OEB Breakfast Co. — Restaurant in Vancouver

OEB Breakfast Co. is the latest breakfast chain to invade the Vancouver area. Hailing originally from Calgary, they’ve recently opened a location in the Yaletown area in May. I visited shortly after their grand opening on a sunny Saturday morning. And to be fair, this was their first weekend opening so I’m sure they were still trying to work out all of the kinks and get everyone trained. The space is quite nice and it takes advantage of the large windows that front onto Marinaside Crescent and False Creek.

Their menu is fairly extensive and I decided to order their Hog & Scallops ($21) as well as a Hot Chocolate. Unfortunately, their machine was broken and were unable to get me a hot chocolate. Just a note about the name of their dishes… it’s a bit deceiving so be wary. For example, this dish has the word “hog” right in the name so you might expect that some form of pork would factor heavily in the dish. But aside from the bacon lardons bits (which can be found in many of their other “poutine” dishes), there isn’t any pork here.

What you do get in this dish is 3 large and plump scallops, the aforementioned bacon lardons, a few pieces of Saint Cyrille cheese curds, and brown butter hollandaise all piled on top of wedge-cut herb potatoes. I originally asked for my eggs to be poached soft but they informed me that their soft poached eggs are very soft with translucent and runny whites and that their medium poached eggs are more like regular soft poached eggs… so confusing, right?

Overall initial thoughts… pricewise, it’s on the higher end of the breakfast spectrum and they definitely have some early kinks to work through.

Undeterred, we made a subsequent visit over a month later. Unfortunately, it seemed the service here was worst than our first visit. We arrived around 9:30am and we didn’t have to wait to get a table (I’ve heard they have some big lineups here if you show up later in the day). They seemed a bit unorganized at the front (I get it… you’re busy – but a simple smile and acknowledgement would have been nice). After being seated, we were ignored for about 15 minutes while other tables around us were being served. Eventually, they took our drink orders: Hot Chocolate ($4.5) and Mango Juice ($4.75).

We originally tried ordering the Lobster and Shrimp Crêpes but we were disappointed when they told us they were all out. Strangely enough, the waitress said that they still had the poutine version (which she told us was basically the same thing but on potatoes instead of being in crêpes)… which didn’t really make sense. I mean, if you still had lobster and shrimp available for the poutine, why can’t you put it in crêpes?!?! We told our waitress that we’d need some more time to decide since they didn’t have what we wanted. But then she kept coming back every minute and asking if we were ready yet.

Instead, we wound up ordering the Scrambled Crêpes ($17) which comes with eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes, peppers, spinach, asiago cheese, ajvar (roasted pepper sauce), and topped with brown butter Hollandaise sauce… basically a crêpe-omelette hybrid.

We added some Maple Bangers ($4) as a side for our crêpes. They were eminently better than the side of “fresh” fruit that came with my benny dish. The apple slices looked a bit sad (like they had pre-cut them and left them out too long).

Speaking of the benny, I ordered the Waterfowl ($19). This dish is supposed to be prepared with smoked Peking duck breast, porchini mushroom-truffle ragû. Just to be clear, this is nothing like “Peking duck”. The smoked duck was quite tough – like chewing jerky. Also, they should rethink their decision of serving this on a croissant because it gets too soggy for the base of a benny dish.

After our last visit, I have to confirm that things really haven’t gotten much better and they suffer the same issues as before. The interior (while bright) has a poor layout and it feels like you’re cramped even though the space looks like it should be big. Service is hit-and-miss and the food is over-hyped for the quality...

The booking system with Yelp is awesome! We were staying at a hotel about 10 minutes away. I went onto OEB Breakfast (Yaletown) account and add us to the waitlist. It told us were #30 and approximately wait for 45-60 minutes. This was great as we timed leaving the hotel and when we were 5 steps from checking in, I received a text my table for was ready and will hold for 10 minutes. LOVED IT!

I can see why this restaurant is so busy! It right beside the water with stunning view in a hot sunny day. We were seated inside and able to see outside to the water. The restaurant was full happy people dining alone, with loved ones and friends. There are clear partition between tables to keep us safe while dining. I also witnessed staff cleaning the washroom and also wiping down table and seat of chairs.

The music selection was outstanding with 80s - 90s feels. I couldn't stop grooving.

We ordered:

1. The One That Did Not Get Away benedict - this is a beautiful dish which was recommended by the staff as I couldn't decide. She sold me on it's not too heavy. I thoroughly enjoyed the cold smoked salmon with wilted spinach with the runny egg and hollandaise sauce on top of croissant. Doesn't that sound delicious? I substituted potatoes with arugula salad to keep it healthy.

2. Chunky Lobster Scramble - this entree was packed with lobster punch. We were delighted when the staff said we ordered the last one! This dish is hearty if you are looking for something savoury and comforting.

The menu is extensive and I feel can address many...

This is my favorite spot when I want to treat myself with a filling breakfast which, as also a very lovely view.

I came here twice so far and I ordered different dishes. Both of the dishes I tried were very tasty. I tried the korean bulgogi benny & the smoked salmon benny (named: the one that did not get away). Both of them a very great, I must say it depends if you feel more seafood or meat the day you order.

Please ensure that you are reserving before coming if there is a chance to do so on Yelp, this place is legit popular and the line up can be long in between 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM. We got the table overall pretty easily even if we didn't reserve for the second time. I would say that I waited around 5-8 minutes. But we got lucky as we didn't have a long line-up when we came. Unfortunately, it has built-up few minutes after I arrived. So I think this can be important to know how busy this restaurant can be.

The food was so good, I mean, this is not the food of the year masterchef/ top chef style but this is very delicious. The fries are yummy, I actually think that is the best type of fries for a poutine ;-)

Cocktails are so so so good. My favorite one is : Morning Sun. Please if you read this and got that drink, give me a thumb ups~

Service is great, the waitress I got every time I went, her name is Stephanie, she's a total sweetie. (also badass...