How do you judge a good breakfast? It's in the homefries.

Even though the fam and I are soon facing Bloor West deportation and I should be spending the last few weeks taking in all that the 'village' has to offer I can't resist the over sized portions and amazing home fries of my favourite 24 hours breakfast joint, The Grille, on Queensway in Etobicoke.

To celebrate Father's Day (though a friend suggested that in the first year of parenthood there should really be two Mother's Days and we should skip father's day...an idea I find truly inspired), anyway, decided would have to do something for Father's Day, and really didn't have to do much to compete with Mother's Day celebrations...which I have already warned my husband that I will use against him in the future...he spent the whole day today trying to get me to stop doing things for him or being nice in fear of the heavy handed guilt-trip he will receive when he is least expecting it weeks from now. Wow, that paragraph was hard to follow, it's almost midnight and the thing living in the crib is teething, and I stayed up to watch the husband on the MMVA's (proud wife moment)...point is, kind of tired so lay off.

So we hit the Grille, which I have to say from the street leaves little to be desired. Looks like any other 'family' restaurant. They have an outdoor patio which faces a busy traffic filled street, and since the restaurant clientele consists mostly of truckers, the outdoor eating area is cozily  enclosed between numerous 18-wheelers. 

Now this place serves all day breakfast, including coffee, for something crazy like $3 during the week if you get there early enough, so there's no extra cash flow for fancy floors or tables...or to hire waitstaff that doesn't spend most of their day reapplying their make up to look like Spackle, so don't expect much by way of decor.  I have never veered from bacon and eggs so I can't really tell you what the other menu items are like, they serve what my parents would refer to as 'mungie-cake' food...meaning I've been raised to stay as far away from that stuff as possible. So being able to comment only on breakfast I would have to say that it was one of the best breakfast places (or at least my favourite) in the city, and this is based solely on their home fries. Really, eggs, bacon, you can't go wrong unless you burn it, home fries, that is where the artistry lies, and let me tell you my friend, the Grille has some wicked ass home fries (that's right, I said 'wicked-ass'!).

As for the baby-friendliness of this place: highchair - check, commented on baby's high level of adorableness - check, were okay with the HUGE mess left by baby on the floor - ???? we tend to take off as quickly as we can once the bill is paid because we don't want to see the look on the waitress' face when she sees the crazy mess of wet cheerios, spilled water, clumps of cereal, and sometimes even vomit, that is left by the baby, she leaves a path of destruction every where she goes, she's trashed more rooms than her musician father...I think he resents her a little for that (you'll have your chance babe, I see many trashed hotel rooms after crazy drinking binges in your future, don't you worry:)

If you are looking for a lot of food for a good price that's super greasy, served with a HUGE thermal jug of coffee then head west on Queensway until you see the neon sign flashing "GRILLE 24-7".

...and remember if you are still breastfeeding you need the extra calories so order that side of pancakes, according to the husband they are the best he's ever had, even better than the ones I make that come out of that box that says to add milk and eggs to, but I decide to get culinarily inspired and change it up a bit by just adding water (leave me alone, I forgot to go grocery shopping that day)...

...and yes, I made up the word "culinarily"