Homestyle cooking at Colonial Pantry

Published 8:48 am Thursday, February 28, 2008

When you are looking for a restaurant with food that will warm the windy, chilly days of fall, stop by Colonial Pantry in Edmonds to get the taste of good old home-style cooking.

This privately owned restaurant, tucked under the black metal stairway at Firdale Village, doesn’t disappoint and offers a host of delicious, hearty dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Among the daily offerings: omelets, buttermilk waffles and pancakes, burgers, salads, seafood dishes and steaks.

Four of us stopped by recently for lunch. We sat at one of the many four-person tables in the main dining area surrounded by comfortable booths, country-style knick-knacks and what every welcoming restaurant has — a dining counter with high chairs that looks into the kitchen.

My dining companions had announced how hungry they were before we got to the restaurant. They quickly set out and ordered the meatloaf sandwich with mashed potatoes and vegetables, a patty melt with cheese on rye that comes with grilled onions on request, and a grilled ham and cheese with fries and a bowl of vegetable beef soup.

Since Colonial Pantry is my kind of place offering breakfast served all day, I ordered two eggs over hard with hash browns and wheat toast, my favorite fallback dish.

The fast and friendly waitress delivered our food, and my friend dug into her three door-stopping slices of meatloaf topped with gobs of dark, creamy gravy. Her dish was delicious but too much for her to finish. A heap of broccoli, cauliflower and carrots accompanied her meatloaf. The veggies were done the way she likes them, without lots of butter or grease.

The hamburger patty was, by her husband’s account, good and tasty. What he particularly liked were the crisp golden fries, a couple of which his wife used to sop up her gravy. The plate that once held the sandwich and fries quickly became empty, leaving only a mess of ketchup and a single, lonely leaf of lettuce.

When in doubt my husband orders soup over salad anytime. At Colonial Pantry he went for the vegetable beef and wasn’t disappointed. The full bowl boasted hunks of meat and vegetables in an aromatic broth. He polished the soup off in no time and devoured the ham and cheese sandwich, making sure no one touched his fries.

Meanwhile, my eggs, hash browns and toast turned out to be a comforting, reliable meal. I topped it off with the sweetness of raspberry freezer jam on toast as I sipped a hot cup of coffee.

Colonial Pantry staff are part of the warm ambience and, along with the food, a good reason to return. Regular customers, of which there are many, dine there for the great food and the value for money. Our bill for three lunches, one breakfast with coffee, ice tea and soda came to just under $34, less than $10 per person.

With no room left for dessert but feeling a good nap coming on, we left knowing we’d have to make another trip to Colonial Pantry just to indulge in the bread pudding and homemade pies.