Eggspectation

As visitors to Ottawa for the long weekend, we ate breakfast here twice! Both times we were very pleased with everything except the coffee.
The décor was very cool and the service was excellent. Even when they were super full for Sunday brunch.
We felt the negative reviews here were unfair based on our experiences.
And to the woman who ordered pasta… What did you eggspect, from a breakfast diner? ;)

I had an amazing experience! It was very busy (went Sunday morning) but the food came out incredibly quick and cooked perfect! Our server was great too! Would definitely return

The place needs a makeover though I imagine at this location the rent must be horribly high.
It’s not cozy at all. It’s got a derelict industrial feel that’s way overdue for some chic modifications.
Although I’ve never had anything but breakfast here, the menu is huge. Something for everyone.
The food is ok. The service slow and the place feels cold and empty.

I was really looking forward to trying this place out on Sunday morning. Initial impression was good– had a very Montréal feel (which made sense when I later found out it originated in Mtl). It was busy but we only had to wait about 5 – 10 min for a table for 4.
Things went downhill from here. We waited about 15 minutes for our server, ordered our drinks and breakfast all at once, then waited another 15 minutes for the first half of our drinks to arrive. The food arrived before the rest of the drinks, and the toast for our meals didn’t arrive until we were done eating. The food was meh– potatoes were cold, fruit was essentially non existent (I got 2 grapes and a slice of pineapple). Overall very disappointed.

Husband and I went to this location for lunch last Sunday and our experience was horrible. First of all the décor doesn’t have any carpets or curtains so it’s very busy and noisy and everything echoes inside, and it’s hard to hear the person sitting across you.
We ordered a pasta and a hamburger, the pasta was disgusting and inedible, while the patty of the burger was charred so much that it resembled a lump of coal (which means that either the cook doesn’t know how to cook, or the meat is not fresh. I think it was the combination of the two.)
Service was awfully slow as well. The regular size apple juice came small sized, and when we asked for water, it never made it to our table.
Needless to say, we’re not going there again.

Bf and I wanted a simple breakfast and we thought we would give this place a go. I hadn’t read anybody he reviews — to which I should have.
Place was very noisy and the two birthday shout outs didn’t help. But okay so it’s a busy place, large capacity, it’s bound to be loud… maybe it’s their «thing».
Service — our server was nice, attempted to speak French, though everything took forever! Even our pop order took over 20 mins, our order arrived incorrect and with no quality check from the server we just grinned and bared (ate) it.
The price was right and as I said the food wasn’t bad (just incorrect ha ha). Out server acknowledged that things took a little longer than normal and apologized.
I probably won’t return as there are plenty of other great places in the neighbourhood.

Yesterday morning would’ve been my second time at this restaurant. And I just want to highlight one work from that last sentence: would’ve.
The food is pretty good, but the service is mostly appalling.
The first time I went, I felt that my server was slightly disconnected from the experience and she wasn’t very welcoming — the restaurant was empty…
Yesterday, we got there and stood at the door without greeting for about ten minutes. My friend and I then went looking for a staff member upstairs so get an idea as to what the wait time is because the restaurant was busy.
This is when a server *hollered* at us saying «what do you think you’re doing? Go back downstairs and wait to be told you can come up».
Pardon me? Was I just told off by an employee?
Yes, I certainly was… Needless to say I won’t be coming back.

Very good food! I tried California Dreamin’. Friendly staff. Nice environment. Highly recommended!

Awesome! A little pricey. But it’s not your everyday breakfast place it’s better. I love the view too.

We were really disappointed with the service and the quality of the food. It used to be our favorite place to have breakfast. I ordered some tomatoes and lettuce as a side to my bagel and the eggs. They charged me $ 3 for a single tomato and a leaf of lettuce (they did not even bother to slice the lettuce), and the humongous tomato was sliced into only 3 pieces: D Those pieces were fit for a horse — no joke! Ridiculous to think that we payed $ 45 (as 2 people) for soggy eggs, a subpar omelette, and a «tomato» side that was literally just that — slices of tomato that were as large as individual reasonable sized tomatoes. The quality of this place has diminished greatly over the years. We will not be coming again.

