Posted by Today’s special
By now, most people know where to get an amazing breakfast in town. The Modern Café is good, The Breakfast Nook is a favourite of ours, many just love Gabriel’s, and there are a few good diners around to help one get their grease fix too. That said, it pays to also know where to go when you are looking for a quick sit-down experience that is not quite a full-service restaurant. Enter Café Today.
Café Today is a small dine-in eatery in Longwood Station (just by Valhalla Pure). It offers table service, take out, and delivery through the usual food delivery services. Our visit this time was for breakfast in the late morning one Saturday.
We received a friendly greeting from behind the counter upon entering and took a minute to take in the menu. We had to think quickly because seating is very scarce – to the point that they politely ask that you do not linger during the busiest times.
The café offers the usual array of drinks you’d expect, including coffees, teas, lattes and so on, hot and iced. There is an all-day breakfast menu and a number of wraps, sandwiches, and salads available too. Despite the hour of the day, we wanted breakfast, so it was the standard two-egg breakfast for him and the bulgogi omelette for her.
Yes, that’s right. A bulgogi omelette. We assumed from this one menu item that this café was owned by a Korean family and we just can’t resist this kind of fusion menu item.
To drink she had a green tea latte and he had orange juice (like a child). While the OJ was, you know, OJ, the latte was actually quite special. It was sweet but not too sweet, nice and creamy, and not chintzy on the matcha flavour.
Breakfast came out after just a few minutes, and the server was very cordial and pleasant. We were eager to get our forks into that bulgogi omelette, and it delivered. The sweet bulgogi beef was tender and delicious and was a great way to add some interest to an otherwise by-the-numbers omelette. It was a three-egger so it was quite large and filling. The omelette came with toast as well, so all in all this was pretty good value for the $13 price tag.
The two-egg breakfast was mostly unremarkable but still pleasing. While the order was for eggs over medium, you can see from the picture above that the eggs look unusually round. We suspect they were steam-basted (perhaps in a silicone cup) rather than outright pan-fried. In any case, the cook did a good job getting that medium yolk consistency we asked for. Nice.
The sausages were also well-cooked, with crispy skin and juicy meat, and the hashbrowns were savoury and well-seasoned.
Our bill, with the drinks and modest tip came to approximately $40. We consider this ok value. Our bellies were full and the food was good.
Conclusion
The only real knock against Café Today, but a big one, is its lack of seating area. This place has the drink offerings and ample kitchen to seat twice as many patrons as they currently have room for. This will be less of an issue when the weather is nice and the patio opens up, but on our rainy-day visit, we were lucky to be able to sit. You’d best have a back-up plan to take your order to go unless it’s nice out.
That said, the staff are welcoming and provide great service, the food is good, and the prices are reasonable. While Café Today may not stand out as a particularly exceptional example of small-scale eating in Nanaimo, the competence they demonstrated in each aspect of our meal experience makes them easy to recommend. Go check them out and let them know we sent you!