Twisted Fork Bistro: I ate for free!

I love weekend brunches, whether it's at home with my family or out with my friends. This weekend, we decided to go to Twisted Fork Bistro in Yaletown. It's a fairly small place and only have about 8 tables with an open bar. We were told that the wait was 45 minutes and we decided to wait as we had set our mind to it already. They have an electronic waiting list and you can even request a phone call or text message in which you'd be notified several minutes before your table is ready. What I don't understand is that another group came in after us, and they were offered the bar so they didn't have to wait. I would have totally be OK with sitting there. 

Twisted Fork Bistro

Why is it called Twisted Fork? I have no idea, but I think it's very unique and they actually have twisted forks as decorations which I thought was pretty cool! (But no, the forks you're given to eat with aren't twisted.)

All their brunch items are now $14.00 each. (They were $13.50 before June 2014.) I had quite a hard time choosing as I wanted to try basically everything on their menu. Finally, I decided to go with the Gruyere Baked Eggs and my friend was set on the Eggs Benedicts, but guess what was brought to me? 

Eggs Benny

Two plates of Egg Benedicts! Yup, they got my order wrong. They're so busy, they didn't seem like they wanted to make a new one for me because they said that "this is very popular and it'd be on the house, are you ok with that?" I said yes, even though I'm not a fan of bacon. I didn't mind trying their Eggs Benny, especially when they're $0 and I was starving from all the waiting. Also, I'd feel bad if they throw that plate away and have to hold up their waiting list.

Eggs Benny with bacon

Eggs Benny with bacon - toasted brioche, poached eggs, hollandaise sauce, sautéed spinach, rosti, and baked beans. Only one of my poached eggs was perfectly done; the other one was overcooked, perhaps it was sitting there a bit too long before being served and got cooked. The hollandaise sauce was perfect and I also loved the baked beans.

Eggs Benny with honey lager sausage

Eggs Benny with honey lager sausage - Basically the same as mine, but instead of bacon, my friend had chosen honey lager sausage. If I had chosen Egg Bennys, I would have gotten the honey lager sausages instead as I prefer sausages over bacon. Again, same problem with the poached eggs.

Remember to ask for their homemade ketchup! I just gotta eat rosti with ketchup (same as with fries, hash browns, etc.)

homemade ketchup

I've heard so many good things about their ("best ever") banana bread that I had to order some to go.  $4 for 2 slices which came with homemade jam and whipped cream. They packaged it nicely in a box. Their banana bread was very moist and had walnuts in them - my favourite! They were indeed very good, especially with their homemade cranberry jam, but I wasn't blown away.

Overall, I think this is a fairly cute place for brunch, but be prepare to wait or go earlier to put your name down first. The food also took about 30 minutes to arrive so there was a lot of waiting to eat here. I was pleased with the food, but I don't think it justifies the wait time entirely.

Menu

Menu

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Jethro's Fine Grub

One of the first things I've heard about Jethro's, is their large and fluffy pancakes. As a fan of pancakes, I had to go and try them. We went there for brunch on probably the most popular brunch day - Sunday. The place is pretty small and it was packed as we were leaving and there was even a line up. I've heard that people wait over an hour for seats, so it's best to arrive there earlier as they don't take reservations. I guess we were quite early (10am) because thankfully, we were lucky as we were seated after only a few minutes. Jethro's is located on the corner of 16th and Dunbar Street.

The Rooster (buttermilk pancakes with a shot of
espresso and dark chocolate chips)

We ordered The Rooster (~$10) - buttermilk pancakes with a shot of espresso and dark chocolate chips, topped off with whipped cream. You have the option of getting chocolate gravy for an additional $1.50 but we decided not to after talking to the waitress and she told us that it's already quite chocolate-y with the chocolate chips. The dish came with only two pancakes, but they were huge. I have to say, they were very fluffy and filling - we couldn't even finish it. The whipped cream melted on top of the pancakes and I think that made it yummier.

Crab cake benedict (with hashbrown and toast)

We also got the house made crab cake benedict ($~11). Those were some yummy crab cakes! The rest of the food on the plate was pretty normal - poached eggs with hollandaise sauce, potatoes, and toast. The description on the menu says hash brown, but it's basically just potatoes. I thought they were a little plain, but other than that, I did enjoy this dish.

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