Westchester Breakfast Club

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34 Ridgeland Terrace

Rye, NY 10580

 Map 

Attendees: :jump_to_Sylvia:, :jump_to_Jeff:, :jump_to_Shelley:, :jump_to_Pat:

:a_Sylvia:

On the Way cafe is a very appropriately named cafe located right outside of Playland. The interior was charming, and the place was already busy at 10am this morning.

As we sat down, we were informed that they had no steel cut oatmeal that morning. Thanks for the heads up! I might have actually ordered it. There were three kinds of oatmeal options available on the menu and they all looked really interesting. Or maybe it’s because our waiter said something about the oatmeal that lead me to find the oatmeal choices on the menu so interesting. Who knows, but there was no oatmeal that morning.

As I was perusing the menu, I noticed that they made it a point to say, in large type, that the eggs are Feather Ridge Farm organic eggs and the goat cheese is from Coach Farm. If they are going to take up so much space telling me this, I had to try it. So I had an asparagus, mushroom, and goat cheese omelette with wheat toast and home fries. To drink, I had an iced coffee.

The ice cubes in the iced coffee were made with what I assume is iced coffee (and not just dirty water). I was delighted by this! The iced coffee was pretty good. Not as flavorful as Coffee Labs, but pretty decent.

Then the food arrived. Everything was plated nicely. The omelette was cooked a little more well done than I would have liked, which unfortunately does bad things to the texture. The combination of the asparagus, mushrooms, and goat cheese was pretty good. The goat cheese was very creamy but a bit mild and distributed generously throughout. I like the tang of goat cheese, and this tang was a bit soft for me. The homefries were a bit salty, but good, and the toast came pre-buttered, which made the middles soft.

We also shared a plate of blueberry pancakes. While they were large and thick and served with whipped cream on the side, I found them a bit dry and they could have used more blueberries. Otherwise, they were very tasty, and cooked very well.

The czar says: Too bad On the Way Cafe isn’t so on the way for me, being on the other end of Westchester. A very nice place to catch a more gourmet type breakfast before heading to the beach for the day. They say they have the best pancakes in Westchester. I don’t know if they are the best, but they are most certainly some of the better ones. Beware, the place is cash only, but parking is free!

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:a_Jeff:

LET’S GO TO PLAYLAND!!!!! Or, On the Way Café. I suppose it’s on the way if your ultimate destination is actually Playland. But our destination was the actual café, so it wasn’t actually on the way. Whatever, I’m just splitting hairs.

Apparently the pancakes were an important feature at this establishment. So we ordered some for the table. To me, they were a little tough and doughy. I wasn’t too impressed. My normal meal, however, was decent. I ordered 2 eggs sunny side up, with home fries and breakfast sausage. The eggs were good and the home fries were good. They were a bit greasy but flavored well. The breakfast sausages were lacking. They were actually over cooked and almost hard. I was not a fan. They were also the sausages you get in the box at the supermarket. Not my favorite.

Price wise, I have no idea.  Sylvia paid for my meal since she owed me from last week.

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:a_Shelley:

When we arrived at On the Way Cafe in Rye on Sunday morning, my mood was admittedly a little on the crankier side. Blame it on the heat wave, which kept me up tossing and turning the last several nights. I don’t know, I just wasn’t in the best of moods.

So, I was looking forward to a good breakfast to lift my spirits. Did On the Way succeed?

Eh.

We were seated at a nice table along the side wall. The restaurant is narrow, but feels quite open and is bright. There are black boards behind the main counter listing all sorts of special dishes.

We were promptly brought glasses of water and told that there was no oatmeal this morning. No problem for me, I’m not much of an oatmeal person anyway. Although this did seem to cause a bit of an existential crisis for Sylvia. (See her review.)

As I lifted the water glass to take a sip, I smelled a very strong chlorine smell. I decided to pass on the water, and ordered an apple juice. Unfortunately, this was a bad idea. The apple juice smelled like and kind of tasted like acetone; I took one sip and spit it back into the glass. I sent back the apple juice and asked for a glass of regular milk instead. I figured that would be hard to mess up. Third time’s a charm, and my glass of milk was palatable.

