Mother’s Day Brunch at the River Café

10 May

Situated in picturesque Prince’s Island Park, is the charming River Café, a restaurant that exudes a genuine “Canadian cottage” atmosphere. N and I thought Rive Café would be a great place to have Mother’s Day Brunch with N’s mom and grandma (who are visting) as there are many photo-op locations in the park not to mention the accolades of the restaurant itself. We first visited River Café for Valentine’s Day a few years back but when we went inside, the country cottage feel did not seem very romantic (my bad) so we left for another restaurant. However, for Mother’s Day brunch, the atmosphere was perfect. Right off the bat, we saw a tray full of muffins and pastries at the kitchen counter that looked delicious and we ordered a basket as our appetizer. We decided to to each try different menu items and it seems that we all enjoyed our selections.

Being an avid egg lover, grandma had the Blue Cheese and Pear Quiche with bacon. The bacon is actually cured in-house and the quiche was quite large and cut like a big slice of pie. It was nicely arranged with basil ranch greens along the side which accompanied the quiche quite nicely.

N had the Brioche French Toast made from their house baked bread. While I am not a big fan of French toast, Nahri continually raved that it was delicious and perhaps the best she has had. Great french toast takes balance and this one hit the mark; it was not too “eggy” but not too sweet, not to mushy but buttery soft… Their decision to use crème fraîche on top of the toast was delightful!

I had the Eggs Benedict with Elk Bacon and potatoes. The brown butter Hollandaise sauce was very tasty and accompanied a hearty meal of 2 eggs and a healthy portion of potatoes and carrots. Despite the tastiness, the consistency wasn’t quite there as one egg was cooked perfectly with slight runniness inside while the other was over-cooked and dry. My all-time favorite Eggs Benedict still goes to Kingston’s, Hoppin’ Eddy’s; they served a Wild Mushroom Eggs Benedict stack which I still crave, six years removed from College. N’s 40% discount in the Hub also helped the cause. Ahh to be in school again… but I digress….

N’s mom had traditional breakfast fare; eggs done over-easy with potato hash, bacon and toast. Everything was cooked well and met expectations. The one mentionable is that there is no choice for toast (brown, white, sourdough etc.); The only option is the house-made toast. The house cured bacon, despite its purpose to give this common breakfast a dose of special, didn’t get positive reviews from N’s mom who actually preferred regular store-bought thick bacon cooked at home.

All in all, the bill for Mother’s Day Brunch (what my eyes and wallet look out for) wasn’t bad at all and combine that with my dealfind (similar to Groupon) voucher used at Teatro (review coming soon) on Friday night to kick off Mother’s Day Weekend, this past weekend was both a success for my palette AND my wallet.

http://www.river-cafe.com/