So disappointed in breakfast at Eggspectation… years ago this place was hopping and packed to the gills, now it echoes like an airplane hanger. We had reservations that were clearly not needed — I walked in and there was no one. The kitchen staff could see me but no one said a word. There was a hostess station so I waited — until someone from the kitchen yelled — go upstairs — was I supposed to know that I should go upstairs? I go and there is a sign in the stairwell that says «Please wait to be seated» — perhaps that sign — with a please go upstairs would be useful at the entrance? –1 star
I was seated at our table for 8 by the window but man it was cold near the windows so we requested another table — so don’t sit near the tables in –40 degree weather unless you want to eat in your toque and parka.
We easily had another table, it wasn’t very busy, and we ordered. The menu is large and perhaps too large for such an empty place — not to mention that my favorite menu item (from years gone by) was gone, but I was open to new things and ordered an omelet.
Our food came with relative ease, but other than the fruit plate that looked fabulous, the food was cold (- 1 star) and not amazing by any means and no one commented on how good their meal was. My omelet, as with most of the dishes came with what they called their famous Lyonnaise-​style potatoes which were far from those described in the menu. They were clearly frozen and over fried and if you got a carmelized onion it was by accident, don’t get them, they were horrible. (–1 star)
This location is so amazing but I will have to agree with my fellow Unilocaler Joshua S — this place does reek of mediocrity. I don’t think we will be back.

I went to Eggspectation with some colleagues for breakfast. Given how the restaurant looks I had some expectation (HA!) that it would be something quite good but honestly, meh, I’ve experienced better. The restaurant itself looks nice from the outside and is kinda cool on the inside. It’s 2 levels on the inside with the kitchen on the street level. It’s located on the corner of O’Conner and Laurier West in downtown Ottawa which is good convenient location for some of the weekday government crowd.
The day we were there the heat was out so they said we should sit upstairs. Upstairs was very chilly too so not that comfortable to enjoy a meal. It was sub zero temperatures outside so… We were greeted in a friendly manner but our waitress was a bit of disaster. She spilled hot coffee on my friend and then dropped a glass of water behind me that shattered everywhere. Not much of an apology or check to see if okay either. Service was slow as well but certainly not because the restaurant was busy because it wasn’t, it actually did not have a lot of patrons.
The food was not bad, but it wasn’t great either. The menu looks exciting with all the fun names of the dishes (like Yolk Around the Clock) but then nothing great, just mediocre when it gets to the table.
Given there are so many places to eat breakfast, I probably would pass on Eggspectation and pick somewhere else to go next time around.

This place reeks of mediocrity. My burger was pretty good, but a few strange practices make me acratch my head at exactly what they are doing to stay so busy. For one, the burgers are cooked well done by default, which I have literally never seen at any other establishment. Each member of my party had something off with their order; my carmelized onions were not actually carmelized, eggs were forgotten, salads given instead of fries, etc. When we asked the waitreaa about it she swore up and down that she entered the orders correctly, and the kitchen screwed up. That is not how you appease an unhappy customer, just fix the issue and appologize, and hopefully we wont send it back.
The food was not bad, but I would not come back here due to the glacial slow service and several mistakes with the orders.

A great restaurant in Montréal that has sadly made a poor transition to Ottawa. I LOVED going to Eggspectations in Montréal when I lived there so was disappointed in my experience this morning.
Started off badly when I called and the woman couldn’t even suggest where to park. Then menus and coffee took over 10 minutes each. Eggs were cold and crepes rock hard. Maple syrup split on my eggs and they never brought a replacement. The waitress was nice enough but clearly overwhelmed running up and down the stairs getting food.
Really too bad as I often had great first class breakfast experiences in the Montréal locations. Time to make some changes.

