Breakfast in Ann Arbor

We are out of syrup and Kea wanted pancakes so we first headed to Northside Grill, a place originally recommended by our vegetarian neighbors. We've been unimpressed in the past--with omelettes and huevos rancheros, which were good, but nothing special. Since then, however, we've been told that the skillets and breakfast sandwiches are the thing to try. Northside was crazy crowded though. For real. There were like ten people standing just inside the door waiting for tables. Why does everyone in this town wake up so late? I don't care if they're all students and professors!

We considered Pilar's Cafe, a really great El Salvadorian restaurant--for breakfast and other meals. Unfortunately they don't have pancakes, and spicy hot chocolate and chorizo omelette were not enough to lure us there today.

We ended up at The Broken Egg, a diner on Main. It looked well patronized, but with no line. They had a huge menu, complete with a savory pancake (with spinach and ham just like ours!), Eggs Benedict (which I am afraid to try. I don't think I would like Hollandaise), all kinds of omelettes, some vegetarian options, a typical variety of pancakes, and some things I'd never heard of before like chicken hash, breakfast stew, and a cornmeal waffle. I went with the breakfast stew, which sounded--and was--what I think is usually called a skillet. You know, scrambled eggs with stuff inside. Mine was vegetarian and had a good mix--onions, red bell peppers, zucchini, spinach. The serving was huge and I got the veggies I wanted, but it was a pretty basic dish.

Kea's cornmeal waffle was more exciting. It sounded scary because it was described as being made of butter, milk, and cornmeal, but it was really good! Maybe it had more ingredients than what was listed...