Peach's Restaurant — Restaurant in Conway

Peach's is one of the most popular spots in North Conway, and during busy tourist weekends you should expect a substantial wait - particularly for larger parties. We were a party of 2 and arrived around 845am (they open at 8) and it was approximately a 25 minute wait to be seated indoors - while they have outdoor seating it is exposed to the elements and doesn't have any heat source.

The restaurant itself is cute inside - very classic country home styling with kitschy, Christian (so much religious stuff) themed decorations. There is a whiteboard of daily specials just past the host stand. I would recommend taking a photo of it to bring to your table with you as they do not post specials at the table.

Service was reasonably quick and the restaurant seemed well staffed, particularly given covid and how busy things were. We each got the special hot coffee of the day (cinnamon hazelnut flavored) which was delicious. I also got a pumpkin apple muffin that I considered the highlight of the meal. It was rich with pumpkin flavor, and so dense that it was almost like a custard or bread pudding. It's relatively small, but given the density this isn't a bad thing.

The mains were a mixed bag, trending toward disappointing. My wife ordered the quiche special, which consisted of apple chicken sausage, goat cheese, and spinach. It came with a side of home fried potatoes. The quiche was tasty, fresh-tasting, and the portion was generous. The potatoes were a let down. They're large chunks, mildly seasoned with some oil and paprika and seemingly not much else. The texture is fork-tender, but it desperately needs some crispiness to accentuate the soft feel, and should be much more heavily seasoned. As is, it has the blandness of low-sodium hospital food.

I ordered an omelet with Mushroom, bacon, onion, and provolone cheese. I also ordered a side of the home fries, which I regretted. The omelet came with buttered cinnamon raisin toast which was delicious. You'd think with those omelet toppings it would have savory deliciousness in spades, but it was also desperately in need of seasoning. The mushrooms were in large chunks and should have been chopped smaller, and cooked, seasoned, and reduced beforehand, but instead were rubbery and bland. The bacon was fine, a little fatty, but could benefit from being chopped smaller and cooked crispier. The onions were also bland, seemingly only cooked in butter or vegetable oil without seasoning, and should be chopped finer. The egg of the omelet was slightly overcooked, but had a pleasant sponginess to it nonetheless. I had to add a bunch of salt and pepper to bring out the underlying flavors of the dish, which is unfortunate.

Last, bring cash if you can - they take card but explicitly say they prefer cash at the register.

New Hampshire isn't known for its food scene, but when a restaurant has so many stellar reviews we went in with high expectations. Those unfortunately were not met. We had better experiences with lunch, dinner, and snacks at places like Metropolitan Coffee (flavorful lattes in an interesting, art draped building), Old Village Bakery (great chocolate chip cookies and delicious pie), Chef's Bistro, Tuckerman's Restaurant, and May Kelly's (similar problem with bland food, but the dishes were all prepared and cooked perfectly and just needed additional seasoning to make them hit the desired notes). Next time we're in the area we'll try some other...

The following is a review of my experience at Peaches of North Conway, having breakfast for two, on a Monday mid-morning in early July of 2015:

THE WAIT: To eat indoors on a scorching hot summer day would have entailed a wait of 20 minutes or more, so we opted to eat outside, where there was no wait to bake in the hot summer sun (well over 80 that day!) on a day with high humidity (around 80-90%!).

AMBIANCE: We had to request a seat in the shade, as they sat us in direct sun, despite a seat in the shade being available. Otherwise, it was quite crowded with cheap tables and chairs packed cheek-by-jowl on the main-road-front "patio" (sidewalk/driveway dining area) with only the music of other people's conversations and cars going by for ambient noise.

THE SERVICE: The food came out fast, which we really appreciated, and the waitress was courteous enough but very VERY rushed. This is understandable, considering how busy it was. But, they should've had more servers on shift. It made for a poor dining experience and she made multiple mistakes due to all of the rushing and we certainly felt rushed.

THE FOOD: I ordered a chicken sausage and goat cheese omelet with potatoes and toast, while my dining companion had the home-made corned beef hash with toast, eggs, and potatoes. I also had iced tea and fresh squeezed orange juice. The food came out very fast, which was a pleasure. However, I received the wrong type of toast. Because we already felt so rushed, I decided not to even bother asking for a correction to be made. My omelet was very good, but the potatoes were sub-par, under-flavored, and undercooked. My dining companion shared some of his "homemade" corned beef hash with me to taste which tasted exactly like the kind that comes from a can, which is to say it was not good. The juice was quite good and the tea tasted cheap and I had to sweeten it with white table sugar, as it was unsweetened. The ketchup at our table was either a very cheap brand, simply bottled in a Heinz ketchup bottle for show, or it had fermented. Either way, it was terrible.

OVERALL: After writing this review, I am considering whether or not this restaurant is even worthy of 3 stars. But, maybe they were just having an off day and it is not their fault that it was so hot out that day. I recommend the goat cheese and chicken sausage omelet, with fresh squeezed orange juice, and it is nice how quickly the kitchen prepared our meal, but not much else. On a day with fair weather, I imagine that it may be nice to dine outside, if it is not too crowded, provided the service is better when it is not so busy. I would avoid that place completely if there is a wait. It is...

Peach's had a cozy atmosphere, kind of like being invited to breakfast at somebody's house. Probably because that's what it is...a breakfast place in what used to be somebody's house.

The price of the food seemed about the same as all the other breakfast places in town but the total price of the bill was $29 before the tip. I ordered an Irish Benedict ($11) and my wife had coconut french toast ($9) so I guess coffee is $4.50 per cup! I didn't know because the price of coffee wasn't listed on the menu but I think I would have stuck to water if I'd known it was going to be a third of the bill.

The Irish Benedict was ok. When they say the corned beef hash is homemade I'm really not sure what that means because it looked and tasted like the stuff that comes from a can. The hollandaise sauce was not very flavorful but it seemed like it was freshly made. The highlight was the poached egg that had a perfectly cooked white and a runny yoke.

My wife's french toast was SWEET and bready. So I guess you get what you ordered but it was still disappointing. Her plate came with banana slices and a spray of whipped cream from a can. There was also a plastic butter packet and a plastic packet of syrup. We thought the waiter would offer her some maple syrup because he offered that to the other tables but he did not.

Speaking of our waiter... He didn't want to talk to us. He brought our coffee and walked away and we had to grab his attention again to get some cream for the coffee which he grabbed a couple of plastic cream containers off the table next to us and said we're all sharing creamers today. He seemed annoyed that he had to deal with us at all.

We will definitely not be going back to Peach's for breakfast. Even though the food was fine it did not seem to be very good value at $29 for two breakfasts and coffee and I did not enjoy the service or...