Westchester Breakfast Club

Oh my! It’s not Saturday and yet, here is the Westchester Breakfast Club standing outside the Clinton Street Baking Company waiting for highly coveted table in this 32 seat establishment. But wait, isn’t the Clinton Street Baking Company in Manhattan? What is the Westchester Breakfast Club doing in Manhattan? Any why are we willing to stand in the cold for 2 hours to eat, what is quickly becoming a very very late breakfast?

This is why. Thanks to our Presidents, a majority of us had the day off to celebrate Presidents Day. We were missing, Shelley, one of our core members whose company was celebrating in their own special way. But we also gained a couple of guests, Claudine and Jason.

The Clinton Street Baking Company is known for their pancakes. This month it was Pancake month, where from Monday to Friday, besides their usual regular, blueberry and banana walnut pancakes, they also had an additional special flavor. For us, it was Raspberry chocolate chunk pancakes.

How can we say no when delicious pancakes are calling? So, we called this emergency meeting, packed our travel bags and made our way to the Lower East Side to answer the call.

Attendees: Reid, Pat, Jeffrey, Sylvia, Claudine & Jason

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Place: Central Seafood, 285 North Central Avenue, Hartsdale, NY

Attendees: Andrew, Beir, Jeffrey, Pat, Reid, Shelley, Sylvia, Yuee

Jeffrey

In honor of Chinese New Year, the Westchester Breakfast Club went to Dim Sum at Central Seafood in Hartsdale. This is one of the only two places I know of in Westchester that serves Dim Sum. Over the years I’ve been asked to explain exactly what Dim Sum is to non-Chinese people who have never been to such a meal. Over the years, my definition has been evolving into a more coherent explanation. Well, here’s my time to shine. Finally, I will have to put into print a somewhat understandable explanation for all to read. Wish me luck, and here we go.

It all starts out with being seated at a table in the middle of a large dining hall, much as any restaurant. On each table, there’s a teapot, which we’ll get into later, and a ticket so that servers can mark how much you owe the establishment. Usually servers push around carts that contain various foods, which are kept warm by some device inside. The dishes range from small to large, and the price varies depending on the size of the dish. As the servers pass by each table they announce what they have to offer and if you would like anything you just tell them what you want and they will take it out and put it in the middle of the table. They will then proceed to mark or sometimes stamp, depending on the establishment, your ticket on the table.

The food stays in the middle of the table with the idea being that it’s a communal meal. Unlike typical American meals, the dim sum dishes aren’t passed around, so if you’d like something, you just reach over and scoop in onto your plate. The dishes are not large dishes. They are small. Maybe they are small in order to have a larger variety available.

Most of the dishes are normal foods and are usually eaten with no reservation by any American who has never experienced Dim Sum before. Other foods are rather different, but should at least be sampled by all. Such a dish is the beef tripe. It is an awkward idea, eating a stomach lining of a cow, but I swear, it tastes good to me. Some people at the table tried it for the first time and did not appreciate the flavor.

Another dish that I think is delicious but that may be strange to the unfamiliar diner is chicken feet. They are fried and then lathered in some sort of sauce. You don’t actually eat the whole thing. All you do is put a piece in your mouth and suck the meat and skin off the bone, then spit the bones out onto the plate. Some individuals were opposed to this dish, but were brave enough to at least try.

Not all dishes at a dim sum have to be ordered at a cart. Although we didn’t do it, you are allowed to order from a menu. Orders can consist of rice and noodle dishes that are large and are meant to feed the table. This is common practice with a large crowd but we, for one reason or another, did not do this.

During the meal, tea was constantly being poured. Every time someone’s cup was not filled to the top, in swooped a teapot, most of the time carried by me, to top off the cups. And even if the cup was full, I would come in and dribble a drop into the cup. It would seem a peculiar practice but to a Chinese person, this would be commonplace. In order to serve myself tea, I would have to first serve everyone else at the table. Why? Maybe out of respect. Maybe out of courtesy. All I know is that is how I was taught when I was a kid.

This review has been long, I know. Is it necessary? Probably not, but I am using it as an outlet to never again be asked, “What is Dim Sum?” and stand there and not have an answer.

