For years, I had walked by this cute restaurant for many times near the beach, but I never tried it out because I didn't see the menu being any more special than the other restaurants on that same street. This morning was the first time I got to try this place out. I tried this place out today because I noticed that since its first location near my old apartment by the beach years ago, this restaurant has become an expanding chain. I happened to drive by its new location near my new neighborhood on my way to the bank. It happened that on this particular stretch of street, unlike the beach town I used to live; I wasn't aware of any boutique restaurants competing for my breakfast money besides the fast food chains and my usual diner Coco's. So this restaurant became my only obvious choice when I was craving for the kind of California breakfasts I used to so enjoy when I was living by the beach.
The yellow decor inside looks just as cute as the yellow decor outside.While it looks like a lovely cottage restaurant, the setup is more like the fast food place where customers order the food at the counter, and go find their own seats, with the number tags they are given. I ordered the Avacado Bacon Tomato Egg Benedict ($12.00) from their specials' board, and an iced coffee ($2.40.)
It took me a while to find the station that keeps the iced water, napkins, creamers, sugar, etc. The iced coffee was okay, not as good as the one I had from my favorite Asian bakery. The egg benedict was a little short on hollandaise sauce but it tasted great. I wish they could drizzle more. I could have asked for more sauce but since it was a self-service restaurant, I just didn't want the hassle to walk to the counter to ask the cashier (who seemed to be busy taking on new orders) for more sauce.
Bacon is the same bacon and tasted pretty much like bacon everywhere. The salad drizzled with balsamic vinaigrette, avocado and potatoes were really fresh and high quality though. I could taste the freshness. I loved the fresh flavor of the potatoes there. They were a lot healthier than the typical hash brown. For those who are used to food with a lot of seasoning, they may find this egg benedict a little bland tasting. It's because this dish is completely relying on the bacon, pepper, herbs, and a light drizzle of hallandaise sauce for flavor, and there wasn't much salt. It's good for those who are watching the daily sodium consumption. For others who need more salt, they just have to sprinkle it themselves. For me, I, every once and a while enjoy food with less salt for a change.
To me, the only spoiler for that egg benedict was the English muffin. I didn't like the bread at all because the English muffin tasted stale to me. I don't think it's really stale. It's just I was never a fan of the typical grocery store bought English Muffin or bread of any kind. Such breads just carry that hint of smell and taste that bother me a lot and I always tell my friends that those breads smell stale to me, even though my friends don't seem to be bothered one bit. For this reason, I don't usually like to have sandwiches in most of the restaurants. This egg benedict would have been perfect if only the fresh whole wheat bread from my favorite Asian bakery were used instead of the grocery store quality mass-market English Muffins. I also don't like the self-service business model, because it's just inconvenient when customers need to box up leftovers or to ask for extra something.
Restaurant: Yellow Vase Bakery, Café & Flowers
Address: 28902 Western Ave, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275
Phone: (310) 833-1313
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