Hollandaise Diner

I think that a friend said it best when referring to Hollandaise– «It is a decent, but that’s all it really is.» And although this doesn’t really say all that much, it actually says it all.
We live approximately 8-​minutes from HD and when it first opened for business we were super excited to try it, even more excited that friends from the «trendy» west-​end were not only willing, BUT wanted to meet us so close to home. Could we finally claim one of the city’s best new brunch spots as our own…
HD provides a no-​frills space, which isn’t a problem, but the service was a bit slow and we waited in the cold for almost half an hour before even getting in the door. We were definitely prepared to wait a bit, and we did understand that we had come to a small brunch spot at brunch, so some wait time was inevitable, but there were only two couples in front of us.
The food was decent, but unfortunately didn’t quite live up to the hype. Two of us tried the Smoke Blue, which is a fairly standard eggs benny with smoked salmon, and it was ok. My wife had the Croque Madame, which is a grilled cheese with fried ham and hollandaise, which looked to be generous offering. The food was definitely decent, the service was decidedly good, if not a bit slowish, and we will give HD another shot. We would love to see a top brunch contender so close to home!

When it comes to breakfast which you can make with a handful number of ingredients, serving size is important. Novelty can only take you so far. I can have just as good of eggs benny (probably even better) at a breakfast place that no one talks about. Their serving might even be more. The most I can say is it’s not bad. But nothing to write home about.
The service and the bacon saved the day.

Considering our bill, I didn’t feel like I got my money’s worth. Service was okay, food was meh. Overall a pretty underwhelming experience.

So very disappointing.
For a place called «Hollandaise», you’d think the sauce would be amazers. Sadly, it fell short and I felt it was bland and had a funky aftertaste as if it had been mixed with corn starch or flour as a thickener rather than pure butter and egg yolk.
My Florentine eggs benny actually seemed very bland throughout, save for the bacon that I ordered on the side. These 3 small strips of bacon, by the way, cost a whopping $ 3.54. Even the glass of fresh orange juice was only $ 2.66, how did the bacon cost so much?
On the plus side, my eggs were perfectly poached with deliciously runny yolks.
Though the prices for the mains here are a couple bucks lower than some other brunch spots in the city, I’d recommend skipping this place and going to another instead…

The eggs Benedict I had were amazing. The service was really great too. Super friendly. Would definitely go back for that hollandaise sauce!

We just got back from this new place in our neighbourhood which we’ve heard so much about. First off we waited in line for about 40 minutes which was entirely due to the fact that the kitchen was so slow that in the entire time we waited, only a few meals came out. The food was barely mediocre. My son ordered the ‘pyramid of pancakes’ from the kids menu and got three extremely thin, cold pancakes. One was a normal size and the other two were the size of loonies. Definitely a much smaller portion than was expected and we ended up giving him food from our plates to fill him up. I had the hungry diner. The eggs were cooked perfectly, the potatoes were cold and bland, the beans were cold, the pancake was thin and cold and seemed pre-​cooked. My husband ordered the croque madame which he enjoyed but again the potatoes were cold.
Other than my well cooked eggs and the server being very nice, I have nothing great to say about this place. Those two things aren’t worth the wait or the money and are definitely not enough to warrant a repeat visit. You can find a million other places that serve a mediocre breakfast without the wait.

i really wanted to like this place. it is in an area sorely in need of a few more bright and cheery places. i went with my daughter and her crew a week or so ago and it was packed. waited and when it came around to getting seated all was fine though chaotic. i thought the food was bland but we came for the gluten free choices and we figured it was new and busy. give it a pass and try again.
i went back alone this past saturday so jan 2. they had advertised the were open at 7:00 am every day even the holiday. i got there at 7:25 and with no one else there i figured i would get in and gone before the parking cost at 8:00.
to get 2 over easy eggs and a handful of under done potatoes and 3 barely done sausages. a cup of black coffee 2/​3rds full and the refill the same took almost 30 minutes to arrive.
the potatoes were awful. i don’t think they use butter or oil but fry them dry. no flavour and they were underdone. i don’t get toast. most restaurants give me a couple of slices of tomato. nothing here.
so for this plate and the coffee it was $ 12.25!!!
i really think these guys are learning on the job and are pretty clueless though they mean well but $ 12 not including a tip for a sausage and eggs brek is ridiculous. you are on danforth east and far east at that not the distillery district. i’m betting the boys in the honda dealership across the road won’t be eating there much.
and fix the door.
i shouldn’t be all negative. the eggs were good. a breakfast place made the eggs right. though he said part of the delay was he had to make them twice…

Ok so I went to check this place out as it is just up the street from me. I was excited at having a place that catered to my favourite breakfast dish so close to home. Let’s say I was… DISAPPOINTED! I really wanted to like this place but alas, I was let down. The eggs Benny I ordered on grilled cheese came on 2 tiny pieces with the slimmest ham shavings ever! The eggs were not soft poached, but hard! I got the smallest serving of home fries ever at a breakfast joint. My daughter had pancakes which were decent, but the side of peameal bacon I ordered (which cost almost $ 4) was the thinnest slices I’d ever seen when ordering peameal bacon. An adult could eat all 3 tiny pieces in 3 bites. Smh! The service didn’t make up for it either. Anyhow with so many choices close by, I would not waste my time with this place. Definitely not worth the money… it’s too bad.

I have been to this diner twice now and loved it both times. The first time i had the vegan frittata which comes with a side fruit salad. I added a side of home fries. The serving size of the frittata was amazing, I definitely didn’t feel hungry afterwards and probably didn’t need the homefries! The taste was incredible, hard to believe it was vegan. Its full of delicious veggies and baked to a nice texture.
The second time I was there I had the coconut pancakes, added chocolate chips and chose the banana sauce. I love that you can fully customize the pancakes and that the sauces are all made in house. That combo tastes like a tropical paradise! The only thing missing was a rum punch on the side.
I will be going back regularly, this place is fantastic and the food is amazing. It gets a little busy on the weekend but the line up moved quickly and was well worth the wait.

We went here to try out the new breakfast place I heard about on Blog TO. They boasted make your own benedict and pancakes. I got the Eggs Florentine but asked for rye toast instead of the english muffin which was a bit of an extra charge but not much so all good.
The hollandaise sauce was delicious but I literally got a tiny piece of rye toast cut in half that the eggs and spinach didn’t even fit on. I also asked for runny eggs but didn’t get those either. That was a bit disappointing.
The portions were okay — not great value for the price. The food was kind of bland and tasteless outside of the hollandaise sauce.
The service was super slow. They were not good at managing the line at all. Not sure I would go back with much better places just a bit further south.

Like getting breakfast at a small town hotel. Everything was well-​made, but nothing stood out. They have interesting hollandaise flavours, but they were all pretty bland.
This spot is family friendly. The service was slow, for example it took us 15 minutes to get the bill, but that’s likely not an issue for this crowd.
I’d go back here for one of *those* mornings when the food isn’t as important as just getting food inya, and the lack of line-​ups is important.
This was their first weekend, so I’ll likely give them another serious try.