Eggspectation

Ellicott City, MD

Price:$$$

Decor: Casual family style

Summary: A Speggtacular Segglection Aweggts at Eggspectation

(4crabs out of 5)

Karen:

In Eggspectation, you'll find everything we love about Canada: it's
clean, full of variety, and in every detail down to the whisk door handles, oh
so quaint. For some ineggsplicable reason, the trendy Canadian chain decided that Ellicott City was just the right place in the states to plop down a new
restaurant. So now, hungry area residents have one more in the series
of great options near Columbia.
Eggspectations may just be the most unique and hip of them all. The
incredible, edible egg is at the center of many of the restaurant's
menu items, including an entire section of Eggs Benedict (check out the
salmon or Chesapeake Eggs Benedict, with crab meat).
Personally, I think eggs deserve it-they are, after all, the products
of the only known natural vending machines.Eggs aren't the only food item to find a long-overdue promotion to dining-out fare. Yogurt is served, too, often with hot honey. (I'm intrigued by the mix of those and a egg-dipped, grilled bagel). Those who delight in dinnertime breakfast will love the classy
alternative to IHOP, but even mealtime purists can find something to delight, with a good mix of salads, sandwich, and platter entrees.
In fact, the one agonizing part of the whole eggsperience is the
frantic page-turning of those who cannot decide between one intriguing menu
item and another. Interested in how they translate potato latkes, the traditional Jewish Hanukkah pancakes, into the restaurant experience, I got the Oy Vegg
dish. The latkes themselves were a little too mashed for my taste, but
sandwiched in a dollap of sour cream and a bite of juicy grilled tomato, were
decadently tasty.My two fried eggs that came with it were big, white, and broke just so with the fork, releasing gooey yellow all over in a pleasing eggy manner.
Rosemary dinner rolls sopped up the eggy mess well, although we had to
ask for them. Dishes at Eggspectation do not necessary dazzle with culinary
eggspertise, promotion of ignored foods notwithstanding. But what they will bring you is good, high-quality attention to detail that runs throughout every
ingredient.Each fried potato disc is seasoned perfectly, and fried to a
cripsy-chewy consistency. Hollandaise sauce is creamy and pure, toast is lightly
browned and plentiful, and grilled tomatoes are lusciously red and juicy. And
the eggs, of course, are cooked just right. For it all, figure about $10 an eggy entrée-plus, of course, all the sides yours did not come with but which look just too good on your neighbor's plate.To sum up, the novelty of Eggspectation, one which I cannot wait to further explore, is not necessarily in creating new and innovative taste blends. Rather, it is in taking those tastes and textures we love at the kitchen table and promoting them to perfeggction.