Fran’s Restaurant
200 Victoria St
After a terrible late night movie, Rene, Phil, and I headed to the closest 24hr diner we knew. Fran’s is about a block from Eaton Centre on the corner of Shuter and Victoria. I had never eaten here before but I’d heard about it from a girl from my creative writing class who used to work the occasional late shift at one of their locations. For those who love a night of drinking, Fran’s is probably a familiar name already and their three Toronto locations familiar sites. Maybe I romanticized the idea of sitting in a 24hr diner into the early hours of the next day, but I’d always wanted to try Fran’s one late night, sober.
I love breakfast foods if you don’t already know. Waffles and crepes were seriously lacking from the most recent breakfast spots I’ve been to, so I jumped on the chance to order one here. According to their menu, the Morning Glory is their jumbo waffle topped with two eggs any style, two strips of bacon, caramelized apples and drizzled with hot syrup. I had eggs over hard and sausage instead of bacon. The syrup, which I poured myself, wasn’t exactly hot, but my only real complaint it that this could have used more or bigger slices of caramelized apples. Every part was rather plain – but when you manage to get a bite with a little of everything, it’s that great combination of sweet and salty that I love. I’ve yet to find a breakfast plate that blows my mind but I’ve yet to find a sweet and salty plate that’s an utter disappointment.
My brother, Rene, had Fran’s Energy Breakfast, which is three eggs, cheddar cheese, and ham, served on a home baked croissant and homefries. Phil had the Havarti Burger, which is grilled Angus beef smothered with steak sauce, sautéed onions, grilled tomatoes, grilled peppers, and creamy havarti cheese. Can’t comment on much about either – except for the mountain of homefries! Which were nicely seasoned, I’ll just add. I couldn’t stop picking them off both their plates.
I’ve glossed over several reviews that call out Fran’s terrible service, but that wasn’t our experience. We had a mild-mannered, very patient, and very accommodating waiter – whose name I wish I had gotten. Bacon is flat. Sausage isn’t. (Obviously.) So, when I asked for sausage instead of bacon, he didn’t roll his eyes back while explaining how awkward it might be to pile all the toppings. He just said, “I’ll see what we can do for you.” Not to mention that we asked for a couple more minutes about three or four times before we finally decided on what to order. He didn’t even spite us by taking as long to bring our food.
No, I wouldn’t say the food is amazing. But, it is just as you’d expect from most diners, filling and satisfying. And maybe we got lucky with the service, getting the kind waiter that we did. At the very least, you gotta love the booths and retro decor.
Tanner
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