Melanie Pringle's

Date Visited: Lunch on Saturday Mar 21, 2015
Company: +Stephanie and +Caroline

+Stephanie was down from Scarborough for the weekend and we decided to hit up the gym on Saturday morning. Afterwards, the timing was perfect for some lunch in the area before I went to Toronto. +Caroline was also free so we called her up to meet us at Melanie Pringles at 12:30PM. When we arrived, it was surprisingly busy with a surprise birthday party occupying a front block of the restaurant. The decor was very cute, a true throwback to a 50's and 60's diner with colourful booths and old school decorations on the wall. It was a huge restaurant with lots of different areas and ample seating, good for large parties.





While we waited for Caroline, we had a long look at their extensive menu filled with delicious sounding foods. When Caroline arrived and was deliberating what she wanted, we started discovering more options just from what she was looking at. She noted they had lattice fries and I haven't had those since university so I really wanted to get them. We decided to share the Coney Island Fries which were Crispy Lattice Fries smothered in Chili and Cheese Sauce, topped with Sour Cream and Green Onions. It came out surprisingly fast and looked amazing. The chili was delicious and thick, and they weren't exaggerating when they said 'smothered'. It was really filling though and I wanted to save room... but I couldn't stop eating it. So mind blowing, I might have to order these every time I'm here...

I also decided to order a Crispy Crunch Milkshake. It was less than $5 which I haven't seen before at a diner so I was impressed already. It came in a cute milkshake glass topped with whipped cream and a cherry. It came with the excess but there wasn't much in it. The shake was delicious and creamy, just enough crispy crunch flavour with tiny chocolate pieces too.

For my entree, I had a really tough time choosing as there's a lot I wanted to try. In the end, I got the Meatloaf with vegetables, onion rings, and cheddar mashed. The waitress asked if I wanted gravy for the potatoes and I instinctively said yes before realizing that I probably had to pay for it and there should be gravy on my plate already.  The meatloaf came with 2 large pieces that tasted rather meaty and still good, but the gravy on top was just a tad too thick. At first glance, the plate looked a bit empty to me but after a few bites, I really started filling up. The onion rings were perfect and stood out among the other sides. The mashed potatoes were pretty creamy and smooth, but I could have survived with the gravy from the meatloaf. The vegetables tasted good also, there were some yellow-looking carrots that I'm not sure what they were but it all was cooked perfectly.

Overall, I was really impressed with the food at Melanie Pringle's. It is however on the pricier side for diner food, most dishes were around the $14 mark. They also charged me $2 for the gravy which I wasn't impressed about. The service is less to be desired as our waitress was very slow, not with just our table but our surrounding tables were also looking for her. Nonetheless, this is easily one of my new favourite places in Whitby!

Food: 4/5 - So much good food here!

Decor: 4/5 - Very roomy and they really commit to the theme.

Service: 1.5/5 - Very slow and inattentive waitress.

Willingness to go back: 5/5 - Absolutely going to recommend this spot to everyone, not sure why it took me so long to discover it!

Overall: 3.5/5

Website: http://www.melaniepringles.com/

Cafe Mirage

Date Visited: Brunch on Sunday Sunday Sept 14, 2014
Company: Walk-in for 5

The morning after +Clare's housewarming in North York, we all went for brunch in Sheppard Centre at a place she's been wanting to check out for a while. The Cafe Mirage is primarily known for their desserts from what she knew and also from what I pulled up from the internet. We were pretty excited for bunch as it looked very legit from what we could tell... What a surprise we had...

When we arrived the restaurant was basically empty, I surprised how big the location is with an entrance from Yonge Street as well as the Sheppard Centre. Their menu is quite extensive with a bit of a Mediterranean focus with their main dishes. There was lots of choose from and look at with their book of a menu and we took a while to decide what drinks/breakfasts to get. I finally decided on my classic Back Bacon Breakfast and Vanilla Milkshake.

So for some reason, half the drinks came in one batch then the server had to go back to make the rest of the drinks. She later told us that their drinks person was late that day but there was a lot of people around in the back that could have helped? The Milkshake was actually very delicious though, very thick and good amount of ice cream :). Maybe the desserts/drinks is what they should stick with because our meals were not good at all. Our plates were huge and I got 2 small, thin, overcooked pieces of back bacon, and some stingy scrambled eggs (they say 3 in the menu but there's NO WAY that was 3 eggs). They could not have plated this breakfast any worse to make it look more empty. The rest of the meals didn't look any better either, the quality was not fresh and everything was overcooked. Also, some of the peanut butter they gave us was already opened and got over the rest of the jams. If I was a waiter there I would be so embarrassed to serve this plate to a customer.

After we had eaten, we were literally sitting for about half an hour before we had to wave a waitress over to clear our plates and get the bill. The service was horrible and it's not like they weren't there, they were just walking by and ignoring you. Needless to say, I did not tip very well and was glad to get out of there. I'm very intrigued by their desserts though, how can they look so good while my breakfast was so bad?

