Breakfasts at the Patio at Desert Hills, Yuma

While Kirk is out of the country adventuring and eating and taking photos that he will share with us later, Cathy is doing most of the posting here at mmm-yoso. Some days Ed (from Yuma) helps out, and today is one of those days.

I really don't eat a lot of breakfasts, and when I do, it is often instant oatmeal or toast or a burrito from Jector's. But on weekends, Tina and I like to go out sometimes for a morning meal. The problem is that a crowd of people breakfast out on weekends, particularly during our tourist season, and a lot of restaurants stop serving breakfast after 11 am. So when we heard that a talented young chef had taken over the Patio Restaurant at the Desert Hills Golf Course and was serving breakfasts beginning 6 am every day and continuing on Sundays until 3 pm, we just had to try it.

The restaurant is located in the clubhouse building,

and you enter through the main door,

walk back toward the well-equipped bar, and then wait to be seated:

Of course, there is seating indoors and at the bar,

but weather permitting, Tina and I enjoy outside on the patio itself with its views of the golf course:

The menu is one page, but Tina and I had no trouble finding several things we wanted to try. I opted for the Eggs Benedict:

The hollandaise was smooth and subtle and the eggs perfectly poached, so the yolks and sauce mingled together and flavored everything. On the other hand, the tomato slice, while lightening things up a bit, seemed to soggy up the muffin halves, and I wouldn't have minded a little larger round of ham.

No complaints at all about the home fries. They were lightly dusted with seasoning and had been crisped up on the grill. Overall, this was an interesting and tasty breakfast.

Tina chose the mushroom and spinach omelet:

A real winner. Alongside those same good potatoes, lay perhaps the best spinach and mushroom omelet I've ever tasted. Fully flavored and packed with spinach and mushrooms:

My only complaint was Smucker's fruit flavored high fructose corn syrup spreads masquerading as jam or jelly: 

Our meals, including coffee, came out to just over $21 (before tax). Good value we thought and some excellent preparations.

Since then, we have been back a couple more times and always enjoyed our food. I'll admit that the stack of blueberry pancakes looks pretty mundane:

but they were made with a flavorful batter, griddled to a slight crisp, and packed with oversized blueberries:

The enchiladas and eggs, one of the house specialties, looked like this:

The scrambled eggs on top were nothing special, so we would probably order them over easy or poached next time, but everything else here was outstanding. The house made sauce – dark, rich, and mellow – flavored everything. The corn tortillas (also house made?) were thick with substantial mouthfeel and intense tortilla flavor. Usually the tortillas fly under my palate’s radar when I order enchiladas, but these yelled out, "pay attention to us." And there was, to my taste, just the right amount of quality cheese, not gloopy gobs of gluey blandness. This dish worked on so many levels, the ingredients complementing and enhancing each other.

Equally outstanding was the chicken fried steak and eggs:

While the potatoes were not quite as good as before, the chicken fried steak was beyond exceptional in flavor and crunch, and good creamy gravy only made the steak better. I did a little yoso-delicioso dance in my chair.

Of course, with food this good (and inexpensive) for breakfast, Tina and I and friends have been back for several other meals, but descriptions and pictures will have to wait for a different post.

While the service and ambience at The Patio are good, one extra thing makes the place special and that is chef Alex Trujillo:

Several times we've seen him go table to table asking if everything was okay and making sure that we all enjoyed our meals. Nice to see a chef talented both in the kitchen and the dining area.