The Brookwood Cafe — Restaurant in Hamilton Township

My wife and I were in town for a hockey tournament and we do make a point to try locally owned places to eat when we travel for hockey. With a background in the restaurant and hospitality industry, I am try to be objective when I leave negative reviews and aim it more at the management if they read them. We were greeted and seated quickly and the host was welcoming. The server did not acknowledge us at all for 10 min but this wonderful guy took the drink order and came with a smile. The server came by and took the order, making a point to get the drinks on the table correct. 20 min passed, I overheard one server tell ours that the restaurant sat several tables at one time and there were two 6-8 tops waiting for their food. I figured it was going to be a bit slow but around 30 min after ordering we asked the host to check and see if our order was fired yet. If it wasn't, I would have just paid for the drinks and left, no problem, bad day at the restaurant.

After waiting 30 min since ordering, my wife's benedict came out and it was obviously sitting somewhere warming because the egg yolks were solid like hard boiled and the ham was very dry. Then 3-4 min later my "over easy" eggs came out with cold rye toast without the corned beef hash, which came a few minutes later. I gave my wife my egg yolks to make the "benedict" somewhat appealing but she said it didn't help. My hash came out and it was more akin to mashed potatoes with flecks of red meat in them. Definitely not hash of any kind I've ever experienced and on separate dishes with cold toast, not a cohesive dish. The food was not anything worth the $38 bucks we paid, the server was definitely not attentive and no one said anything when we left almost all of the food on the table as we paid and left.

My suggestion to anyone in management would be to just say that the food is not ready and check that the food that goes out is freshly cooked/acceptable. Have servers touch the tables regularly and if the customer asks to see if the food will come quickly or leave, let us go and we part friends.

The fact that you served the garbage to us in pieces doesn't work. Maybe this was not the intention but I left the area trying to understand what happened. The only think I could think is that the benedict was done, sat under a heat lamp and continued cooking while the eggs over easy were the only thing left to plate as the "hash mash" (picture below) was already made and just had to hit the flat top to heat through, which happened as the eggs and cold toast came out.

I am sure you are all lovely people and maybe my expectations were too high based on the reviews but the last thing I wanted to do was go to a breakfast place at 10 am and finally eat from a chain restaurant at noon...

Lovely little family owned lunchonette serving simple and affordable food in a casual setting. Despite not being one of the numerous regulars eating breakfast there on the morning my son and I walked in while waiting for my car to serviced next door, I was warmly greeted and invited to choose any open seat. The boy & I settled into a booth and the pleasant waitress immediately offered me a cup of hot Lucas coffee from the pot she was already holding before the menus had even hit the table. I'm not sure if I looked as fatigued as I felt, but the gesture was well received. Within a few minutes, we placed our orders: a short stack of pancakes for the boy and a Florentine breakfast wrap from the specials menu for me. A few minutes after ordering, the waitress returned and let me know that they were out of the tomato wraps for the wrap, but could substitute a spinach one for me. If I had known that was option to begin with, I would have asked for it, so no complaints! The foot arrived fast and hot. The pancakes disappeared off my son's plate at incredible speed, a good sign. My wrap was very good, and included a side of home fries served in my preferred chunky style (vs. the shredded kind). Hot sauce was already on the table to add the extra kick I prefer. The food arrived so quickly that we hadn't killed quite enough time to avoid having to sit in a very small auto repair shop waiting room if we left immediately after finishing, so luckily we were invited to linger a bit over some additional cups of coffee and the news playing behind the counter; we were sure that our gratuity reflected our appreciation for being made to feel welcome to camp out on one of the tables. So if you're in the area and looking for a real taste of local life, this is a fine spot. You'll be made to feel like a regular in no time. One side note, the Brookwood takes part in the Fuel Rewards program, so if you have a registered credit card you'll earn some bonuses when you fill...

Really like this place. Have come here several times now and do plan on being a regular. Usually come on a Saturday morning and it's modestly busy but not crazy. Came on a Sunday once and it was nuts. Food came out late and serice was absent not sure if it was a fluke that day but haven't gone back on a Sunday since.

On Saturdays, the staff is super kind and attentive. The food is on point most of the time. There was a time my toast came out burnt or the waffle a little underdone (they were kind to fix) but every other time has been great.

The jersey eggs benedict is probably my favorite thing here. Great porkroll, the eggs come out perfectly cooked and love the hollandaise sauce on top.

Got the Kelly eggs benedict once (subbed ham with regular bacon) and that was also awesome. Fresh tomatoes, avocado, and a healthy amount of bacon with the eggs.

The pork sausage is awesome here and the fried potatoes that come with the meals are always super crispy.

Pancakes are great and also the waffles. Got the Chavez French toast once and it was good but it's more like a dessert. Suuuuper sweet.

The hot chicken and waffles are great. Chicken comes out super crispy and juicy. The hot honey just looks like regular honey with cayenne pepper in it so not really much effort in the sauce but the chicken makes it still delicious.

Not sure what's up with their regular syrup. It literally tastes like nothing. Barely any flavor or sweetness to it. Haven't ever run into that anywhere else that uses the same type of high fructose corn syrup so they really went out of their way to get the worst kind lol. Basically forces people to spend $2 for the real maple syrup (pretty obvious).

Anyways like how they use Lacas coffee since it tastes great. Service def plummets when it gets busy so just avoid coming in...