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I haven't eaten at every Tacoma area restaurant for breakfast. Having favorites tends to reduce the choices when it comes time to go out for a great breakfast. (Check out our updated Breakfast Review)
Great restaurants aren't perfect, they still need a little help from their guests to provide the best meals. I always say, "I like my hasbrowns burnt, burnt, burnt. With an onion cut up in them." I make a motion with both hands to show cutting up an onion. This seems to help. Peg orders hashbrowns the same way. When we are with friends, they sometimes echo our order for hashbrowns, "What she said!" I don't really expect to be served burnt hashbrowns, but by going overboard and making it clear what I am after I quite often am served hashbrows that are not pasty white or simple browned on either side. This doesn't work all the time. Some waitresses and cooks don't seem to care. In those cases I vote with my feet. If you are a regular at a great breakfast restaurant, they should remember who you are and how you like your food cooked. Years ago I went into a restaurant in Centralia. A few minutes later, while I was sitting at a booth, the cook came out and told me, "I put the hashbrowns on when I saw you walk in." Now, that's the kind of restaurants I love.
Hashbrowns mean shredded potatoes, not cubed potatoes, not patties, not tots. Hashbrowns should be simple and done right.
Pork is essential to breakfast. Bacon should be served thick and crispy, although I eat bacon in almost any condition. Sausage should not be over-cooked.
Gravy should not taste like paste or look like plastic. The best starts with flour in bacon fat. Add salt and pepper and a little garlic powder . . . and that's pretty much all you need to do besides stirring it and adding milk. Good milk gravy is great over chicken fried steak, buttered toast, and especially good biscuits.
I love good biscuits, so the first time I order biscuits from a restuarant I'll try their biscuits. The second time around, I'll usually order sourdough toast. No breakfast place I know of serves good biscuits. Well, that's not exactly true. The best biscuits in town are served by Popeye's, McDonald's, and KFC, but they don't add bacon and eggs and gravy.
Great biscuits are made from scratch with butter or lard. My wife makes great biscuits as do our two boys. Our daughter makes great ragmuffins, which begin with biscuit dough. Our friends Donn and Debbie Irwin make excellent sage biscuits, but only on special occasions. But, really . . . great biscuits make any occasion special.
Even though my wife makes great biscuits, we differ a little bit on our preferences. She likes them smaller and browner. When cutting out the biscuits I search for the largest glass I can find. I like my biscuits with butter and jam. Leftover biscuits (a rare occasion) I prefer buttered when hot and then eaten at room temperature rather than warming them up.
Quality, not quantity . . . always.
For the restaurants below I've included links if available. Even in 2011 some of these places don't have a website . . . not even a Facebook page. I don't charge that much for a small website and it would bring them into the real world, but oh, well.
Our Reviews Published in The Suburban Times
Pacific Grill
Just Around the Corner 2 - Again
Our FavoritesBen Dew's: Clubhouse Grill - Good food and good service. Fresh squeezed orange juice. Middle America food.
Fergies on the Ave - It's in the Dometop area on McKinley Avenue. Classic old diner. Extremely interesting and friendly people. Good prices and ultra perfect hashbrowns!!!
The Harvester - The Legend Chicken Fried Steak and the Swedish Pancakes are our favorites. They listen most times for requests of burnt hashbrowns. Their bacon is excellent and so are the sausage links.
Knapp's - Consistantly good, although I hate their menu with the calories listed. Lunch and dinner are bland, but breakfast is good. Demand good hashbrowns and you'll get them.
Old Milwaukee - Pat and Chad try their best to give the customers what they want. I always order the same: SOS with sour dough toast and sausage patty. Tastes perfect each time. The gravy is probably the best in the city. Try the huckleberry pancakes during the season.
The Original Pancake House - I hate to mention this place just off Sixth Avenue on Pine. It's always crowded on Sunday mornings when we go with friends. Good food friendly people . . . the only thing is waiting to get seated. Why, oh why, does it take so long?
The Pine Cone - Good food and they generally take orders well.
The Spar Tavern - The food is not always the same, but still . . . great bacon and sausage links. They have these excellent sausage links and often over-cook them. For shame! Biscuits and gravy with sourdough toast instead of biscuits are recommended. All their pancakes are excellent. They serve a large glass of juice, which they refill. And, they are happy to combine: cranberry and orange is our favorite combination.
Honorary Mention
Malarkey's Pool & Brew - We just visited Malarkey's for the first time and it is worth a second chance. After the third time, it was a little iffy. Changes in crew and selections not available left us shaking our heads.
Denny's - I've never had a bad breakfast at Denny's AND they do serve grits. The problem with homemade grits is that someone has to clean up the pan and grits tend to stick hard and fast if you set the pan down for any length of time. Peg complains loudly if I cook grits and don't clean up my own mess, therefore I usually eat grits elsewhere. I used to enjoy the grits at Alfred's before they first went upscale and then downhill. Even on New Year's Day Denny's was serving breakfast and dinner all day long.
