Now that is a hell of a lot of All Day Breakfast for $5 including tax. There is no denying that. The thing is, it’s pretty damn tasty also. Oh… and there’s coffee to boot.
As a young student in London at the very start of the 90’s there were often times that I found myself in one of the UK capital’s innumerable greasy spoons. Tucking into a plate of eggs and chips accompanied by a mug of crap coffee was one of the few gastronomic “treats” I could afford at the time, and so it makes perfect sense that I still have fond memories of my regular modest indulgence.
This week I was wandering the streets of Toronto, getting chilled to the bone in the brisk February air, when I literally stumbled into a sandwich board promoting the Black Knight Restaurant‘s All Day Breakfast.
Forget your viral marketing social media gubbins, nothing says “frequent this establishment hungry customer-to-be” like a well-placed garish sandwich board.
Having previously been dead set on a hopefully holistic and life-affirming Moroccan Stew at Urban Herbivore, something must have triggered in my brain, as I suddenly found myself craving eggs and chips again, and I simply just had to scratch that itch… and so in I went.
At 1pm on a Thursday afternoon the establishment was curiously quiet as I took my window seat, the unforgiving winter sun pouring through the windows and lighting up the dust that played around the plastic ketchup bottles.
I’ll probably go back and sample some of their other dishes, but this time around it was the $5 breakfast or bust. Hmmm… it appears that the All Day Breakfast was only recently adjusted for inflation.
Settling in beside a handful of other solo middle-aged men, all of us with only our newspapers as dining companions, I couldn’t help but wonder if I had just crossed through that invisible checkpoint to the next phase of my life.
Perusing the laminated bright yellow menu it quickly became apparent that there was only one thing for it… the $5 (tax included!) All Day Breakfast… sans the coffee.
After placing my order with the alternately dour then cheery Polish server/owner, the food seemed to arrive unusually rapidly, especially considering that my blood sugars were running low due to me foolishly skipping breakfast that morning.
The Black Knight Restaurant and Tavern at 858 College Street, Toronto.
Anemic tomato slices aside, the Black Knight’s breakfast special certainly hit all of the spots. The bacon was flavourful and wonderfully crispy, the over easy eggs cooked perfectly with bright orange runny yolks, just the way I like them. Then there were the crunchy-edged home fries with their warm and soft floury centres, sprinkled with just a touch of sweet paprika, the perfect vehicle for mopping up the aforementioned eggs, before having to resort to the well buttered slices of toast. It has to be said, for a greasy spoon there wasn’t much grease evident here.
I’ll be back to try some of the other dishes in the future as “Souvlaki Is Our Speciality! Delicious!” says the menu, but when it comes to the All Day Breakfast I feel you would be hard pushed to find a better way to spend $5… especially when you get that eggs and chips craving.
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Edinburgh-born/Toronto-based Sommelier, consultant, writer, judge, and educator Jamie Drummond is the Director of Programs/Editor of Good Food Revolution… And that Armando Iannucci skit hits a wee bit too close to home. Therein lies its genius.