When it came time to order, I decided that instead of getting an omelette (which would cost anywhere between $9-$12), I would make some selections from the “Breakfast Corner” section of the menu. For $8 you pick eggs (scrambled or sunny-side up), a breakfast meat (sausage, bacon, or ham), a vegetable (there were a couple of choices including peppers and mushroom), and toast (wheat, rye, white, or an English muffin). You also get home fries. I chose scrambled eggs with bacon and wheat toast. Since On the Way Cafe is supposedly somewhat famous for their pancakes, we ordered a plate of blueberry pancakes for the table.

When our breakfasts arrived a short while later, I was pleased with the presentation. My square white plate was filled with an assortment of good-looking food. The eggs looked well-cooked, not a runny bit in sight. We were brought an assortment of condiments–ketchup, tobasco sauce, butter, and jelly–and we were off. A note about the jelly: When we entered, I had spied behind the cash register a shelf that contained what looked like cute little individual jars of jam. I was expecting these to be brought to our table when we asked for jelly. Nope. It was just your run of the mill packets of Smuckers.

The eggs were good, well-cooked, as I said, and mildly seasoned. The toast was pre-buttered, which made it a bit soggy; I would have preferred to have added my own butter. So take note readers, if you go to On the Way Cafe and you like to butter your own toast, be sure to ask for it dry. The potatoes had an underlying bacon flavor to them and were greasier than I prefer, leading us to conclude that they had probably been cooked in bacon grease. (My companions like this, me, eh, not so much.) The peppers were not as plentiful as I had hoped, just some thin slivers of red pepper.

Now, on to these famous pancakes. The pancakes looked picture-perfect. They were large, thick, there was a generous helping of blueberries included in the pancakes and they came with a side of fresh whipped cream. Unfortunately, I knew the pancakes were going to let me down from the moment I sliced my knife through them. I was expecting to feel a light, fluffy pancake that would cut easily. Instead my knife was met with some reistance. They were firm, and gummy. When I sampled a piece, I found it to be just kind of a clump. It was not soft and light. So while I deduct points for the quality of the pancake batter, I will award On the Way points for their blueberries. The blueberries were large and pleasantly sweet. I just wish the rest of the pancake had lived up to its hype.

So, what’s my assessment of On the Way Cafe? I think my feelings can be summed up by “eh.” The price point was good, and the food quality was ok, but nothing that knocked my socks off. (Wait, it’s summer, I wasn’t wearing socks…whatever, you get my point.) On the Way Cafe seems like a nice little spot for locals, and I’m sure is a nice place to grab a bite before spending a day at the beach or Playland. But I don’t think I’ll be making the trek to Rye to return to On the Way in the near future.

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:a_Pat:

What I Had: Parmesan and Chive Scrambled Eggs, Coffee, Shared Order of Pancakes

What It Cost: ~$20 all included

Worth It: …meh

The Rating: 2.5/5

The Details: On The Way Cafe seems to be trying to be two things at once: A family style eatery that offers homey, quickly prepared food, and a higher end restaurant with gourmet offerings. I would firmly stress to On The Way that it ditch the latter ambition and focus on the former.

My entree would fall into the gourmet style dish OTW puts on its menu, but it was generally a failure. The parmesan was soaked in the grease of the flat top it was cooked on, giving it a grainy texture that was most off-putting, and diluting the natural flavor of the cheese. I suspect the dish was sitting a while before it was brought to me as well, as the eggs were luke warm. The pancakes had a terrific texture, but, as is always the case, were ruined by the cheap Aunt Jemima style imitation syrup.

The service was fantastic, and the coffee was good. I’ll stress again how excellent the service was, just because that kind of attentiveness and cheer is growing more and more uncommon. All in all though, On The Way should take a lesson from Wobble. Lighten up. And for God’s sake, get some real maple syrup.

The Bottom Line: Embrace your working class roots, OTW.

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