Little Jerry's - Located on South Park (a good warning) this shrine to Seinfeld is a fun place to eat and look at the walls covered with memorabilia. Each dish is named after a character or event on the classic TV show - "No soup for you!" A must see is the beefcake shot of George in the men's room.
Pacific Southern - Located on South Pine close to the Tacoma Mall. Good grub.
Sunday Brunch
Both places serve an excellent Sunday brunch.The Lobershop (Ruston Way) - This place offers more fish than Shenanigan's.
CI Shenanigans - Shenanigans has different ethnic foods to accompany breakfast. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
The Hardware Store on Vashon Island - Weekend brunch is excellent . . . although sometimes crowded, the place is large enough to accommodate most groups. Excellent biscuits and gravy . . . breakfast potatoes . . . maybe not.
On Our List to TryBerry Land Cafe in Sumner - This might be worth a trip out the Puyallup Valley.
The Hub - I love The Hub for lunch and evening entertainment. Breakfast should be tasty.
Parkway Tavern - I love their salmon burgers and soups. How could they not serve a good breakfast?
Only OkayMarcia's Silver Spoon - Piles of hasbrowns that are flabby and white, just don't make it for me.
Elmer's - This used to be our granddaughter Daron's favorite place for breakfast until we took her to The Spar. This is a great place for families. Great prices and decent food. A number of our readers recommend it for both the prices and the food.
The Poodle Dog Restaurant in Fife - I'll give them a second chance. I hadn't dined there in years, but it was okay when I returned in November (2016). I'll go back in December. I went back and had the worst steak I've ever had, but they didn't charge. After that it the breakfast was okay.
Red Elm Cafe - Good coffee and excellent Belgian waffles for under $4 on MLK in Tacoma. No sides and the breakfast sandwiches are bland, boring, and over-priced.
Shakabra Java - They serve good coffee, muffins, and cookies, but don't offer hashbrowns, but rather chunky potatoes cooked crispy. However, they recently sold, so I will have to go back and sample.
Won't Go AgainAlfred's - Poor service can't make up for good food. (See note below!) - We did, and were amply rewarded. Great food and service!
Carrs Restaurant & Bar - Poor service and huge amounts of unseasoned food won't get us out the door for the drive to Lakewood, again.
Paddy Coynes - Okay, so some people really like this place, but dinner and a late night snack provided two strikes. The third one came at breakfast.
Places to Try (from comments)
Dirty Oscar's Annex - A completely new suggestion. I hope Oscar was a hog. - Update - Visited there for breakfast in late May - I hope they get better: Chicken Fried Steak and Fried Chicken & Waffle Review.
Alfred's - I enjoyed them before, but bad service twice in a row got them crossed off. I will put them on probation and try them, again. - Update - Check out Breakfast Redux - Good food and good service!
My Guilty PleasureMcDonald's - On the road . . . in a hurry . . . morning meetings . . . I am often forced to grab a bite on the way. I choose a Sausage McGriddle. One is enough, but sometimes I order two along with a large orange juice. If you're penny pinching go for the Sausage Muffin, two hashbrowns, and a coffee . . . under $5.
Metropolitan Market in the Proctor District - From 7:00 a.m. to 11:00ish they serve excellent broiled red potatoes and onions, gravy, sausage and bacon. You pay by the pound . . . the food . . . not your's. For less than $2 I can walk out with five pieces of bacon and change. The bacon is gone by the time I get home. The also serve oatmeal, but it's really bad with gravy. Update. They no longer order bacon on their menu. You end up paying $9.99 a pound for oatmeal, biscuit, and scrambled eggs. You can order cooked bacon at $24.95 per pound. They priced themselves out of my heart.
We've had great input from our readers. There were a number of comments sticking up for Southern Kitchen. Two mentioned their Corn Cakes. Those were good, but I can't get over their hashbrowns. Not having mentioned Shakabrah was brought up. They were on the "Okay" list, but I didn't put them into the story because they are closing. Comments from Readers
Here are some of the reader comments:I really think you should try Paddy Coyne's for breakfast. I think they do Irish potatoes and not your beloved hashbrowns, but they have amazing steel cut oats with brown sugar coated coconut shavings. Yum. Add Irish soda bread with marmalade butter and early bird specials on mimosas & bloody mary's and I'm in heaven. Plus, it's not a madhouse in there on weekend mornings - yet.
Have you been to the Mandolin for breakfast with the new owners (yes again) yet? I haven't either, but that might be another on the list to try...
Ok, may I add Southern Kitchen, the best corn meal cakes ever!
The Spring Lake (Poppy Seed) Cafe in Fircrest is always good too.
Give Alfred's another chance. We had great breakfast Sunday at 11 with good service even with every table full. Omelettes and Doman Style crispy hashbrowns for the guys and a pecan waffle with one egg over easy for me. Warm syrup too.
We enjoy meeting people and we expect to have a wonderful time when we travel. Our expectations are almost always met. If you have a favorite restaurant or a favorite hotel, where they offer exceptional service, please, share your favorites with us. Or if you have a B&B, hotel, or restaurant that you would like us to try and then include in our stories tell about what you have. No matter what, please share your thoughts. Agree? Disagree? Tell Us About It!