Shelley:

Happy Chinese New Year, everyone!

This was my very first dim sum experience, and I’m glad I had the Louie siblings there to hold my hand.

Based on what I read about Central Seafood on the internet beforehand, the restaurant apparently offers the closest cuisine to Chinatown that one can find up here in Westchester. It presents, from what I understand, a pretty traditional dim sum experience. The servers roll carts around, stop at your table, and you indicate whether you’d like some of what they have. We left it to the Louies to decide what we should and shouldn’t get for the table.

We arrived shortly after opening, and the restaurant quickly filled up with a combination of your average weekend diner along with families celebrating the new year.

I didn’t sample everything (I was not brave enough to try the chicken feet and tripe). The items I did try, though, I enjoyed. And, for the record, I used my chopsticks the whole time–and used them well!

I started off with the steamed vegetable and shrimp dumplings. Encased in a delicate dough wrapping was a mix of green vegetables and shrimp, which was nicely seasoned. The dumpling was light, making it a good choice for starting off a meal earlier in the day.

I next sampled some brown sticky rice, which contained pork and shrimp. This too was nicely seasoned, with some scallion accents providing nice flavor bursts. The pork cubes were tender, not too chewy, and cooked well. The shrimp, however, was undetectable.

Next up for me was a pork bun. This was delicious, my favorite item from the meal. BBQ pork was encased in a perfectly round, glazed, slightly sweet bun. It’s basically a pork sandwich, only all wrapped up so there’s no dripping. I went in for a second helping of this.

Following the pork bun I had some green vegetables.

For dessert, I had a small egg custard tart and some coconut gelatin. I preferred the coconut gelatin over the egg custard tart. I didn’t feel that the tart had much flavor–I would have wanted a bit more sugar in it. The gelatin was nicely flavored, with a subtle taste of coconut, and had a pleasant creamy consistency.

There was, indeed, something for everyone at this dim sum meal. The dishes that I did not sample were: chicken and rice wrapped in a banana leaf; shirmp dumplings; beef wrapped in noodle; shrimp wrapped in a noodle; fried vegetable dumplings; almond pudding; mango pudding, and the aforementioned chicken feet and tripe.

The ambiance was nothing special and is typical of any suburban Chinese restaurant–some glowing photographs of landscapes in China on the wall, pink tablecloths, and large fish tanks at the entrance. The pricing seemed reasonable to me–my contribution was $15, which I thought was fine given the variety of food.

Central Seafood provided me with a good introduction to dim sum. I’d go back for dim sum again, and would also like to give them a try for lunch or dinner.

Sylvia

The place fills up quickly. We were there when they opened at 11:30, and before we knew it, the place was bustling. The pushcarts were frequent, although it seemed that the same cart kept coming around to our table, which limited variety a bit. There were also waiters carrying dishes around to tables. Despite it being busy, it was not difficult to get a waiters attention to fulfill water and fork requests. The food itself was really good. They had many of my favorites, and many offered dishes were more of the safe dishes that are more palatable to the Western tastes. With exception to the chicken feet (a dim sum staple, and if they didn’t offer it, it would have been points off in my book), and the tripe, everything was safe. This being Westchester, the variety they offered, was more than sufficient.

A run down of what we had:

Steamed pork buns, Chinese chive dumplings, shrimp siu mai, pork siu mai, pork buns, har gow (shrimp dumplings), chinese greens, Lo mai gai (chicken sticky rice wrapped in a lotus leaf), sticky rice, steamed pork cheung fun, steamed shrimp cheung fun, tofu skin roll, mini egg tart, mango pudding, daufufa with mixed fruit on top, coconut jelly squares and sesame balls.

Pat:

What I had: Dim Sum!

