Breakfast Republic: Through My Eyes

 

Breakfast Republic opened its first doors to the San Diego County community in 2015, with its first location opening up in North Park, San Diego. Since then, they’ve expanded their name with multiple locations around the Southern California area, from Los Angeles County, Orange County, and more. For example, there are locations in Long Beach, Irvine, etc. Many are located in city and beach areas, creating quick accessibility in the city and calming locations for those closer to Southern California’s beaches. More specifically, I visited their Irvine location, located just steps away from the University of California, Irvine, campus. It was more of a college town area and not comparable to other locations that I have been to, like their location in Encinitas, Long Beach, etc. Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Johan Engman, prides himself on his establishment of creating a bright, welcoming, and fun environment while still offering a world full of flavors on the menu offerings. Breakfast Republic is well favored by many for its brunch offerings with different spins that have been put on an original American-style menu. The restaurant offers lots for guests to choose from, ranging from their sweet pancakes and french toast offerings with a s’mores or Oreo cookie spin, or for those who prefer savory dishes, like their bacon mac and cheese and breakfast jambalaya. Being in business for almost 10 years, the restaurant has continued to build upon its opening foundation. 

AMBIANCE

Breakfast Republic offers a very rustic-based decor and ambiance experience that suggests a very calm, laid back atmosphere. There is lots of farm-like decor that proposes a very farmlike lifestyle, of which many are faced with even at the start of walking into the restaurant. The restaurant uses lots of bright but calm colors such as yellows, reds, browns, with the lighting coming in from primarily large windows and vintage rustic lighting fixtures with a natural feel to them, therefore gearing the dining experience towards couples, families, senior citizens, and even singles if they wish. The natural feeling of lighting and rustic color scheme offers a very laid-back vibe to the restaurant itself, offering a non-formal and unserious space to behave in. The arrangement of the space allows for comfortable seating, with both rustic chairs and tables and a few booth options available as well. The seating arrangement also offers room to observe the visual decor all over, as there is something in every corner to see, ranging from the fun sign sayings relating to breakfast on the walls, fun murals appealing to the eye, and more. Not only around the space but also on the table are fun additions to the experience, as salt and pepper shakers are shaped as eggs, and there is a specialized cutlery wrap that offers an aspect of excitement. The noise level of the restaurant was fairly decent level, more considerably that the location is in the area of a college campus rather than on the beach, where it would be more active with other populations of people.

FOOD

During my first visit to Breakfast Republic, I ordered their Bacon Mac and Cheese from their “Playing Fare” portion of the menu. When it came out, there was mac and cheese at the bottom, bacon sprinkled on top, with three over-easy eggs placed at the top of it all. It came out very warm with the smell of it filling the air as it was placed in front of me by our waiter. From the very beginning, I dug straight into the over-easy eggs on top, and right as I cut through the middle of them, all of the yolk inside just started to run down into the mac and cheese below it, adding the perfect final addition to the dishes’ flavors. In addition to the egg, when grabbing a bite of the mac and cheese with a fork, all of the cheese slowly made its way off the fork considering how much grease was mixed into the dish. As the fork was put closer towards the center of my mouth to go for a bite of the dish, all I could smell was all the creamy and silky flavors from the wide amount of cheese and egg yolk that occupied that single bite. All the smells from every bite, revoked past memories of my childhood as I grew up with my favorite food being mac and cheese. My grandma would cook the Kraft mac and cheese box for me weekly, and as approaching the bowl of food on the stove, you could always smell the cheesy goodness just as I smelled in every bite of Breakfast Republic’s. During my second visit to Breakfast Republic, I ordered their Cinnamon-Ginger Coffee Cake. Though the “ginger” aspect to the menu item’s name made me question if I’d like it, but the ginger was actually a nice addition to the dishes’ flavors. When the dish was placed on the table, there was a sweet, light, aroma that filled the air in front of me. When cutting into the coffee cake, there were crumbs of sweetness that were on top and baked into the cake itself. When biting into these crumbs, they were semi-crunchy but flakey as well, as they melted in my mouth as they hit the top of my tongue. These crumbs were a great sweet and textures addition to the dish, as it provided both another level of sweetness without being overpowering while still allowing room for another texture involved aside from the smooth and silky cake texture. The texture and consistency of the cake itself was much greater than the reminders of cakes I used to bake as a child at home. Breakfast Republic’s was very moist, soft, and melted at the touch of the tongue.  In terms of prices, I felt as if the prices were reasonable, with the Bacon Mac & Cheese priced at $13.50, and the Cinnamon-Ginger Coffee Cake priced at $6. Both had decent-sized portions for 1-2 people. Though both took a good amount of time to come out of the kitchen, it allowed me to enjoy the company of my family rather than being overly upset about the amount of time that it took to come out.

EXPERIENCE OF DINING

My experience of dining in that restaurant was very similar to what I read about it when I researched on Yelp. Many of the reviews described how they were pleased with the quality and flavors of their dishes, large portion sizes, and extraordinary spins on American-style breakfast, despite not ordering the same dishes as the reviewers. Out of my two visits to the restaurant, I ordered a savory dish one visit and a sweet dish during my next visit, so I was able to get a feel for what both sides of the menu consisted of in terms of it’s quality. I was highly impressed and satisfied with my choice of food both visits, as it ultimately is up to the customer if they are interested in savory or sweet options, as the restaurant offers great dishes for both. I was able to relate to reviewers through their happiness with the food itself as many had great things to say just as I did. It exceeded my expectations primarily because from trying both a sweet and savory dish from the two times I visited the restaurant, both were equally as good as the other which was something I wasn’t expecting. I was pleasantly surprised with this and added to my enjoyment of visiting the restaurant, as many restaurants specialize or are geared more towards one more than the other, while my experience offered both just as equally, so I could easily say there were no disappointments. 

CONCLUSION

Overall, my experience at Breakfast Republic was a thumbs up, with 4/4 stars. I’d definitely recommend this restaurant to anyone in search for a good breakfast, or brunch, as the restaurant offers both. The restaurant that I plan to review next will more than likely be Broth Shabu Shabu, located in Cerritos, California. Come back to my blog to again, see FOOD THROUGH MY EYES! ;)