Yoinks!
Jinky’s is no breakfast in bed, but you get fewer crumbs on the pillow
By Richard Foss
“Better Than Breakfast in Bed,” announced the bright letters on the sign at Jinky’s in Sherman Oaks. Really? I wondered. In what way? In bed I can eat while lying down, listening to the radio, and cuddled up to my wife. I’d like to see Jinky’s beat that.
I went in for breakfast in a skeptical mood, but the “Yucatan quesadilla” of chorizo, mozzarella and cheddar cheeses, green onions, and mushrooms was pretty darn good. At $10.95 it was a bit overpriced, but the service was attentive and my coffee cup never ran dry. It was definitely a better breakfast than I usually get in bed, since I usually wake up first and make it for everyone else.
I liked Jinky’s enough that when friends were driving into town, I arranged to meet them there. We met in the early afternoon, when the restaurant was half-empty, and I looked forward to introducing them to a great new place. As usual when you want to impress friends with a find, the experience was almost completely different. We were seated by a server who brought water and then disappeared for 20 minutes – apparently she was taking a break, and thought that the other server knew that we were her responsibility. She didn’t, and after sitting without menus for a long time while making polite hand-waving motions, we got up and asked for them. It was still a while before we got our iced teas and coffee.
Both the menu and the chalkboard on the wall were touting the homemade chili, and when I expressed interest the waitress offered me tastes of any two. I picked the available ones rated hottest, a “Baja” chili rated 6 on a scale of 10 and a hickory chili that was rated at 4. (Two others were available, rated at 3 and 2.) The Baja chili was still tame by my standards, a decent but not outstanding stew with a strong flavor of tomato. The beanless hickory chili was a little more interesting thanks to the smoky flavor, but it was smoke from a bottle rather than the deep flavor you get when you use bacon or heavy Texas brisket in your chili.
We ordered a tandoori chicken sandwich with mango chutney ($10.50), a “sunrise scramble” ($10.50) of egg whites, salsa, chicken breast, and mushrooms, and a chicken and spinach quesadilla ($12.95) that was made with boursin cheese. Boursin is a rather strange cheese for this purpose – it’s similar to a cream cheese rather than the usual mozzarella-like queso de Oaxaca. Even more unusually, the cheese was used so sparingly that this quesadilla tasted mainly of spinach and chicken breast. To make a quesadilla with French cheese isn’t a bad idea – I’ve had good ones with brie – but this combination? Quelle “eh.”
The best meal of the day was the tandoori chicken sandwich – a mild but flavorful grilled breast that had been marinated with Indian spices and put on a bun with mango salsa and the usual burger accompaniments of lettuce, tomato, and onion standing by. This item should be a fast-food hit, sweetness and savory spiciness working together perfectly, a great though slightly messy sandwich. The available sides were a salad, fries, or onion rings – frozen rather than made in-house, but I ordered rings anyway. They were crisp, but that’s all.
The sunrise scramble arrived with a thick coating of salsa that contained bell pepper, despite the fact that the person who had ordered it specifically requested no peppers. Our server at first insisted that there was no pepper in the salsa, but after a few moments she went to the kitchen and got another scramble made in short order. This one was good but not exceptional, with decent home fries on the side.
We decided not to have dessert, as the slow service had made us late for other appointments. Meanwhile, I’m still waiting for better than breakfast in bed.
Jinky’s, 14120 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, (818) 981-2250. Other branches in Santa Monica and West Hollywood. Open daily, 7:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m., small parking lot or street parking, wheelchair access OK.
Published: 05/28/2008
DIGG | del.icio.us | REDDIT
