Unsuccessful experiments with cereal milk lattes inspired the menu’s crowdpleaser: french toast coated with either fruity pebbles or frosted flakes. The former’s rainbow-crunchy surface may win Instagram, but those sugary beige flakes delivers a surprisingly cohesive flavor on thick slices of cider-spiked whole wheat from Macrina—a french toast more complex than eggy. That’s just one of many surprises in this Ballard dining room, which feels like a meticulous coffee shop that happens to serve hella fun food. Owner James Lim’s Korean background informs much of the menu, like eggs benedict with doenjang-marinated pork belly and a gravy-drenched kalbi poutine.
