Sherman's Food Adventures: Toulouse Petit

Toulouse Petit

Lineups. I can't stand lineups. I've expressed this sentiment over and over again. Hey, I'm all for good food; but if there is an excessive amount of people waiting for it, I tend to shy away. This is especially true when I have the kids with me. Just imagine their patience level waiting in line to be seated. This is what happened the previous day when I drove by Paseo. No can do, I just kept on driving. So you can see my apprehension about visiting another Seattle favourite - Toulouse Petit. They do take reservations; but not for breakfast. So my only choice was to show up early. That involved waking up, loading up the car and heading into Seattle from Bellevue. It was all worth it though. We got seated right away. By the window no less!

Besides being a great place to grab brunch, another reason we ended up here was the kid-friendliness of the place. As such, there was the usual crayons and coloring paper; yet curiously, there was no kid's menu. Hence, we had to order a regular-sized breakfast for my son. No matter, I was hungry anyways. The Classic Eggs Breakfast consisted of 2 eggs, choice of sausage, ham or bacon, hashbrowns and toast. My son decided on the scrambled eggs and sausage, which incidentally would've been my choices as well. Hey, might as well test the skill of the kitchen with scrambled eggs right? Well, the eggs were nearly perfect. They were folded nicely and fluffy. I would've preferred them just a smidgen less cooked; however, that is nit-picking. The house-made sausage patty was meaty and devoid of fatty chunks. It was not overseasoned where we could still taste the meat. The hashbrowns were the cubed fried variety and were seasoned with with cajun spice.

For myself, I had the Cured Pork Cheek Confit Hash which happened to be featured on Food Network's "The Best Thing I Ever Ate". Although I didn't make the breakfast happy hour price (which was the theme of that episode), it really didn't matter. I really needed to see for myself if it deserved the fanfare. Consisting of tender pork cheek, parsnips, potato, arugula, asparagus and chilies, this was an interesting hash. I mixed in the perfectly poached eggs and this was a very enjoyable plate of food. The best thing I ever ate? Well no. However, I can't deny that it was something a bit different and tasty. I found the pork cheek in this application to have a similar consistency as stewed beef tongue (which is a good thing btw). There were other flavours at work here other than the salty pork cheek. The bitterness of arugula and the kick from the chilies added a few other angles of flavour.

As for Viv, she decided on the Duck Terrine Benedict. Now when they say terrine, they meant it. Sitting atop the muffin was a thick slice of duck liver terrine with pistachios. And on top of that was 2 perfectly poached eggs and a wonderful Hollandaise. The terrine itself didn't exhibit much "duckiness"; yet it was still very good nonetheless. We thought it would be heavy in an eggs benny and it really wasn't. The main thing is that it was different. In fact, that was one of the highlights of this breakfast. We didn't eat the same ol' thing again, like bacon and eggs. Add into the fact that it was tasty while being in an eclectic environment with solid service, well we can see why Toulouse Petit is so popular. I can't wait to return for their dinner service.

The Good:
- Something a bit different
- Food is executed well (for what we tried)
- Service was attentive

The Bad:
- A bit pricey for breakfast (but was worth it IMO)
- There are no reservations taken at breakfast, prepare to lineup

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