What it cost: About $15 per person

Worth it: Yes, with reservations

The Rating: 3.5/5

The details: The first rule of Dim Sum is have an open mind. There are going to be options that look familiar to those of us with an affinity for Americanized Chinese food, and there are going to be options that…well..one might not regularly encounter. This restaurant had more of the latter than the former. Overall, the food was tasty, if not exemplary, and I was pretty satisfied with my meal. The first dish they brought out was Shrimp wrapped in a big flat noodle, topped off with Soy sauce. It essentially looked like a greasy white crepe. It was a little bland, though the shrimp was cooked to a perfect al dente consistency (the noodle was soggy – the opposite of al dente). Next they brought a series of dumpling like foods. The standout here was the steamed pork buns, which were light and fluffy and stuffed with a delicious, sweet pork (though not nearly enough of it). Of the other dishes I tried, I like the steamed sticky rice and ground meat steamed in a banana leaf, and this delicious vegetable concoction that I’ve spent the last five minutes racking my brain for a way to describe with no success. The sesame balls were a delicious, if suggestive dessert. Of course, no dim sum sampler is complete without trying some of the more…exotic offerings, in this case tripe and chicken feet. Needless to say, there’s a reason we don’t usually eat these parts of the animals. Overall though, the experience was a good one, and if you’re in the mood for dim sum, Central Seafood seems as good a place as any to go.

The Recommendation: Try it!

Bair:

The other day, I, Bair, was taken to a Chinese Restaurant for some Dim Sum. There…ahhhh, I lost my train of thought. Hold on. There, I ate some Chinese Dim Sum. It was…Chinese Dim Sum. I enjoyed some of the food, in particular, the Mango Jello dessert thing, and the steamed pork bun thing

Andrew and Yuee

There are probably 6 dishes that comprise the core dim sum dining experience. these dishes are generally only eaten during dim sum and not any time else and are always available at any restaurant that serves dim sum.Thus it makes a good benchmark for comparing various dim sum places. they are:

1) beef/shrimp in a rice crepe

2) shui-mai

3) ha gow

4) chinese-chives fried dumpling

5) mushroom/pork wrapped in tofu skin and steamed

6) chicken feet

The beef/shrimp crepe:

It wasn’t great but it wasn’t terrible

It was steamed a little too long making the whole thing mushy. the beef was not that flavorful and also suffered from too much steam time.

the shrimps were small compared to the rice crepe making it look like little sad.

overall a 3 out of 5

The shui-mai:

I think i got a piece of bone in mine, and the pork was too salty.

2/5

ha-gow:

I didnt try this one

The chinese-chives fried dumplings

The skin was perfectly fried crispy but the chives inside were rather mushy.

2/5

Mushroom/pork wrapped in tofu skin:

Too much sauce, other than that it was good. the whole roll was firm, and the mushroom was springy and tasty.

3/5

Chicken feet:

The were small, covered in too much sauce and way too mushy.

1/5

Overall the dim sum here is decent. the place suffers from poor variety and creativity. It aim to just serve the core dim sum experience without much in the way of presentation.

overall 2/5

Reid

In dim sum, as in life, it’s all about choices. And when your choices are tripe and chicken feet, you’ve probably made a wrong turn somewhere along the line.

Of course, I kid. No matter the dim sum establishment, dishes that put white people out of their comfort zone are part of the experience. However, when the fact that you tried tripe and chicken feet and didn’t particularly like or hate either is the only salient memory you have of the food at a Dim Sum place, you’ve probably made a wrong turn somewhere along the line.

No one could expect every dish one gets at a dim sum place to knock your socks off. Part of the fun is trying a few things that you don’t like. But there should be a couple of dishes which really blow you away, and make you remember the whole dim sum experience. Six months later, I still remember the chicken buns I had at a dim sum place in the International District of Seattle. Less than five days later, all I can remember about Central Seafood is mediocre tasting tripe, chicken feet, and drinking too much tea.

