Zorba’s Restaurant
603 Dale StreetAfter a night in a cheap hotel, what’s better than a cheap and greasy breakfast? We were in a college town, so I knew it shouldn’t be too hard to find a place like that and it only took a quick Google search to come up with a restaurant that fit the bill.
Zorba’s Restaurant is near Illinois State University on Dale Street between the one-way streets of Kingsley and South Main Street. It’s a little hard to find because you can’t really see it from either Kingsley or Main which is probably how you will be getting to the restaurant. There are a couple new development buildings which is where I was looking, but Zorba’s was there long before those buildings were thought of.
We found a parking spot in the small lot behind the restaurant and went inside. We were told we could sit wherever we liked and a waitress followed us with menus. The restaurant is a pretty typical greasy spoon Greek diner. The color scheme is blue and white and the booths are hard and uncomfortable. Perfect after a night of drinking.
We started with drinks then moved on to breakfast once the waitress came back. I sort of lucked out and my typical breakfast option happened to be a special that day. I ordered the Steak & Eggs. The steak is a 6 oz ribeye which I ordered medium. The meat was good, but it was a little fatty and a little on the thin side. Once I cut around a lot of the fat, the steak was pretty good. The eggs I ordered over medium and they came out just a little runny. The plate also came with hash browns and toast. The hash browns were very, very crispy on the top which was delicious, but they were still pretty raw in the middle. I just ate the crispy top part and left the middle potato-y part on my plate.
J was leaning towards a pretty simple omelet until she noticed the specials menu that was on the table. She still stuck with the omelet, but she ordered the special known as the Hawaiian Omelet. The skillet made omelet came with bacon, ham, pineapple, and Swiss cheese. She told me the omelet was delicious, but it was way too big for her. Unfortunately, we still had a long day ahead of us, so there was no way we could take it with us. Her omelet also came with hash browns and toast. The hash browns were similar to mine and she ate them like I did.
For L we ordered off the kids menu and got her favorite breakfast. The #13 is One egg, which we ordered scrambled, hash browns and bacon (or sausage, but we got bacon) plus toast. As usual, L ate almost everything on her plate. She reached right for the bacon and once that was gone, she went for the egg. We also added on an order of pancakes and she devoured them as well.
The bill for breakfast was a little over $20 and it was super quick. We were trying to kill about an hour before our next stop, but breakfast barely took 20 minutes. The food came out before we could even get settled after ordering and it was exactly what I was looking for in a small college town Greek diner.
Steak & Eggs
Hawaiian Omelet
#13 Egg, Hash Brown, and Bacon w/Pancakes
SW Michigan Dining 