Ella’s

"The one with the meyer lemon hazelnut ricotta pancakes."

http://www.ellassanfrancisco.com/


Place: Ella's 
Location: 500 Presidio Avenue (at California Street) 
Hours: open for breakfast Monday - Friday at 7:00am; open for "Brunch" Saturday and Sunday at 8:30am
Meal: meyer lemon hazelnut ricotta pancakes (3) ~ with Coombs Family Farms pure maple syrup, Vermont; a side of homefried potatoes; and a glass of Ginger Orange Juice Punch

(I am linking this Lady Ella EweToob song because of rain… well, it was a little overcast and drizzly this morning. The second video is because of today's meal ~ Mayer/Meyer ~ get it? Whatever. It seems that Mr. Hawthorne has taken over the reigns of the White Boy-R&B/Soul/Pop from Daryl Hall.)


New year, new season to run through my Breakfastary Rotation. Today's Starter was Ella's (see last 'blog-entry from September 1st, 2013) once again.

There were a few other good choices for breakfast ("Brunch", whatever) today: fried cornmeal with cheddar and green onions ~ served with eggs and toast; or potato scramble with grilled squash, spinach, lemon zest, and lemon herb goat cheese (but that just sounded like too much lemon flavour, and I really can't stand lemon flavour).

There was lots of Meyer lemon (or just plain lemon, like I can really tell the difference) flavour in the pancakes (I love the flavour of fresh lemons, of course). However, the hazelnut flavour seemed to be hidden and was a bit on the weak side; I really couldn't taste much of it in these. Either way, these pancakes were far and beyond the normative flavours expected. The ricotta makes the pancakes a bit heavier, but also makes them a bit moister/richer.

They make a point of saying that they use "Coombs Family Farms pure maple syrup, Vermont", because anyone can really tell the difference between that and "Coombs Family Farms, pure maple syrup, New Hampshire". (This is maple syrup here, folks, and not some snooty-ass French Wine; besides, everyone knows that a fine French Wine goes, "But I don‘t wanna go to war!"). I also used some of their homemade (well, restaurant-made) strawberry jam on some of the pancakes.

The side plate of homefries was absolutely HUGE ~ a full plate the same size as the pancakes plate; I really was expecting a small "side"-plate. I couldn't finish them all if I wanted to eat all three of the pancakes (and I probably should have only gotten two pancakes in the first place).

Ella's has for condimentary supplementation two kinds of Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (the standard red and the green jalapeño). I skipped both of those and used some of my own Nando's® Extra Hot Peri-Peri Sauce (Thanks, Kerry!) on the potatoes; leaving the pancakes to the likes of the syrup and jam only.

Glen Bacon Scale Rating: meyer lemon hazelnut ricotta pancakes ~ 6.6