've always found this strip mall to feel a bit out of place and more so something you'd expect to find in Canmore, Banff and further West. They have limited parking that fills up pretty quick, so there's a good chance you'll have to park on the street and pay for parking.
To my surprise it was a full house on my visit, but luckily a booth quickly opened up for us. With my low expectations in mind I couldn't help but ponder what the draw is to this place that would translate to a full dining room. Inside there isn't a clear theme, but there are some common trends. I'd describe it best as a breakfast at your grandma's or that aunt with the old school looking kitchen and dining room. You know, the kind of room that has stuff hung everywhere and nothing is modern, but it has that homey and comfortable feel to it like you'd expect from grandma. There's plenty of collectible items from the 40s-50s in here, some oddly painted walls and a chalkboard that they must update occasionally as it mentioned things like "Gluten-Free" and "Sugar-Free" for some of their options. None of the dinnerware matched what so ever, they were a variety of colors and some people had plastic cups while others had ceramic. It truly felt like you were having breakfast at someone's house with an understocked kitchen, so to make it work they pull out all their random serving dishes to ensure everyone has something to eat and drink from lol... I do assume this is intentional and meant to create some sort of an old fashioned dining feel. Even more odd when you consider the log cabin style exterior though.
The menu had a pretty decent selection, but if they were going for old-fashioned then it ended here because many items didn't fit with that theme. Rather it was breakfast of all categories including Mexican. The prices were very affordable. I wasn't really craving anything in particular so I went with the Eggs Benedict as they were one of the featured items. Food came out in good time and it was a good sized plate, but not overwhelming. I was happy with the portion size, side of fruit and dessert muffin that was included on the plate. Also to my surprise the food actually tasted pretty decent, the potatoes are definitely made in large batches, and the fruit and muffin are definitely pre-prepared and sitting in trays/bins but they were still decent. As for the Eggs Benedict... it was actually really good! Okay weird... Fair prices, decent food... The service must have sucked right? Nope... It was actually pretty good, they were super quick with refills, took our order accurately and checked-up on us during breakfast. All in all, it was actually a decent experience.
I came in with extremely low expectations expecting to eat a nasty breakfast and get awful service. Instead I got a decent breakfast and good service at a fair price! I underestimated Nellie's and shouldn't have been too quick to judge, my apologies. It's not a WOW breakfast, but hey it's decent and I feel like I got my monies worth. Sure their "theme" and décor is a bit odd, but I found myself warming up to it by the end. By the end the place grew on me a bit and I was content with my friend's choice. Cheers,
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