Standing in the spacious and bright, decidedly minimalist room that is now called Table 153, I cannot for the life of me remember what occupied the space before.
Table 153, a welcome new brunch venue in Lower Lonsdale, so completely occupies this space, fits in it with such organic ease, that it might as well have always been here, like Jack Torrance at The Overlook Hotel in The Shining.
I am impressed with this newest addition to the rapidly developing neighbourhood. For Table 153, brunch is not an afterthought, some bolted on appendage to their usual meal service designed to extract more revenue from the week. No, here it is the focus, expertly served with a host of little service nuances that suggest they have this brunch thing figured out. For instance, their Veggie Benny comes with your choice of toast served on the side rather than with the eggs and other ingredients served atop an English muffin. Why? Because the Veggie
Benny includes roasted tomato, sautéed spinach, asparagus and hollandaise sauce and if you put that lineup of ingredients on top of bread of any kind, the latter will get soggy and won’t be as enjoyable.
Another thing: while there are no menu items specifically targeted to kids, if you ask for a kid-sized meal the staff will work with you to develop something age appropriate, as they did for my two-year-old daughter, who was served a single, fluffy pancake with fruit and syrup, an ample meal for a little appetite and very reasonably priced at $5.
I love brunch as a meal service but, to be honest, as I get older my patience for queues seems to be waning rapidly. I don’t wish to wait for 45 minutes or put my name on a list for the privilege of spending $50 on a late breakfast. Enter Table 153, a stylish and centrally located venue that serves brunch from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. six days a week (they’re closed Mondays).
I’m all for beating the rush and heading out for a weekday brunch to break up the workday. With the thriving businesses, new office spaces and ubiquitous condos that populate the area, I suspect this will become a popular spot.
It was my wife DJ that ordered the Veggie Benny on a recent visit. The dish was good value for $14, a generously portioned plate with the aforementioned mix of vegetables and eggs as well as hashbrowned potatoes. Our friend C.W. joined us for the meal and ordered the 3 Decker Pancakes, a trio of large and fluffy pancakes topped with fresh fruit, fresh fruit compote, whipped cream and a drizzle of maple syrup. The pancakes were proper diner style, fluffy rather than cakey, and were clearly cooked with butter, as evidenced by their deep golden colour and richness of flavour.
On the recommendation of our server, I chose the Pulled Pork Benny for my main. House-prepared, slow-cooked pork butt was fork-shredded and piled high atop a toasted English muffin then topped with two soft poached eggs; you get to choose the temperature of your poached eggs at Table 153, but I remain hard pressed to fathom the darkness of the pathology that would make someone opt for well done eggs in a Benny. The hollandaise sauce on the benedicts was nicely realized, light and slightly tart. The dish also came with a nice little pile of steamed spinach, an unadvertised but welcome plate component.
My older daughter, Blondie, the final member of our brunch party, went for the straightforward but generously portioned Farm House Breakfast, a hearty meal of two eggs prepared in the style of your choosing with a large English breakfast sausage split in two, three strips of crispy bacon, Texas style toast, hash browns and, just to torment our seven-year-old diner, the same mound of spinach that featured on my plate. The Farm House is also a good deal at $12.50.
A final dish, superfluous to our needs but irresistible, was a dessert of Panna Cotta, a delicious example of the traditional thickened cream dessert, here exhibiting a luscious creamy texture and vanilla notes, complemented by fresh berries and a berry nage.
Coffee is served as either drip or French press, the latter presented at the table still in the press with instructions to wait three minutes before depressing the plunger. Paper sachets of sugar and plastic creamers were incongruous with the otherwise well appointed esthetic of the venue.
Table 153 has a lovely airiness to it, replete with hanging plants and dramatically high ceilings. The main floor is home to a large, heavy wooden communal table and a few deuces along the wall, while the second floor (accessed via 20 steep stairs that must surely provide an intense workout for service staff every single shift) has tall and spacious booth tables with around 30 or so seats.
Our meal was $74 before gratuity. Table 153 is located at 228 Lonsdale Ave., 604-971-2153. facebook.com/Table153
Chris Dagenais served as a manager for several restaurants downtown and on the North Shore. A self-described wine fanatic, he earned his sommelier diploma in 2001. He can be reached via email at [email protected]. North Shore News dining reviews are conducted anonymously and all meals are paid for by the newspaper.
