We had a snow day at SFU the other week! While the Burnaby Mountain may have been a tricky thing to traverse, I made my way to fair downtown to enjoy my surprise day off (hence why you won’t see a speck of snow in my picture below)! I took transit all the way to the Waterfront station, then wandered around Gastown where I spotted Brioche.
Back entrance to Brioche
It took me a while of going through back hallways and opening doors with earnest guarantees of “Brioche down this hallway” – but I soon found the cozy dining room and order counter for the restaurant.
Cute dinning area
Breakfast was still being served when I arrived. I was rather surprised by the variety of items offered, and that there was in fact a full kitchen (with a grill top) back behind the front counter (it seemed like the place was too small to offer things like NY Strip Loin Steak) – still, I chose a rather simple meal, or so I thought!
Ham, Brie & Mushroom Omelette ($9.95) - sorry for blurry pic!
This terrible picture does not do justice to the very pretty plate that I received just moments after sitting down with my large mug of coffee (and watching a very intriguing “eggplant battle” episode of Iron Chef America on mute). The fruit salad especially caught my eye as this was no canned slop – the fresh cut fruit included some melons, kiwi, blueberries, some excellent blue grapes, and (very sadly) a few blackberries and a cherry which I was unable to eat (damn you allergies!).
Extreme closeup - omelette!
Here is a better picture of the Ham, Brie and Mushroom omelette – the first thing I noticed was the heavy scent of butter that was used in frying up these free ranged eggs. I was thrilled also by how well melted the brie was. The omelette must have been folded over 3 times, as the ham and mushrooms were a bit hidden amongst the layers – I would recommend that Brioche chefs cut up their fillings a bit, as the ham especially felt like it was clumped together. The mushrooms were also quite big – being very generous crimini-style ones – so could have been halved before being added (I do like that these too seemed sauteed before adding into the omelette – more butter!). I didn’t get asked which type of toast I wanted (the choices were apparently baguette, foccacia, or sourdough), but I was happy with the sourdough toast slice that I got on the side – it was drizzled with some very tasty olive oil which I thought was great.
I don’t have anything to say really about service as this was a cafe where I paid up front (though they do accept credit and debit along with cash – helpful!) and no one checked on me after the food was delivered. I think breakfast and lunch would work well here, but I am not sure this is the best model for dinner service (perhaps they do at-the-table ordering then?). Anyhow – very good breakfast – and thank goodness I had much walking planned for the rest of the morning! 
