Wednesday, September 28, 2011

I Love Lucy's...Eastside Diner


I have been wanting to try Lucy's Eastside Diner since it opened last fall. I've heard great things through articles, word-of-mouth (check my buddy Matt's top 5 burger picks in Van City), and blog love and I love the look from the outside. It scream old school, kitschsy, retro, but clean, fresh, and hip.
It is bright and cheerful inside with bright orange table tops covered in vintage laminate covered in little boomerang graphics, light turquoise walls.


They really put some love into the decor details here. You can't quite see it in this photo but on the north wall of the diner their are bicycle handle trophy heads mounted, they play doo-wop and oldies on the sound system, they have awesome old schoolhouse light fixtures, and have 50's/60's music posters and amazingly awesome blow-up black and white photos from the Palm Springs Historical Society. Seating is....cozy. You can dine at the counter, 2 person booths towards the back, and a few tables at the front. We came with a group of 6 and although we had to wait for about 20 minutes, they were able to set us up in the front.

The sous-chef and I ordered two veg burger options and went "halfsies."



Black Bean Veggie Burger $7.5
Chickpea and bean patty topped with herb crusted goat cheese. 
We ordered this one with no goat cheese for the sous-chef. This was amazing and put all of the other restaurants using lame frozen veggie patties to shame. It had a nice crispy exterior but was a bit soft in the middle. There were hints of cumin and oregano and parsley ground up in the burger too giving the burger a lot of flavour. Nice, soft, chewy bun and fresh dill and tomato slices. A special shout out to the dressing on the side. Yowza- an awesome mustard, lemon, super fresh flavour going on!





Roasted Portobello Mushroom Burger  $7.5
Portobello mushroom marinated in basil infused balsamic, topped with herb crusted goat cheese 

This was so juicy and flavourful. The goat cheese gave an added depth and made the burger rich. Super flavourful with no meat. The fries were pretty bland. I doused them in vinegar, ketchup, and hot sauce, they ended up tasting pretty good.


All Day & Night Breakfast Special $6.5
2 eggs, bacon or sausage, served with hashbrowns and toast 
Captain Bif ordered this with sausages, scrambled eggs, and sourdough toast....as you can see, he was a happy man to see this plate and obviously liked the looks of it. He said it was pretty basic but pretty good. I really liked the look of this plate, especially chunky, roasted potato hashbrowns.



Lucy's Classic Burger $7
Served on an kaiser bun with mayo, mustard, tomato, & lettuce
Graeme liked his burger, thought it was well cooked, had a nice flavour, and thought it was a pretty good value.



Cinnamon French Toast $6.5
Served with berry compote, syrup and whip cream (ordered without whip cream)
This looked and smelled AMAZING. Aasia let me have a bite and although, I'm strictly a "savoury breakfast" type of gal (I put salsa and sriracha on my french toast, not powdered sugar and fruit), this dish could covert me. Or I would order it for dessert. The texture was spongy, and they really committed with the cinnamon and sugar rather than just sprinkling it on top.

All of the food on the menu is decently priced and won't stretch your wallet. Everything on the menu seemed to range between $6- $10. Portion sizes were great in my opinion but a few of the folks I was dining with said they could've used a bit more food. Awesome atmosphere and decor, great food and good value make this a really fun breakfast place on Main. The perfect "Happy Hipster" brunch spot for an upbeat, fun meal. Other menu items I'm looking forward to trying: Peanut Butter Milkshake, Pulled Pork Benny, Uncle Ever's Chorizo Hash, Chorizo and Pepper Sandwich.....

Update:

One of my favourite dining trios visited Lucy's this week too and had a similar awesome experience. As you can see from the photos, Baby Lucy was super excited to be eating at a diner with her namesake....
She can't pry her eyes away from the delicious looking menu! 

Adam and Leah both ordered the veggie burgers and fries/ milkshake combo for $11. Leah got a oreo milkshake (which apparantly tasted like a "childhood flashback") and Adam got custom peanut butter/ strawberry combo milkshake that was mind-blowing. Apparantly, the milkshakes are huge and the "extra" steel cup was 3/4 full.



Lucy's Eastside Diner on Urbanspoon

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