Place: The Cupcake Kitchen, 100 Main Street, Irvington, NY

Attendees: Jeffrey, Pat, Shelley, Sylvia
Overview:
Pat:
What I had: Scrambled Eggs with peppers and onions, coffee, a bite of Sylvia & Jeff’s cupcakes.
What it cost: $6.00 for the eggs, $1.00 for the coffee, $10.00 including tax and tip and my pilfered cupcake portions
Worth it?: Probably not
The rating: 3/5
The details: I really enjoyed my scrambled eggs, which were runnier than eggs you usually get elsewhere (I prefer them that way). The veggies seemed fresh, if a bit soggy in the scramble. The toast was stale but offered a nice texture to contrast the soft eggs. However, there didn’t seem to be jelly or jam. The coffee was basically cafeteria quality, though at a dollar with unlimited refills it’s hard to complain about that. While I didn’t order one, you can’t go to The Cupcake Kitchen, without at least sampling the eponymous product. I stole a bite from Jeffrey’s chocolate cupcake with mint frosting and Sylvia’s red velvet cupcake. Both cakes were exceptionally moist, and both frostings were airy and buttery. Sylvia’s cupcake had a perfect cake to frosting ratio, but Jeffrey’s seemed to have a bit less frosting than I might have preferred. At $2.75 a pop, however, it’s hard to recommend your indulging beyond an occasional special mood/event.
The recommendation: Try the cupcakes once, go elsewhere for breakfast

Sylvia: I had the bacon egg and cheese on a toasted croissant and a cup of coffee.

The sandwich was a little sad looking on the plate. It wasn’t the best I’ve had, and for the price (4.50ish?), i felt like it should have come with something more or even a choice between bacon or sausage. I’m not a big fan of bacon, and I’ve had bacon which has made me second guess that. This time was not one of those times. The coffee was nothing special, and the milk for the coffee came in a coffee cup, which made the addition of milk a rather mess inducing process. I would have to say that breakfast wise, it was more of a weekday type breakfast, except the food took a little long to come to us. The breakfast menu was also limited to eggs, omelets and french toast. There apparently were specials available, but we did not know that until the end. For the price and portion size, I’d say it really wasn’t worth it. Nothing i couldn’t have quickly whipped up myself at home.

But the good news is, the cupcakes were pretty darn good. Apparently, according to a little blurb from The Westchester Magazine, the cupcakes are made with all natural fresh ingredients and local butter (but why serve the fake log cabin syrup??). I had my favorite type, the Red Velvet. The cake was moist and the icing wasn’t overpowering the cake nor overly sweet. I would say, this is a great place to meet up with friends and share a cupcake (or a bunch!) in the very cute and very cheery 50’s esq diner decour…but not so much breakfast.

Jeffrey: After arriving on time at the predetermined time of 9:15, the three of us waited around for our final member who was running a smidgen late. That gave us time to look over the breakfast menu. The selections were few and variety was lacking. I finally decided to have the French toast and a cup of coffee.
The coffee was served in small cute cups, which were fine. The milk was served in the same exact type of cup. I believe that if one is serving coffee, one should also serve the milk in a vessel that is made for pouring into another cup. Instead, when adding milk to our coffee, we ended up spilling some on the table or the serving plates the cups were on. I did not enjoy seeing spilt milk. I was about to cry.
Eventually the food arrived. It took a bit longer then it should have. After all we were the only other people in the place. As the plates were being put on the table, we looked at each other’s food and the first impression I got was from Sylvia’s plate. An order of a bacon egg and cheese on a croissant was haphazardly put together and plopped down on a plate. My order of French toast was two, albeit thick, slices of bread that just so happened to come into contact with eggs and milk before being cooked up. In all honesty, the French toast was decent enough, but the lack of real maple syrup killed the deal. The “syrup” was the store bought cheap sugar water that had a picture of a log cabin in hopes to lure you into the belief that it’s real maple syrup.
The amount of food on the plate was also lacking. Two slices of French toast and no sides. Yes, there was a sliver of an orange, but there was nothing else. Even when asking for some type of potato side like home fries I was shot down because they don’t have anything like that on the menu. All this for somewhere around seven dollars is completely not worth it.
Taking into consideration to selection of breakfast items, quality of the meal, and quantity of the meal versus cost, there is no way I can possibly give the Cupcake Kitchen a good review for breakfast. This is more like a cupcake bakery that just happens to serve a few breakfast items. The portions for this meal were too small to be satisfying. This is not a weekend breakfast location.
On a side note, we did order a few cupcakes after breakfast to try out their namesake. The cupcakes were indeed delicious. I do recommend them if you need a cupcake for a special occasion, or a Monday.

