Breakfast Republic
4213 Campus Dr. Suite P166B
Irvine, CA 92612
The invasion of San Diego restaurants coming to OC continues. For all but one restaurant that has made the migration north on the 5 Freeway from America's Finest City, almost all have been hits in my opinion. Crack Shack, The Taco Stand, The Kebab Shop, Burger Lounge, Luna Grill, Puesto, and I'm sure there's a few more that I'm just not thinking of right at the moment, have gotten some very positive, if not glowing reviews from the people of OC. The lone clunker has been The Broken Yolk, but let's not focus on their very mediocre food.
I had a good feeling that Breakfast Republic would not be anything close to mediocre. It's part of the Rise and Shine Restaurant Group, which is owned and founded by Johan Engman. He's originally from Sweden and moved to San Diego when he was 16. Finding out that he was passionate about the restaurant business, he opened his first restaurant, Fig Tree Cafe at the age of 27. After a few struggles, he opened other locations in 2011 and 2013.
The concept for the Breakfast Republic came to Johan when he was waiting out a rainstorm in Borneo. The name, logo, a menu that was unique but still offered classics that customers would be comfortable with, hidden puns and quotes spread throughout the restaurant, and their famous egg chairs were all born in that hut along the Danum River. Pretty incredible to come up with all of this while waiting for the rain to lighten up, especially since most of us, including myself, would have just taken a nap.
Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago when Breakfast Republic opened up their eighth location, and the first in OC, at the University Center at UCI. There will be another outpost opening later on this summer in Costa Mesa. I was a little worried that this Irvine location is a little tucked away, but those fears subsided when my friend Joe and I arrived here for a late breakfast on a recent Friday and were met with a full restaurant and a stated wait time of 45 minutes. Mind you, this was on a weekday, and we've heard that waits for tables on weekends have exceeded an hour and a half for most of their 7am to 3pm operating hours. I guess the word is out about Breakfast Republic.
I was a little overwhelmed with the menu here. There are lots of things that piqued my interest. The menu is broken up into Benedicts, Scrambles, Omelets, Pancakes, French Toast, and another section which is titled Playing Fare, which has some unusual things that you would not expect to see on a breakfast menu. There's a Breakfast Jambalaya, Turkey Meatloaf Hash, Breakfast Hot Dogs, Shrimp and Grits, and a Breakfast Burger to name a few. Prices range between $8 to $19 for the Steak and Eggs. I felt a little pressure picking out what to have here, so let's see if I made a great decision for my first meal of the day.
Let's first take a look at what Joe tried on his maiden voyage at Breakfast Republic. He kept things pretty simple by trying the Traditional Benedict with Avocado and Tomato added ($14). This Benedict, as with all of them listed on the menu, starts with their sourdough English muffin and then is layered with Canadian bacon and a poached egg and is topped with a gluten-free hollandaise sauce. Joe really enjoyed the fresh and vibrant flavors that came on this plate. This was served with House Potatoes, as all the Benedicts are. I thought they looked pretty basic from across the table, but these spuds were nicely seasoned and had a very pleasing crunch to the outside of each cube, and a softer inside. Next time we will upgrade these potatoes with Brussels sprouts, parmesan, bacon, onion, and balsamic for an extra $2.
It seems to be a trend with me that I always veer towards scrambles when I'm trying a breakfast spot for the first time. It held true at Breakfast Republic when I got this Portuguese Linguisa Sausage Scramble ($12). Three light and fluffy eggs are mixed with plenty of green bell peppers, tomatoes, a splash of hot sauce, garlic, bacon, and linguisa sausage. This was one of the lighter of scrambles I have had. The produce was very fresh, the linguisa had a nice little bite to it, and the hot sauce added a little spark. I was happy this was not as heavy as other scrambles, because I would have been in trouble with what we had coming next.
Instead of getting toast with my scramble, I opted to get this Mr. Presely's French Toast ($4 upcharge). One of the wisest food decisions I have made in a long while. I was pretty much blown away by this french toast stuffed with peanut butter, then topped with crumbled bacon and bananas foster. Wow, sweet and savory at its finest. I'll be getting this again for sure, especially since I've thought about it almost every day since I had it last week.
As if I needed even more sugar to jumpstart my day, we also tired their Pancake Flight ($13). With eight pancakes on their regular menu, plus a monthly special pancake, this pancake flight is the best way to get a good lay of the land at Breakfast Republic. We tried the Strawberry Cheesecake, Oreo Cookie, and the special of the month, the Tres Leches. My favorite predictably was the Oreo, which is a chocolate pancake with cream inside and pieces of Oreos on top. Very decadent. The Tres Leches is a buttermilk pancake with cajeta (a kind of caramel sauce) and strawberries on top and then finished with whipped cream and tres leches cream. It didn't really taste like tres leches to me, but I still liked it. Joe was partial to the Strawberry Cheesecake which had plenty in the way of strawberries and a cheesecake cream.
This was an excellent first visit to what I'm sure will become a lot of people's favorite breakfast place in OC. Hopefully, with the new Costa Mesa spot opening soon, it will alleviate the wait times at the Irvine spot, which is closer to our place. I really look forward to trying more of their menu and getting a little more adventurous in my selections. I'm glad Breakfast Republic has moved north from San Diego. I think they are going to fit right in with the other superior San Diego restaurants that have expanded to OC in the last year or so.
We'd like to thank everyone at Breakfast Republic for making us feel so welcome and sharing what they are all about with us. Both Joe and I had an excellent time and a lot of that was due to our server Megan and Manager Karmina, both of whom took turns checking on us and making sure our every need was met. They not only did it for us, but they were very busy checking on other tables as well. We'd also like the thank the excellent Casey Sorrell at Alternative Strategies for reaching out to us and setting up our visit to Breakfast Republic. She's one of the best in the business.
For more information about the Breakfast Republic, head to their website here: https://www.breakfastrepublic.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment