The Scratch Room
2415 Lincoln Ave.
Anaheim, CA 92801
It's been a while since we have reviewed a breakfast spot, which is a shame because it's one of my favorite meals. I've been on a streak at work where I usually only have Mondays and Wednesdays off, and since Katie works on weekdays, and I don't want to be a complete loser and eat breakfast alone, I have not had the pleasure of eating my favorite meal for two months now. I decided this needed to change and called my parents who are always happy to spend some time with me and try a new place. We headed to The Scratch Room.
I did a search of all the breakfast spots in Orange County and The Scratch Room got mentioned quite a few times. They have a very respectable four-star rating on Yelp, with over 1,400 reviews. They were listed as a top ten pick in quite a few magazine articles, and they even were the winner of the best breakfast in OC according to the OC Hot List in 2016 and 2017. I was pretty excited to see what they were all about on mid-Monday morning.
The Scratch Room is situated on the corner of Gilbert and Lincoln, in a small little shopping plaza, where I can imagine parking could get a little challenging. In fact, they have a map out in front of their door which alerts you to places where it is safe to park, so your car will not get towed and ruin your morning.
My parents and I arrived at The Scratch Room right before 10am. I was a little surprised that they were as busy as they were, especially since this was a weekday. The restaurant seems a little bigger than it appears from the outside. They have maybe 30 or so tables, almost all of which were in use on this weekday morning. The dining area is dominated by black walls and ceiling, an accent wall of yellow, and very little else in the way of decor. A very clean, almost sterile environment.
The Scratch Room, which is open 7 days a week, from 7am to 2 most days, has a menu that is, of course, heavily focused on breakfast, but there is a selection of sandwiches, burgers, and salads available for people who are not into the first meal of the day. The considerable breakfast portion of the menu has something for everyone's tastes. There's plenty in the way of egg dishes, omelets, benedicts, Mexican-inspired dishes, breakfast burgers, skillets, griddled items, and even a few lighter items for people that do not want to spoil their tastebuds like the menu suggests. You can count me in as one of the people that wants a heavy breakfast this morning, so let's see how it all shook out for us this morning.
Let's start things out with my meal, the Country Skillet ($11.25). True stick to your ribs kind of food here. Chopped-up strips of chicken fried steak are joined with crisp hash browns, onions and peppers then blanketed with sausage gravy and topped with three eggs. I really enjoyed this heavy breakfast. There was plenty in the way of country-fried steak and hash browns. The eggs were a tad overcooked, but the gravy shined. It featured plenty of sliced sausage, which made me feel like I was getting extra breakfast meat. I only ate half of this and had the rest for dinner later on that evening, and it was still very good and satisfying.
At the Scratch Room, most meals come with your choice of toast, biscuits with gravy, or their special loaf, which happened to be banana bread on the day we were here. Do yourself a favor and forgo the toast and biscuits because this banana bread was some of the best I have ever had. Not overly sweet, but with a great banana flavor to it, the texture was spongy and moist and made even better as it came out warmed. I was so impressed I got an extra slice ($2.99) since the first one seemed to disappear rather quickly.
My light-eating mom took advantage of the senior portion of the menu with this Senior Special #2 ($7.00). This came with two eggs, two bacon, and either fruit or potatoes. This basic breakfast helped sustain my mom for the rest of the day. The egg came out just as she had requested, the bacon was crisp, and the fruit was fresh. All she could have asked for.
Luckily, my dad got something a little more creative at the Scratch Room. He got the Grizzly Benedict ($12.25). This northwest inspired? benedict featured two fried salmon cakes, three poached eggs, hollandaise sauce, and unusual red caper relish. My dad has been on a real seafood kick lately, as his nickname has become fish taco, and he loved this plate. The salmon cakes were heavily breaded, but the salmon came through in most bites. I was not sure it would, but the two sauces interacted well together. I'm not sure they make the salmon cakes here, but it didn't much matter to my dad, as he ate this quicker than I have seen him in a long time. Probably because he did not want to give me a second bite. Thanks, fish taco!
I was pretty impressed with our initial visit to the Scratch Room. This family-run restaurant has got it going on. I feel like this trip just scratched the surface of what they have to offer. I'm eyeing the Breakfast Burger, the Bad Hombre Benedict, and the Wild Boar skillet on my subsequent visits. Prices were very modest here, with only the steak and eggs breaking the $12 barrier. Service was competent, cordial, and speedy. The only things that might keep me away are that we have heard the wait for a table on weekends can be up to an hour and a half long and the parking situation in this cramped shopping plaza. That, and of course my awful work schedule as of late.
Out of five green jackets, (because the winner of the Master's golf tournament wins that garment and all winners of that prestigious tournament are scratch golfers), five being best to zero being worst, The Scratch Room gets 3.5 green jackets.
The Scratch Room does not have a website but click here for their Yelp page: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-scratch-room-anaheim-2
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