Breakfast Table

On my search for interesting brunch spots in Vancouver, it has brought me to the Breakfast Table located in South Granville. On a side note, I've always wondered why the area is called South Granville.  I guess it is because it is South of False Creek/Downtown.  But it gets a bit confusing to people who are unfamiliar because it would make sense that South Granville would be located near Marine Drive.  I digress.  So the Breakfast Table has some pretty high ratings across the board including Google, Yelp and Facebook.  With that in mind, our expectations were somewhat high.

There were many things on the menu that caught our eye, but for me, I had to get the Brome Lake Duck Confit atop shiitake XO fried rice with 2 poached eggs and seasonal vegetables.  I enjoyed the duck as it was moist, tender and well-seasoned.  The skin was nicely rendered and prepared crispy.  Underneath, I found the rice to be chewy and perfectly textured.  However, other than the umaminess of the shiitake XO, there was little else to flavour the rice.  This could've used more salt or soy to create impact.  Eggs were perfectly runny while the vegetables were not overdone.

Another interesting item was the Beef Bulgogi Hash featuring kimchi, sauteed mushrooms, spinach, potatoes and Sweet Ass Chili Sauce.  Unfortunately, the hash was far too wet where there was considerable moisture on the bottom of the bowl.  This was probably from the spinach and mushrooms.  As a result, the potatoes were soft and squishy.  This also served to water down the flavours.  On the positive side, the eggs were nicely runny while the beef was tender and full of flavour from the chili sauce.  It had slight spice while nicely sweet.

At first, we thought the potatoes were soft because of the moisture, but they were just as squishy in the Spicy Black Tiger Prawn Benedict.  As for the benedict itself, the poached eggs were once again, appealingly runny.  The English muffins were toasted well and that was a good thing because the saucy prawns and onions on top really softened them up.  Again, the same chili sauce was employed here although it was delicious, the amount of onions (and subsequent moisture) lessened the impact.  Prawns were big and perfectly prepared being meaty with a sweet aromatic snap.  As for the Hollandaise, it had a silky viscosity and was mild-tasting.

Lastly, we tried a mini version of their Gluten-Free Vanilla Bean Waffle.  This was really good and I didn't miss the gluten one bit!  Due to the combination of organic ground millet, brown rice and coconut milk, this was aromatic and of course coconutty.  It was not overly dense and had a nice texture.  This coconut whipped cream added even more coconut flavour and maple syrup was served on the side.  Overall, we thought the food was decent, yet a bit underseasoned in spots (some parts of the dishes were flavourful, when the other parts were not).  There is definitely potential here.

The Good:
- Interesting menu
- Proteins were done right
- Well-portioned

The Bad:
- Good flavours with some things and others were under-seasoned
- Potatoes were squishy (told we could've asked for them to be crispier though)