Big Bad Breakfast is a new brunch/ breakfast chain found in many other states that finally made its way here to Arkansas. It is in the same building at David’s Burgers at the Markham and Bowman intersection. There’s a great menu here, so let’s check it out!
ENVIRONMENT
I went with five friends to Big Bad Breakfast at 12:15 on a Saturday. The wait was supposed to be 45 minutes, but it was only 30. The restaurant is a decent size, nothing too big or tiny. There’s a bar, plenty of regular tables, tall tables, and booths. The decor is modern and has a lot of “Cathead” decor. It was nice, but pretty noisy.
MENU
Their menu can be found at their site. I love this menu! It has so many great options to choose from. You can start with one of five cocktails, all featuring Cathead vodka, or some house-blended Big Bad Cold Brews, or fresh squeezed juices. (They have oat and almond milk for a dairy-free option with your coffee). The food has everything from traditional breakfast plates, to eggs benedicts, biscuit sandwiches, omelets, shrimp and grits, french toast, pancakes, waffles, salads, or even granola or oatmeal. Yes, there is also a children’s menu. The most unique dishes to me were the Fried Oyster Scramble and the Fried Oyster Caesar salad. We don’t get a lot of friend oyster dishes here in Little Rock! They also have red eye gravy and tomato gravy.
FOOD/DRINK
Vietnamese Big Bad Cold Brew: $4.75 and a large Fresh Squeezed Grapefruit Juice: $5.50
All of our table got waters, with great “Sonic” ice, I may add! My Vietnamese cold brew was delicious, with just the right amount of sweetened condensed milk so it didn’t taste too sweet. My friend’s large grapefruit juice was tasty, but a little smaller than expected for a large. I never saw a small juice come out of the kitchen to compare.
The Jack Benny: $13
Description: Crispy fried hash cake, two poached eggs, sliced ham, wilted spinach, hollandaise, ham powder, and one side.
I LOVE an eggs benedict. I also love a great hash. This was the perfect breakfast for me! The crispy hash brown cake was crisp on the outside and soft inside, and not too greasy. The eggs were perfectly poached. There was plenty of seared ham and just a little spinach. The hollandaise was very good. I just mixed it all up and it made a very large breakfast. (The plates are huge, making the food look smaller than it was.)
I got to choose one side and after seeing others with these massive biscuits, I had to get one. It was the best biscuit I have had around here. They add ground pepper, which is a nice touch. The buttery crust and flavorful middle made a wonderful biscuit. I hardly needed butter. Get. The. Biscuit.
OVERALL
The service was new, but good! We had a lot of questions that our waitress took the time to check for us. Need examples? We wanted to know if there was dairy in the red eye gravy- there is none except for extra butter they add at the end, and they can leave that out.
The menu has something for everyone- vegetarians, pescatarians, gluten-free, dairy-free. All of the food my table got looked great, was BIG, and very tasty! I will definitely be back the next time I want to treat myself to a big, bad breakfast.
Thanks for the review!
Before Christmas, I would frequent this new restaurant two times a week, but since then, something has really changed. They used to play old standards and quality music, but after Christmas, it turned into modern-day, run-of-the-mill teen music. There has been more turnover in staff and today, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back, so to speak. I ate in the same spot, with the same sever, and it was like I was not even there. Took almost ten minutes to get my check, was hardly waited on, and the food was not good at all. Bacon comes out cold all the time now, and did not even taste like meat. Too often, you will see staff handling trash or cleaning, then go right to handling food without washing hands. The customer base has slowly switched over to nothing but rough-neck types and younger people who look like they have been out all night or up to no good. Unfortunately, this could have been a refreshing alternative to the usual offerings in this city, but it slowly transformed into what it is now…a little creepy, unhappy staff, bad product and miserable atmosphere. Typical for this part of the country and especially for anything that originates in Texas. Will not be back.