Ebb 'n Flow

The Place:
Ebb 'n Flow is located on 45th St. N in the Wallingford neighborhood.

He said:
We came here for breakfast/brunch on a Saturday morning at around 11 am. There was no wait and we were seated promptly although my seat was a bit awkwardly positioned. I was on a bench in the back of the restaurant which was up against a wall and the bench had an armrest on it which required me to sit off the end of the table. The waitress we had was attentive although a little demeaning at times, as she would compliment me on how well I cleaned my plate later in the meal. "Wow, you did a good job!" Thank you, eating is part of my expertise.

The coffee was from Lighthouse Roasters, a normally good brand of coffee, however, we must have received the bottom of the pot, as my coffee was lukewarm at best and contained about a teaspoon of coffee grounds which I discovered after several sips. I did ask for and received a new mug without grounds in the bottom, but this was only after she tried to refill my old mug first, after I had already explained the coffee grounds problem. The meal was good, scrambled eggs, potatoes, bacon: the bacon was particularly good, thick cut and cooked to the perfect crispiness. The menu was not very extensive and was particularly lacking in bread items like pancakes; almost exclusively variations on eggs, bacon and potatoes. We were also told by the waitress that if we paid in cash we would receive a 10% discount. I found this to be a tad sketchy but not so much as to not take advantage of the discount, no matter what the motivation was. Aside from the bacon I see no reason to go back there, and give this location a C-.

She said:
We had been to this location for breakfast before when it was under a different name. I thought that, since the name had changed, it was a new and different restaurant. Apparently I was wrong. Everything was the same, except the name. Anyway, we were seated right when we walked in the door and we did have a young, friendly, attentive waitress. Our coffee was horrible. Mine was luke-warm at best and filled with coffee grounds. I never asked for a new mug because after my first sip I had every intention of going to Tully's next door and getting a real cup of coffee right after breakfast.

I had the Italian scramble, which came with potatoes and toast. It was good. Normal breakfast food. The potatoes were a little over-cooked and a bit too greasy, but everything else was to my liking. Considering we can walk to this restaurant from our house and the price was decent, I would say that I would go back sometime. I did find the 10% off deal, for a cash payment, to be shady. But, hey, we're not rich so we took the bait! You figure we get 1% back on our credit card purchases, so this was 9% more than that!

Overall, the horrible coffee knocked this score down to a C for me.