Avanti's — Restaurant in Erie

Avanti’s: Where Breakfast Is a Family Tradition (Whether You Like It or Not)

One of the best things about northern towns like Erie, PA, is that people still appreciate mom-and-pop restaurants. You can leave the upper Peach Street jungle of Chick-fil-A and Chipotle behind and instead choose to support a place where your money doesn’t vanish into the pockets of corporate overlords.

Nestled between an insurance office, a T-shirt shop, and a few residential homes on West 8th Street, Avanti’s is the type of place where you better know the Sunday and Mother’s Day strategy: arrive before the church crowd forms a line that looks like a holy pilgrimage. We showed up at 8:30 a.m. and got our pick of tables in either of the two dining rooms. There’s even extra seating at the counter, where you can pretend to be a local regular, even if you’re not.

Our server, Deanna, got our drink orders and gave our two daughters, who showed up fashionably ten minutes late, time to scan the menu. I quickly found myself facing a dilemma: the cheeseburger omelet was calling my name, but then I saw the corned beef hash. And just as I was about to decide, I laid eyes on the pierogi and Polish sausage hash—a combination that I’m pretty sure would make my ancestors proud. But in the end, I committed to the corned beef eggs Benedict.

And let me tell you, my eggs Benedict was everything it needed to be. Salty corned beef, perfectly poached eggs, a toasty English muffin, and a velvety hollandaise sauce that I’d probably drink by the cup if it were socially acceptable. Served alongside crispy hash browns, the portion was just right. We also sampled the coffee cake on special—dense, sweet, and honestly more like a pound cake, but I’m not complaining.

Daughter #2 went for a garden omelet with sourdough, keeping it wholesome. Daughter #1 and Mom both kept it classic with eggs and toast, though Mom ventured into adventurous territory with raisin bread toast. They split a chocolate chip pancake, which they insisted was amazing. I refrained—because I’m a pancake purist. Pancakes are supposed to be maple syrup delivery devices. If you must contaminate them with something, blueberries are the only respectable choice (okay, my rule, but a good one).

Don’t expect a barista experience here—no espresso machine in sight. But the house coffee is just what you want for a double-double, and there’s an off-menu iced coffee option “if someone remembers to make it,” according to Deanna. Now that’s the kind of place I can appreciate—coffee without any pretension.

I have a feeling Avanti’s is about to become a Gannon graduation weekend tradition, even if we only have one more of those weekends left on the calendar. Great service, even better food, and a warm, unpretentious atmosphere—what more could you ask for? Stop by, support a local gem, and eat well. You won’t be...

Been an Erie native for a while, hadn’t been before. A friend recommended we go because she had heard good things. It was near Christmas, so they were understandably very busy when we got there, and we expected a small wait for our food while they were dealing with the rush. My group of three was sat relatively quickly and ordered our drinks and food just fine, but then proceeded to wait an hour and a half before getting our food.

In the time that we waited, the restaurant cleared out to the point that there were multiple empty tables around us, multiple parties that were sitting around us had to check in about their wait time once it was clear they were no longer busy and no one had heard a peep about what was going on, and not a single server checked in on any table to see if we needed any drinks (despite all of our table’s drinks being empty within the first half hour of waiting) or to explain the long wait.

If they were understaffed or had some problem and there was going to be a wait, no one in my party would’ve minded, we didn’t have much going on, but there was no explanation or apology. Truthfully, we considered just walking out after the first hour with zero contact, but we had already been waiting long enough that we fell victim to the sunk cost fallacy and decided to stick around. We really shouldn’t have. Add on top that the waiters who finally brought us our food were very rude and dismissive to the party, and that they just wordlessly slapped the check down while we had just started eating, and it was altogether a VERY unwelcome experience. Will not be returning and I would not recommend this joint to anyone. Find literally anything else, they’ll treat you better.

All that said, the food tasted pretty decent and wasn’t super expensive. However, some of the food was cold when we received it, so I’m knocking points for that. If all of the tables around us hadn’t been checking in up front to see what was going on, I would’ve assumed they just forgot our food in the back, but it’s clear they didn’t just forget about our tables, so I’m not sure how they managed to get half of the food quite so frigid while the other half was still warm. Additionally, we considered sending it back, but ultimately decided it wasn’t worth another hour of our time.

In summary: if you want to sit an hour and a half waiting uncomfortably for food just for it to be cold and the waiters to be rude, this might be your place! At least it...

If you were to put together a list of local favorite options for dining, you would have no choice but to include Avanti‘s restaurant on W. 8th St. in Erie Pennsylvania.

Avanti‘s has been a neighborhood staple for me since I was a little kid and still is to this very day. I have since moved only from my childhood home, which fortunately for me, is still within walking distance to this gem of a diner.

Avanti’s is only open for breakfast and lunch and no longer offers dinner. However, they have since partnered up with a restaurant only a mile or so down the road called Syd’s Place which conveniently picks up the dinner portion of the menu that Avantis used to offer. Some may think this is a strange way of covering the three meals of the day. However, I think this is a unique way of offering a complete menu that only a local offering can pull off in a small-town sort of way! Most places that have a large menu and/or serve every meal of the day, usually don’t or can’t make anything that stands out such as a signature dish or something similar. These types of places usually follow the rule of many things that are just ok rather than cooking fewer dishes that are unique and excellent; quantity instead of quality. With Avanti’s passing the dinner portion of their menu over to their sister restaurant, Syd’s Place, they can offer a smaller, more specialized menu.

In conclusion, Avanti’s offers a world class breakfast menu, with daily specials including their excellent Eggs Benedict which currently is offered only on weekends. I can not help ordering it every single time because not only is it incredible, but I know that I would never take the time to deal with the cooking and cleaning of a Hollandaise sauce at home!

Thanks Avanti’s for the local service I have enjoyed and come to rely upon for the last...