Hoping That the Yolks Not On Me

Broken Yolk Cafe

28621 Marguerite Parkway

Mission Viejo, CA 92692

It seems to me that the people of Mission Viejo love their breakfast spots. There's almost always a wait at Paul's Pantry, Stacks Pancake House is always standing room only, and we've also seen groups of people waiting outside of Coco's to get their first meal of the day. So it was no surprise that when the Broken Yolk opened up down the street from us, the lines of people were almost mind boggling. We made a note of their opening, and promised ourselves that we would visit after the initial crowd died off.

Problem was, the crowds have not diminished since they opened back in February. Katie and I only have Sundays when we can have breakfast together, and that's definitely Broken Yolk's busiest day. Not that we mind waiting in line, but lately our Sundays have been pretty filled up. Enter my good buddy Frank. He and I had a Thursday morning off of work, and he likes to eat breakfast early, so we decided to meet at Broken Yolk at 8am. We got right in, with no waiting.

Even though it was a weekday, there was a steady stream of people walking through the door during our stay. Located in a recently remodeled shopping center, near the corner of Marguerite and Avery Parkway, Broken Yolk has grown quite the following down in San Diego county, where 10 of their 16 locations are situated. They recently opened up their first spot outside of California, in Mesa, Arizona. This Mission Viejo venue is their second OC locale, with the other being situated in the city of Orange. Quite an aggressive expansion plan.

Their menu and interior screams breakfast joint. The menu is shaped like an egg, and the inside of the brightly colored restaurant definitely suggests breakfast coffee shop. The menu here is pretty extensive. Lots of breakfast staples, tons of egg dishes, a good variety of Mexican breakfast items, pancakes, crepes, lunch items, and even a food challenge which features a 12 egg omelette. two biscuits, and a mound of home fries. I was not brave enough to tackle it, but if you are, you get it for free and you also get a T-shirt and your picture on their wall of fame. Maybe someday I'll try it, but today I whimped out and just ordered like I regularly would. Let's see what we thought of the food at the Broken Yolk.

Let's start things off with Frank's selection on this morning, the California Breakfast Burrito ($11.65). This was his second time here, and his first time having this burrito. It was filled with scrambled eggs, avocado, bacon, cheddar cheese, and home fries. It came with rice and beans and a side of their salsa. Frank felt this burrito was kind of average, and not as good as the John Wayne omelette he had on his first visit here. Also, for close to twelve dollars, this plate filled him up, but he expected a little more from this burrito. Just for the record, for those that know Frank and his love of USC, he was actually wearing a Niagara University sweatshirt on this morning, instead of his usual cardinal and gold. Way to represent your old hometown Frank. Go Purple Eagles!

I was split between two things on the Broken Yolk menu, so I decided to try both. The first of which was this Border Check Omelette ($12.65). This omelette sounded like it would be right up my alley. Beef chorizo, jalapenos, jack cheese, and then topped with guacamole and salsa. The omelette was good sized, probably three eggs, but it was not as good as I had hoped. The chorizo had a weird texture, the salsa was very bland, and they were a little skimpy on the cheese they include on the inside. I had my choice of potato, fruit, or beans and rice, and I went with the home fries option. This was not a wise decision. The potatoes were undercooked, with only the smaller slices of potatoes cooked all the way through. Very disappointing, and I probably should have gotten the hash browns instead. This also came with a bread option, and I had their sourdough, which was decent.

I was much more happy with the second part of my meal, these Nutella Crepes ($8.55). With these you have your choice of having sliced strawberries or bananas included, and I went with the latter. Plenty of Nutella inside and out, the sliced bananas went well here, and I liked the whipped cream and the powdered sugar topping these three crepes. The crepes themselves were good, but a little on the rubbery side, and they came to our table lukewarm at best. Still, this was the highlight of our breakfast for sure, and a must try when coming here.

I left the Broken Yolk a little disappointed. With the long lines on weekends, and their rapid expansion, I was expecting to be blown away by their food, but that was not the case during this visit. Their egg dishes were pretty average, and I'm not sure what was going on with the chorizo that was included in mine. Yes, you get beans and rice with your breakfast burrito, but that still does not translate to charging $12 for the burrito. There's too many better breakfast burrito options out there, almost all of which are less than ten dollars. My crepes were a highlight, but even these had some issues. I'm not saying I wouldn't go back to Broken Yolk, but I'm not willing to wait in line for it either.

Out of five precious stones, (because this restaurant was started in the Pacific Beach area of San Diego, and the east-west streets there are mostly named after gemstones), five being best to zero being worst, Broken Yolk Cafe gets 2 precious stones.

For more information about Broken Yolk Cafe, check out their website here: http://thebrokenyolkcafe.com/home