FARMERS RESTAURANT

Everything about the Farmers Restaurant screams the Midwest. With portions larger than any human should eat in one sitting, you know that you couldn't be anywhere else. The restaurant offers omelettes, eggs, sausage, ham, bacon, corned beef, turkey, strip steak, pancakes, french toast and house made polish sausage along with your choice of grits, or potatoes.

The setting is a minimalist environment where the food speaks for itself. The restaurant opens at 5:00 AM for the Eastern Market early birds and breakfast is served until closing around 3:00 PM. This is in contrast to Russell Street Deli which only serves breakfast on the weekends, and Butchers Inn which only has breakfast until 11:00 AM.

Omelettes range from vegetarian to filled with gyro meat. You can order eggs, pancakes, or french toast, paired with any meat under the sun. Lunch is available as well, including corned beef sandwiches, tuna, hamburgers, pitas and salads.

I ordered corned beef hash which looked as if it came fresh from the farm...and it might have. The potatoes were piled high, mixed with corned beef and onions, and topped off with two eggs cooked over medium. The hash wasn't the kind where the potatoes and corned beef are mixed together looking like they just came out of a blender. That's a good thing.

Unfortunately though, the corned beef to potato ratio wasn't appropriate, and while I almost never leave food on a plate, the potatoes proved to be too much for me to finish. The portion was huge and I would either add more corned beef to the dish or pare down the potatoes. Seriously, no one needs to eat that many potatoes in one sitting.

The inordinate amount of potatoes on my plate didn't give me the best first impression, but I couldn't help but notice the man next to me with his family eating the "Farmer's Special." Consisting of 2 eggs, ham, bacon, AND sausage along with hash browns and toast, the "Farmer's Special" was the biggest plate of food I've ever seen, and while I could feel my arteries clogging just looking at it, the food looked amazing. In the future, that's what I'm ordering.

On another note, with any egg selection you are given the choice between having potatoes or grits. Not enough breakfast places offer grits and it's definitely something to think about when deciding where to eat breakfast.

The next time I go to Eastern Market on a Saturday and I want corned beef hash, I probably will forego Farmers Restaurant and head to Russell Street Deli. No one could have fresher ingredients than Farmers Restaurant though. While Russell Street's corned beef hash can't be beat, if you want a huge, hearty, wholesome, no frills meal, Farmers Restaurant should be your choice.

Below are photographs from Farmers Restaurant. A link to the complete Farmers Restaurant flickr set can be found here





Farmers Restaurant
2542 Market
Detroit, MI 48207
313-259-8230

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