Westchester Breakfast Club

Sam’s of Gedney Way
52 Gedney Way
White Plains, NY 10605 (Map it!)

Attendees: Jeffrey, Alan, Sylvia, Shelley,

Jeffrey

It’s my first time back since my surgery! YAY! For those of you who don’t know, I went into the emergency room on the 18th (of February) at around 1am and I had brain surgery the following Tuesday. But now, I’m back and I feel fine. Especially at the time I’m writing this review.

The rain wasn’t too bad. Parking was street parking. It’s all metered if you’re close to the restaurant, but I’m assuming free on Sundays. We parked a block and a half away, where there weren’t any meters. The short walk in the rain wasn’t bad. It wasn’t really raining that hard. The inside of Sam’s was very nice. Shelley had gotten us a small and secluded table. The arrangement was actually really nice. To the left, they have the main dining area and to the right, they have the bar with a few tables across from it. The tables were elevated and angled into this interesting wall that had pictures telling the story of this restaurant.

To the food! We all got something different and we all efficiently shared a bit of everything. Shelley and I shared the breakfast burrito and the shirred eggs hash. We had no idea what shirred eggs were, so we decided to take a chance. So what are they? They seemed like poached eggs to me. The yolks were runny, which was something Shelley did not like. The hash underneath was good! As for the breakfast burrito, for some reason I really like the idea of breakfast in a burrito. It’s all in one spot! I asked for some hot sauce. I like to spice things up. It also came with some guacamole and something else. I don’t really remember. But I do remember enjoying it.

Dessert was next. They had a bread pudding dessert on the menu. I really like bread pudding. We ordered that and a lemon thing. I don’t remember exactly. The bread pudding was good. I couldn’t stop eating it. The lemon thing I held off on until the very end. The citrus was a good palate cleanser.

OH! I almost forgot. I also ordered a Bloody Mary. Apparently, if you’re there for brunch, it’s free! So are Mimosas. The Bloody Mary was probably pre-made in a giant vat, but whatever. Free Bloody Marys!

All in all, it was a good experience at Sam’s. The price was a smidgen high, but I think it’s worth it for at least one trip.

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Alan

Sam’s of Gedney Way. This restaurant has a feel of friendliness in the atmosphere. Service was great.

The meal I chose was the Stuffed French Toast which was stuffed with orange and sweet cream cheese in the center. It also came with a side of either bacon or sausage. I had never eaten French Toast with something stuffed in the middle. It was quite an interesting turn for a french toast, since the cream cheese in the center gave it a smooth taste and feel. The toast was lathered with orange jam which made it very sweet. I also chose a side of sausages, but they tasted a bit on the “just finished” side. It felt like I was eating the same type of sausages you heat up yourself and it always ends up still a bit cold in the center. All in all, this French Toast was made for sweet toothed people and I did enjoy it.

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Sylvia

Oh, White Plains, such a large city in Westchester, and yet no good breakfast to be had. Will Sam’s break that streak?

Located along Gedney Way ina quiet residential area, away from the heavily commercialized downtown area, this place was for the locals. It’s been here awhile and everyone in the restaurant seemed to be regulars. Dark, with lots of nooks for seating, I would have to describe this place as cozy, and a nice place for a rainy day.

The little bread basket to start our meal was a surprise. In it were a variety of danishes and a couple of croissants. It was free, it was also pretty good, and different. I appreciated it very much.

I had no idea what I was in the mood for. So, I settled on something not usually found in other places. A Breakfast Pizza topped with fried eggs, arugula, four cheeses, tomato, and truffle oil.

The pizza was huge. It was definitely share worthy. On top of the pizza were three fried eggs. The eggs were tough to keep on top of the pizza, so I ate them separately. The pizza itself was pretty good. They were very generous with the truffle oil, and the combination of the cheeses, arugula, and tomato with the oil made me eat the whole thing. The only thing I wasn’t so thrilled about was the crust of the pizza. It was a thin crust pizza, but the crust was a bit tough.

For dessert, we split a Banana Rum Bread Pudding and a Lemon Meringue Tart. They were artfully presented and garnished with fresh strawberries and blueberries. They were both really good, but I really liked the Lemon Meringue Tart (although I’m not sure where the meringue portion was). It had the lemon tartness nicely tempered with the carmelized sugar on top and the pastry shell at the bottom. It was good. The Banana Rum Bread Pudding was also pretty good. It had actual bananas in it and you can taste the rum, but it was not overwhelming. It was a hearty dessert.

Service was friendly, but the food took a long time to come out, with no explanation from our waiter. I heard something about the kitchen being backed up. Who knows!

The czar says: Although a bit on the pricier side, it is better than what we have had so far in White Plains. If you decide to go and are a party of more than four, make a reservation. It seemed to get full quickly after opening, by evidence of the party of three given seats at the bar. Because of all the nooks, though, I couldn’t tell if it was because all the tables were occupied or reserved.

