Whisk and Skillet, a daytime eatery located in Strawberry, opened on Feb. 15. The new spot serves breakfast and lunch until 4 p.m., providing a high quality and nutritious meal available beyond typical breakfast hours.
The new addition to Strawberry mall is founded by Norman Lou, who is the owner of Marin’s popular Asian cuisine restaurant, Harmony. Serving mainly traditional American breakfast meals, Whisk and Skillet offers an alternative menu to Lou’s asian-style restaurant.
Whisk and Skillet has a modern cafe vibe that almost all other breakfast places lack, with an overall aesthetically pleasing look. The dining room featured sleek wooden tables topped with glass vases, wide windows and contemporary architecture. Whisk and Skillet also offers an outside eating area, with the same wooden tables scattered around a courtyard.
The restaurant provides a plethora of healthy, sustainable food choices made from natural, organic and locally-grown ingredients. Similar to restaurants like Rustic Bakery, Whisk and Skillet has over-the-counter food service. A series of premade dishes and pastries are offered next to the order counter, providing to-go options.
One of Whisk and Skillet’s best dishes is the sweet crepe, priced at $11. The crepe was thicker than a more traditional crepe, but provided more substance to the meal, leaving me full and satisfied. However, its heavy texture took away from some of the more flavorful ingredients. Inside, the crepe is packed with organic strawberries and bananas, slathered in thick layers of Nutella, and topped with frothy whipped cream and powdered sugar. The dish was rather small for its price and wasn’t an authentic French crepe, but it served as a sweet breakfast option that you won’t find in other restaurants around Marin.
For a more savory dish, the huevos rancheros are offered for a pricey $12. The over-medium egg is displayed elegantly over lightly melted cheese, tortilla and black beans, and topped with pico de gallo and sour cream with skillet potatoes on the side. The dish entails a variety of flavors, as the more subtle tastes coming from the egg and tortilla were combated by the zest of the pico de gallo and sour cream. The huevos rancheros was the perfect size to satisfy an empty stomach.
For lunch, the Chinese chicken salad provides a classic taste, but the dressing lacked some flavor that other restaurants provide with their salad options. Although priced rather fairly at $10.50, the healthy dish could have used a greater variety of tastes, using more stimulating ingredients to add something unique to their version of the salad.
Whisk and Skillet offers a variety of beverages from coffees to juices. A popular choice was the freshly-squeezed orange juice. The drink was rich in flavor and thick with pulp, and paired perfectly with the huevos rancheros. However, it came in a very small quantity, enough to finish before the meal even came, at a pricey $4. The vanilla latte ($3.95) is beautifully displayed with an intricate design on top of the foam and it’s size is much larger than the orange juice. For those who enjoy a sweeter taste, add a packet of sugar to create a delicious beverage that lasts an entire meal.
Whisk and Skillet went above and beyond expectations in terms of flavor. However, its prices should be taken into consideration by customers, so before eating at Strawberry Mall’s newest addition, ask yourself if it’s worth the cost.
