De Dutch - Edmonton, AB

Canada Day long weekend. Any weekend is a welcome relief once you start working, but a long weekend is especially precious when you no longer have the summer holidays you took for granted in school. Spending time with friends and going for brunch is the perfect way to celebrate, so we decided to head to De Dutch, a fairly new addition to Edmonton but already well-established in Vancouver, where the first location opened in 1975.

As we walked to De Dutch on a very beautiful Saturday morning, there was already a large lineup in front of the restaurant, attesting to De Dutch's popularity as a breakfast/brunch place. Luckily, we had made reservations and we were quickly seated with no problems. De Dutch really reminded me of Cora's, another popular franchise-type restaurant. The decor reminded me of an Ikea catalogue for some reason, with brightly colored walls covered in paintings and clocks creating a cool and modern feel.

The Dutch Mocha

De Dutch is best known for their pannekoeken, a traditional Dutch/Belgian dish similar to an American pancake. Instead of being fluffy and thick, however, these are very thin and much larger in size served with a topping. De Dutch provides a variety of traditional and non traditional toppings to satisfy every craving, as well as a number of non-pannekoeken breakfast options.

You know the saying, "When in Rome..."? I decided I would go with the hash pannekoken, consisting of potato hash browns, mushrooms, green peppers, onions, and your choice of ham, debakon (aka Dutch bacon), sausage, or turkey bacon, topped with cheddar cheese. Underneath the bowl of hash was the large thin pancake, which had a nice crisp and an almost crepe-like feel. I quite enjoyed the pancake and the hash was very tasty as well. A lot of food for only $13!

The B.C. benedict with wild smoked salmon

A few of my companions ordered the eggs benedicts, the omelette and the French toast. I was able to taste the egg benedicts, which were composed of basted eggs sitting atop Dutch rusks (twice-baked biscuits) and topped with hollandaise sauce. The Dutch rusks tasted like very dry, bland and cripsy pieces of toast - I was definitely not a fan of these. The hollandaise sauce, however, was very creamy and rich, a nice addition to counter the Dutch rusks.

The Canuck French Toast

The French toast came with eggs and deBakon, but seemed quite bland. The white bread used was quite thick and as a result, the dish seemed too dry and would have benefitted from a syrup or topping of some kind. I did not enjoy this dish much at all.

The Avacado bene

Overall, the portions at De Dutch were definitely generous. One dish was enough to feed two people! The service at De Dutch was also very pleasant and accommodating. However, the non-pannekoken offerings were average and more flavor was desired. Although I would like to try some of the other pannekoken if I were in the area, I can't say I would go out of my way to return to De Dutch.

[On a semi-related pancake note: Groupon is currently offering $10 for $20 at Crepe Symphony, located next to Tres Carnales. I've only been once, but I remember it being quite pleasant.]

Top Pick of the Night: Pannekoken

http://www.dedutch.com

Rating:

3/5 Erics