De Dutch is a cozy little restaurant hidden in the back behind Hastings Street. It’s only accessible through an alleyway/weird staircase, which made the trip rather exciting for me as it felt like we were visiting an illegal underground pancake house.

After browsing through the entire menu multiple times, I finally decided on the BC bene ($15) garnished with a side of salad (choice between garden salad or fruit). Our server had asked me whether I wanted my bene served on Dutch rusks. She informed me that rusk is a crispy twice baked bread. Curious, I asked whether I could do half of my bene on the rusk and half on the generic english muffin, she graciously said yes. The BC smoked wild salmon on my bene tasted like the Sockeye variety, it was fresh, smokey and not stringy or tough. The fried eggs had perfectly runny yolks and the hollandaise sauce wasn’t too heavy, it was actually rather light and frothy. As for the rusk, it tasted like a crouton. I actually preferred the textural crunch over the usual english muffin. The cute little hash browns that came with my bene didn’t have crispy edges, but surprisingly, I didn’t mind the texture, they were short of being just soft, mushy potatoes.

Sunshine went with the Dutch uitsmijter ($9), an open faced sandwich with egg, ham and edam cheese with a side of hash browns. Sunshine said that the egg, ham and cheese were just on a slice of bread, it wasn’t even buttered or toasted or anything. He said he actually liked it and that it had a homely feel to it, but we both agreed that I could’ve just made that for him in my kitchen.

While De Dutch is actually known for their Dutch pancakes, neither of us felt like having pancakes on this particular visit. Sunshine said that the pannekoeks are almost like a thick crepe, they’re larger and thinner than the American pancakes we’re used to. I might come back to try them sometime

Very delicious! Great comfort food and Dutch done well. Going back for sure.