big table.

Another Saturday morning, another opportunity to sample Central Market's fine cuisine.  Before enjoying brunch at Lucia's a few weeks ago, I had walked past Big Table and noticed the large amount of people clustered around it's shop and on the tables outside.  I had also taken a peek at their breakfasts and they looked delicious; hence, this was the next place for brunch.

My friend ordered the full big breakfast and I was so tempted to do the same since it sounded really good, but I had also read raving reviews of the green eggs and ham so I went with that one instead.

Half-Size Green Eggs & Ham (prosciutto), extra mushrooms: $13.90

The original dish consists of scrambled eggs with pesto, a slice of toasted sourdough and prosciutto.  I decided to add in the mushrooms because I had seen that they were cooked in butter and there is nothing better than mushrooms cooked in butter.  The eggs were some of the best scrambled eggs I've ever had.  They were so creamy and so light.  The pesto was a bit lacking in terms of flavour though, which was disappointing.  The toasted sourdough, however, was extremely delicious. The edges were a bit burnt, resulting in a smoky taste which surprisingly tasted really good with the eggs.  The mushrooms were not too bad but it didn't taste as though the mushrooms had been cooked in the butter; rather, it was like they had just been topped with butter sauce.   The prosciutto made for an interesting contrast to the creaminess of the eggs.

Hot Chocolate: $4.20

 The cups are huge.  One point.  The hot chocolate is made from powder.  Minus one point.  I was eager to see how they would make their chocolate after having such an amazing hot chocolate last week, but was let down by the fact that they use powder.  The taste was average and didn't have that rich, silky smooth chocolate flavour which Lucia's had.

Full Breakfast: $14.90

My friend said that this tasted amazing.  It was also, evidently, massive. There's actually another slice of toast underneath the scrambled eggs of the same size as the one in the picture, and the eggs took up almost half the plate.  I tried a bit of the eggs and they were just as creamy as the ones I had.  My friend didn't manage to finish her dish although it was a valiant effort.

Mocha: $4.20

This also drew a "This is sooo good" response from my friend.  It was pretty funny when it came out and we both looked at each other when we saw that the foam had collapsed into the middle.

Over all the food was really good at Big Table.  However, the eating experience was spoiled by two things: the extremely bad service and the fact that the tables are shared with strangers.  When you order, you have to go up to the counter where they'll give you a number to take back.  I was standing in front of the counter for probably fifteen minutes before I had to directly ask for someone to take my order.  This was despite a number of the waitresses walking past and looking at me, as well as the boss himself who stared at me for a while before moving onto another customer.

The communal tables is also a bit of a lucky draw in terms of who you eat with.  That morning we were unlucky enough to have a group of rather rude people who stole my seat and spread themselves all over the table, pushing my friend and I into the corner where we didn't have much room to move.

Big Table was a bit of a mixed experience, and although I would recommend the breakfasts, everything else was a bit below average.