Restaurant Review: Easy Restaurant
EASY RESTAURANT
1645 Queen Street West ~ easybreakfastrestaurant.com Instagram: @easyrestaurant ~ Twitter: @EasyBreakfast Co-Diner: Tim Golem
I loves me some breakfast! Who doesn't? Something about eating breakfast out at a restaurant always feels like a lot of fun. It's a good start to a day. I was really interested to try Parkdale's Easy Restaurant when I saw that blogTO had listed them as the #1 Best Huevos Rancheros in the city - one of my favourite breakfast dishes. Easy is a mainstay type of place. It has been around for 20 years and is one of those classic neighbourhood joints that everyone loves to meet up at. It's comfortable and reliable. They specialize in Tex-Mex inspired brunch options and use only high-quality ingredients. I was excited to visit on a recent Saturday morning. I've never seen the movie Easy Rider but that's exactly what this restaurant is themed after, right down to their logo and font. Basically, it's a tale of two bikers hitting the road to fuel their American dream, encompassing money, drugs, sex and violence. It was made in 1969. So imagine all of that with a side of breakfast and you can pretty much surmise the vibe at Easy Restaurant. The space is full of 60s memorabilia, movie posters, records, even a pile of old rotary phones. It's all very fun, laid-back, and campy in a great way. We were quickly seated at a table and while the room was busy, it wasn't jam-packed. The service was friendly enough with a bit of curtness that didn't bother me. The menu reflects the atmosphere of the restaurant well, offering tons of Tex-Mex options as far as the eye can see. They have have a pretty great kids menu section as well. I was also impressed at the beverage selection, which had me quite conflicted over what to order. A peanut power smoothie? Fresh squeezed orange juice? I happily settled on the Mexican Hot Chocolate ($4.95) because it seemed like a fitting match for the rest of my meal.
It was spicy!! If you're not into spice this is not the drink for you. However, I am into spice and I really loved how bold and unapologetic this hot chocolate managed to be. The ho-cho itself was really creamy and chocolaty, with a pleasing whip on top. But it was the raging spice that made this drink unique. I loved the play between sweet and spicy and found it to really work. Keep stirring the drink as you go so that all of the spices don't settle to the bottom of the glass. As for food, I was there for one thing alone: the Huevos Divorciados ($15.95).
First, let's just clear up the difference between huevos racheros and huevos divorciados. They're the exact same dish, however the divorciados version involves two eggs served with a different sauce atop each egg - usually a salsa roja and a salsa verde. Which was exactly the case at Easy. The food arrived after a short wait and I was excited to dig into my plate of Mexy goodness. There are a lot of different flavours and textures involved in this dish and I think that's what draws me to it. The runny egg yolk mixes with the acidic salsa and the hearty beans, creating a perfect bite. I love the tortilla as a base that you almost forget about until just the right moment when you need something with just a bit more substance. I was very pleased with the large scoop of fresh and bright guacamole, a very welcome addition to each forkful. The most interesting item on the plate was the ancho jam, something that I've never seen before. It added a wonderful spicy, smoky, sweet element that worked really well. The homefries were fine but nothing exciting and the "salad" didn't seem to be dressed with anything at all and was essentially just a pile of dry leaves. I did however enjoy the long slabs of baguette, which served well as a vessel for scooping up every last drop on the plate. Overall this was a pretty solid example of huevos rancheros. Easy Restaurant is easy. It's comfortable and feels like the kind of spot that you might make a habit of visiting. It should be noted that they don't take credit cards as payment but cash and debit are accepted. I would certainly return to try some of the other things on the menu, as there are a bunch of other offerings that sound pretty inciting.
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