Friday, May 27, 2011

Le Petite France

(In the Legislature cafeteria)

450 Broadway

Monday-Friday – 7am - 4pm

Breakfast Special - $5.00 including coffee, but not toast. Toast $1.50 extra. Refills extra.

Breakfast served all day. Wheelchair accessible.

The only breakfast you’ll have to sign in for. I wish that wearing a badge meant the food was better, but alas, Le Petite France was not the huge change we were hoping for in this cafeteria. We were last there in 2007 for a mediocre, deep-fried breakfast. We gave it a then-record low of 5.5/10. While LPF are a massive improvement on the previous incarnation, it didn’t come that close to winning either.

LPF took over the cafeteria on April 20 2011. I wonder if they were surprised to be neighbours with possibly the last elevator operator in Manitoba. No matter the coolness of the architecture nor the awesomeness elevator operator could wipe the taint of cafeteria from this place. Be prepared to bus your own everything. North End coffee service right downtown! At least the coffee was tasty and locally roasted (Black Pearl), and there was delicious Sriracha hot sauce, my favourite.

In classic cafeteria fashion, they go for speed rather than quality. To that end, we got deep-fried hashbrowns and fake cheese on the omelette and breakfast sandwich. The worst part of fake cheese is that when it cools (about 3.5 seconds after it gets warm enough to liquefy) it dries into a plastic-like adhesive that permanently bonds with your plate, fork and fingers. Paranoiacs might wonder what it does in your stomach.

I got the “everything” omelette, with ham, peppers, tomato, mushroom and the aforementioned plastic cheese. The omelette was more like a stuffed burrito rather than having the ingredients mixed in the eggs. Another cafeteria shortcut? The breakfast sandwich was accompanied by grilly-tasting bacon and served on focaccia bread.

In the end, they have a decent selection of food, and it’s much better than it used to be, but it’s still a cafeteria. I hate cafeterias. Seven out of ten.