O’Fallon’s Breakfast Battle Begins at Ham N' Egg

As I mentioned in my review of , you can find surprisingly good food tucked away in strip malls. I submit Ham N' Egg as more evidence in my ongoing defense of little places that do a lot with a minimal budget.

The tiny 12 top diner is simply decorated with sunny orange walls over wood panel trim and a few country style decorations that look like they were picked up at Bed Bath and Beyond to keep the walls from being too monotonous. The tables have cheerful red, white and yellow striped vinyl cloths under glass to make for fast, efficient cleanup.

The shotgun style restaurant allows you to see straight through the dining room and into the kitchen the moment you walk in the door. When I walked in, a nearby waitress in the middle of refilling someone’s iced tea told me to seat myself. There were only two tables to choose from. In fact, the whole time I was there, the bustling restaurant never had more than three tables open.

Ham N' Egg offers perfectly respectable lunches for under $10 including half a dozen burgers, three melts and a Monte Cristo to appeal to people who like to take their inner child out to eat. However, I wasn’t there for a sandwich. I was there for breakfast, and they offered quite a few droolworthy options.

The fiesta skillet with scrambled eggs, hash browns, seasoned taco meat, onions, tomatoes and green chilis called out to me, as did the vegetable omelet with onions, peppers and tomatoes. If you prefer your food separated out instead of mixed into a single dish, the 10  breakfast combo meals let you combine a meat with two eggs, home fries and toast. However, none of them let me enjoy the carbtastic wonder of either pancakes or french toast along with a hearty protein filled breakfast of champions, so I did the only thing a rational restaurant reviewer could do in this situation. I ordered both the chopped steak meal and a short stack of pancakes.

This was an almost comical amount of food.

The short stack came out as two massive, fluffy golden brown cakes each the size of an ordinary dinner plate. The cheerful waitress brought me a box with the plate and assured as long as I slathered the cakes with butter now they would taste great reheated. She was right. The pancakes were golden brown on top and liberally coated with chocoalte chips on bottom. After a couple bites, I decided to have my last few bites for dessert after tackling my real breakfast.

The hash browns were lovely, German style potatoes roughly sliced into chunks about a quarter inch thick, spread across a well greased skillet and fried until crispy on one side. These were a little greasier than I prefer, but they were a perfect golden brown and just the right contrast of crispy on one side and buttery soft on the other. If you think you don’t like hash browns because you’ve only tried soggy homestyle potatoes or uniform juliane shredded potatoes, give these a chance.

For $7 I expected a modestly sized breakfast meat, but the chopped steak was a good six inches long and half an inch thick of solid meaty goodness, charred crispy on the outside while still nicely juicy on the inside. Yes, it's a glorified morning hamburger patty for people who don’t eat bacon or sausage, but that doesn't mean it isn't tasty.

The scrambled eggs and whole wheat toast did their job as protein and carbohydrate fillers that absorbed the grease.

I ended up taking home a heavy box loaded with a pancake and a half plus 2/3 of  my chopped steak yet I still felt so full I wasn't sure I'd need to eat again all day. These are epic sized meals.

My total came to $14.52 plus $3.48 for a tip, but keep in mind for all practical purposes, I ordered two breakfasts. I saw it as my sacred duty to you, dear readers, to try as many things on the menu as possible. It had nothing to do wtih my eyes being bigger than my stomach. I promise.

The breakfast platter was a very reasonable $6.50 while the pancakes were $3.50 for two plate sized cakes plus an extra $1.50 for the chocolate chips. A $2 iced tea rounded out the cost. If you order a normal human quantity of food, there's no reason you can't leave overstuffed for under $10.

Add warm, friendly service to the low prices and large plates of tasty food and I’m pleased to rate Ham N' Egg a solid B+.