We went to a new restaurant yesterday for brunch. Like most brunch spots, the menu was familiar – the California omelette, the huevos rancheros, the home fries, etc. Unlike lunch or dinner, brunch seems to be oddly familiar from restaurant to restaurant.

However, taste can vary widely.

This place was just “meh”. It looked just as delicious as the same items a couple nearby places we frequent, but those places are markedly better. The California omelette at one place just tastes a lot better at one place than another.

I’m wondering, since, again, they looked the same, was it:

1. the quality of ingredients?

2. some missing “special sauce” ingredient in one place and not in the other?

3. some special technique for scrambling eggs or frying potatoes that makes them extra tasty?

I couldn’t discern any lack of quality or omission but maybe there’s something more subtle at work.

My suspicion is that #1 is the case for at least the pancakes (which we didn’t have); we walked past a huge box of Bisquik on our way out.