Coastal Café

Ben: Coastal Café is typical of North End Halifax. Located at 2731 Robie Street, it's packed every day with artsy students, cute couples and young families. We decided to be one of those cute couples on Valentine's Day weekend, choosing a quiet Sunday breakfast instead of trying to compete for dinner reservations downtown. We got there 15 minutes before it opened at 10am; this was a wise choice, as 15 minutes after it opened there wasn't a free seat in the place. Coastal Café is tiny and is only open from 10-3 on Sundays and 8-3 every other day. I think the owners are proud that their restaurant is always packed, but it can actually be quite irritating – we saw many disappointed faces trudge back out into the snow after being turned away. I'd be willing to bet being open an extra hour every day would make a lot of customers very happy.

We approached the counter to order, as is the norm at Coastal. Everything on the menu looked delicious, but we had planned ahead in order to avoid annoying those waiting behind us. We ordered, paid, sat down – and then noticed the small sign behind us advertising the 10% student discount. As a stereotypical cheap Dutch person, I was devastated. The girl at the counter assured me that students miss the sign all the time, but told me that she unfortunately could not reimburse my 10%. Since this is a pretty pricey place for poor students to eat at, I have one major recommendation for Coastal: Get a bigger sign please!

Now on to the food; I had the "DeeeLox," which cost $12.75 – a little more than I would normally like to spend, but oh well. It's certainly more than enough for a typical breakfast: two poached eggs served over a smoked salmon, avocado and cream cheese bagel panini with new (young) potatoes and micro green salad. The eggs were absolutely perfect; I had them poached soft in order to be able to sop up the yoke with the last bit of bagel, but I'm told some find that practice disgusting. I'm a sucker for smoked salmon, so the bagel panini was right up my alley as well. The creaminess of the avocado so wonderfully complimented the sweet sticky salmon that the cream cheese almost didn't even need to be there. The new potatoes were the part I was most suspicious of, since don't really like combining egg with potato in breakfast, but these were actually quite good; new potatoes have really thin skin and are a little waxy, which makes them a surprisingly nice partner to the panini. The greens were nice and fresh, a refreshing break between bites of meat, egg and potato. Altogether the breakfast came together really well  – each part was delicious on its own, but combined they left me full and satisfied well past lunchtime.

 It's more food than it looks like, trust me.

Rebecca: I had literally been craving waffles for months, so my only request this Valentine's Day was to be taken out for some delicious homemade waffles. I of course ordered the Elvis, which consists of peanut butter, bacon, and bananas sandwiched between two waffles and doused in syrupy goodness. Apparently Elvis Presley used to order this, hence the name - and let me tell you, the King sure had good taste in breakfasts.

These waffles were so warm, soft, and buttery that I would have been satisfied with them alone. However, the bacon and peanut butter were a delicious combo (reminiscent of the Darrell's burger I had a few posts back). The bananas and syrup added sweetness to the dish, but not too much so that it became a sugar overload. The dish featured all kinds of textures - soft, sticky and crunchy - it was truly a breakfast experience that I have never had before. Served with some fresh fruit on the side, the Elvis was an amazing and unique breakfast definitely worth the somewhat heftier price tag ($10.50). It's no wonder that Coastal Cafe receives a Best in Food award every year from The Coast for it!

The Coast needs a category just for waffles.

As Ben mentioned before, the restaurant was packed and the seating was pretty small and cramped. It was also chilly in there, so dress warmly if you plan to dine-in. The door was  opened and closed constantly by hungry customers which brought a cold draft throughout the entire place!

The Elvis is the classic Coastal dish and I highly recommend trying it. In fact, all the breakfasts on their menu look intriguing, especially the Mexican-infused dishes and the Frere Jacques breakfast poutine (this was probably going to come out sooner or later, so here is my confession: I LOVE POUTINE). I'll have to try that one next time for sure!