veggie.brunch.toronto: Sadie’s Diner

Typical Sadie’s Diner meal

The Location: Sadie’s Diner (head south towards Antarctica. When you enter a building colder than Antarctica, you’ve reached the diner)

The Time: Late November, which is apparently the dead of winter in Sadie’s Diner

The Company: Chris

Veggie Menu: This is a vegetarian restaurant, so everything is either veggie or vegan. On their menu is huevos (veggie or vegan), daily omelette, tofu scramble, breakfast burrito (veggie or vegan), traditional breakfast with eggs and veggie bacon or sausage, french toast, pancakes, organic cereals, fruit

We used to frequent Sadie’s Diner, even before I became a vegetarian. It is super cute, has lots of seating, and is compatible with all dietary restrictions of our group of friends. Then Sadie’s fell off our radar, and when we returned today, I remembered why: It is SO cold in this restaurant, and the food isn’t great.

Good thing it was toque day.

Having already decided it was a toque kind of day, Chris betrayed a hint of desperation while ordering his coffee. As he hugged the mug to his chest, we quickly dove into our burrito and french toast. The prospect of food warming us up quickly dissolved into disappointment as I took a bite of the worst homefries I’ve ever had. The french toast was thin and rubbery. At least the veggie bacon tasted somewhat like turkey bacon, but looked even more like cardboard. The burrito was fine but reminded me of sweet mornings sitting in my warm and toasty CAMP RESTAURANT and eating their breakfast burrito.  (RIP Camp – today I miss your toasty temperature most of all).

Even the Santa’s are succumbing to the cold, and quickly.

I get that Sadie’s is in an old building, and that’s part of the charm. But serious insulating has to happen before I ever return. And please, reinvent your menu. Us veggies and vegans deserve a warm place and a delicious brunch just as much as our carnivorous peers. Reader, for your own health and safety, if you must go to Sadie’s, don’t go until at least April or May. You don’t want to end up like one of these Santa’s, do you?

 

Shari’s Veggie Meter (out of five): 🍅

 

veggie.brunch.pearson: Zet’s Drive-Inn Restaurant

 

The Location: Zet’s Restaurant (pick your visiting friends up from Terminal One then drive here)

The Time: May 2-4 Monday

The Company: Newfie friends Matt, Oliver, Pauline, and my favourite Newfie, Christopher

Veggie Menu: Custom omelette, pancakes, french toast, or the “No Meat Breakfast” (eggs, homefries and toast)

Ever since I went to Disney World’s Sci-Fi Dine-In Theatre as a child, I became obsessed with 50’s diners. I wanted to have a milkshake at The Max. I wanted to play a song on the jukebox at the Frosty Palace. I wanted to wear a big pink dress with a side ponytail and eat hamburgers like the Homecoming Queen, perched on a red bar stool. I googled for the best brunch near the airport, and everywhere I clicked, the recommendation was unanimous. ZET’S is the best brunch near the airport! ZET’S is the best greasy spoon diner! ZET’S! ZET’S! ZET’S!

Naturally, having been to so many retro diners in Toronto, and with “Drive-In” in the name, I imagined Zet’s to look like this:

Here’s what Zet’s looked like in reality:

 

We weren’t exactly going to burst into a chorus of “Telephone Hour”, that’s for sure – though I did sneak in that side ponytail. Beyond the disappointment in ambiance and theme, the food was just as generic.

No meat + tomatoes galore = no personality

I’ve been known to mock brunch spots for so often emulating the 50’s diners I referenced above. But being all the way out by the airport, in a place so nondescript it might as well have been a gas station, I missed all those Toronto diners.

(Side note: Thank you, though, to Zet’s, for giving us a place to loiter for a few hours with our dear Newfie friends who we rarely see.)

 

Shari’s Veggie Meter (out of five): 🍅