Breakfast is important. Is a bowl of peanut butter Captain Crunch enough to sustain a body for a grueling daily schedule that starts with Saturday morning cartoons? Of course, the forever-young Molly Ringwald leads a club dedicated to the meal. It’s the cure to hangovers; all of the best places to spy on people reading newspapers also serve up eggs, toast, and a warm cuppa Joe. That’s got to be enough to end a debate on whether breakfast is a good way to start the day, right? The Cherry City is home to a large number of breakfast eateries. There are also some popular choices that generally have lines out the door. Do they stack up as the best place to have a breakfast of champions? Is the food worth the wait? Loosen up the belt and let’s dive in.
Busick Court
Cost for two: $18.95
Busick Court is consistently busy. It’s quite clearly maintained a reputation that was made Food Network-famous by Rachael Ray when she visited Salem a few years ago. One should expect a wait when eating, but generally the food is worth it. On this visit, there was a near-20-minute wait to get in, despite being told it’d be around 5 minutes and tables that were available immediately. Uh, oh. That’s not a good start to a meal. The first wait was normal, but there was a long period of time before our party was acknowledged by a server. We waited 10 to 15 minutes before being offered drinks.
With the unpleasant start of the experience, the food had a lot to make up for. I ordered the Busick Toast Sandwich, which comes with the house’s famous ultimate French toast, a slab of ham, and a single egg that I opted to order scrambled. A side of potatoes are also included. My companion ordered The Busick Omelette, which comes with sauteed onions, mushrooms, spinach and cheddar cheese, topped with Hollandaise sauce.
The toast sandwich came packed onto a plate with an ample amount of potatoes on the side. It was powdered with sugar – as good French toast should be. I added just a little bit of maple syrup to the top to avoid oversweetening the whole plate. The good cut of ham, the scrambled egg and the French toast dipped into cornflake batter created a number of different textures and flavors happening at once. If you enjoy crispy potatoes, ask for them specifically, as the potatoes came out a little more chewy.
The omelette didn’t get such good reviews, despite the plate being empty at the end. The wait for the meal didn’t help, but the one-word review was “bland.” There was a little too much sauce, with not enough flavor behind it. The potatoes were better suited with the Hollandaise sauce. The guts of the omelette were squished into their own respective corners of the omelette instead of being mixed throughly. The result was a boring combination.
Did I forget to mention the forgotten drink order? It actually ended up being a small saving grace in the customer service department. It was comped at the end of the meal and given to us in a to-go cup. Hopefully this was just a bad day for a restaurant that seemed to be staffed up, but not firing on all cylinders.
Word of Mouth
Cost for two: $26.50
Word of Mouth is another overwhelmingly popular place, where throngs of people line up to get their bellies filled. The menu is chock-full of “from scratch” food, bread from Cascade Baking Company, and a lot of options that just aren’t available anywhere else in Salem. A few months ago, I had tried their lunch menu and enjoyed it immensely. Would their breakfast menu hold up to the reputation?
They were about an hour away from closing and the crowds were dying down. It took about 15 minutes to get a seat, but we were constantly checked on by the waitstaff. After getting seated, our drink orders were taken immediately. Chalk up a point for the customer service side.
I opted for the filet mignon chicken fried steak meal that comes with gravy, a fluffy buttermilk biscuit, Yukon gold potatoes, and scrambled eggs. The steak comes with a knife, but it was tender enough that it practically melted under the fork. It was seasoned perfectly, with just a touch of pepper. The sausage gravy on top was rich, but not too overpowering. The biscuit was fluffy and served with a side of butter and some jam. It was a big meal and one that would be hard to walk away from.
My companion ordered a sausage, artichoke and feta toasted burrito. She opted to have fresh fruit instead of potatoes, which Word of Mouth offers without any additional charge. There was a good variety of fresh fruit, which didn’t appear to have come from a can. Her plate was a lot healthier than mine, but there was a good combination of flavors that made it worthwhile. The food received two big thumbs up.
