Sunday, November 20, 2011

Brunch at Drake Hotel (Toronto,ON)

1150 Queen St West
Toronto, Ontario
416.531.5042
website

My sister and brother-in-law came for a quick visit. We spent the day in Toronto and started it off by having brunch at Drake Hotel. Drake Hotel seems to be the ultimate hipster spot for brunch (I don't really use the term hipster often, but it really seemed befitting in this case - although really, what do I know about being hip?!).

Drake Hotel

We had brunch on the café side, where we sat under a colourful bicycle frame lighting structure. We were very impressed!

Drake Hotel Cafe

My brother-in-law D started out with a pretty cappucino.

Cappucino at Drake

We decided to share the warm scone share plate ($8) deemed Toronto's best blueberry scones by The Toronto Star. We wholeheartedly agreed and enjoyed each bite of our buttery scones, served with a choice of clotted cream dotted with vanilla specks, whipped butter and jam. Very worthwhile ordering!

Blueberry Scones
Blueberry Scones.

My sister ordered the Eggs Benedict ($13), which consisted of 2 poached eggs, smoked pork loin on toasted English muffin with hollandaise, and replaced the hand cut fries with home fries. The home fries were nicely crisp with slices of sweet onion. She really enjoyed the thick cut smoked pork loin and hollandaise sauce (on the side).

Egg Benedict
Eggs Benedict.

My brother-in-law and I decided to share the Southern fried chicken + waffles ($14.75), which seemed like a novel menu item. It was made up of a large herb waffle, fried chicken, maple syrup, crème fraîche and Niagara cherry jam. I loved the savoury fried chicken and herb waffle combined with sweet syrup and cherry jam. The fried chicken was well-seasoned with a bit of a kick from cumin (?). I really liked the big pieces of cherries; my sister scooped the leftover ones over her scone. My only issue is that I don't like things overly sweet and thought there was too much syrup. Were I to order this again, I would definitely ask for the syrup on the side.

Southern Fried Chicken + Waffles Southern Fried Chicken + Waffles
Southern Fried Chicken + Waffles.

We really enjoyed our brunch and even came back later in the evening for drinks. It's a great spot to hit in Toronto for a meal or drinks, if you're not staying at the boutique hotel. We also checked out a combination of cool and vintage items at the General Store next door.

The Drake Hotel on Urbanspoon

1 comment:

Gastronomer said...

What an awesome brunch! Can't believe that chicken and waffles have made it to Cananda ;-) And those scones look positively delicious.