Monday, September 19, 2011

Good Egg Cafe

Good Egg Cafe is a restaurant that first came into my scope last March during Maine Restaurant Week.  We wanted to go to The Pepper Club (the restaurant's name for dinner) and so we did a little research and found out they were also open for breakfast.  Now, we were not able to go to the Pepper Club for dinner because we didn't make reservations and we were starving... I think we ended up having pizza. 

Anyways, from the second I walked in I wanted to eat there.  The walls are colorful and interesting. they have chalkboard menus, there are couches, their tables and chairs are each unique, and their sugar is in an adorable little genie vase.  Pretty much I needed to eat there. 
So for about a year I've had this restaurant in the back of my mind waiting to go there.... then at the same time I keep hearing about Good Egg Cafe and how delicious it is! That was it. I had to go.  Decision Made. 

The day finally came, Good Egg Cafe for breakfast with my husband Nic and his friend visiting from Australia, Chris.  

I love breakfast! and I love going out for breakfast because, my favorite breakfast items are Poached Eggs and those little guys are hard to perfect at home. And I love how when you order toast it's perfectly toasted and has melted yummy butter already on it.... toast at restaurants is always better than toast at home. 
Happily, we sit down in a quaint little booth and I the hostess greets us and takes our drink order. Sadly, they only have drip coffee----I had a hankrin' for a cappuccino...but I'll survive with some English Breakfast tea. 

Without hesitation I looked for Eggs Benedict----no luck.  Next best thing, just a classic 2 Poached eggs and home fries with homemade Oatmeal Toast.  
Chris ordered 2 poached eggs, veggie hash, and homemade English Muffins.
Nic ordered a 2 egg omelet with cheese, sausage, and mushrooms. 

First Impressions are NOT everything.  

It took a good 20 minutes for our meal to be served to us.  Negative #1.

Then the saddest of all breakfast woes happened. 

We got our meal and my Eggs were NOT good. 
My beautiful poached eggs were cooked through.  The were flat hard-boiled eggs ---that's what they really were. It was so sad.  And it's wasn't just my eggs.... Chris's poached eggs were totally cooked too!  :(  Negative #2 & 3
The bread was decent....not toasty enough, in my opinion and the home fries were more like oven roasted home fries.  The lacked that crispy outside.   Negative #4
I give my meal a C+

Chris said his veggie hash was mostly potatoe----but it was good. And reported the english muffin was yummy!  
Chris gave his a B

Nic said his omelet was good but for $9 is wasn't that good and it was lacking filling.  ---It did look pretty puny. 
Nic gave his a B

They both loved their Coffee By Design coffee!

Sadly, this wasn't a great dinning experience---but, I'd be willing to try it again.

Retrospectively.... maybe you can't just a restaurant by it's paint.  That first impression let me down.




Wednesday, September 14, 2011

A little introduction...

My name is Allison and as a little girl I always loved the arts. Now, I realize "the arts" is a very general term. In this blog, I am going to focus on a few types of art that I love---that are my main interests.  We are going to delve into food, restaurants, movies, and book reviews, as well as DIY tips, and scrap-book loves.

In this day and age we are bombarded with reality TV.  I try to stay away from most of it however, I have gotten  hooked into a few different shows.  While living in Australia, I ran across a new show Masterchef. I fell in love straight away....what's not to love about a cooking competition from people who are just like me! (except Australian). Well, to my delight, the next Summer America came out with their own version of Masterchef---and again I love it, who doesn't love Gordon Ramsey?  As I watch the show I become more and more obsessed with good food.  Not just the box of Mac'n'cheese that mom threw on the stove for dinner but, items like savory, gooey, cheesy, rich, Baked Truffle Macaroni and Cheese.  Yum!  

My love for cooking reality competitions has brought a whole new world to light.  I've become driven to create my own (beginner) gourmet food from scratch. With this new goal (which my family loves)  I've become more of a, for a lack of a better word, SNOB about food.  I now know how food should or could taste and I expect quality when I am out.  Which leads to my husband and my new goal... we want to try out all the restaurants of interest from the www.portlandfoodmap.com.

Now what could be more classic then dinner and a movie date night?  This is one of Nic (my husband) and my favorite dates. We all have our first impressions when we step into a restaurant.  We know what others have told us, we look at the street display, the lighting, the table step up, flowers, the menu, the bar... the second we step in we either get that little thrill of excitement that encourages us to order a drink or an appetizer that we weren't budgeted for and get ready for a great night.  OR, we quickly order a water and go straight for the entree and head out in a cloud of disappointing. First Impressions are everything.
That means, after we go out and taste all the delicious food and be entertained by the newest movies in theaters I want to give you my thoughts and add in my husband's review too!  I want to tell you about those first impressions and how it all looked retrospectively.