Ted & Marie’s Colonial Inn

• >6416 Stadium Drive
• Kalamazoo, MI 49077
• (269) 375-1057
• No Known Website
• Menu

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, right?

Yeah….well, I skip it most mornings. I grab a bottle of Pepsi for a pick me up then head in to work. Maybe I’ll grab a Little Debbie Double Fudge Round, but that’s usually the extent of my breakfast on a weekday.

There are a few restaurants that I haven’t been to in a really long time that I’ve been wanting to get back to and write an updated blog about.

I had some time one day last week before work so I did just that.

Ted & Marie’s Colonial Inn is on Stadium Drive in Oshtemo Township at that weird intersection where Stadium meets Parkview. The small restaurant is right up against the road in the Harding’s parking lot. The blue building with the black roof is hard not to see when you’re sitting at that stoplight.

Like I mentioned, this is one of the restaurants I wanted to go back to. J and I last stopped in to this restaurant 14 years ago for lunch when we didn’t even live in Oshtemo Township. We moved in to the Township later in 2010 and we’ve never gone back. We do breakfast across the street at LaRue’s Family Restaurant from time to time (another one I need to do an updated blog on) but I don’t think Ted & Marie’s has ever been on our radar.

Ted & Marie’s is a classic breakfast/lunch diner. The restaurant has been around since the early 1970’s and they likely haven’t changed much over the last 50 years.

There was quite a few people when I walked in for breakfast around 9:00. There was no sign to wait so I headed towards the back of the restaurant and found an empty booth. The restaurant is very simple and very wide open. There are booths along the wall and four top tables in the space between them. There’s not much on the walls as far as decor as it’s all very neutral in the glow of flourescent lights and natural light coming in from the many windows that surround the building. A waitress came over a few minutes later with a menu and a glass of water.

The menu is simple. There’s nothing fancy. It’s pretty much, eggs, pancakes, and potatoes with a few other things thrown in. This isn’t the kind of restaurant you’re going to get fancy French Toast…but it is the kind of place you’re going to get a good hearty breakfast and not break the bank.

I ordered the Sizzler Steak with two eggs, and potatoes. I ordered the steak medium, the eggs over medium, and the potatoes as American fries. It’s easily the most expensive thing on the menu at just $15.40, but it was the special that day so I got even a few bucks cheaper.

I started with the eggs because they were covering pretty much everything on the plate. The eggs were eggs. Nothing out of the ordinary. There was some hot sauce on the table so I loaded the eggs up with that before moving on to the American fries.

The potatoes were sliced thin and fried on the flat top. The top layer had amazing golden brown crispiness to them. As I got further from the top, they lost some of the crispiness and were much more potato-y tasting. The top layer was super delicious. The middle layer good but I also threw some hot sauce on them to give them a little flavor. I’m a big crispy all the way through kind of guy.

The steak was a 7 oz Sizzler Steak. It was a thick piece of meat with a salt and peppery outside crust and a pink and juicy middle. I’m not a person who uses steak sauce so I just ignored the bottle sitting on the table. I don’t expect a lot from steak for breakfast. I just want a decent, tender piece of meat with a great sear from the flat top. This piece of meat hit all those check boxes.

I finished off the meal with two slices of toast. I kept it simple with white toast. Again, nothing fancy but a great palate cleanser. There was jelly and jam on the table but I’m good with just some melted butter.

The cost of my meal, since it was a special, was less than $15. Ted & Marie’s is a cash only place and there’s no ATM inside so you need to come prepared. There’s a cash register right at the entrance so you pay on the way out.

I love the simple breakfast places like this. Ted & Marie’s Colonial Inn has been around a long time for a reason. It’s not one of those fancy breakfast places with a six page menu. They keep it simple and keep it cost friendly. There are not many places you can still grab a meal for less than $10 a person. Ted & Marie’s is on of those places.