Food Time: French Toast at Vendome Cafe

So I really like food (it's probably one of the reasons why I was a little bit of a fatty as a kid) and I've found some pretty cool places to have meals around time.  Hopefully this will be a section where I can share some of those place with you, and what I found was tasty to eat.

The place in question is called Vendome and they bill themselves as a touch of Europe in the heart of Sunnyside.  It's actually found in the vendome building which has a bit of a storied history (of which I read on a plaque and have promptly forgotten).  You can find their website here, they don't have a whole lot, except some pics and an address (940 2 Avenue Northwest  Calgary, AB).  They're open 7 days a week for "breakfast, coffee, lunch and brunch".  I went for breakfast with Jeff and Carm.

Overall the experience was actually really good, they have an open kitchen so you can see the chef making your food. Even though there's only one cook, the time we had to wait for our food wasn't long at all.  The downside to having an open kitchen is that your clothes smell of the place after you leave.  I had the french toast which was actually really tasty.  It was french toast with caramelized bannanas, whiped cream, and cream cheese and cinnamon.  When my plate arived I saw a mountain of cubed french toast and while I was slightly skeptical but much to my surprise it was good. The batter is adequately crispy but the inside is still soft and moist.  I would've liked the bannans to be a little bit more caramlized because they ended up being a little bit more mushy than caramalized.  Note to all other people who would follow the logic that when something is hot and you want to eat it, you blow on it to cool down.  This doesn't work when you have icing sugar dusted on top of your food as you will also dust your neighbors food with icing sugar (in this case, eggs benny).  So the big question is would I go back and eat it? Absolutely, it was a good price, and huge portions, and tasty to boot.

Jeff and Carm had the benny and the fritata.  The benny had a twist because it used black forest ham instead of back bacon.  The egg was a little bit too well cooked and wasn't quite runny.  They also used a kind of bread (it looks kinda like a triangle, the stuff foccacia sandwiches come on?)  But overall benny was good.  Carms fritata was apparently well cooked and wasn't rubbery, I wouldn't know, haven't had any before.

So vendome cafe is definitely a place to try out for breakfast, I really liked the french toast, the portions were good, service was quick, and prices were reasonable ($10-$14).

~Cheers