Here’s the second week in a row with a hip hit in Lawrenceville. It was 9 a.m. on Monday when I visited Lola’s Eatery.
“LOLA” stands for Lower Lawrenceville – where the restaurant is located – and translates to “grandmother” in Filipino. The eatery not only offers Filipino and Mexican-influenced dishes, but also offers some baked goods, including fresh-baked bagels, customized cakes and donuts. However, I didn’t end up ordering these additional items.
Upon entering, there was a bar with a wooden top to the left and to the right there were several tall chairs and tables. Closer to the back, there is a long bench with a purple cushion covering it, a chair across from it upholstered with yellow fabric and a table placed between the two.
Lola’s is yet another Pittsburgh restaurant that provides its water in a full glass bottle instead of pouring it from a pitcher. Is that a norm in Pittsburgh? Or everywhere?
I only noticed the bottle at a table across from me, as I did a take-out order. After all, I was in a time crunch to make it to my internship. This is also how I found out that take out orders have an auto gratuity set at 18% and an additional charge of 50 cents. This latter charge is likely to cover the cost of to-go boxes.
And on Lola’s menu, which has a similar shade of yellow as the wall paint, it said, “Modification will be politely declined. While [modifications and substitutions] may seem easy to accommodate, it drastically affects the efficiency of our service.”
Perhaps the modifications don’t only affect their service’s efficiency — the head chef wants each customer to taste his dishes as they were intended.
It was $14 for a bowl of rice with spam, the Spam n’at comes with two dippy eggs and a tomato and onion mix.
It should not have cost that much. Actually, the other dish I ordered should not have cost $16 either. While every egg should be treated as though it was laid by a golden goose, spam isn’t that expensive.
And yet, it was delicious. Maybe it was worth every penny.
The egg’s vibrant yellow color spilled out into the rice and the vegetable mixture consequently affected the yolk’s flavor. The effect was positive, of course, with green onion and the sweet tang of small cubed tomatoes accompanying the yolk.
The rice was cooked to perfection. It wasn’t too hard or too wet, and my cardboard to-go container sitting on the counter kept on beckoning me to eat more. The spam was crispy and excellent.
The expensive breakfast sandwich, titled Taylor Gang, accomplished everything that other restaurants can only dream of cooking up. From bottom to top, the sandwiches layers were: sauce, ham, egg, cheese, ham, egg and cheese. This combination allowed the egg yolk to remain in a gel state instead of completely solidifying.
The everything bagel it came on, which had to be made in-house, was fresh, chewy, doughy and delicious.
This is the best way and only way that anyone should be eating their eggs.
For an additional $3 you can add home fries too. They were a bit darker than preferable, but were soft and crispy nonetheless.
Even the latte, which I added caramel syrup to for 75 cents, was frothy and mildly sweet. Far better than the slightly bitter coffees that I’ve been forcing myself to drink at these breakfast cafes for the past semester.
And best of all, this incredible coffee cost just $5.50 without the addition of caramel syrup. Still, $6.25 is not a big price to pay for what might be one of the best coffees you will ever drink. Seriously, try this coffee. You will not regret it. Its balance between sweet and bitter is unmatched.
Last on the menu were two breakfast egg rolls for $7. The inside was filled with chorizo, scrambled eggs, peppers, onions and cheddar with sriracha aioli.
After a few crispy bites, the bottom of the eggroll couldn’t take the filling’s pressure as it began to ooze out. The flavor of the filling had a consistent texture, and it was like one entity of flavored, eggy meat that had zesty notes. Of course, there was also a small spiced tang from the sriracha.
These two egg rolls could be eaten as a meal on their own.
Perhaps one morning, if you feel like you’re in the mood to splurge and eat some really tasty breakfast and coffee, you should visit Lola’s Eatery in Lower Lawrenceville.
And since the location doubles as a bar, which is a little weird since it closes at 2 p.m., try a mid afternoon or morning glass of wine. Let me know how it goes.
