It's Not for Food Critics, Its For Food Eaters: Hugo's Family Restaurant Review
By Taylor Hathaway
For as long as I can remember, French toast has been one of my favorite breakfast foods to ever exist. So, once I heard about Hugo’s Family Restaurant at the intersection of Main and Elm and that they served breakfast, I knew I had to try out their food.
As me and my friend, Emily Turner, opened the door, we were immediately met with a waitress telling us to take a seat anywhere we liked. After picking one of the booths along the wall of the restaurant and sitting down, I took a moment to look around.
The wooden panels lining and pictures lining the walls make the restaurant feel warm and homey. It’s small and filled with families getting their Saturday started with breakfast. In such a modest space it’s easy to hear the voices of the other diners mixing together as everyone makes conversation.
Our waitress quickly came to our table, asking us what we would like to drink. As I perused the menu I quickly noticed how affordable the food was. The most expensive item, a sirloin top, topped out at $11.50 but this is far above the average price of most of the menu items. The cheapest items, either a single egg or a single pancake, bottomed out at $1.50.
I ordered the french toast with a side of German potatoes. After asking the waitress what exactly German potatoes are, I found out that they are Hugo’s own version of home fries where the cut up and boil the potatoes before frying them. Turner ordered a single pancake with a side of scrambled eggs and German potatoes. Our waitress wrote down our order before promising that our food would be out soon.
While waiting for the food to arrive, I took another chance to look around the restaurant. There were only around 10 tables: a combination of booths and tables. We were close enough to the kitchen to hear the cooks talking, and could even smell some of the food being cooked. It was clean and well taken care of with nothing too extravagant taking all of your attention.
It didn’t take long before we get our food brought to us on warm plates, just finished cooking. My french toast came with plenty of butter and syrup to meet anyone’s needs. I cut into the french toast, which is very soft, and dip it into the syrup. As soon as I bit into it I could taste the sweetness of the syrup and the texture of the bread. I could easily say that it is some of the best french toast I had ever eaten.
However, it’s the German potatoes that caught me by surprise. They resembled hash browns but cut up a little more finely and sprinkled with salt and pepper. I quickly found that it was very difficult to dip the potatoes into a puddle of ketchup, they just fell off the fork. Instead, it was best to simply squirt ketchup of the top of the whole pile of potatoes and simply scoop them up to eat. The German potatoes tasted a lot like french fries but with a little less crunch. Imagine finely diced hash browns and that’s very close to the texture. I had never tried German potatoes before but I would definitely say that I am a fan of them.
When my friend's food came out I immediately notice how big the pancake is. It was about the size of my hand, almost an inch thick and comes with way more butter and syrup than one person could need for a single pancake. The scrambled eggs were a beautiful yellow and generously seasoned with salt and pepper. The German potatoes she ordered come out looking exactly like mine, like diced up hash browns.
The pancake was warm and buttery with a crispy outside and a rich, fluffy inside. The scrambled eggs tasted how you would expect, like eggs, but were also light and fluffy. Turners’s German potatoes came out much like mine, tasting similar to french fries but with the texture of hash browns.
While we were still eating, the waitress brings us our check and leaves it face down at the end of the table. Curious to see what the damage to our wallets would be, Turner and I flipped the check over to be pleasantly surprised. Both of our meals had come to a nice total of $5.00.
Overall, Hugo’s Family Restaurant had plenty of appealing qualities. The atmosphere is warm and comfortable, the service is quick and friendly, and the prices are great for the quantity of food you’re getting. It’s also close to the high school campus, making it an ideal breakfast spot before school on collaboration days. Personally, my favorite dish was the french toast, which was extremely delicious and filling. However, the food here isn’t for food critics, it’s for food eaters. It isn’t the best food I’ve ever eaten but it definitely filled me up and left me satisfied.