Westmont Family Diner

Even though I technically live in Haddon Township, NJ now, I still consider the entire area of "Haddon" to be home. I still live very close to Westmont, and therefore, I consider the Westmont Family Diner to be my true local diner. I say this not necessarily based on proximity alone, but also on general quality. It is the diner that is our default- in a good way. I've been here at least half a dozen times throughout the year and a half and oftentimes on Sundays when I need a quick breakfast.

On this trip, Chris and I decided to finally review it, believing that its consistency of food should be something to be shared with others. We were greeted with a quick hello and a "sit where you'd like" around 8:30am on a Thursday morning. Our coffee came with water without us asking for it.

The menu is pretty standard, but the diner really shines through its specials menu that changes one or two items every few months. We both ordered off of it- I got the Greek scramble with feta cheese and oregano that came with toast, and hashbrowns with grilled onions and peppers (as a standard). Together with the coffee, it was $6.99. My toast was wheat as usual, but toasted really well, with a higher sugar content than others I've had (even at this location). My meal was yummy, and warm, with a clear attempt at more sophisticated flavors than other diner breakfasts. For example, my my onions and peppers inside my potatoes were delicious and well seasoned with salt, pepper, and rosemary. My eggs were also delicious, although I thought there was too much feta which kind of overwhelmed my mouth on certain bites. It was a very simple scramble with exactly what it said would be inside of it which is something to appreciate in and of itself.

I am still on a biscuits and gravy kick. And, let me tell you, Westmont Family Diner does this southern classic right. The first thing you notice is some delicious looking sausage gravy covering two flaky (but you don't know they're flaky yet) biscuits. A little bit a sausage goes a long way, too. The gravy is thick and creamy, but not to the point where it becomes like toothpaste, and the nibbles of sausage along the way add a great pork flavor. The two eggs over medium were cooked perfectly. I decided to switch up my usual side of sausage to a side of bacon. Westmont delivers when it comes to pork. They serve the thick cut bacon that falls into the spectrum of chewy and crispy. Did I mention that you can lap all of this up in the gravy that is still overflowing on your plate? Just in case you do have some gravy left on your plate and you haven't started the biscuits, they happen to be the perfect morsels to mop up the remaining gravy. Like Chi said above, the Westmont has become our default and for good reason. By the way, my half of the meal cost less than $7.00.

Unfortunately, all pictures of Chris's part of the meal were accidentally deleted. Sad.

Kate's Kitchen (San Francisco, CA)

Kate's Kitchen was a memorable mark on our trip to San Francisco. Thrown off by the cool days (and cold mornings) we kept gravitating towards hearty stick-to-your-ribs food. This is why we gained five pounds after three days.

Kate's did not disappoint. It's a small restaurant with mostly two tops and 1 or 2 four-tops with a open view of the kitchen in the back where a fully-kitchen was busy over the stove and juicing carrots and apples. Colorful and warm with a family and a young baby to our left and some couples to our left, we're struck by the giant mural of the United States on the main wall. 

We start with the hush puppies (which, if you remember, I had just introduced Chris to earlier this summer). Delicious, deep-fried cornmeal goodness was presented to us with homemade (crazy delicious) jam and "pooh butter" to dip- (honey butter). Dense, with a generous portion size, I could imagine myself coming to this place once a week just to eat these.

My entree was their biscuits with veggie gravy. I have to say that they were [almost] perfect. If there was just a dash more salt to bring out the flavors that had been developed, I think it would have been amazing, but I find that over-salting is a common fear of most restaurant these days. The biscuits texturally were between that of a typical biscuit and a scone (think hard edges and crumbly bits). With cheese and green onion inside, it was pleasant to eat on its own, but definitely improved by the veggie gravy underneath. I have no idea how they made the gravy, except to say that they must have used some type of wheat/flour with some stock, herbs, etc. Delicious- and something I wish that they bottled and sold so I could take it back home to the East Coast to eat with all of my meals. THIS is how you do a vegetarian breakfast. It wasn't just a non-meat version of something, but a legitimate menu item of itself.

I must say even as a meat eater I am impressed with how the west coast does vegetarian. It actually brings me down a little when there are no items on a menu tailored to my girlfriend's lifestyle. It's not like being a vegetarian is a new concept; the Mid-Atlantic corridor seems to vegetarians will be OK with asking for the same item on a menu, but with no meat, and paying the same price. Kate's Kitchen shows more than acceptance with a unique menu with variety of items, they also show creativity and an ability to cook. They do a pretty good job too.

