Jack's Family Restaurant - 20 Benjamin Rd, Waterloo

3	89%	4.5	4	3

Jack’s Family Restaurant is a family-style restaurant right around the corner from the St. Jacob’s Farmers’ Market. Dimly lit, with windows on only 2 walls, Jack’s is clean and neat, and decorated in a pleasant (if a little odd) mix of modern (light fixtures, carpet) and country (beadboard paneling, upholstery) styling. It provides large and small grouped seating from a low “bar” situation for those who choose to breakfast alone, to expansive 3-sided booths for large groups.

Jack’s has fantastic variety in its breakfast offerings - tonnes of options from scrambles to skillets to burritos and “flats” (breakfast pizzas made on flatbread), crepes, benedicts, and smoothies - along with all the standards.

It was fairly busy on November 21st, when Dave and I went for a pre-work breakfast at 8:30, but we were seated right away, and had our drink orders taken and brought quickly. The coffee we both awarded a solid “meh.”

Dave ordered the meat lover’s skillet ($10.29 + $0.50 rye) - a large serving of breakfast hash and meats with lots of cheese that he said tasted great, but the eggs were more over-medium than over-easy, and Dave thought his rye toast tasted off.

I ordered the breakfast special ($4.29 + $0.50 for rye), with my eggs over-easy (they, too, were more over-medium) and tomatoes substituted for meat. My breakfast potatoes were flavourful and well-cooked in a hash-style that I’ve found unusual in my breakfast wanderings; they had a nice texture with lots of crunchy bits, and stood up My toast tasted a little weird, too - not sure if it was going off, or if it was just a very tangy rye. I also ordered a very berry smoothie ($4.99) which was huge, stuffed with fruit, and topped with whipped cream and an enormous fresh strawberry.

Overall, Jack’s does breakfast well - extensive selection, good service, and reasonable prices.

 SCORECARD

Atmosphere	Price	Variety	Taste	Flexibility	Service
4.25	4	5	3.75	4	4
Cleanliness	Special		Flavour		Courtesy
4.5	$4.59		4		4
Ambience	Coffee		Cook		Speed
4	$2.09		3		4
	Pancakes		Coffee
	$5.69		3
	Omelette		Potatoes
	$7.29 plain, +$1.29/item		4.5

TOTAL SCORE: 4.25