Kava Bean Commons - 24 Gaukel St, Kitchener

4.5	97%	4	3.5	3.5

My mom was in town visiting on November 22nd, so we decided to meet for breakfast in downtown Kitchener; we arrived at the Kava Bean Commons just as they were opening on Saturday morning.

I really like the atmosphere of Kava Bean - exposed brick walls covered in art, high ceilings, large windows, and soft light. It is a nice place to grab a coffee and hang out; they have free WiFi as well as delicious coffee in multiple blends and flavours.

It's also very conveniently located by the Charles Street bus terminal; when I was spending time on Greyhounds, I would split my time between Cafe Pyrus and this little cafe.

Our early arrival meant Kava Bean didn’t have their full selection of muffins or bagels done - my mom had to try ordering several options before she found one they had available. Further, their fruit cocktail is just a pre-packaged cup from a fridge, and their breakfast selection is pretty limited (the picture posted is the entire menu) - but I do have to give them leeway score-wise and selection-wise because they are a cafe rather than a diner or full-fledged restaurant. That they serve a hot breakfast at all is a bonus!

My mom ended up ordering an everything bagel with butter, which was nothing special, but definitely better than the bagels they serve at, say, Tim Horton’s.

I ordered the omelette sans ham; it had lots of “stuff” in it, and was cooked fine, but the toast was terrible (just store-bought wheat bread), and the hash browns were standard-from-frozen-and-fried.

I get the feeling hot breakfast at Kava Bean is an afterthought, which is fair, since the coffee more than takes the main stage.

SCORECARD

Atmosphere	Price	Variety	Taste	Flexibility	Service
4.5	3.5	3	3.75	3	4
Cleanliness	Special		Flavour		Courtesy
4	6.49		3.5		4
Ambience	Coffee		Cook		Speed
5	1.99		4		4
	Pancakes		Coffee
	N/A		5
	Omelette		Potatoes
	8.99 (with peppers, onion, mushroom, cheese, ham)		3

TOTAL SCORE: 3.5

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

Angie's - 47 Erb St W, Waterloo

4	50%	2.9	2.5	2.5

I went to Angie’s on November 14th with Dave and a bunch of my coworkers. We chose a busy morning, unfortunately - it was the same day (and just a bit before) the Santa Claus parade in Uptown Waterloo, so every parking lot and space, for about a kilometre around, was full. However, there were several tables available, and my fellow diners had a large one waiting when I arrived.

Angie’s is a Waterloo institution - established in 1962, there is a bakery in-house that supplies breakfasts with fresh bread and customers with takeaway pastries. The restaurant was recently renovated with black leather upholstery, lots of windows, and many tables (not so many booths), and decorated with mounted articles about the area on its walls. It is a reasonably nice place to eat, although I found it a bit dark in spite of all the natural light.

The server was understandably a bit flustered by people arriving to our table at different times, and while she was very friendly about it, we were short several cutlery settings and coffees for a significant portion of the meal.

Gabby ordered a melt with no eggs - sausage, bacon, ham, peppers, onions, and lots of cheese on breakfast potatoes - which she said was “phenomenal.”

Jesse ordered a Ruben sandwich, which he said was one of the first good Rubens he has had in town; he also had Melissa’s eggs (scrambled), since she eats potatoes and toast for breakfast?

Melissa had the no-meat special, but gave her eggs to Jesse. She was especially excited about her whole-wheat toast, which was fresh from their in-house bakery.

Shayna ordered orange juice and french toast - 4 pieces, which were very fluffy and tasted great.

Dave and I went into this breakfast with our eyes open - both of us have had bad experiences at Angie’s before, with long waits, order errors, and poorly cooked food. I got the no-meat special and was pleasantly surprised - it included delicious homemade rye toast, fresh farmers’ eggs (the yolks were so yellow!), homemade jam, and some of the best potatoes I’ve had so far - crispy skinned, cooked in-house, and seasoned perfectly.

Dave ordered the Waterloo County Breakfast (a standard meat special with Krug’s Farmer’s Sausage), but they forgot to bring the sausage, and when he finally got it, it wasn’t cooked through. This did not help his opinion of the restaurant, but at least they only charged him for a no-meat special.

It is pretty clear both why Angie’s has maintained its status in Waterloo and why its scores on various rating sites are poor - when the food and service are good, it’s great; when they’re bad, they screw up pretty spectacularly.

SCORECARD

Atmosphere	Price	Variety	Taste	Flexibility	Service
4	3.5	4.5	3.75	4	3.5
Cleanliness	Special		Flavour		Courtesy
4	8.99		4		4
Ambience	Coffee		Cook		Speed
4	1.99		3.5		3
	Pancakes		Coffee
	8.99 (for 2)		3.5
	Plain Omelette		Potatoes
	7.99 (0.99/item)		4.5

TOTAL SCORE: 3.75