If you haven’t been in Word of Mouth, the layout definitely takes advantage of the small place. It makes you feel like you aren’t sitting in the middle of a busy restaurant, despite the fact that you most likely are. The decorations are similar to what you would find in Southeast Portland and are almost out of place in Salem. Hopefully this is the beginning of a new movement.
The customer service was handled perfectly here – constant drink refills mixed with just the right amount of checking back in. They were attentive without being overbearing. We overheard a conversation where a picky kid didn’t want to eat anything on the menu and wanted “chicken strips.” The waitress made it happen, despite it not being on the menu. This was an example of a relatively fancy menu not connected to a snobby restaurant. She told the kid that it’d be the best chicken strips he’d ever have and I wouldn’t doubt it.
Daynight Donuts
Cost for two: $4.50
Don’t have time to stop and savor a big, hearty breakfast? Donuts are a staple of American breakfasts, which might explain our expanding waistlines and inability to concentrate on anything except what Snooki is wearing. Daynight Donuts, despite the strange, strange name, dishes out trays of donuts at a time. The location stands as one of the easiest places to run in and grab donuts with its relation to both South Salem and the downtown core.
On this particular outing it was relatively busy for a late Friday morning, but luckily there were plenty of parking spots available. Service was available almost immediately, which was a good thing due to the amount of kids hanging out in the place, including on top of the tables. Hooray for sugar overdose! The service was polite, but seemed a bit overwhelmed with the environment.
We picked up a maple bar, a pink-frosted with sprinkles, an apple fritter, a cinnamon twist, plain ol’ glazed, and a maple with cream filling. The donuts were fresh, again somewhat surprising for a late morning. There’s quite a selection within the dozen varieties and the sugar high that comes from a half dozen is worth the $4.50.
They also offer the regular fare of coffee, biscuits and gravy, and a variety of blended fruit drinks.
Off Center Cafe
Cost for two: $16.50
Off Center Cafe is one of those few places in the area that still has a wide range of diversity in customers. It feels like a hole in the wall now buried behind the massive Johnny’s Bar and Grill building and in between another tavern and a barber shop. Signs posted outside taunt hungry bellies with vegetarian- and vegan-friendly options and their renowned homemade bread. The place has cleaned up a bit in recent years, but it still has a greasy-spoon feel. Retro music is playing in the background and local photographer Will Bragg has some photos hanging up that fit right in with the mish-mash of funky art hanging on the wall.
Our party ordered the “Usual Plus” which includes two eggs, breakfast potatoes, a choice of meat that includes bacon, apple Italian sausage, and sausage links, and a choice of bread. The other entree was a sausage and mushroom omelette with breakfast potatoes and toast.
The Usual Plus was a decent meal. Portions were a little smaller than the other options in town. The apple sausage was a link cut in half, but there were varying degrees of temperature within it. The homemade bread didn’t taste quite as fresh as it was made out to be. It was a thick slice of wheat bread with a thick crust, perhaps baked a little too long, which resulted in a dry piece of toast.
The omelette received much higher marks. The sausage wasn’t greasy and the mushrooms tasted fresh. It was topped off with the right consistency of melted cheddar cheese.
Both meals came with breakfast potatoes that were prepared with green peppers and onions. They were well-crusted on the outside, yet moist on the inside; a good complement to both entrees.
The service was friendly enough, so maybe a better descriptor is “no nonsense.” That works just fine for me, but some lonely patrons might want some small talk. She was in and out with the drinks and the order. Subsequently, the food was delivered quickly.
Off Center offers up a good breakfast for the lazy who still want a little taste of home.
Busick Court
250 Court St. NE
503-370-8107
www.busickcourt.com
Off Center Cafe
1741 Center St. NE
503-363-9245
Daynight Donuts
1980 Commercial St. SE
www.daynightdonuts.com
Word of Mouth
140 17th St. NE
503-930-4285
www.wordofsalem.com