This place is horrible. The service is extremely slow. We waiting one hour for our food to come, and one one dish from the whole order came. On top of that, the dish (chicken parmigiano) was burnt, completely black and hard. We sent it back and left the place since none of the others dishes were coming and we didn’t want to wait another hour to fix the burnt chicken. At least they didn’t charge us for the orange juice we ordered which was the only good thing at this place.
The services is horrible, our waiter was obnoxious and even when we said no to something he still did it in disrespect of whatever we just asked. We run into some friends and he was harassing them and trying to be funny.
Please avoid this place at all costs, it’s not worth your time at all.

The food is reasonably good and they have fair prices for a breakfast place — about what you would expect. The home fries are nice. Cora’s has better food, if you want a comparable, for about the same price.
The bench seats and chairs are all very uncomfortable. People with short legs often complain their legs are falling asleep on the benches, which are an odd shape. It seems like an odd complaint, but you’ll notice it if you go there.

Came on a sunday at noon… The place was packed and a 15 min. waite to be seated.
It was loud with a sticky/​dirty floor.
Service was ok, I had egg benedict on crêpe and it was… good.
But I’m not sure I’ll be back.
Not impressed at all… Overall cleaness of the restaurant, this place needs a revamp!
Maybe it’s better now this was a year ago.

Until yesterday, I’d avoided Eggspectation because it always looks so busy. And I hate eggs. But I was showing a friend around town and it was cold so Eggspectation was the closest place that looked like it’d be good for breakfast.
The interior is pretty impressive. The ceilings are huge and there’s quite a lot of seating. Despite this, my party of 2 was lucky to get a table. It was about 11:30am and super crowded.
There were only 2 servers on the upper floor, so it took a while for us to get our food. I ordered the blueberry pancakes and although I cleaned my plate (I’m compulsive, whatever), they really weren’t that good. Pretty much just a (small) step up from aunt Jemima’s. And just 3 pancakes were $ 12.
FYI: the menu is pretty extensive but nothing really stands out as good hangover food.
All in all, the food was mediocre, the service was good, and the ambience/​atmosphere was great. Don’t think I’d go out of my way to eat here again, but I’m not much of a breakfast person.

The name drew me in, but I was not impressed with the service. It was only 1 guy for the entire place. It was slow and so was he. He was very nice.
I had the burger with bacon, cheese and added a fried egg. It was good. The salad was just greens only. My friend had Mac & Cheese with chicken instead of bacon. He said it wasn’t creamy enough. He only are half. It came with garlic bread. Garlic was strong & good. My other friend had a salad tropical chicken. She enjoyed it no complaints.
It was an experience. Don’t think I would return if I’m very back in Ottawa again.

This place only had to deliver on one item– its eggs.
But it failed to do so and managed to make us sick instead.
The Smoked Salmon Eggs Benny (with smoked wild sockeye salmon) caught my eye.
The whole plate was served cold. The eggs were not poached perfectly, the multigrain toast was burnt. Only the PhiladelphiaTM cream cheese was recognizable, and even the hollandaise sauce tasted off.
I did appreciate the sprinkle of red onions and capers and the fresh fruit. But for 13.95, this dish is not it.
A friend got the Classic benny and also found the sauce off-​putting and the muffin was soggy. Again, food was cold and her home fries were inedible.
To boot– the service was terrible. We were all of two tables occupied in the whole place so I am not sure why service was slow and inattentive but it was.
Lastly– we walked out feeling queasy. Both of us. What’s that about?
My only TIP/​RECOMMENDATION: LOWER YOUR EGGSPECTATIONS with this place and bring your toughest stomach to the table.

Puisque nous étions affamés nous n’avons pas cherché bien bien longtemps.
Pas mal égal aux autres restaurants de la chaine. Service en français apprécié.