Breakfast in Barrington

Don't hate me, dear reader! I know it's been a long time since I've written, but I have some pretty legit excuses that all have to do with my academic career. But I couldn't stay away. Anyways, I'm having writers block, so I decided to push aside my proposal and come back to my beloved blog. Oh food blog, I've missed you so. And it's a good thing that I signed in to check out my blog because I found out that I've been blocking comments!! Oops! I fixed that problem though. So please, keep leaving me comments. They make me feel loved.

Ok, on to more important things, namely, FOOD. Last month for my birthday weekend, Glenn promised to take me to a breakfast place of my choosing. I anticipated that we would probably head into the city to one of my favorite joints (Toast or Feast), however I happened to come across a random restaurant on Yelp called Brunch Cafe. Not a very creative name, but hey, it gets the point across.

It's really out in the middle of nowhere in Fox River Valley in a sad sad mini-mall. The day was dismal making the restaurant, from the outside, look even more pathetic. But, and this is a big but, the food is ever-so-satisfying.

Immediately, I was a happy camper because they served the coffee right away AND the server complimented my tights. I'm a sucker for compliments. So of course, I loved her right away and thought she had great taste.
Glenn ordered this skirt steak skillet. He only really gets excited to eat steak for breakfast. He never order steak otherwise. He is a strange one.
I asked Glenn what he thought about his steak skillet and he said that he liked that they gave you a lot of the steak. Because he didn't really say anything about the way it tasted, I demanded a bite... or 2. Ok who am I kidding? I ate like 1/4 of it. Unfortunately, it was a bit overdone for my taste, making the meat a little tough. But I liked that it had a lot of cheese and the potatoes were slightly crunchy on the outside and nice and soft on the inside.


However, Glenn was enthralled by the steak. (Should I be worried???)
And surprise, surprise, I ordered some kind of eggs benedict dish. Actually, it was a really interesting take on eggs benedict. Instead of english muffin, they placed the poached eggs on top of portabello mushrooms. It also had goat cheese (you know, my fave), asparagus, and hollandaise sauce. I'm pretty picky about my hollandaise sauce, and this one was good, but I could really taste the lemon. The acidity was only tempered by the goat cheese. Maybe they did that combo on purpose. Overall, I thought it was a really good dish and I would definitely order it again.

And because it was my birthday, and I had passed my last written prelim, I felt that I should be rewarded with french toast! Glenn and I split stuffed french toast. Inside was sweet cream cheese topped off with a strawberry sauce. I think the french toast was my favorite part of the meal.
Overall, it was a good find, especially for being in the middle of nowhere. See, friends? You don't have to worry about me living out here, I can survive. I always find the good food.

Big thanks to Glenn who funded the 26 + 1 bday brunch.