With all of that said, I decided to appease my carnivore side. I ordered the Big Guys Breakfast, which unfortunately didn't make me feel like a "big guy" ordering it out loud. Eventually two plates were brought to me that consisted of two cornmeal buttermilk pancakes, two eggs, two slices of bacon, one sausage patty, and a side of homefries! Talk about using quality products. Kate's Kitchen nailed it with their eggs and bacon. The over medium eggs were super rich with velvety yolks and the bacon was the thick cut stuff. The strips had awesome marbleization, they were packed with flavor and had the perfect amount of salt. The sausage, which was a chicken sausage, was even delicious. It feel flat from a lack of fat leaving it a little dry, but it was still very delicious. The homefries had the low mark of the day. Even though their potato flavor was never in question (still clearly using top shelf ingredients) they were a little burned and I'm not sure anyone through some salt on them leaving them very under seasoned.



Back to the good stuff. The cornmeal buttermilk pancakes were pretty special. The extra sweetness from the cornmeal plus the texture will probably ruin other pancakes for the rest of my life. I might even swear off of pancakes that don't have cornmeal as an ingredient. They were that good.





P.S. Coffee in San Francisco is delicious. Does everybody use Peet's or do they just have extra-spectacular coffee presses? Also, Kate's Kitchen gives you a generous pitcher of (non-individually packaged, and actually containing dairy) cream.

Vic's (Fremont, Nebraska)

Vic’s is a hidden gem in a sleep section of town in Fremont, Nebraska (about 40 minutes outside of Omaha). The place from the outside looks unimpressive at best, almost sketchy, with its storage space exterior and lack of windows. However, inside, a solid and creative breakfast awaits. 

It’s bigger and (much) cleaner than you may think when compared to some of the diners back home in New Jersey. The atmosphere here is simple and uncomplicated, with large tables and furniture that don’t quite match anything, but are comfortable and sturdy. The walls are decorated with various Lincoln Highway and Huskers paraphernalia. The mugs for our drinks were all mismatched, as if the owners/staff have been collecting them for years. My only complaint would have to be about the prep refrigerator that was occasionally left open for all to see the backup food and premixed sauces.  It was right under the television!

There was one waitress who sat us, took our orders, and even helped prep food in the kitchen. She was a Super Waitress who knew the menu, could make recommendations, as well as bus tables and refill coffee without being asked to do so.

For my meal, I ordered the veggie scramble. Finally, a legitimate vegetarian breakfast dish that doesn’t seem like a forced alternative to appear sensitive to non-meat eaters!  It was $7.95 for a scramble of broccoli, peppers, onion, mushrooms, and cheese topped with 2 eggs however you’d like it. I asked for mine to be fried to over-medium. And of course, I asked for hashbrowns to be thrown in for an extra $.60.

It’s a hearty breakfast and not for those on a diet, but not so fatty that you feel awful about yourself after. The cheese was not overdone (as I feared) and the veggies tasted fresh and almost sweet against the salt that was present. Hashbrowns were thin and crisped all the way through (think Waffle House-style). It came out hot with the eggs cooked properly. It reminded me a bit of an American-style bibimbap Korean dish) without the rice. My wheat toast was yummy and they didn’t skip on the butter which made me happy. However, the butter was unsalted, which was strange at first but eventually became a nice change. Overall, it was a unique breakfast with just enough indulgence and excess you’d expect from a dive-y establishment. This meal gets bonus points for keeping me full for most of the day and for not giving me a stomachache when I visited the zoo later that day. Chris went in a different direction for his breakfast:

I'm apparently in the middle of a biscuits and gravy phase at the moment, and thankfully, Vic's carried it on their menu. I would have loved to go with the one of the Husker Skillets, but they were both already ordered by others at the table. Their biscuits and gravy had components that ranged from mediocre to great. Let's start with the aspects that did not shine. The gravy itself was so-so. It congealed very quickly and looked and felt like a paste more than a smooth, rich gravy. The flavor of the gravy was good and I'm sure a lot of that came from the delicious bits of bacon scattered throughout. The biscuits were a step up from the gravy. Even through the mountain of sausage gravy that they were covered in, you could still tell they were fresh, soft and flaky. On the second plate that came out I got two eggs over medium and two sausage patties. The eggs were cooked perfectly. They were also fresh, lightly salted and just tasted like a great egg (maybe my mind is biased from being in Nebraska and thinking everything must come straight from the farm). The sausages were by far the highlight of the meal for me. The amount of fat in these two morsels was out of this world. Each patty was so incredible juicy and tender. The meat wasn't over worked and spiciness that was incorporated was incredible. Vic's sausages were hot but not uncomfortable. Next time I'm in Fremont, I will make it a point to go back to Vic's to get their sausage and eggs, and hopefully a Husker Skillet.

