I bookmarked this place on my Yelp for the longest time as it was recommended by Cleveland Magazine as one of the best breakfast place around Cleveland area. My husband and I finally made it here on my birthday weekend. My review for this restaurant consists of four parts show below:
Food: 4/5
The food is good here. I somehow may get the dish that I don't like much. I cannot blame this to the restaurant as I personally don't like mustard and this dish - Croque Madame - has the mustard on it. My husband breakfast sandwich was delicious though. I like to come back again so I can try the other dishes and I can make this review more precise. For this visit, I have two comments for the food.
1) I think their croissant is overbaked or overtoasted. This is again not a restaurant's fault or mistake. It is purely my own personal preference. I like crispy croissant but it should not be too crispy to the point that you can taste the bitterness from over toasting.
2) The almond filling in the almond croissant is not balance with the gigantic size of the croissant. Their croissant is literally the size of small cabbage, but the amount of almond filling was probably one or two tablespoons. The unbalance between the size of the croissant and amount of the filling just took away the deliciousness of the almond croissant.
Price: 4/5
I think their food is a bit too pricy for the breakfast place, but I have to give their credit on the quality of food ingredient and their attention in cooking. I can tell that the chef and his team work really hard and pay high attention on each dish they sent out from the kitchen by the look of the food and the decoration.
Service: 4.8/5
The service is phenomenon. Our waiter did a superb job waiting our table. He was very energetic, attentive, and knowledgable about the food he served. I also impressed with the restaurant manager who took time to walk around the restaurant to greet, check about the food, and thank to all customers. The only reason I took 0.2 points out from the service is that I wish the restaurant can come up with better way to manage the waiting list. It can be by texting the customer when their table is ready, so that we don't have to hang out near by the entrance for the whole 20 minutes. Their restaurant do not have seating area for people to sit on while waiting. I cannot imagine what people do during the winter on the snow day. Any lastly, I wish the restaurant add the reservation option so that we don't have to wait for the table.
Atmosphere: 4/5
The restaurant is pretty cute, cozy, and clean. It is however a bit tiny, probably due to the amount of tables that they try to put in. It felt somewhat clutter.
Overall, I think this is a good breakfast place. My tip for people who have never been here and plan to come are below:
Tip#1: Don't come with an empty stomach. Get banana or a cup of coffee before heading to the restaurant, so that you don't get too cranky from being super hungry while waiting for your name to be called.
Enjoy!