The Echo:

After a late Friday night this past weekend, some friends of mine took me to the Echo in Hyde Park for brunch. I'd read that the Echo served good, home-style food and I was looking forward to going.

We arrived on that Saturday morning and it was very busy. We had a few more people than we originally planned, so we all squeezed together, but no one seemed to really mind. I perused the menu, which consisted of lots of options—breakfast is served all day and it was late enough that some of us were feeling like lunch too.

The plethora of different options made me feel as indecisive as I get at IHOP (seriously, is there anything on that menu that doesn't come with pancakes!?)

I opted for the make your own omelet with goetta, bacon and cheddar. I was actually trying to recreate the best omelet I'd ever had at Chez Nora in Covington. I got home fries as a side and a buttered English muffin.

I was very excited when I got my diet coke, because the Echo has Big Boy style ice—the little crunchy pebble ice that is so much better than boring ice cubes.

Woot!

Another person ordered the chili, which I thought looked good and homemade, and we also got a burger.

I didn't have my nice camera with me, so Iphone pictures will have to suffice. Yes, I was the weird girl taking pictures of her plate in the diner with her phone, asking my very patient brunchmates if I could take pictures of their food.

Burger!

I really enjoyed my English muffin. I like things very nice and toasted (If you ever talk to me, ask me about the time I lit the toaster on fire trying to well-toast my pop tarts), and I found these to be perfect.

The omelet was kind of a letdown for two reasons—all the cheddar was concentrated in the middle! Part of the omelety goodness is the hot melty cheese throughout it.

The second reason was that it wasn't very hot. I think how busy the restaurant got plus our big table order contributed to that, I imagine if you came at a less busy time that would not be the case.

I brought half the omelet home to David and he heated it up later. The goetta in the omelet was cooked just right—some places overcook it and you almost break your teeth on the steel cut oats, other places cut it too thick and it's mushy and yucky in the middle. The bacon was crispy and yummy as well. Like I said, my two complaints were temperature and cheddar placement.

I like the Echo. I think that I'll definitely be back at a less busy time to give it another shot. None of the things that I disliked were deal breakers, and it's inexpensive too! My bill for a diet soda and omelet was 11.85.

They have a wide variety of options and they know how to cook their goetta, which is a plus.