Additional notes:

Rachel Ray’s cooking show was playing on the TV, to which Chris’s dad said, “Why?” Wouldn’t that create an unconscious need to compare your food to the glamorized meals on the screen? Perhaps it works because Vic’s doesn’t pretend to be more than it is- neither pompous high-class food nor low-class campy. If you’re just a little bit country, you’ll fit right in.

Rise & Shine: A Steak & Egg Place

Butter and Jam

On December 28th of last year I woke up in Las Vegas, Nevada absolutely starving. I usually eat breakfast at 6am on weekdays, so by the time I drive Chi and myself to the Smith's shopping center on Decatur Boulevard at 8am pacific time, we were famished. The shopping center (strip mall) was home to a sunny looking breakfast joint called Rise & Shine: A Steak & Egg Place. The name of the restaurant needs some work as does some of the decorating and uniforms, but the food (for me) was quite pleasant.

Biscuits and Sausage Gravy

I've been on a bit of a biscuits and gravy kick for the past month, so I thought it would be neat to try a southern standard in the great southwest. The meal consisted of two biscuits covered in sausage gravy, two eggs any style, and hash browns. Oh, and a pot of bread. "What is a pot of bread?" I inquired. I soon found out that it was essentially a cinnamon loaf biscuit baked in a tiny clay pot, fun. The entire plate was very good. I was surprised at how well they pulled off this regional dish. The gravy was thick and covered the biscuits like the Silver Coin's Hollandaise sause, except it was delicious. The gravy could have used a little more sausage, but what sausage was there offered a ton of zesty flavor. The eggs over medium were placed on top of the gravy and biscuits which made for a playful presentation that I have yet to see on the east coast. Also, the eggs were cooked perfectly. The hash browns were only kind of hash browns, but definitely good. Instead of shredding the potatoes, they made little potato pellets which created a high surface area to volume ratio and in effect crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. The next time I'm visiting Sin City I'll make sure to stop by Rise and Shine.

A Potted Pot of Bread...

Now, let me preface this by saying that for the three years I lived in Vegas growing up, I hardly ever ate breakfast, and it was never impressed upon me that Vegas had any significant breakfast scene despite the famed $5.99 steak and eggs buffets at the casinos. So, to find a breakfast place that was so close to my family's house was a pleasantry in itself.

Inverted Flower Ceiling

Rise and Shine is a cute place, a bit too bubbly and funkily decorated for its own good, but perfect for a whimsical child at breakfast with his or her parent(s). I enjoyed the ceramic collage walls, even the umbrella flowers that made the ceiling of orange, pinks, purples. (Despite the fact that look kind of like jellyfish). A back wall occupied by an exposed kitchen and an organized prep bar was nice to see, but the cook did not work as fast as I would have expected a kitchen to run back home. (This being said, the restaurant was no where near being full).  I did NOT enjoy those uniforms- like a mix between pajamas and scrubs, and styled like the girls who wore them couldn't figure out what they were either.

Fluffed Up, West Coast Style

My Illy brand coffee was delicious, and for an extra fee they offered it double-pressed (!!) I made my own omelette, filling it with spinach, green pepper, avocado, etc. which came with a side of hashbrowns and a biscuit. These hashbrowns were not hashbrowns in the traditional sense, nor were they homefries...they were little somewhat crispy, greasy, highly flavored potato pellets that were unlike any potato breakfast food I've had before, but one that I would happily have again. My biscuit was entirely passable with its warm, somewhat dense softness, although not as tasty as the butter it came with. My omelette was also tasty- well done on the outside like I like it, although perhaps with too much avocado. The vegetables were a good size and were not overcooked. Overall, it tasted just as good as any veggie omelette I could have concocted back home, so nothing to complain about.

I would definitely try another dish the next time I'm in Vegas and need a breakfast near home (in Southern Highlands, Las Vegas). I will say, however, that Chris and I were definitely put off by how fast we were given our check. Even if you say "it's no rush", but you give us our check less than two minutes after you give us our meal, it's going to be rushed. Or, I may just get a side of those tasty potato hashbrowns and watch the young,awkward waitresses scuttle around. Total cost: $24.

By the way, the difference between breakfast on the East Coast vs. breakfast on the West Coast? The table settings:

Look at all that hot sauce!!