Jake and I had to go pick up T at his summer job over in Coronado on a lovely Saturday morning in May. I scouted out a place for breakfast and we ended up going to a little place called Gustatory. You know you’re in a tourist location when the waitress asks where you’re from right off the bat.
There was a little bit of a wait for a table that morning even though there was plenty of seating. A couple of the staff came out to tell us varying wait times (it went from 5 minutes to 15 minutes). They explained they were playing catch-up. We weren’t in a rush so the wait didn’t bother us; I did think it was strange to be quoted different times though.
Here’s a peek inside the interior of Gustatory.
I didn’t realize they had baked goods until I went inside after our meal. I might have ordered something! Those morning buns looks good.
We sat outside on the patio, tucked away into a little booth.
Here are the pages for the menu at Gustatory.
[benedict arnold palmer / $12.79]
This was the dish that I spied on Gustatory’s website that made me go “Ooo, I want to try that!” It’s an Arnold Palmer Eggs Benedict! It comes with a toasted english muffin with house baked ham, poached eggs and lemon hollandaise sauce infused with tea. Normally it comes with breakfast potatoes but since I don’t like those, I asked if I could have tater tots instead. The tater tots were supremely crunchy but they tasted really greasy, like little oil bombs.
The hollandaise sauce on the eggs benedict though was excellent. There was a very distinct lemon flavor to the hollandaise that I really liked. It gave the hollandaise a really bright, fresh, flavor. I couldn’t really detect the tea flavor though – but the lemon might have just outshined the tea. There was a bit of an extra tang that complimented the dish really well. The ham was sliced thick and tasted great with the dish. The ham was not too salty and had an excellent flavor. The English muffin was nice and toasted and held up really well.
[chicken fried steak / $12.99]
Jake and T shared this next plate… the Chicken Fried Steak. The chicken fried steak comes with sausage gravy, 2 eggs, and breakfast potatoes (which again were subbed with tater tots).
Jake and T were pretty disappointed to see just how tiny the chicken fried steak was, especially considering they were sharing the plate. I ended up giving them the other half of my eggs benedict so they would have a little more food.
I had a bite or two of the chicken fried steak and sadly it was underseasoned and a bit on the bland side. The sausage gravy wasn’t anything to write home about and it was much thinner than usual gravies. There were large chunks of sausage in the gravy as well which Jake didn’t like (he likes smaller pieces in his gravy). There was a thick, very crunchy coating on the steak that looked like a panko bread coating that Jake thought was good. It just needed more flavor.
[silver dollar pancakes / $5]
We also got a plate of silver dollar pancakes to share between the three of us. I love the size of silver dollar pancakes – I don’t feel overwhelmed when they are this size! The pancakes were light and fluffy and tasted great with a little bit of syrup. The pancakes took longer to come out than other items and we were about halfway through our meal when they arrived at our table. The kitchen was backed up on pancakes for some reason – I noticed that another table near us didn’t get pancakes for their two little girls. The parents were almost finished with their meal before the girls got their pancakes.
Service was pretty slow, but our waitress was really friendly. Since we weren’t in any kind of rush we weren’t too bothered by it. It would have been nice to know that the chicken fried steak was tiny – maybe a list of the ounces on the menu would help? Jake had mentioned to our waitress that they would share the chicken fried steak, so a head’s up there would have nice about the portion size.
Gustatory
120 Orange Ave.
Coronado, CA 92118
(619) 319-5696
8AM-3PM
Seems like they struck out on a few things – wait time, small and underseasoned portions, poor pacing of dishes (the poor table next to you, man that sucks). Well you tried it once. Thanks for taking one for the team! And I can’t believe that T is now old enough to be working! Good for him though – gotta earn that $$$ for his senior year expenses, eh.
Yeah, at least the eggs benedict I got was really good, but it did feel like there were a few more misses than hits here. Yeah! T will be busy a lot this summer with his job so we probably won’t see him too much. But hey – gotta start saving up that money! I can’t believe he’s going to be a senior!
I’m also so happy that T has a job! How exciting! We were recently looking for dog friendly restaurants in Coronado so I think I might have seen this restaurant on yelp. Lemon hollandaise sauce sounds delicious. I think you’re right about the CFS – it’s tiny. They should state the portion size on the menu! Good call !
T is excited to have a job, too, haha. The CFS is super tiny! I don’t think I’ve ever seen on that small before… especially for that price tag, I would expect something a little bigger or stating the portion size so you don’t feel sad inside when you get it. Hah.
<3 that overhead shot! and very cool that there is "local appreciation" too! this post actually makes me want to go back to parkhouse eatery though… cuz we know that gravy is goooood. I have also had fried chicken/wings on the brain for a while! need to go somewhere soon!
Thanks, Lynn! I’m always down for fried chicken and/or wings. Have you tried Crack Shack yet? We should go on a wing hunt!