Better With Bacon?

Saturday was such a hot day that I didn't want to brave the Big On Bloor festival, a street festival that runs from Dufferin to Lansdowne. So I saved it for for Sunday's lunch. But apparently the posters around the neighbourhood were wrong, it was only scheduled for Saturday. After wandering west from Dufferin for a bit, I decided to try the Bloordale Pantry, an eatery at the corner of Bloor and Lansdowne.

The restaurant was set up like a 50s diner, with a counter setup with red, padded stools. The long narrow dining area had the smallest tables I've seen. With two diners, there's no way each can order more than 1 dish, and even then there would be a fight for space. The place was packed with 20-somethings. Going on the theory that everything tastes good with bacon, I ordered the Baby-doll Stuffed Pancake ($10.99): 3 buttermilk pancakes stuffed with cheddar and bacon, topped with a fried egg.

I was pleasantly surprised when I received 5 pancakes instead of 3. But then I took a gander at the eggs, bacon (stuffed in every pancake), cheddar, and home fries, and felt a phantom heart attack. Oh, well; nobody gets out of life alive. I dug in but it was a mediocre offering. There were 2 main deficiencies. The pancake was too heavy. With so much greasy and substantive ingredients: bacon, eggs, cheese, fries, I wanted the pancake to be light for contrast. But it sat densely on my tongue and wasn't fun to chew.

Additionally, the syrup upstaged the soft, mild bacon. As I was eating it, I thought of a Portuguese bakery near Dovercourt that serves very crispy, extra salty bacon. This adds a little much oomph to their standard breakfast combo. But that crunchy bacon would have gone perfectly with these pancakes.

The Bloordale Pantry serves a good amount of food for a reasonable price but they need to tighten up their execution.