By Dessa Bayrock (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: May 8, 2013
Address: 1821 Sumas Way, Abbotsford
Phone: 604-852-1614
Hours: Monday to Friday, 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Meals from $8 to $20
When it comes to restaurants, one phrase is guaranteed to win me over in a heartbeat.
All-day breakfast.
Walking into Crossroads Family Restaurant is like returning to childhood – the well-kept wood and vinyl booths give the impression that they haven’t changed for years, if not decades, and the result is both vintage and comforting.
I entered the restaurant at 4 p.m. with one goal on my mind: eggs Benedict. It’s the best way to judge a breakfast restaurant. It’s hard to do anything really wrong with the simple ingredients, but the best chefs combine the elements in ways that make it immediately apparent if you are dealing with a pro or an amateur.
The waitress promptly brought us coffee and water (always a good sign) and was patient when we took our sweet time deciding what to eat (also a good sign). I decided on the seafood eggs Benedict, and my meal companions ordered a classic burger and turkey sandwich, respectively. All three meals sounded delicious. Our excitement was nearly palpable
This is where things started going very slightly downhill.
Our friendly and patient waitress didn’t write our order down, which resulted in some meal mix-ups. The burger came topped with bacon and cheese, an option that was declined during ordering, and my seafood benny appeared instead as a seafood omelet.
I hate omelets—something about the pseudo-scrambling of the eggs—and while it looked like a very nice omelet, I sent it back in favour of waiting for the eggs benny. Ruffled feathers were quickly smoothed; she apologized profusely, and also told us we wouldn’t be charged for the cheese and bacon.
Luckily, while waiting for my own meal to appear I had ample time to study the other meals delivered to our table.
Let me be clear on this point: I could write poetry about this food. The potato salad served with the burger was cold, creamy, tangy and perfect – the kind of home-made potato salad you ate at picnics as a child and haven’t been able to find since. Minute shreds of carrot provided the perfect veggie-undertone, and just enough pickle flavour was present to spice it up without overpowering it.
The bacon on the burger, unlike a lot of restaurant bacon, was obviously fresh and cooked-to-order. It looked like the stuff you’d cook in your own kitchen – crispy, greasy-in-a-good-way, deliciously and dangerously hot.
The fries were also fresh and hot, barely salted and gorgeously golden-brown. Even when they cooled, they remained delicious and crispy – the true test of good fries.
When my meal finally came, it was well worth the wait. I would have waited a century for this breakfast. Instead of the classic ham or bacon found in eggs benny, the Benedict featured a miniature mountain of shredded crab and shrimp under the poached egg. I was worried that it would be overly fishy, but the flavours of egg, English muffin, seafood and hollandaise sauce melded perfectly. I don’t have the ability to properly describe the first moment of tasting this concoction; the closest I can get to say it was like eating sunlight. The hash browns were crispy without being tough, with the same enduring deliciousness as the French fries.
I could write an epic poem or a musical about this meal. I could eat at this restaurant for the rest of my life. All I can say is go to this place and eat this food – and make sure the waitress gets your meal right the first time.