Shelley: Arriving at the Cupcake Kitchen in Irvington on this very cold Saturday morning (and early, too–ahem, ahem!) I was looking forward to something hearty and warm, something to stick to my bones to get me through the long day.
Unfortunately this breakfast fell short.
The menu presented a small selection for breakfast, certainly not as much variety as I’ve grown accustomed to over the past several weeks–just three choices of eggs (sunnyside up, over easy, and scrambled), some basic omelettes, french toast, cereal, bagels, and croissants/muffins. I decided upon scrambled eggs with sourdough toast and a side of bacon.

After a somewhat long wait (there’s just one person working the grill at CK, at least on this particular morning), I was presented with eggs that were too runny for my liking, leading me to send them back. After a little more time on the grill, the eggs were cooked to my satisfaction. However, the rest of the food was not up to my standards. The three strips of bacon accompanying my eggs were thin and dry, and the toast, which I believe should have been crusty and crunchy on the outside while still maintaing a softness on the inside, was just hard and brittle all over, making me think that it was a bit stale.
The portions, for the price of $6.50, were a bit small and left me still hungry. I have a suspicion that CK does this on purpose, to lure diners into ordering one of their signature cupcakes.Given its name, this is where Cupcake Kitchen seems to focus its culinary energy. I ordered a vanilla cupcake with vanilla icing.

The cupcake was a reasonable size. The cake was moist and fluffy, and the frosting was nicely sweet and creamy, not too sugary.

The atmosphere was cozy and the blue and white colorscheme was soothing. I liked the retro diner tables and chairs, although sitting by the door in winter was not our best idea. The service was fine. The price was comparable to other restaurants for breakfast, although I don’t think that the food I got was worth the price.
I’d be interested in trying Cupcake Kitchen for lunch and I would definitely go back for their cupcakes, but for breakfast I’d prefer to go elsewhere.

Location: The Patio Restaurant, 1133 Pleasantville Road, Briarcliff, NY

Attendees: Jeff, Pat, Shelley, Sylvia

Overview:

Shelley: Ok, ok, yes, I was the last one to arrive for breakfast at The Patio, despite it being one minute and 30 seconds from my house. What can I say, no alarm + Saturday morning=Tardy Shelley. I plan to make up for it by arriving an hour early for next week’s breakfast. Despite its close proximity to my house, I had not been to The Patio for many years. The interior looked more sophisticated than the last time I saw it, with Picasso prints hanging on the walls. The lighting is a bit low, and the oversized windows at the front of the restaurant allow patrons to enjoy the morning sunlight. This combination creates a cozy atmosphere. The service was prompt and the food came out in a resonable amount of time. I ordered two scrambled eggs with homefries, and a short stack of plain pancakes. I enjoyed the food–nothing was greasy or heavy. The eggs were fluffy and well done, the pancakes were reasonably-sized. The homefries were not especially seasoned, but personally I would rather food be underseasoned so that I can season it myself. One of my least favorite things is when a meal comes out with too much salt or pepper. The price was very reaonable. I may just have to pay The Patio some more visits in the future.

Jeffrey: This past weekend at The Patio in Briarcliff, I ordered the walnut waffle with fresh fruit. The waffle had a nice crusty outside and a soft goodness on the inside. The walnuts added a bit of a crunch and a little more flavor. The waffle was topped off by fresh berries and bananas, which provided sweetness. I had a side of homefries, which were also very good. All in all it was a good experience.

Sylvia: I actually enjoyed the Patio a lot. I can see it as a great place to meet up with friends for a leisurely weekend meal. The food was simple and reasonably priced, and very good. I had a short stack of the blueberry banana pancakes with a side of scrambled eggs, homefries and toast. I love blueberry pancakes and I love banana pancakes, so when I saw they had pancakes with both blueberries AND bananas, I had to get them. They were pretty good. The pancakes themselves were large, so I was glad I got a short stack (two pancakes), and a little flatter than I would have liked. But there were definitely blueberries and bananas in them, and that made me happy. The rest of the meal was good too. I agree with Shelley that the homefries were underseasoned, but I prefer that. I had a tea with my meal, and the only choice was the regular Lipton tea. Overall, the food was good, and to a certain extent a little more guilt free since nothing was overly greasy and heavy. Even with all that food I didn’t feel weighed down like I did last week after City Limits.

