I'll start to say that breakfast has never been my meal... It might be the fact that I was raised Vietnamese (and Asian in general)... well, in terms of the dining aspect (As dining consisted of mom's cooking - we were too indigent to ever eat out and my parent's palette [with regards to the culinary arts] was limited to the Vietnamese/Chinese realm... when we were fortuitous enough to dine at a restaurant, my mother didn't deviate far from her roots) In Vietnamese cuisine, breakfast was generally not in the vocabulary (figuratively) or it mainly consisted of Pho. So... I grew up without the notion of breakfast and it stuck.
American breakfast (at least the type that instantly illuminates the plebeian mind) is rather on the fattening side (sausage, bacon, grilled eggs, biscuit and gravy, hash brown... ) All of which seems to be instrumental in inducing the common heart attack. I believe the familiar breakfast was appropriate during the inception of America society... as the respective farmers and proletariat burnt every ounce of that fat during the arduous day's work. Our general technological era is less labor intensive. Enough of my digression...
Meridian Cafe was a stand alone house a corollary to the icon used to represent the restaurant. The house was well irradiated with luminous sunshine as most of the walls were accompanied with windows. The interior walls were adorned with small paintings with various mismatch chairs for the tables but seem to foster a quaint cloister of a restaurant. A cool and bright ambiance; well suited for the breakfast/brunch service. Meridian cafe doesn't serve dinner, if it did... the decor may be a bit on the blithe side...
I perused the menu for a little bit before seeking opinion from the waitress of the best that Meridian Cafe had to offer (in terms of Breakfast that is, they also had the brunch menu selections)... She was upbeat with her reply of French Toast and Hash... So I got the Nikkie's Way French Toast and Mr. Brown's Hash with Balsamic Mustard Roasted Tomato and a Green Tea.
I'll start with the good | Nikkie's way French Toast. I'll say... I like french toast, but was never really enamored with them... well, until today. Meridian's cafe's french toast is a little thicker than the average but still maintained the fluffiness on the inside with the ideal manner of crunchiness on the exterior... The French Toast was garnished with broken bacon pieces and goat cheese. But what made it so good was the agave nectar (the replacement for syrup)... it was just sweet enough but yet airy in nature that didn't over power the French Toast - combine that with the saltiness of the bacon/goat cheese, it just felt perfect. I could come back just for the French Toast.
My other dish | Mr. Brown's Hash. Being that it was named Hash... I thought it was more like a hash brown... but it wasn't anything like it. The dish description was "Thinly sliced pastrami, pan fried red potatoes, onions, tomatoes, Swiss cheese, with spicy brown mustard served on the side"... I think the dish really should be called pan fried RED POTATOES and others... The potato tasted good... but that made up 90% of the plate... there were "sprinkle" of cheese and pastrami (which really tasted like beef brisket that's been cooked in a crook pot - there wasn't really the flavor of pastrami) and I had to search to find it in the dish. The seasoning tasted good... I ate what I could minus most of the potatoes... the plate still appear full I was disappointed.
Rating
Food: 7.5/10 (8.5|French Toast, 6|Hash)
Ambiance: 8/10
Service: 8/10
Overall: 7.5/10
I'd be back, at least for the French Toast if nothing else.
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