Restaurant Review: Egg Bae
EGG BAE
Egg Bae! It stands for Eggs Before All Else and you need this in your life! Head yourself on over to Kensington Market and try what blogTO calls the #1 Best New Cheap Eats. The words "breakfast" and "cheap" in the same sentence is always good news. I stopped in on a Saturday morning and was super excited to sink my teeth into some bae. The restaurant is small, bright and lively. It's impossible to take your eyes away from the huge street art mural all over the walls. The cushions on the benches explode with colour and the overall vibe is the perfect way to start your day. The deal at Egg Bae is that they make breakfast sandwiches - and that's pretty much it. Their buns are fresh-baked in-house from scratch and they prepare their own meats as well. They pride themselves on premium ingredients. It feels like a scrappy operation that is doing things extra right. Upon entering you approach the counter to place your order. There are five sandwiches to choose from (and sometimes special bonus ones) so it would seem that making a selection should be fairly easy. However, they each sound delicious! And they're each made with a warm and fluffy in-house egg bun and free-range eggs. They can do gluten-free buns as well. But first, a drink. I'm a tea person, so I grabbed an Organic Tea ($3.00).
Their tea is supplied by Toronto company, Genuine Tea. With about 6-8 different loose leaf teas to choose from, there's certainly something for every taste. I went with the Organic Assam Breakfast which sounded like a fun Indian twist on a classic English Breakfast-style tea. They have an entire station with milk/cream/soy and sugar so that you can prepare your beverage the way that you like it. I enjoyed this tea very much. I love a good black tea in the morning to give me a little kick of "go juice." Time for sandwiches. Obvs. I decided that for my first visit, it only made sense to try The EGG BAE ($7.00), their signature sando. And Tater Tots with Bae Sauce ($3.50)? Um, yes.
Soft scrambled eggs, chives, Muenster cheese, slow cooked onions, Bae sauce.
This aluminum tray of goodness was everything that I could have hoped it to be. The sandwich was very good, warm, gooey, and pillowy-soft. The eggs reminded me very much of Gordon Ramsay's scrambled eggs (the only way to scramble an egg) which are made with crème fraîche. I loved the use of Muenster which added an amazing melty sharpness. The sweet caramelized onions were on point and the tangy Bae sauce brought some heat. You can't go wrong with this handheld breakfast party. I also loved the tots! What kind of monster do you have to be to hate tots?! Fried to a golden-brown perfection, I dunked each one into a liberal bath of Bae sauce. The Bae sauce is along the lines of something that I like to call "fancy sauce" which is basically ketchup and mayo mixed together. Except in this case I think that it might be Sriracha, mayo, and some type of vinegary component. Yum! Egg Bae is solid. A morning trip to Kensington Market wouldn't be complete without them. I will definitely be returning to try all of their different sandwiches. Grab your bae and go!