Move over Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte – you may have known where to go for brunch in NYC, but a few of my friends and I are trying to seek out breakfast places north of the T-dot in the 905! We are making the rounds, so to speak.

A few friends of mine have kids in Sunday school and while the kids are away, the ladies should play…well, we have to eat don’t we?

The first stop was the (then) new Bagel World at Dufferin and Major Mac. It had only been open two weeks at the time. They are the home to the Flagel. If you don’t know what a Flagel is take “flat” and “bagel” and put it together. They are also the home to the Bagelini. Which is a flagel stuffed with different options put in a panini press, so the cheese gets all melty and yummy and everything is nice and warm and crispy. Confused yet?

So six of us sit down for breakfast and the place is packed. Most of us at the table know at least one person coming in or out of the restaurant. The food was very good, but the service was not. The server actually didn’t tell our friend that the plate was hot, and instead of puttng down on the table, handed it to her, which caused her to burn her hand. Her reply was, “oh, I guess I am used to it by now”. It got worse from there, and that actually resulted in us discussing the situation with the manager and we had the choice to get a discount off the bills or….1/2 dozen bagels per person……DUH – who doesn’t want fresh, FREE bagels?

One more comment re: bagelinis – TRY ONE when you go to Bagel world. They have 3 – 4 different combinations like – Tuna, tomato, cheese and red onion; or avocado, cheese and tomato and some italian style one.

I like the tuna one because it reminds of my parents house growing up. We had a sandwich maker (who didn’t) and of course grilled cheese and tomato soup nights -YUMMO! As I got older I added things to my grilled cheese, like tomato and then of course made tuna melts in the maker. The best was went you would try to make a tuna melt on a bagel in the sandwich maker. Everything would spill out, the bagel wouldn’t fully let the press close and it was a yummy gooey mess when you were done…..but so good. This was long before the days of the home panini press.

Back to breakfast…..our tour of breakfast places has taken us to What a bagel, Centre Street deli and this week to Sunset Grill (also at Dufferin and Major Mac). Again, being a busy Sunday morning at peak time has its ups and downs with food and service. Another ‘hot plate’ episode actually. The server came to the table, holding the plate WITH A TOWEL, and handed it to my friend…..”no, it’s not that hot”….well why are you holding it with a towel? And the breakfast potatoes – were not cooked very well, and had no flavour….I’m just sayin’.

We did try to go to Pancers new location but found out that they only open at 11am on Sundays. I know it is not your traditional ‘breakfast’ joint, BUT across the street from that location is the bagel world and the sunset grill, you would think they would want to jump on the weekend breakfast traffic.