September 13th, 2015 - (Ann's Choice)
Coral Cafe - American Traditional Style Diner. And boy, is it. It is located on a fairly dumpy part of Burbank Boulevard, and if you were driving five miles an hour over the speed limit, and didn't know it was there, you would miss it.
Coral Cafe is the epitome of medium-sized family diners. It is a bright and open little dining area with plenty of seating. It has a bit of a corporate-chain-diner feel to it, akin to a Shari's, or an Elmer's. Or a Black Bear Diner. Now, I love me some Black Bear Diner. But this place just didn't have the homey feeling that a Black Bear has. In fact, it seemed like a pretty shabby diner that was every bit as dumpy as it's surroundings...
And as I sipped on my very generic coffee, alternately with my tap water through a straw, that feeling grew and grew...
...that is, until I opened the menu.
At first glance there isn't a whole lot to it. Omelets, pancakes, waffles, scrambles... pretty much the standard arrangement of diner breakfast foods, with no real emphasis or specialty. Then you begin to read, and realize that almost every conceivable alteration, addition, and twist on these dishes is not only listed and encouraged, but also has a complete pricing list. So you know what it will cost to add avocado or cheese, or have the omelet eggs be exclusively from a gluten-free fed chicken.
Ann and I had a mild headache as we sat frozen in the thick of a menu that reading like a Henry David Thoreau essay. I actually thought for a moment that I was going to have to write a comparative paper between the drinks menu and the lunch specials.
I settled on the veggie omelet. But I added spinach, made it an egg-white only omelet, subbed country potatoes for the hash browns, and had them give me two buttered biscuits instead of toast. The omelet was exactly as I expected it would be: greasy and delicious. There was a 1:1 cheese-to-everything-else ratio on my plate, which was a little strange. I had to use a knife to cut through the cheese layer to get to my omelet. But the country potatoes were quite nice, and the biscuits more than made up for the mildly bad diner coffee.
Codie ended up having the strawberry crepes and a MASSIVE plate of hash browns. And as I plucked strawberries off her plate while she wasn't looking, I was admiring how NOT greasy and TOTALLY perfect the hash browns were. If there is an art to hash browns, this cook was Picasso-esque with his touch in creation.
I ended up paying $14 for my meal. That was with alterations, additions, and coffee. The coffee was not great but you sure get your money's worth. I think they came every five minutes to refill all the glasses. Bill had good things to say about the orange juice. All-in-all, not horrible. Not horrible at all. If you're in the area (for some strange reason) and you want BREAKFAST AT ANY HOUR (yep) this is a totally worthwhile place to set down for a spell and grab some grub. You won't be disappointed by anything. You just won't be overwhelmed by anything. Well, except the menu.
www.coralcafe.com
With: Phillip M. Meyer's Ego, Codie "Rush-of-the-Crush" Beck, Bill "Cheap Date" Nietz, and three of Ann Beckette's four personalities.
Coral Cafe - American Traditional Style Diner. And boy, is it. It is located on a fairly dumpy part of Burbank Boulevard, and if you were driving five miles an hour over the speed limit, and didn't know it was there, you would miss it.
Coral Cafe is the epitome of medium-sized family diners. It is a bright and open little dining area with plenty of seating. It has a bit of a corporate-chain-diner feel to it, akin to a Shari's, or an Elmer's. Or a Black Bear Diner. Now, I love me some Black Bear Diner. But this place just didn't have the homey feeling that a Black Bear has. In fact, it seemed like a pretty shabby diner that was every bit as dumpy as it's surroundings...
And as I sipped on my very generic coffee, alternately with my tap water through a straw, that feeling grew and grew...
...that is, until I opened the menu.
At first glance there isn't a whole lot to it. Omelets, pancakes, waffles, scrambles... pretty much the standard arrangement of diner breakfast foods, with no real emphasis or specialty. Then you begin to read, and realize that almost every conceivable alteration, addition, and twist on these dishes is not only listed and encouraged, but also has a complete pricing list. So you know what it will cost to add avocado or cheese, or have the omelet eggs be exclusively from a gluten-free fed chicken.
Ann and I had a mild headache as we sat frozen in the thick of a menu that reading like a Henry David Thoreau essay. I actually thought for a moment that I was going to have to write a comparative paper between the drinks menu and the lunch specials.
I settled on the veggie omelet. But I added spinach, made it an egg-white only omelet, subbed country potatoes for the hash browns, and had them give me two buttered biscuits instead of toast. The omelet was exactly as I expected it would be: greasy and delicious. There was a 1:1 cheese-to-everything-else ratio on my plate, which was a little strange. I had to use a knife to cut through the cheese layer to get to my omelet. But the country potatoes were quite nice, and the biscuits more than made up for the mildly bad diner coffee.
Codie ended up having the strawberry crepes and a MASSIVE plate of hash browns. And as I plucked strawberries off her plate while she wasn't looking, I was admiring how NOT greasy and TOTALLY perfect the hash browns were. If there is an art to hash browns, this cook was Picasso-esque with his touch in creation.
I ended up paying $14 for my meal. That was with alterations, additions, and coffee. The coffee was not great but you sure get your money's worth. I think they came every five minutes to refill all the glasses. Bill had good things to say about the orange juice. All-in-all, not horrible. Not horrible at all. If you're in the area (for some strange reason) and you want BREAKFAST AT ANY HOUR (yep) this is a totally worthwhile place to set down for a spell and grab some grub. You won't be disappointed by anything. You just won't be overwhelmed by anything. Well, except the menu.
www.coralcafe.com
With: Phillip M. Meyer's Ego, Codie "Rush-of-the-Crush" Beck, Bill "Cheap Date" Nietz, and three of Ann Beckette's four personalities.
You definitely stole strawberries with my permission.
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