Food Review: Osborne Village Café

The Osborne Village Café

160 Osborne St

Updated September 2014

Since I first came here this has become a very popular breakfast place. When you go you should expect to wait in line for a while, unless you come early. You should have no problem finding a seat if you come before 11:00 am. I love this place and I have brought my mom and my (very elderly) grandparents here several times for brunch. It is a little bit loud for seniors but they occasionally suggest we return so clearly it was a pleasant experience.

This was my original post:

Maybe you've heard of the Osborne Village Café, maybe you haven’t, but if you know anything about Osborne village you will have heard of The Zoo. My father tells a story that when he was in university they would go to The Zoo, sit in a corner as far away from anyone as possible and make the utmost effort only to look at other friends sitting at his table. He says that at least once the door to the lounge was smeared with blood from where someone was thrown against the enforced glass pane next to the door by the bouncer before being thrown out for real. Whether this was mostly simile or if it actually happened I cannot verify, but it certainly has shaped my ideas about the place. A few metal head friends of mine report that it is definitely not that dangerous anymore.

What this boils down to is that The Osborne Village Café is in the Osborne Motor hotel and that made me nervous to go. Breakfast Winnipeg appears to be the only food blogger to have gone to the place, and they did so under different management. This is the critical thing to remember because their review is rather scathing and mine, as you will soon discover, is not. New management and new staff means new life.

The Café, as I’m going to start calling it, is a hipster paradise. It is like Cousins (or The Nook) in Wolseley because there is always someone I know eating there. The food is all under 10$ and generously portioned. You can tell that a lot of love goes into its preparation because it has achieved something rarely found in breakfast places: food that tastes like breakfast made at home. I pitch this compliment as follows: who has time to make a good old fashioned breakfast in their home? I rarely do. Secondly, if it tastes homemade they are not using eggs from a carton (they are local in fact) and the bread is good as well. Potatoes are local as well. UPDATE: Since the last time I went they have added even more local sourcing to their list, including tea from Hollow Reed.

Before you get the wrong impression and think this is only a breakfast place, let me set you on the straight and narrow: they serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner and they serve it all day. They have a weekly soup and a weekly pie (which I think is a great idea).  I don’t remember all the menu items but they included things such as an omelette called “the hipster” and a club sandwich called “the mansion”. I am told that many of the condiments are made in-house, and with the love that exudes from every plaid shirted server and customer I don’t doubt it for a moment.

update:

We have ordered:

- French Toast (no longer on the menu)

- Beet and Potato latkes
- The Hipster (omelet)
- Perogies (celery root with potato, parsley, mozza, and roasted parsnip)

- Curried Chickpea and Wild Rice Burger
- The Breakfast Burger
- The Squash
- Jagermeister Ice Cream

The breakfast highlights are the Hipster, The Veg, and the breakfast burger. The latkes are fabulous, and I really don’t like latkes. For lunch or dinner the perogies are great and they are swimming in cream sauce. The Squash is also outstanding. The Jaegermiester ice cream is also worth ordering. 

Until next time,