April 19 2011

Robin’s Donuts

200 Graham Avenue

Brekwich & small coffee $4.16

Breakfast served all day. Debit available.

We decided it was time to do a couple of fast food breakfasts. Because we automatically don’t respect them due to their fast-food nature, we couldn’t dedicate an entire day or page to just one, and we doubled down.

I’ll get right to the point here – Robin’s brekwich was abominable. Their coffee was weak and lacking flavour, and the people working there didn’t seem to know what they were doing. It took three people to take one order, all switching roles in mid-order. There was no line when we arrived, which didn’t surprise me, but 10 minutes after we arrived, the line was out the door. What?

The brekwich with sausage was grey and disgusting. The whole thing was shades of beige. The sausage wasn’t made from any meat I could identify, and neither could I identify the cheese. No hashbrown options. No cooking took place. Getting our order together was more akin to building a model airplane: Get the composite pieces, slather them with grey goo and let the whole thing congeal until you can pick it up without it falling apart. The special little note that Robin’s adds after the congealing stage is to put it into a paper bag and bung it into the microwave. Voila. Your warmed goo, sir.

“I’ve had better food on an airplane.” – Leif

This Robin’s location had a fake fireplace and faux-nice seating area in the front, belying the usual greasy-grease décor style Robin’s forces on you two feet further in. Beware the terrible music.

Tim Hortons

240 Graham Avenue

Breakfast served until 11:00am weekdays and 12:00pm weekends and holidays.

Tim Hortons (no apostrophe, people! Isn’t that infuriating?) has a decent selection of things to get for breakfast. None of them are a sit-down, use a knife-and-fork kind of meal, but the fact they have more than one option is nice. Also, I like their coffee. It’s not strong or traditionally “good,” but it goes down easy. I think I just like saying “double double.”

I got their breakfast B.E.L.T. (bagel, egg, lettuce, tomato), with an everything bagel. You can choose what bagel you would like. The sandwich was good, and everything tasted and felt like real ingredients, other than the processed cheese. They toasted the bagel, which was nice. The hashbrown component was a frozen patty warmed up in a paper sleeve. It wasn’t disgusting, but a profound lack of quality was apparent.

Other members of our breakfast party got the biscuit and English muffin combos, which do not have lettuce or tomato in them and are cheaper, but similarly good.

I say good, but it’s fast food. I would rather go to the Black Sheep on their worst day than any fast food place on their best.

Robin’s sausage thinger

Robin’s

Robin’s bacon majugger

Tims

Tims

Tims

The Tims tunnels