Even though I claim to not like food, if I could, I would eat breakfast food for every meal of every day, for the rest of my life. Pancakes, bacon, french toast, waffles, eggs, syrup, breakfast sausage, all of that deliciously sweet breakfast food would rank extremely high on the short list of my favorite foods. And all of those foods are actually some of the only foods I know how to cook with some decency, which also helps me to enjoy them more knowing that I can just make it for myself at home.
But sometimes you don’t want to spend the time cooking and cleaning, or you’re on vacation, and you just want to let someone else do it for you. And I’ll admit, sometimes I feel absolutely stupid for paying $10-12 for a plate with a couple eggs, a couple pieces of bacon and some toast on it, but at the same time, I like being waited on and not having to do any of the work.
That’s why it’s nice to go out to breakfast sometimes. I could also do some meal prep and cook it all ahead of time, but that seems like a lot of work.
Sweet Sage Cafe
The Sweet Sage Cafe is located right on Gulf Blvd. within walking distance of the condo we were staying at, which made it extremely convenient to get to. In addition to the cafe there is a small boutique on the other side of the building, which is mainly women’s clothing it seemed. We walked in and walked out after eating, but it’s worth a walk through, you never know what might stand out to you.
But we’re not here to talk about the boutique, we’re here to talk about the food and the cafe. The cafe itself is actually pretty small. I’m not sure how busy the restaurant gets on a regular basis, but we were there on a Thursday morning and there were still seats available in the inside dining area.
They do have a patio though, but it had been pretty overcast and actually rained slightly that morning, so we decided not to chance it, and stayed inside. There’s nothing worse than sitting outside to eat and getting rained on… except sitting outside to eat with kids, and getting rained on. So it definitely was not worth the risk, especially when one of our kids was already annoyed at his life.
The dining room area seemed to be split on either side of the restaurant with the check-in counter/gift shop being in the middle, with the decor from the gift shop spilling over into the dining areas. We sat in the area off to the right, closest to the kitchen. An area that could seat maybe 16 people total. We had a table for six, there was a four-top, and then two or three two-tops along the windows. So the dining area is not very large.
In addition to that, I believe that our server was also one of the cooks, but I’m not 100% sure, and honestly it didn’t really make a difference. He promptly took our order, fulfilled all of our requests, and got our food out to us extremely fast.
The Food
The menu at the Sweet Sage Cafe has all your typical breakfast items on it: eggs, bacon, french toast, crepes, waffles and more. The only thing I was disappointed about not seeing on the menu was regular pancakes, and I think my daughter was a little disappointed too. Personally, I don’t mind thinner pancakes, but she wanted actual pancakes and when the petite Swedish pancakes came out, that looked more like thin crepes than pancakes, she seemed a bit confused. Not the end of the world though, she still ate them and I’m sure they were fine.
As for my food, I went with the “How’s Your Two, Two?”, which doesn’t seem to be on their online menu, but it was definitely on the menu in the restaurant. It consists of two eggs, two pieces of bacon or sausage, and 2 pieces of french toast. I also got a side of hash browns, because I f—n love hash browns.
I will say, I probably should have gotten the “4×4”, which is 4 pieces of everything instead of 2, but the food itself was still pretty good, for the most part.
I was definitely disappointed with the french toast triangles. They were pretty small and they were, for lack of a better term, kind of hard. Not like crunchy or crispy hard, but like doughy and tough… if that makes sense. Normally when I have french toast, they are sort of fluffy and kind of just fall apart on your fork after they are covered in butter and syrup, but these did not. I’m not sure if it’s the type of bread they use or if they weren’t soaked enough in the egg wash, or what, but they were disappointing.
The eggs, over-easy, were cooked as expected and tasted great. And the bacon was absolutely delicious. Perfectly crispy, cooked to perfection, just the way I like it. I hate it when my bacon flops around when you pick it up.
And as for the hash browns, again, delicious. Just the right amount of crispiness on the outside, with warm soft potatoes on the inside, not to mention a perfect portion size for a side dish.
Breakfast food is pretty hard to mess up on a basic level. And while I enjoyed the majority of what was on my plate, I can’t help but be reminded of the bad taste those pieces of french toast left in my mouth. But that wouldn’t be enough for me to not make another visit to the Sweet Sage Cafe the next time we’re in Redington Beach.
I believe the rest of our party really enjoyed their food as well, but of course I’m having a terrible time remembering what everyone ordered.
I believe my wife got the breakfast wrap, which she was able to eat half of before our 8-month old threw a fit and we had to take turns walking him around to look at all the little tchotchkes around the cafe in order to calm him down. And speaking of the decor of the restaurant, I thought it was really cool that they had a little corner of the dining room dedicated to the history of Redington Beach and growing up there. It’s interesting to see photos of what it used to look like compared to what it looks like now.
But anyways, back to the food.
Even though she only got to eat half of the breakfast wrap, my wife seemed to enjoy it enough. I mean, enough to take the other half back to the condo with us, which she ate later. So it couldn’t have been that bad.
My sister in-law also ordered something that escapes me, but she did snap a photo of it for me. I believe it might have been the “Black and Blue Scramble”, which consists of eggs, roast beef, mushrooms, bleu cheese, a side of grits and a biscuit.
I think everyone really enjoyed their food and was happy to find a breakfast place so close to the condo. I think we’ll definitely be back in the future when we come back down to Florida. But if you’re in the Redington Beach area now, I would recommend giving the Sweet Sage Cafe a try if you’re looking for some great breakfast food. If seafood is more your thing though, you might want to check out Crabby Bill’s instead.
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