Milestones - Brunch Review

Grilled Chicken Corn Hash

Restaurant: Milestones - Brunch Review
Cuisine: American/Global/West Coast
Last visited: October 25, 09

Area: Multiple locations - White Rock
3085-152nd Street in South Point Mall
Price Range: $10-20

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 3.5
Service: 3
Ambiance: 4
Overall: 3.5
Additional comments:

• Chain restaurant
• Casual and lively atmosphere
• A couple classic breakfast items
• A twist on the traditional, gourmet twists
• Homemade sauces
• In-house smoke mustard ham
  
• Quite hearty options
• $9-18 brunch menu items
• Line-up/crowded at peak hours
• Available Saturday & Sunday only

**Recommendation: Grilled Chicken Corn Hash

We couldn't find a family-owned breakfast/brunch restaurant around the area so we just settled on Milestones. I'm not against chain restaurants or anything, but I usually chose them out of convenience or if they have a new item to try. I usually try and find the independent places.

I am actually quite impressed with the brunch we had at Milestones. They bring traditional breakfast items to new heights and add their own gourmet touches and creativity. Most of the options are quite hearty and the portions are quite big so it fills you up for most of the day. The best thing is that the sauces are homemade - I just wish the breads were too...but that could be asking for too much...?

I would come back again to try the other items or even just the grilled chicken corn hash, that was really good!

On the table:

• Grilled Shrimp California Benedict 2/6
• Spicy house-made avocado salsa, double-smoked bacon & grilled shrimp.

• I was actually disappointed in this because it sounded so good on the menu.
  
• The menu says "large grilled shrimp" but they should have wrote "grilled shrimp". They were pretty small - 2 shrimps on each English muffin. They were also overcooked so they maybe shrank more than they should have.
• The avocado salsa was really weak too. It was very brown, and didn't look fresh. It looked like it was sitting under the heaters for too long, which very well may have been the case. It's house-made and I was expecting diced avocado, lime juice and onions etc., but what I got looked worse than grocery store guacamole. There was no flavor except for some seasoning salt.
• Bacon wasn't crispy either.
• The poached egg on the other hand was really good. The hollandaise is also made in house but it wasn't thick enough. It was very buttery but on the watery side.
  
• Okay this is the shock factor - despite the poor execution the combination of it all actually didn't taste bad! It just could have been so much better if everything had been fresh!
• **Grilled Chicken Corn Hash 5/6
  
• Sliced grilled chicken mixed with potatoes, onions, roasted corn, red peppers and house marinade. Topped with two poached eggs, hollandaise and salsa. Served with Roma tomatoes and grilled herb toast.
• This was very tasty! The house sauce is what makes this dish, it was really good. It's almost like an onion-based barbeque sauce but not as thick and not as bold in flavour. There was a smoky charred flavour and the dried Rosemary and oregano really came out. The fresh salsa was the perfect balance. It was nice and saucy especially after breaking the egg yolks into it. The texture of this hearty dish was just excellent, crunchy, soft, crispy and the flavours: sweet, savoury, tangy and smoky!
• Strawberry French Toast 3/6
  
• Baguette dipped in cinnamon vanilla egg batter, then griddled. Topped with fresh strawberries poached in agave syrup with Mango cream finish.

• This was a really big portion of French toast. It was good, but I think it was too big and I got sick of it fast. Using baguette is a creative idea, but I would have preferred a regular bread or brioche...it would absorb the flavours better.
  
• They should consider making their own bread.
• It was moist but it was swimming in a pool of agave syrup. The syrup was also a combination of agave and a simple sugar reduction. It needed to be more reduced because it was too watery. I did appreciate the generous amount of fresh strawberries though.
• I couldn't taste the mango cream at all and they needed more of it.I could barely see it.
• They called it a" cinnamon vanilla egg batter," but it wasn't as flavourful as it sounds. They used an extract instead of the real vanilla bean so they shouldn't bother advertising the "vanilla" part...what kind of French toast doesn't have cinnamon or vanilla in the mixture anyways?