Restaurant Review: Cafe Patachou

I received a comment from a blog reader that Tommie and I should try out Cafe Patachou. I had heard from others that this place was pretty darn good and that they're gluten-free toast option was kick-butt. So, the other morning after working a 12 I decided to take my honey out for breakfast.

We drove over to Broad Ripple and sat down for breakfast. I was first amazed at how fast paced and packed the place was. Their reputation of being popular was definitely head on. The cashier suggested we take a seat wherever.

Before I go any further, I do want to commend Patachou on their gluten-free options. I can't think of any other place in the city where we can get gluten-free toast. That being said, we weren't impressed.

I got the waffle (with no pecans - I'm allergic) and Tommie got the corned beef hash with Udi's gluten-free toast. We both had water to drink (the tea was $4.50 a cup!!! - I find that expensive). We also ordered a side of bacon to share (there really weren't a lot of meat options for breakfast).

My waffle came with a small cup of mixed fruit and it was just okay. The waffle was soggy and I didn't find the batter that tasty - without the powdered sugar it would have been terribly plain and tasteless. Tommie said his corned beef was okay, it was basically a bunch of onions and peppers with small bites of potatoes and beef. He was excited to get 2 full slices of toast. His corned beef also came with two eggs on top. The bacon - well, I don't like mine with fat or bendy. Needless to say, I didn't like the bacon.

Positives:
-If you like coffee they have a great deal, pay for one cup and the rest is self-serve and they had a great selection.
-The atmosphere is pretty casual, business suits to sweat pants.
-If you like eggs for breakfast, this is your place.

Negatives:
-This place was packed. There were a couple of tables waiting to place an order and the poor couple next to us had two little kids and I thought that at one point they were going to walk out (they waited about 10 minutes to be acknowledged).
-If you don't like eggs (I know, I'm a freak) then this isn't the place for you to eat breakfast.
-I found it kind of pricey for what you get. Our total was $22.45 for breakfast. Perhaps I'm just cheap.

Overall, we'll probably not go again. It didn't leave a lasting impression and the fact that they served Udi's isn't motivating us to go back for more.

Udi's Bagels

One thing I missed when I was diagnosed with Celiac was bagels. There were a few out there at the time, but they were either chewy like pipe foam, or dry and crumbly, turning to sand in your mouth. Because of this, I gave up my love of bagels and wept bitter tears whenever I’d see people eating them.

Then I found Udi’s bagels.

When I tried the first one, it was like a Hallelujah moment. I thought that somehow I’d gotten regular gluten-y bagels, so I double-checked the bag. Sure enough, it said gluten-free, but I couldn’t believe it. Now, I’ve found my bagel, and I try to wheedle a bag out of Brandie whenever we go to Kroger. I give these bagels two thumbs up, 5 stars, and an A++.

If you are buying your Udi's bagels at Krogers then check for coupons in the store because you might be surprised when you find a Udi's stand with $1.00 or .75$ off coupons!

Udi's Cinnamon Rolls

The same day we bought the Udi's blueberry muffins, we grabbed a pack of these for the same price ($2.38).


They're OK, the texture is rather spongey and once you nuke them they become rock hard. The icing is delicious though. I don't know if I would recommend buying them if you had to pay $6.00 (regular price), but they're not bad for the price we paid.

Udi's Blueberry Muffins

Tommie and I were at Kroger the other day and were amazed at how many gluten-free items were marked down on clearance. The big plus about clearance items at Kroger, they also allow you to use manufacturer coupons so we got these muffins for $2.38!!!


The texture resembled gluteny muffins and the taste was amazing. I would definitely recommend these to anyone - especially if you can get them for the price we did (otherwise they're about $6.00).

Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake

(disclaimer: this is not a picture of my pie, mine never turns out that beautiful)

Ingredients:

-4 pkg cream cheese, softened

-1c sugar

-1 tsp vanilla

-4 eggs

-1 can pumpkin

-1 tsp ground cinnamon

-1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

-dash of ground cloves

*Preheat oven to 325

1. Beat cream cheese, 3/4c of the sugar and vanilla

2. Add eggs one at a time

3. Remove 1 1/2 c of the batter and set aside.

4. Into the smaller bowl of batter: stir in remaining 1/4c sugar, pumpkin and spices into large bowl.

5. Layer the 2 batters then take a knife and swirl through the batter.

6. Bake for 55 minutes (give or take).

Crust:

-GF snickerdoodle cookies (Enjoy Life has a great cookie, but you can now get them under the Trader Joe's name for a cheaper price. Udi's also makes a great cookie, but they're uber expensive).

-melted butter

-brown sugar (optional)

Now the idea is to put the cookies in a food processor until they're crumbled, then add in the butter (and brown sugar if you want) to make a crumb crust. I use a spring form pan so I just grease the bottom and spread the mix over the pan. I put a cookie sheet under the pan when baking to remove the chance of any mess.

I get rave reviews for this every year (I usually make it at Thanksgiving).

Udi's at Krogers

So we were at the Krogers on 86th & Ditch and they had tons of Udi's goodies. They even had some of them marked down on clearance AND coupons on top of that.

We bought some cinnamon rolls, blueberry muffins, bagels, bread, and snickerdoodle cookies.