[Italian] Hot House Cafe

Restaurant: Hot House Cafe
Cuisine: Italian
Location: St Lawrence Market
Address: 35 Church St
Price Range: $15-25

 

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very Good 5: Excellent

 

Food: 3
Service: 3
Ambiance: 2
Overall: 3

 

Extra information:

 

*Famous for brunch on Saturday & Sunday
*Live Jazz

 

Hot House Cafe is located near St Lawrence Market and is famous for their brunch buffet on weekends. I've passed by this place so many times on weekends everytime I went grocery shopping to Metro which is right next door. I went in October so the weather was warmer back then, you can dine inside the restaurant or sit out in the patio (during summer).

 

 

Brunch buffet is $19.99 so it's def not cheap...but...who can pass up on Breakfast Buffet? I can't! Hot House Cafe was on my list for awhile and when my friend (tiny one who eats twice her size) was visiting me from Vancouver, so I decided to check it out with her.

 

 

Their buffet station consists of hot food, cheese & fruit station, pasty & bread station, cake station, meat station as well as omelette station.

 

There were about 20 different types of bread varying from rolls, banana bread, baguettes and croissants

 

At the meat station, they were serving turkey, roast beef and ham as well as cold salmon on the side

 

Omelette station consistently had long lineups throughout the meal because they make it for you on the spot. Few of the choices that could be added to the omelettes were ham, green onions, cheese, fresh tomatoes and grilled onions.

 

Cold Food Station

 

 Three Bean Salad, Crab Salad, Shrimp Salad

 

 

Hot food station had about 10~15 types of dishes starting from your regular scrambled eggs, sausages, lasagna, bbq chicken, bacon, potato hash and mussels.

 

Cake Station serving 6~8 different types of cake, squares and pies

 

Fruits & Cheese Station

 

  

It is a buffet so I can't comment on everything that I've tried, but few of the dishes that stood out to me (got seconds of) were:

• Omelette: surprisingly done very well, it will depend on what you add but I added onions, bacon, cheese and mushrooms
• French toast: drenched in walnut and raisin syrup, it was delicious with the real whipped cream on the side
• BBQ chicken: it was well marinated and cooked throughly. there was some smokiness to the sauce which i enjoyed
• Lasagna: very cheesy and it tasted very home-made. It was so comforting!
• Mussels: the mussels were small in size but the soup was really good (tomato based)
• Caramel cheesecake: good consistency and I liked how it wasn't too sweet

 

 My Plate #1

 

My Plate #2

 

Live Music during brunch!

 

The service was excellent at the Hot House. Our waitress was super friendly and refilled our water consistently.  I went back one more time with my family after the first visit and I made the mistake of going without a reservation. MAKE SURE TO CALL FOR RESERVATION!!! I had to wait for an hour and 40 minutes....and it was not fun.

 

Summary: Overall, I would say the food is quite average for buffet style restaurant. I just wish omelette station didn't take so long, and would like a hot crepe or waffle station. Food is refilled constantly which keeps it fresh and never empty, which is important for buffet restaurants. Nothing impressed me out of the standard, but I left full and happy. Would I go back? maybe in few months!