parkhouse eatery | university heights

Oh boy, another brunch post! It’s what I like to do on the weekends. I can’t help it, man. I hadn’t thought about brunching but Lynn from oh-soyummy posted a little note about wanting to get weekend brunch and I suggested Parkhouse Eatery. Viola! Brunch plans were made! Here’s a little secret: if you suggest wanting to go get brunch, chances are I’ll grab the bait. 

One of the reasons I choose Parkhouse Eatery was for it’s dog friendly patio. 

Maya has been coming along for our brunches lately so of course I had to find a dog friendly spot for her! It was a nice day out and I actually liked it better outside than inside the restaurant (where it was pretty dark).

We got to the restaurant about 8:30AM and there was no wait. By the time we left (around 10AM) there was a string of people waiting for a table.

The other reason I picked Parkhouse Eatery was because they had some really interesting items on the menu, like Pan-fried Linguine and Eggs. Not that I wanted pasta for breakfast but I thought it was a cool menu item to have! Creative menu items make me excited!

Drink side of the menu.

Happy hour menu.

And the mimosa menu, in case you feel like indulging in the morning. 

Lynn said we should practice an overhead shot of breakfast, like the cool ones we see on Instagram all the time. I’m really not remotely tall enough to take cool shots like this – Jake actually took this photo and I cropped it! 

[hot caramel milk / $3.95]

I got a coffee ($3.50 – kind of pricey considering I only had one cup) and Jake ordered a Hot Caramel Milk which was really tasty. It was also not super sweet and reminded me a tiny bit of the coffee milk we had in Rhode Island last year. 

[southwest crab benedict / $15.75]

This is Lynn’s dish – the Southwest Crab Benedict.

“Two poached eggs, homemade crab cake and tomato atop grilled focaccia. Topped with a California Chili hollandaise served with roasted potatoes.”

Here you can see a teeny tiny bit of the crab cake peeking out from underneath the sauce. I loved the color on this dish. Lynn let me try a little bite of the crab cake – but honestly all I could taste was celery when I ate it. Lynn seemed to enjoy it well enough and boxed up her leftovers for Dennis later. 

[grilled breakfast pizza / $11.95]

If I was going to guess what Jake would order it would have definitely been this Grilled Breakfast Pizza. 

“Baked with three eggs any style, apple-smoked bacon and topped with a blend of fontina/mozzarella cheese on our homemade pizza dough.”

Jake got the eggs over easy so they were a bit runny on his pizza. He knows me well enough to give me a piece without runny eggs on it and I thought it was pretty tasty. He made me try a bit with egg on it as well and I must say the egg does give it a little extra “oomph” of flavor. The bacon on top was really tasty with the blend of cheeses and bits of herbs on top. 

I also really liked the crust on the pizza which had a nice chew to it. There were no soggy parts on the crust either! 

Jake saved about half of his pizza to give to T later that day (who loved it even though the pizza was cold by the time he ate it).

[blue cornmeal flapjacks / $9.75]

I was having dreams of little cornmeal flapjacks so I was surprised when this giant plate of pancakes was put before me. Holy smokes! 

I was expecting little silver dollar sized flapjacks but instead I got plate sized mancakes! Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I just was hoping for the smaller flapjacks since my favorite part of pancakes/flapjacks is the crispy, golden edges. While I really liked the cornmeal flavor of the flapjacks, it quickly because “too much” for me and I barely ate half a flapjack.

[parkhouse eatery chicken and pancetta gravy with grilled focaccia bread / half order $6.25]

I also wanted something savory and I spied this at the top of the menu… available in full or half sized orders. 

It sounded like an interesting take on biscuits and gravy so I figured I’d give it a shot. Boy was I glad I did because it was Jake and I’s favorite dish at Parkhouse Eatery!

I really liked that the gravy was in a separate dish from the bread – that way you can control how much gravy you get and the bread doesn’t get all soggy. YES. The gravy was incredibly flavorful with bits of chicken and the delicious pancetta. It was creamy and comforting and I’d order it again in a heartbeat. The bread was a really nice accompaniment to the gravy as well – nice thick slices that were slightly grilled. It made the perfect vessel for getting the gravy into my mouth. 

We had a great brunch at Parkhouse Eatery and I can definitely see us (and Maya!) coming back here in the future. 

Jake and I were pleasantly surprised by the portion sizes as well – they are quite generous with the portions and there’s plenty available for sharing for plates of food.

Link Love!

Most of the links I’ve found about Parkhouse Eatery are kind of old, but here you go:
CC from Pink Candles at Ridgemont High visited in 2015.
CritDicks.com did a little review in 2015.
An article from the San Diego Reader about Parkhouse Eatery from 2012.
The Foodie Girls did a post/video about Parkhouse Eatery back in 2010.
Kirbie from Kirbie’s Cravings visited Parkhouse Eatery way way back in 2009. 

Parkhouse Eatery
4574 Park Blvd
San Diego, CA 92116
(619) 295-7275

Hours:
Mon – Thursday: 8 a.m. – 2:00 p.m., 5 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Friday – Saturday: 8 a.m. – 2:30 p.m., 5 p.m. – 10 p.m.
Sunday: 8 a.m. – 2:30 p.m., 5 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.