Willoughby in Langley has popped up as a huge residential area seemingly overnight. The neighborhood is complete with a whole retail business section to serve the residents including a plethora of eateries some of which even feature vegan options!
The Hard Bean Brunch Company is one of those eateries and is located at the corner of 208th and 78B. Parking is not brilliant in the area but your legs aren't broken so expect to walk a bit, unless you get lucky. We arrived at "brunch time" on Saturday, not because we are gluttons for punishment but because that's just the way it worked out. Fortunately, a couple of seats where available at the bar and the lighting is better for photos there anyway. The online menu lists all the vegan dishes available but in the restaurant, the vegan items are on a separate menu that you need to ask for.
We started with a Watermelon Salad. Tell me that doesn't sound amazing! When it arrived, it was served with a hardboiled eggs cut into 4 wedges! I was amazed and exclaimed that they had this vegan egg work of art. However, one of the servers said," Oh, wait! That's not vegan." and he whisked the egg away! Thank you for being on the ball random server who just happened to be helping deliver plates. Anyway, that is why the salad looks a little sparse. There was supposed to be some scrambled just egg in the vegan version of the salad. It was refreshing anyway. BTW, vegan cheese.
The Farm Field Omelette was up next and this was quite impressive. Served with a nice side of fruit, this was indistinguishable from a regular egg omelette as far as flavour and texture (and anything else).
Busted open, is was creamy and full of cheese and veggies. It was only $1.50 more than the regular concoction, without the sausages but with the fruit, so we can justify the price and it was quite tasty.
Given a choice of two burgers on the plant-based menu, we chose the Cauliflower burger with the chick pea and cauliflower patty. They score points here for creativity (anyone can serve an impossible burger, mind you, anyone can serve a beef patty) and taste. We loved the pretzel bun which is far superior to the gluten free nightmare thing they will serve you at White Spot. The hash browns were great also and not of the frozen variety.
Finally, we had the Strawberry French Toast and pretended it was desert. They came with fresh strawberries which was a treat, aquafaba custard and coconut whip (tell me that is not dessert!). Also, it is made with rye bread which is brilliant and I would never have thought of it.
So we had great food and a couple of very good coffees (one was decaf). This is a high ceilinged and quite beautiful place. It is boisterous and busy. The servers are great even though one almost served us an egg but the other one saved us. The one thing that confused me was out actually spending $100 for brunch. Admittedly, we always order too much (can't write a decent blog post without doing so) but we never order alcohol and we are usually just water drinking people (so add $10 for coffees). The food is definitely above average when it comes to quality and presentation so I expect to pay a little more and there is the vegan tax which is actually quite low here. Once you add tax and tip, I see how we got there. So, I guess it is just not that surprising but (and I know this is not apples to apples) we did pay $65 at Feast and Fallow for brunch a month ago (including coffees). I'm just saying.
Food 4 1/2 out of 5
Vegan Options 4 1/2 out of 5
Comfort 4 out of 5
Service 4 out of 5
Value 3 1/2 out of 5
No comments:
Post a Comment