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Shelley

I really wanted to like Sam’s of Gedney Way. It’s a dark establishment, giving it a certain coziness that we haven’t experienced for a while. The four of us were brought to a nice little table toward the back, across from the bar. The table was situated next to a booth, but here’s what was interesting about the arrangement. In most restaurants with a booth along the wall, the booth is straight, meaning that you have to see the people right next to you during your whole meal, and, at places where it’s a tight squeeze (like at Clinton Street Bakery), you risk falling into the lap of a fellow diner if you have to get up at any point during your meal. At Sam’s, however, the booth is zig-zagged, if you will, not straight, so you don’t have to see the people next to you. I appreciated the touch of privacy while we ate, instead of being right on top of another table.

The music in the restaurant was a blast from the past with a contemporary Top 40 song thrown in every once in awhile for good measure. Over the course of our meal we heard Michael Jackson’s “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You,” a song by Boyz II Men, that irritating Leona Lewis song (not the one about bleeding love, the other one), and Taylor Swift’s latest depressing ditty. But the best was the song that played while we were having dessert: some smooth-jazz, elevator worthy song that had me rocking out over my lemon tart. Did you see the Super Bowl commercial where all the wealthy white-collar inmates stop their uprising because they hear a Kenny G song? That was me. Totally.

Along the wall behind us was a collage of old photographs—most of which we could only assume were of the actual Sam and his family–and newspaper clippings about the restaurant. A plaque at the front of the restaurant informed us that Sam’s was established in 1932 and relocated to its current location in the 1960s. It’s definitely got the feel of an old neighborhood establishment. The woman who seated us was walking around with a baby that I assume she was related to, stopping at numerous tables and chatting with the customers, who I could only assume were regulars. The people seated at the bar seemed to have an easy rapport going with the bartender. Everyone seemed jovial and familiar and comfortable.

All this niceness made me excited for my meal. Not excited for the higher prices ($16 for a breakfast burrito, $16 for eggs and hash), but excited that this might be a place where the food would live up to the higher price tag.

Did it?

Well…sort of. Half of me felt in a breakfast burrito mood, so Jeffrey and I agreed that we would split the breakfast burrito that he would order, while I would order something else that we would also share. That something else was Eggs and Corned Beef Hash.

We had been promptly brought a lovely bread basket which not only looked pretty but tasted pretty…er, good as well. In a neat metal basket, lined with brown butcher’s paper was a delectable assortment of small round danishes and croissants. We were also brought a square dish of butter (which I at first thought was a slab of brie cheese), but the butter really wasn’t needed with these sorts of already butter-laden breads. We polished off the basket in no time, and then we waited. Either the lazy nature of this rainy Sunday made the kitchen a little lazy too, or the place was crowded (it was hard to tell from where we were seated, although there was a private party taking place in a separate room). The wait was noticeably long, especially considering there were just four of us and the dishes we ordered didn’t seem like they should be especially complicated or time-consuming to prepare. I’d say it was probably a solid half hour to 45 minute wait.

Our food finally arrived and looked nice. That is to say it was well-presented. Since I had half the breakfast burrito, I feel it’s acceptable for me to comment on the nice presentation. It was served on a rectangular white plate with a bowl of a frisee salad topped with fruit on one side of the burrito and small white cups of pico de gallo and guacamole on the other side of the burrito. The small bowl of salad was even sitting upon a little leave, to prevent it from slipping and sliding along the plate. Nice touch.

My Eggs and Hash came served in a square white bowl, which sat atop a larger white plate that had a serving of home fries on the side. I didn’t know exactly how the eggs were going to come prepared. The menu said “shirred eggs” and none of us were saavy enough to know what “shirred eggs” would be. They were baked eggs and resembled dollups of sour cream on top of the hash. I gave both my eggs to Jeff, since I’m not a fan of yolk-y eggs.The hash was flavorful, with more corned beef than potatoes. That was fine since I also had my own side of home fries. On the plus side, the home fries were nice cuts of red potatoes. On the minus side, they were too greasy and not particularly flavorful. My half a burrito was delicious, filled with plenty of fluffy eggs and a good assortment of other flavorful fillings like peppers, cheese, and tomatoes. The guacamole was fresh with large chunks of avocado in it.

Brunch comes with a complimentary mimosa or bloody mary, but only Jeff took advantage of the free alcohol. We did all take advantage of dessert, though, ordering a lemon meringue tart and a banana rum bread pudding to share. Not a big fan of bananas, I stuck to the lemon meringue tart, which, as Sylvia mentioned, didn’t appear to have any meringue to it at all. Nonetheless, it was tasty, with just the right balance between lemon zest and sweetness. The dollups of fresh whipped cream, berries, and delicate wafer cookies were nice added touches.

Maybe because of the wait, maybe because the waitstaff saw us taking pictures of our food and suspected we were important people (which we are, of course), when he brought us the bill our waiter told us that the coffee and tea was on the house. Again, a nice touch, especially because it kept our bill under $90. But not by much. All told, the final damage was $82. So, yes, Sam’s of Gedney Way was cozy, it was friendly, it was a place to linger in on a rainy day. But, while the food had nice touches and was well-presented, I didn’t feel that the quality was so spectacular as to warrant the somewhat escalated prices. It was a nice place, but I’m not convinced it was $82 worth of nice. Maybe the prices can be justified because Sam’s is a White Plains establishment. I’m not sure. I wouldn’t mind going back, for a steak dinner perhaps. But only if you’re paying.

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