Zoe’s Bakery Cafe

While Jeff and I are pretty loyal to our neighbourhood jaunt, Le Gourmand, our “other” place is Zoe’s Bakery Cafe on King Street, just west of Spadina.  I love having brunch at Zoe’s because it feels like a secret.  It’s located in the basement of a building located on a stretch of King that’s usually pretty quiet before 10:00 p.m. on weekends.  Each time we have eaten at Zoe’s there has never been more than a couple of other tables filled.  While the cafe is open for brunch on Saturdays, I do imagine that most of their business comes from the Monday to Friday lunch crowd.

The brunch selection is modest — eggs a couple of different ways and breakfast staples like muesli and French toast — but their sandwich menu is incredible.  Any sandwich that you could possibly dream up is on the menu!

Being the lover of all things breakfast that I am, each and every time we go to Zoe’s I end up ordering the open-face frittata.  Yes, it’s true, if there’s a menu item that features goat cheese it’s pretty much trumps anything else I had my eye on.  Last week I swore I was going to try something different, but at the last minute I changed my mind and ordered the frittata once again.

As loyal as I am to my frittata, Jeff is also loyal to the toasted Western breakfast sandwich.  And every time I see that ooey-gooey cheddar on the sandwich I have a fleeting thought that I should have ordered it instead.  It is, however, an incredibly delicious fritata.  Fluffy eggs, dotted with with goat cheese and sweet peppers, hearty whole-grain toast with butter and a side of paprika scented roasted potatoes.  It’s rare that I don’t finish everything on my plate, but there hasn’t once been a time when I’ve succeeded at Zoe’s.

Zoe’s Bakery Cafe is a great place to enjoy a nice, leisurely brunch on a Saturday morning without having to worry about the line-up out the door.  They also have a fantastic selection of pastries to go if you don’t have time to linger.