Bruges Waffles and Frites: Salt Lake City

The Best Date Night Food

I have the best place for you to eat. I am not exaggerating. This is probably my favorite food of all time, especially in Utah.

The place is called Bruges. It is located in downtown Salt Lake City, just north of Pioneer Park. It is a hole in the wall, which is my favorite of all places. Only seating about three people on the inside, most people either get their food to-go or they sit outside. The menu is small, including only a few items: Belgian waffles, frites (fries), and a Machine Gun Sandwich. Who needs a big menu when those three items are unbelievably good?

Let me tell you how it works. Okay, you walk up to the register and you choose your waffle. You can choose either Cinnamon or Vanilla. If you are feeling daring, you can order the Torpedo; two waffles stacked on top of each other with chocolate in between. After choosing your waffle, you can choose between a bunch of different toppings: vanilla ice cream, cream fraiche (my personal favorite - it is comparable to thick whipped cream), chocolate, and a bunch of different fruits.

Once you are done with your waffle ordering, it is time to move on to the frites. Large or small? What sauce? They have made about ten different dipping sauces to choose from. I have no idea what is in any of them, but my personal favorite is the Andelouse sauce. It is their signature fry sauce and it is bomb.

The third and final item on their menu is something called a Machine Gun Sandwich. It is lamb sausage, topped with fries and Andelouse sauce, all in a soft baguette. I had never tried lamb before I ate it here. I know it sounds a little funky, but it is good.  Everyone should live a little and try it just once.  Every other time you can order the waffles like I do :)

Machine Gun Sandwich (Pretty Manly, Huh!)

This place would be the perfect place to take a date. It is cute and very unique. The waffles are unlike any waffle you have ever eaten in your life. The waffle may look plain, but whatever they put in the batter puts every other Belgian waffle to shame. I do have to warn you, though, the waffles are pretty small, so if you are starving, I would either order fries or two waffles. 

Price Range: $6-$7 Per Waffle 

(plain waffle is cheap, toppings are not)

Here is their website with their menu, prices, and location:

Bruges Website

Summer Hours:

Monday through Thursday [9 a.m. to 8 p.m.]

Friday and Saturday [9 a.m. to 10 p.m.]

Sunday [Closed]

P.s. I would avoid going on Saturday morning during the Farmer's Market because it is always packed

Sunshine Cafe:North Salt Lake

Cinnamon Granola Pancake??

I have always had this dream of walking into the same mom and pop diner every morning, having the owner turn the corner and bring out the same meal I order day after day. I would ask her about her life and if anyone interesting came into the diner that day. After chatting for a while, she would ask me to try a new dish she invented and I would tell her it is delicious. While sipping hot chocolate with a giant whipped cream mustache, I would tell her to put it on my tab and that I would check in tomorrow to see if the pancakes are still good :). What would this diner be called? Sunshine Cafe. And where is it located? North Salt Lake.

The diner only seats about 30 people, but if you have to wait, it is worth it (although it is a little awkward standing to wait for  people to finish eating). Adorned with old diner signs, the cafe feels so small town and homey. How impressive is this... the woman who owns the place cooks everything herself. That is amazing! And she is fast! Our food came out in less than ten minutes.

All I have to say is you have to try the Cinnamon Granola Pancake. This pancake and the Apple Pancake from The Original Pancake House are the two best pancakes I have ever had. The granola is caramelized and warm and soft. ah its so good. Plus, it is only $2.75 for this large pancake. What a steal! It is actually probably a good thing I don't live in North Salt Lake anymore or you would be seeing my face in a plate full of cinnamon granola pancakes every single morning.

I took pictures of their menu for you :)

Sunshine Cafe Hours:

Breakfast and Lunch

Monday Through Saturday

7am-2pm

Sunday

8am-2pm

Location:

20 South Orchard Dr. 

North Salt Lake, Utah 84054

801-936-0915

www.SunshineCafeUtah.com

Oh and if you are wondering about the Apple Pancake at The Original Pancake House... Take a look...

This pancake is a mix of caramelized apples and cinnamon, with egg and pancake. It is absolutely giant. I always feel sick because I cannot stop eating it. By the time I am about to throw up, it doesn't even look like i made a dent. 

It is unreal. 

There are Original Pancake Houses all over the place, Salt Lake City, Denver, Boulder.

