Victoria Brunch Blog

2915 Douglas St.
7:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m. seven days a week
www.spoonsdiner.com

—

—

The Boiled Down

Funky, atmospheric place with a decent sized menu where you’ll find most of the brunch staples you’d expect.

Nick’s rating: 5.5 food thermometers out of 10
Jen’s rating: 5 cannibals out of 10

—

The Slow Cooked

J: Last time we went to a small, intimate bistro - tastefully designed and catering to a fairly refined crowd. This time we went in a different direction: we went to Spoon’s Diner.

I think of Spoon’s Diner as a poor man’s Floyd’s Diner. In fact, Spoon’s started out as Floyd’s II when it first opened in 2008. If you want to experience a wacky retro diner that serves up some pretty decent plates of food, but you’re not willing to wait in line for an hour (or venture downtown), then Spoon’s is the place for you.

N: There was a bit of a wait, but I’m not sure how long it was because I was distracted by the old man in the puffy red jacket telling all the other customers in line that Spoon’s chops up customers once they’re done eating and uses them in their food. I don’t know old man. Sure you’d save on food costs, but it wouldn’t exactly allow for repeat business.

J: That crazy old man was great. After his chopping up customers comments he said something like “can you think of a better way for them to serve breakfast?” Um, yeah, I think we can probably do better.

—

The coffee shots were blurry, so this is coffee by association.

—

N: We were seated in the back, which wasn’t great for photo lighting, but Spoons has such a great atmosphere that you can’t really complain about where you sit. To paint a quick picture. A mishmash of pop culture art and artifacts on the walls, a clientele that ranges from young families to hungover clubbers to creepy old men, and trivial pursuit cards on every table circa 1990.

—

Expect questions about Milli Vanilli and the USSR.

—

We were confronted with a hefty menu full of sweets and savory. We’ve done Spoon’s a number of times, and I’ve always been impressed with their fry ups and breakfast burritos, but this time the specials menu caught my eye, in particular the Crunchy Mademoiselle, a takeoff on the croque madame. I didn’t take notes on it, and now I can’t remember the cheese or meat type, so whatever the takeoff was didn’t impress me too much. The biggest problem is that it was warm, at best. The texture was a nice blend of crunch and soft, and the flavor was decent, but the wrong temperature can ruin anything. It did come with a heap of hash browns, which I wasn’t able to finish all of, but they were pretty good. Yep, pretty good. Your move, real food critics.

—

It looked so nice and warm.

—

J: The atmosphere and the staff are delightful. Unfortunately the temperature problem plagued both of our meals. Mine wasn’t cold enough for me to send back to the kitchen but it was un-hot enough for me to be disappointed - though it won’t stop me from going back to Spoon’s again. It’s certainly worth another try.

I ordered a “Thetis” - homemade banana bread french toast topped with yogurt and honey. It also came with butter and syrup. If you don’t have a sweet tooth, steer clear of this one. If you can handle sugar and you’re a fan of banana bread, you can’t really lose (except if it’s cold I guess). Our server recommended that I get a half order and I’m so glad I did - I couldn’t even finish the smaller portion. The folks at Spoon’s do NOT skimp on their plates. You will certainly not leave hungry.

—

Knock knock. Who’s there? Banana. Banana who? Banana bread.

—

So I guess the bottom line is: the food wasn’t the greatest, but there was a lot of it and we had fun.

N: I’ve only ever sent food back for being cold once in my life. I’m usually too hungry to care enough.

The bottom line for me is if this was my first time at Spoon’s, I might not go back, but given their otherwise solid track record it’s still a definite recommend in my books.

—

The cold, dead remains.