Pat:
What I had: Bacon and Cheese Omelette, Coffee
What it cost: 7.00 for the omelette
Worth it?: Definitely
The rating: 3.5/5
The details: This Omelette was smaller, but significantly more moist than that of Jardin du Roi. The cheese was more evenly distributed, and there was bacon in every bite. The hashbrowns were not my favorite, and the toast seemed stale. However, the food was generally cheaper than the local diner prices, and not inferior in any substantial way. The service was adequate.
The recommendation: Not bad, but don’t go out of your way.

Meeting number 2!

Place: City Limits Diner, 200 Central Avenue, White Plains, NY

Attendees: Andrew, Jeff, Pat Shelley, Sylvia and Yuee

Our thoughts:

Shelley: I had a cheddar omelette with home fries and a piece of lemon poppy pound cake. The omelette was delicious, nice and fluffy, and not too cheesy. The cheddar was nicely melted, encased in the middle of the fluffy omelette. It was melted just enough, but not to the point of being gooey or runny. The home fries were formed into a small rectangle. They were a perfect combination of soft and crunchy, and were nicely seasoned. The lemon poppy pound cake, baked on the premises, was moist but not overly greasy or buttery. The citrus flavor was subtle, not too overpowering, and provided a nice flavor complement to the rest of my meal. The atmosphere was good–lots of families, but no screaming kids 🙂 The service was prompt and attentive.

Sylvia: I had the City Breakfast Sandwich. It was pretty good. Although two types of salsa (roja and verde) were a little too much for a breakfast sandwich. The rest of the sandwich consisted of scrambled eggs, sausage and a slice of Monteray Jack cheese on what seemed like a brioche bun. It was very good, and very filling.

Pat:
What I had: Pancakes
What it cost: 7.95, 10 including tax and tip
Worth it?: Hell yes
The Rating: 4/5
The details: Slightly more expensive than what one might expect to pay at a diner, City Limits’ buttermilk pancakes more than make up for this price discrepancy with wonderful fluffy texture, rich batter, and YES! REAL MAPLE SYRUP! What a blessing! The pancakes absorb the syrup beautifully, and the final product is a taste sensation. Where these pancakes were lacking was around the edges; they lacked the crispiness you hope for in a perfect pancake. Aside from that mild complaint, these are excellent pancakes, well worth your wallet and palate. The service was adequate.
The recommendation: Try’em!

The beginning….it all started when we decided to get together for some breakfasting one Saturday morning. The place chosen, Le Jardin Du Roi.

Place: Le Jardin Du Roi, 95 King Street, Chappaqua, NY

Attendees: Jeff, Pat, Sylvia

Sylvia: This is a cute little french bistro in Chappaqua. The food is good, albeit a bit on the pricier side (it is Chappaqua after all). I had initially ordered the Omelette aux Epinards (spinach and goat cheese omelette) with a croissant and a small cafe au lait. What I was served was the Omelette au Saumon Chevre (smoked salmon, onion and goat cheese omelette) instead. No complaining since they only charged me what I had originally ordered. The Omelette au Saumon Chevre was pretty good. The smoked salmon and goat cheese combo was not over powering for an omelette, but it’s presence was definitely there. The croissant was deliciously buttery and flakey. A step above the usual croissants one would find, but not the best I’ve had. They also had almond or chocolate croissants available. The service was fast, although due to the mix up, I’m not sure I’d call it attentive. The atmosphere was cozy and enjoyable. A nice place to go on a special kind of day.

Pat:
What I had: Bacon and Cheese Omelette, Coffee
What it cost: 9.00 for the omelette, 12-13 including tax and tip
Worth it?: Eh
The Rating: 2.5/5
The details: The omelette was huge, but the eggs were a little dry and the cheese unevenly distributed, leading to a few more of those “only egg” bites that I dread in an omelette. I really enjoy the potatoes, though I missed the toast I have grown accustomed to with my omelette orders. The bread served before the meal was a lackluster substitute. The coffee was nothing special. At about a dollar more than a diner omelette, it wasn’t horribly overpriced, but it wasn’t any better than standard diner fare. The service was lacking.
The Recommendation: Not a bad morning option, but nothing to distinguish it from your local diner (at least not for breakfast).