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Sunday 18 March 2012

Brunch at De Dutch (Richmond)

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In honor of Coco’s arrival we were headed to De Dutch for breakfast. Why breakfast? Well I was having a craving for breakfast for a few days which had been going unsatisfied. I'd especially been drooling over the taste of hash browns. Mmm deep fried potato so good mmm. But there aren't too many breakfast places in Richmond and I m not really big on Ihop. and I've recently had White Spot breakfast. De Dutch had come up a few times in our conversations and we were surprised to find out it existed in Richmond. So De Dutch it was!!
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IMG_8418 copy IMG_8427 copy Since I was the first one to arrive, I had some time to look for parking spots in the area.  There really isn’t a lot of parking for De Dutch.  Maybe 6 spots and considering the restaurant can seat 30 or so, that is NOT enough parking.  To make matters worse, if you park in the parking for adjacent stores you’re going to get towed.  Well this just sucks.  After waiting 15 mins for parking, I gave up and went and parked at Superstore and walked back.
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Ying, Rich, and Croco were still on their way so I decided to have a seat at a table inside.  I had to wait a good 5 minutes by the door before any of the staff came to greet me and ask how many were in my party.  Seriously, I wasn’t happy at this point.  There were only customers on 3 tables while I waited and there were servers just standing and chatting at the till.  One made eye contact with me twice and looked away.  I don’t understand why I had to wait to be greeted and seated.  WTF???  When one of the severs finally came over (after I kept staring at them because I was getting frustrated) she didn’t smile or seem welcoming; she seemed to want to get out of there and she greeted me by saying “Hi?” that’s all.  After she seated me and walked back I heard a customer ask for her attention and she replied “I’ll get someone else for you I’m off.” Well I had a lot of time to calm down and browse their menu while I waited for the other three.  The menu here is pretty big (Have a look at their official website for the menus). They have a LOT of options, enough to keep you busy for some time while you decide what you want.  I had difficulty deciding what I wanted too and usually that’s not the case haha.
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I settled on the Smoked Wild BC Salmon Scrambled eggs which are served with toast, hashbrowns and fruits.  This dish was huuuge!  The four triangles of white bread toast (yes, four!) were made with butter and was delicious.  The hashbrowns though, were disappointing, despite the novelty of how they were served.  These tiny squares of potato didn’t really hit the spot that hashbrowns usually do and weren’t crunchy or hot or salty enough.  Maybe they rushed the hashbrowns or something, I dunno, but these were bland, soft, and room temperature pieces of potato.  Bleh.  The scrambled eggs were bad too, in my opinion.  At least mine was.  The scrambled eggs had tomatoes, too much onions, and not enough egg; as you can imagine, this mixture was really watery and did not hold itself together at all.  Also, each bite was prominent in onions and left the tastebuds searching for the taste of eggs.  I ended up leaving a bit at the end because I just couldn’t take the oniony-ness.  I was pretty disappointed with my food.  I had been getting a bad impression ever since I entered and this pretty much was the final straw.  Maybe they didn’t like me, or didn’t like the fact that I sat on a table for 30 mins before anyone else arrived, but hey its not like they were packed and needed tables either.  Meh, not going back here for eggs, but I will come back for their specialty which is pancakes.
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Rich commented that he was hungry so he ordered lunch on their menu. He wanted something big and beefy so he was eyeing the Frying Dutchman Burgers. After hesitating and going back and forth for a while, he finally decided on the Meek Mytle (Cheddar, DeBakon and fresh onion) for $10.30. It also came with either Kettle chips and dips, garden or caesar salad or soup. Rich went for their clam chowder soup. When his entrée arrived, he remarked that the burger was bigger and the soup was smaller than he thought. I guess the two balance out? He opened the burger to show us what was inside. Aside from the onion, ham, and cheddar, it also had mayo, pickle pieces, a huge piece of beef patty and fried egg. He said that the beef looked juicier than it tasted but overall, the burger wasn’t too bad. He added some HP sauce provided but he didn’t like it. He loved his soup on the other hand as he kept raving about how creamy it was. From a spectator’s point of view, the soup did not look particular appetizing as it had no garnish at all. Anyhow, I’m glad he liked it though.
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IMG_8447 copy Ying got her favorite BC Bene - eggs benedict with smoked salmon. This also came with hashbrowns and fruit. She commented that although the eggs benedict was not the usual poached egg with hollandaise sauce on and English muffin, it was still very tasty. De Dutch serves their benes on traditional Dutch rusk, which is double-toasted to be super crunchy instead of the usual mushy mess of an English muffin. She kept trying to convince me that the combination of smoked salmon and egg goes well together. Oh well, to each their own! 
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Croco picked the Dutch benedict that came with harsh brown and salad. We forgot the name of this particular bene as it seemed to be one of the specials of the Richmond location. It had avocado, tomato and bacon along with the usual egg and hollandaise sauce on rusk. Croco seems to know his breakfast quite well as he commented that he had gourmet breakfast several times over the last two weeks. He is absolutely spoiled by the good breakfast in Victoria so his expectation is high. Croco is a carnivore so naturally, he did not enjoy his salad. He did not say much about his hash brown other than confirming that it was cold. I would imagine that his was the same as mine – bland and soft. He did say how disappointed he was with the egg bene, however. He did not like his egg fried. He said he expected it to be poached with the york still runny so when he poked it, it would soak into the English muffin. To add insult to injury, the egg bene was not made from English muffin and not toasted.
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The bill also came with 4 pieces of mint chocolate. Not bad! Keep in mind that this place only serves breakfast and lunch. Their hours are as follows:
  • Mon-Fri: 7:30am - 2:30 pm
  • Sat-Sun: 8:00am - 3:30 pm
  • Holidays: 9:00am - 2:30 pm
Ying said that she recently got some De Dutch coupons in the mail for buy one get one entrees with the purchase of 2 beverages. It's valid at the location on Knight St, which also happens to be the original De Dutch. Keep your eyes peeled for the Yummy crew's visit there in the coming weeks! :) Next time, we will be sure to get a pannekoeken to fully appreciate what De Dutch has to offer.  

The Yummies:
  • Yummy clam chowder
  • Ying still likes her BC Bene
  • Cute ambiance with a Dutch flair
The Yuckies:
  • Inconsistent service - the Asian lady who took over for the original waitress was very friendly
  • Lack of parking at peak dining hours
  • Cold, disappointing hashbrowns
  • Food was hit and miss 
  • Pricey for what you get...
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De Dutch Pannekoek House (Richmond) on Urbanspoon

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