Here is where they are located in Salt Lake:

Original Pancake House

790 East 2100 S # 400                                                               Salt Lake City, UT 84106                                                            (801) 484-7200

Roxberry Juice: Salt Lake City

Recently, the new City Creek Mall opened in downtown Salt Lake. I went there the other day with some friends and heard they had a Roxberry Juice.  A friend of mine told me Roxberry had really good "green smoothies". These smoothies are made with spinach and other healthy foods, but supposedly still taste really good. 

So, I while I was at City Creek, some of my friends and I tried a few smoothies. 

The Iron Strong smoothie was my smoothie. It was one of the 'Green Smoothies". Iron strong was a mix of limes, spinach, peach juice, peaches, and mangoes. It was delicious. I couldn't taste the spinach at all. It had a strong lime flavor, which I also loved. Also, the smoothie was a lime green color, which was a lot more appetizing than another green smoothie I saw which was a dark green color. 

Mike got the Original Green Smoothie. I don't have a picture of it, but it was a gross dark green color. The Original Green included spinach, kale, mixed berries, bananas, peaches, and stevia or agave. I tasted this smoothie, but didn't like it as much as mine. It had a blander taste and it had a little bit of a 'leafy' taste to it which I didn't like. However, Mike said that the more he drank of the smoothie, the less he tasted the spinach. If you are going with a green smoothie though, I would try the Iron Strong. You won't be disappointed, unless you don't like limes.

Juss ordered the Pomegranate Perfection smoothie. This wasn't one of the green smoothies, it was an all-fruit smoothie. This smoothie originally has pomegranate juice, strawberries, mangoes, and peaches, but Juss is allergic to mangoes so she asked them to leave those out. This was my favorite smoothie out of the three. It was delicious! Better than any Jamba Juice or Keva Juice smoothie I have ever had. It was very sweet, but not overpowering. It tasted a lot like sherbet. If you have a sweet tooth, this would be a good choice. 

Also: Roxberry also has frozen yogurt if you are not in the mood for a smoothie.

FYI: Because City Creek just opened, the line for Roxberry was pretty long when we got there. However, it moved fast and we didn't have to wait long to get our smoothies. If you stop by City Creek, I would recommend trying one of the green smoothies for an experience. 

Location: Roxberry is located in the food court of City Creek Mall in downtown Salt Lake. The food court is on the East side of the mall. 

If you want to check out the other items on the menu, click on the link below: 

Roxberry Juice Menu

Mi La Cai Noodle House: Salt Lake City

One of my top five places to eat in Salt Lake City is called Mi La Cai Noodle House. It is a Vietnamese restaurant. From the outside, the restaurant doesn't look like much, but the inside is very modern and clean. The food is not only delicious, but the service is great, the portions are large, and it is fairly inexpensive. Mi La Cai won "best Pho" in City Weekly, but my favorite dish is the Pineapple Chicken.

Pineapple Chicken ($7.25):

The Pineapple Chicken dish is for those people who love sweet food with a lot of flavor. It is also healthier because the chicken is not fried. It is chicken with pineapple and bell peppers, covered in a thick red sauce. The sauce reminds me of sweet and sour sauce. The only thing I would change about this dish is that there is too much pineapple in proportion to chicken. If you do not like warm fruit, you probably won't like this meal. 

Shrimp with Cashew Nuts ($9.75):

Shrimp with Cashew Nuts has shrimp, cashews, bell peppers, zucchini, and celery, with a light sauce on top. I wasn't impressed with this dish because it didn't have much flavor. If you are going for a lighter choice, this would work because there is hardly any sauce and there are a lot of vegetables. 

Fried Chicken Noodle Soup ($7.75):

It had a half game hen, which was fried, sitting in chicken broth with egg noodles at the bottom of the bowl. I didn't have the chance to try it, it looked unappetizing to me since there was half a chicken just sitting in the bowl, but my dad said it was pretty good. If you are going for soup, I would get the pho because that is what Mi La Cai is famous for. My favorite is the Chicken Pho.

Don't forget: Try their egg rolls and spring rolls for an appetizer, both are delicious. The spring rolls are wrapped in thin rice paper, which are hard for me to find, usually restaurants fry them. 

Reservations: It would be smart to get a reservation if going on a weekend evening, other than that you should be seated immediately. 

Click here to see the menu: Mi La Cai Menu

Mi La Cai Noodle House
(801) 322-3590
961 South State Street
Salt Lake City, UT 84111
Located in the same parking lot with Auto Zone.