Marulilu Cafe

It was a rainy Sunday that found Big M and I at Whole Foods. Big M loves their muffins. On occasion I come with him and we have lunch at their food bar. It is a bit expensive but we have developed skills to avoid taking the heavy, pricey items. On this day we got there about the time they were switching from breakfast to lunch. Nothing that was currently out appealed to me that much so we decided to go elsewhere.

After lamenting the loss of Sha Lin Noodles, we chose to go to Marulilu Cafe which is across the street and the corner from Whole Foods on Broadway.


(sorry about the weirdo angle. It was crazy raining out and I wanted to stay under the awning)

Marulilu is a Japanese/Canadian cafe. They have a really large menu that offers both Japanese and western style breakfast and lunches. The also have an array of pastries but I couldn't tell if they made them on site or not. The restaurant itself is really tiny. They have seating for about 20 or so. Big M didn't like the cute Japanese style of everything (all of the pastry description cards had cute cartoon animals on them) but I thought it was lovely.



They also have a very long drink menu as well as a smoothie menu.



Okay, so what is the difference between a Canadiano and and Americano? And really, the dollar is so strong right now, shouldn't the Canadiano be cheaper?

I considered the Japanese breakfast of "Grilled salmon, plain omelet, rice, miso soup, choice of natto or tofu" for $6.99. Let's face it, natto scares me. I only know it by reputation and I wasn't that adventurous on this day.

I chose the "Breakfast Plate with Waffle- Eggs, Hash brown, (no toast), choice of bacon, ham, sausage" $8.50.  I went with sausage.



I did not expect breakfast to take up two plates, the waffle was way bigger than I expected.



I loved the two types of whipped cream. The breakfast with waffle is a really good deal as the regular breakfast is $5.99 and the waffle by itself is $4.99 so getting both for $8.50 is a great price.

I like my eggs scrambled and well done so these eggs were perfect for me. The sausages were fine, nicely cooked and I was amused by the hash brown patties. They could have been crisper. Nothing felt particularly fresh. It didn't have that just cooked and rushed to the table piping hot feeling. I felt like they had most of the food precooked and then assembled. Nothing tasted bad, though.

Big M went with the "Eggs Benny- Choice of Bacon, Ham or Salmon". $5.99



The same issue with his hash browns, they weren't very crisp. He said he enjoyed the Hollandaise sauce but his eggs were really inconsistent. One egg was poached hard and one was poached soft. Strange. We felt that the hard poached egg must have been sitting around for a while as they wouldn't have such a difference in consistency had they been cooked at the same time.

The fella sitting next to us ordered the Okonomi Yaki ($6.99) which may have been one of the coolest looking Okonomi Yaki's I have seen. It had all these fluttering pieces of seaweed on the top that made it look like it was moving. Smelled really good, too.

Overall, I liked the amount of food that you received to the price that they charged. I had issues with the freshness and inconsistency of what they were serving.

One day I might be brave enough to try the natto breakfast. (maybe not).