The Chef Knows Best

There are few places that I enjoy so much as Manhattan, Kansas, I understand it is not for everyone but for me it is a great place to go.  The town is small enough to not be hectic and crazy, it has an old feel to it while still having all the modern conveniences, and of course the buildings are amazing.  The local stone is a pale limestone and you see it in many of the buildings in the area, especially down around the old downtown on Poyntz Avenue.

That is where we find our next food destination, The Chef.  We discovered this bright little establishment later in my college career, but there was no turning back after we got our first taste.  The place is primarily a breakfast joint, but they also serve a lunch that I have never tried so for the sake of this article we will strictly be focusing on the most important meal of the day.

The biscuits and gravy here is absolutely premium here.  It is quite possibly one of the best gravies I have ever had in my life, which made my decision for breakfast all that much more difficult.  It was a complete tossup between some dish containing the B&G (such as The Grant) or my other personal favorite the Buenos Dias Frittata. 

In the end it came down to a decision of “pick a hand” my fall back plan when I cannot select a meal, assign a dish to each hand and make a third party select which hand I am going to eat…  Very scientific I know, I should probably patent it before someone reads this and jacks my idea.  In the end the Buenos Dias Frittata won out and you can see why.

The frittata is an egg dish filled to the brim with chorizo, pico de gallo, and jack cheese with a side of sour cream and chipotle sauce.  I am not a big fan of sour cream, but the chipotle sauce is kick ass and the pico rocked my world.  I mean tomatoes and onions are awesome in eggs, but the real kicker here was the lime juice in the pico that was an underlying flavor in the egg dish, pure awesomeness.

My mom got the Eggs Benedict; the ham on this Benedict was a thick steak so you got some great flavor coming in from that but it definitely could have used some more hollandaise sauce instead of going with the decorative approach like they did.

Both of these dishes came with a side of potatoes that were full of flavor and a great addition to any breakfast you get here.

This place makes an awesome breakfast, so if you ever find yourself waking up in the Little Apple, even if you are hung-over, make you way on downtown and wander into this bright festive little café and dig in.