Shopsin's is also very well known for their "rude" staff. If you go on Yelp, you will see countless stories of people who were yelled at, had their food taken away from them and asked to leave. So I approached my brunch here with great trepidation. I knew not to ask questions or cause trouble. I also knew to line up quietly against the wall across from the Saxelby Cheese shop inside the Essex Street Market to wait to be seated. Aarti and I waited about 20 minutes for a table which was fine and given that there are only 15 seats total in the whole place, I was surprised that the wait wasn't longer. When we looked at the menu, we must have both changed our mind about 100 times on what to have. I had read that the mac and cheese pancakes were a hit but there were so many other things to try that I didn't want to limit myself to just pancakes. The menu has a wide variety of stuff like duck fat fries, fried pickles, kati rolls, pastrami with kimchi steak, duck and egg, bread pudding, slutty cakes, 20 different types of breakfast sandwiches, french toast sandwiches, and variations on dishes called The Pete and Blisters on my Sisters. After almost 30 minutes of agonizing decision making, I opted for the Mo'Betta ($18) because it incorporated the mac and cheese pancakes with bacon and eggs. Aarti got the Pete Moss ($15) which was veggie sausage, jack cheese and tomato on spicy bread and 3 poached eggs.
While we were waiting for our food these two girls next to us (who totally over ordered) offered us bites of their donuts (which I couldn't even find on the menu - that's how big the menu is) and their duck fat waffle fries. Oh my god. They were both warm and amazing. And for all the duck fat fries I've had before I could actually taste the duck fat in these crispy waffle fries. Amazing. When our food finally came, I couldn't believe my eyes. The 2 pancakes were literally the size of my head and sandwiched in between them was about 5 fluffy scrambled eggs and 6-7 strips of honey glazed bacon. The dish is also came with its own bottle of delicious sweet maple syrup, but I couldn't bring myself to pour on any more calorie inducing ingredients to my meal. While mac and cheese pancakes sounds gross, the first couple of bites were pretty damn amazing. It's exactly as it sounds. Each bite tasted of fluffy sweet pancake coupled with cheesy salty goodness of a mac and cheese dish. Mixed with soft scrambled eggs and chewy honey glazed bacon and you get a mind blowing insane experience in your mouth. I tried to keep going and to eat at least half of it, but after about 4-5 bites I literally felt my body reject anymore food. But I did manage to try Aarti's dish and it was basically 2 Stouffer's garlic bread pieces covered with melted cheese (which was mixed with chopped jalapenos -which is why the bread was called spicy bread) and large giant poached eggs. She also took about 4-5 bits before shutting down too. Luckily the whole time we were there, we were not yelled at but I did hear someone scream "Fuck you!" in the back.
This place is truly unique and would blow anyone's mind away. It would probably be better to go with more than 2 people but I believe that they don't have any tables that would accommodate more than 4 people, so plan accordingly. But with so many crazy sounding dishes to try, it's just easier to try everything with more people. While the atmosphere is very divey and diner-esque, don't let that fool you as it is a bit pricier than a diner. Many dishes (while huge and can feed you for days) are over $20. While Yelp says that they don't take credit cards, they actually do (via the Square). Our total bill: $47 with tax and tip.
Photo Credit: Yelp
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