Food: .5/5 - AWFUL BREAKFAST, milkshake was only redeeming part.
Decor: 3/5 - Very spacious and modern black and silver decor.
Service: .5/5 - Again, SO BAD. (not the worst I've had though)
Willingness to return: 1/5 - No way I'd come here willingly unless someone dragged me out for dessert... which I'm very actually interested in checking out.
Overall: 1/5 

Website: http://cafe-mirage.com/ 

Buns Hamburger House

Date Visited: Lunch on Sunday Aug 4, 2013
Company: Group of 4, before heading to Osheaga

Right before our last day of Osheaga, we ventured to Sainte-Catherine for lunch and were faced with a slew of different restaurants on the busy street. Of all the options that were proposed by +Elliott, our local expert, we decided on good, cheap burgers. When I checked in on Foursquare for the location, I discovered that Buns has received a lot of praise and according to some, have the best burgers in Montreal. We did notice that it was pretty cheap, $8 for a burger, fries, and drink. But their menu basically started and ended there. I decided to go for a Burger Combo with a Vanilla Milkshake instead which was $11. Also, they don't charge taxes here!

We were in a bit of a rush to catch Frightened Rabbit's set so I felt like the time dragged on while waiting for our burgers to cook. There was only one worker there doing everything and even though it wasn't very busy, we waited about 15 minutes for our orders. We sat at 1 out of the 2 tables at the restaurant, it wasn't big but with only two tables it was pretty spacey, mostly for people to wait for their orders. Even the kitchen area seemed a bit cramped but perfect for only 1 worker. The place is a whole in the wall otherwise, there was nothing appealing about it and it's very drab. The bathroom was also a disaster with no toilet paper. I heard it's open late so I feel like they just didn't clean after the drunk people came in the previous night.

Anyways, back to the food. I had my burger with everything on it and cheese is included in all the burgers. The bun looked very firm and dense which was nice because it didn't get soggy. The burger patty was very flavourful and well done. It's a simple burger but tastes amazing. It didn't look too big but really fills you. The fries were large-cut and the potatoes were so soft and fluffy inside. Some of mine were overcooked but others were perfect. They had a bit of spices on them which gave it a nice bit of flavour. It was hard to finish all of them since they gave you so much but they were really addictive fries. The milkshake was also a great addition, it was very thick and had lots of ice cream. It came in a Styrofoam cup though which was a bit weird.

Food: 4.5/5 - I really enjoyed the food, fries were a bit inconsistent.
Decor: .5/5 - Only plus was that it was roomy.
Service: 2.5/5 - Server was nice but took his sweet time.
Willingness to come back: 3/5 - It's a good eat but there's no other variety to get here other than what I had already.
Overall: 2.5/5
Website: http://bunshamburgers.blogspot.com/

Fran's Restaurant

Date Visited: Brunch on Sunday Apr 21, 2013

Company: Getting breakfast after a night out and before the Jay's game with a group of 6 friends.

I've had this review pending for a while in my 'to-write' list because I wasn't sure if I was going to post it or not. The main reason was because my taste buds may not have been on their game this particular morning. After a night of drinking, my opinion on food may not be in sync with how I'd normally feel. Regardless, I've decided to go forward with this post because blogging is fun :)

So Fran's is located at the bottom of the Pantages Hotel across from St. Michael's Hospital on the corner of the street. It doesn't seem like it's attached to the hotel but according to the website it is. +Gisele lives just beside the hotel so I've walked by this place a few too many times. Upon first glance, it definitely looks like an old school diner/all-day breakfast place. I was pretty excited to finally try this establishment that fine morning. 

We were lucky to grab a table quickly upon arrival as the place was pretty full and more people started to fill in. We had a nice window seat with the sun shining in which is why my photos have so much shadow. The menu offered a huge variety, almost Pickle Barrel-like. They had unique combinations of classic dishes (for example, they have 6 types of Eggs Benedict). I was enticed by the Vegetarian Rainbow Benedict and ordered that along with a Vanilla Milkshake. From what I remember  we had to wait a while to get our food. Our drinks came in the meantime and I was very impressed with the Milkshake. I didn't like how it came in the mixing cup as it wasn't very pretty and a bit messy, but the shake itself was very delicious, thick and creamy how it should be.

When our food did arrive, the presentations of the plates were not very appealing. Laura ordered a waffles with strawberries and you can tell that they were previously frozen and not fresh, not very appetizing. My vegetables and fruits looked like they were just thrown on the plate. I was expecting a nice arrangement of the vegetables included but all I saw was a bed of spinach and some chopped peppers. The fruit wasn't very fresh either, the strawberry was literally shrivelled, why would you serve that as a garnish?

The actual eggs and Hollandaise sauce in terms of taste wasn't bad though. Half the plate was home fries which were good but I think everyone had a lot of that left over. +Alex and +Brian ordered the Steak Benedict which looked like it would've been a better choice but the consistency of the poached eggs were really off. One was completely cooked all the way through while the other on the plate would be runny which I found extremely odd. Everyone else seemed satisfied with their meals though, I definitely want to try their other options as breakfast was a bit disappointing. I'm curious as to how the other foods measure up when breakfast, their main attraction, didn't do it for me.

Food: 1.5/5 - Wasn't very impressed.
Decor: 2.5/5 - Surprisingly large but average.
Service: 2/5 - Busy time of day but we had to wait quite a while.
Willingness to come back: 3.5/5 - As mentioned above, wouldn't mind trying lunch or dinner here.
Overall: 2.5/5
Website: http://www.fransrestaurant.com/