I have eaten at Q Restaurant and Wine Bar on Clement Street in the past and liked their breakfasts well enough; however, I must state that the breakfast I had there today is one of the best, most original, and imaginative that I have had in a long while (shades of the "lost bread" at Baker Street Bistro and the recently reviewed "Coconut French Toast" at Neighborhood Restaurant & Bakery).
http://www.qrestaurant.com/
Q has been on Clement for over ten years now and is a pretty nice neighborhood joint. They have a decent enough standard Breakfast menu and they usually have an interesting "Specials" menu, too. Some of the tables are works of art/kitschy tableaus. Today mine was made with lots of little kids toys/figures. My favourite table of theirs has a large, working "Willy Wooly"** that you can play with to your tonsorial delights while waiting for the meal to come.
I ordered off the "Specials" menu today (and, for which, was rewarded fully for my serendipitous choice) and had the Chayote Benedict. It is a variation on a standard Eggs Benedict, but only mucho, mucho, bettero. It comes with bacon (passed; you can have mine, Sean), avocado, tomato, and poached eggs ~ now here is the truly interesting/muy original part ~ served on slices of chayote (instead of boring ol' English muffins, cornbread, etc.) that are breaded and fried. I can't rave enough about this dish. It may not be for everyone, not sure of the chayote appeal to the masses, but I loved it. The only change I would make (if I ever actually cooked myself) would be to slice the tomatoes and avocados a little thinner as the whole thing was a bit unwieldy, but I seemed to manage okay.
Their Hollandaise sauce is a very good version, too. However, I preemptively added some hot sauces and spices (they have these little pepper-shaker thingys that have chili pepper flakes and sundry herbs and spices mixed in on each table) before sampling the sauce, so I am assuming it was even better before I messed with it.
Most breakfast dishes come with home fries ~ very good and a lot of them. I also ordered a "large orange juice" and was pleasantly surprised to actually receive a "LARGE orange juice" for a change, not the normal "large thimble of orange juice". It was only Odwalla®, not fresh-squeezed, but still nice to get a real full glass for a change.
The only bottled hot sauces offered table-side are: Original "Louisiana" Brand ~ the Perfect Hot Sauce (their claim, not mine) and Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce; no worries, as I had brought two of my own: Trees Can't Dance Tree Fire Sauce (thanks again, Greg & Cindy) and Roland® Piri Piri with Lemon. Plus, Q's aforementioned pepper-shaker thingy was more than enough additional flavour.
I felt it necessary to mention to the servers how much I loved the meal and told them they really should have this dish on their standard menu all the time. I was told that this is generally on their weekend breakfast specials menu, anyway. Which is nice.
And, if this all wasn't reason enough to go back there again, when they bring the check, it comes with a mini Tootsie Roll® instead of the ubiquitous hard candy/peppermint. Hmm? I wonder if they make a chayote-flavoured Tootsie Pop®?
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Chayote Benedict ~ 7.7
*(Useless cunning linguist story of the day:
Chayote ~ pronounced to rhyme with "coyote", Wile E. ~ is a gourd/squash-like, pear-shaped fruit that is used in a lot of cocina mexicana. The word chayote is Spanish, borrowed from the Nahuatl word chayotli. There is a nice little Mexican restaurant I go to called El Toreador that has a really nice chayote relleno that I love to order, and it is just fun to say "chayote relleno". I happened to mention this one night while at dinner with some friends and the waitress overheard me and felt it necessary to "correct" me and said, "It is not pronounced 'CHayote', but 'coyote', like the animal. There is no 'CH' sound in Spanish." First off, she was only a gringa estupida waitress herself and her knowledge of la lengua españa was probably less than mine. Nextly, I hate being corrected ~ especially incorrectly ~ in front of friends, so I said to her, "I beg to differ, Chica, or is that supposed to be 'Kika'?!" She probably spit in my chayote relleno.)
**(Who hasn’t played with one of these magnetic toys in the past:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wooly_Willy
I even own a Grandpa Simpson one that was given to me as a gift years ago. Thanks, Kerry!)
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