SCENIC coffee + brunch (Brunch inside Initium)

SCENIC coffee + brunch located at 8241 Woodbine Ave. Unit #7 in Markham

June 3, 2019: Here is another new-ish restaurant that serves brunch in Markham! SCENIC coffee + brunch is located inside Initium Salon. The salon is located on Woodbine Avenue but nestled inside a row of plazas (near the Costco) that you cannot drive into from Woodbine Avenue itself. You have to drive on the road behind the plaza (Bodrington Court) to get there. It’s best to use your GPS to guide you there (unless you are good at remembering roads and maps, which I think most people nowadays are not :P). As per their website, they serve “classic brunch staples with a contemporary Japanese flare.”

SCENIC coffee + brunch storefront

I was the first one here at a little after 9:30 a.m. on a Monday as me and my friends were all off from work on this day. The cafe was an airy and open space right inside the Initium hair salon. In fact, as I was waiting there, a lot of people arrived for early morning haircuts.

View from my seat

Woodsy feel

Upon showing me a table, the server also gave me a drinks menu to look over. Their brunch food menu was actually on a chalkboard on the side of the room. I walked up to it to take a photo.

Drinks menu

Chalkboard brunch menu

When the rest of my friends arrived, they placed their drink orders (they have a good selection of coffee and drinks) and then our food orders with the server. They have a couple of nice food items that I was curious about like the Sesame French Toast, Yuzu Eggs Benedict, and Tamago Omelette.

Drinks:

Sesame Latte. $5

Lavender Oat Latte. $6

I tried a bite of the Sesame French Toast, and it was definitely a one-of-a-kind French toast I’ve never had before. It was a generous portion too and presented so nicely. The sesame spread inside of the French toast was unique.

Sesame French Toast. $14

Yuzu Eggs Benedict. $14.50
-with spam +$1

I ordered the Yuzu Eggs Benedict with spam (you can also get it with ham or halloumi — I was actually curious about the halloumi but felt like eating spam on this day).

The Yuzu Eggs Benedict had homemade butter biscuit topped with radish sprouts, onsen egg, and yuzu Hollandaise sauce, served with house salad and ponzu dressing. (The addition of spam, ham, or halloumi is an extra $1.)

I really liked the crispy butter biscuit that the eggs were on top of. The spam was a bit thinner than I expected (I was imagining the thick greasy types that you get out of cans). The highlight was the onsen egg which was super smooth and silky. It was funny though because it was so smooth and runny that both yolks actually slid off of the biscuit as I was trying to eat it. The yuzu Hollandaise sauce was slighty tangy, which helped the keep the dish light.

The Scenic: Milk bread or butter biscuit, two eggs of your choice, pan fried spam (or change to halloumi for $1), served with house salad and a ponzu dressing.

The Scenic. $12.50

Yuzu Eggs Benedict with halloumi:

Yuzu Eggs Benedict. $14.50 -with halloumi +$1

The number of customers picked up as we dined in, but at the time I thought Scenic was still a bit of a hidden brunch cafe (I’m sure its existence has became more widespread now). It’s a good quiet place for brunch and for catching up with friends.