m and i are usually very loyal to our favorite diner (the metro 20) but recently we've had the itch to sample some other breakfast fare to see if we are overlooking some local gems. so far, all we've found is guilt and shame for stepping outside our monogamous diner relationship with the metro...
I've been to the gateway plenty of times for dinner and late night food needs, but this was our first time at the breakfast show. the coffee was decent enough diner coffee.
this is my spinach and feta omelet. sounds mouth watering, right? it was dry as hell and there was barely any feta in it. i was pretty disappointed. the bacon (as you may have trouble telling in the photo) was severely undercooked and limp. the homefries. oh, the homefries. i don't know how the gateway managed to achieve this feat, but the homefries tasted like that fake "buttered potato" in a box that is sometimes passed off as mashed potatoes...but it was also kinda lumpy, like maybe there were a few small pieces of real potato sliced in there. either way, the only flavor they had was of artificial butter. yuck. m had his standard two eggs overeasy with homefries and bacon. he was pretty satisified with his meal except for the homefries.
this wall behind m ends directly to his left and right. to the right of him there was a setback booth containing a family with two small children whom the parents weren't supervising. the one little boy kept putting the top of the salt shaker in his mouth and knocking his head back...taking "shots" of salt. it was pretty revolting.
i'd like to say that at least the gateway had a great atmosphere, but i think m summed it up best when he likened it to eating in a high school cafeteria. it was packed to the gills (expected for prime brunch time on the weekend) and loud. and it took our waiter 20 minutes to bring m the glass of water he asked for. it made us really miss our good old metro, where even if it's packed, customers still converse at a civilized enough level for you to be able to hold your own conversation too. we're going to trudge on through our brunch tour of the region, but i have a feeling that after we've had our fun we'll go crawling back to the one who has always been there for us, and been good to us.
