I spent this past weekend in Sonoma wine tasting and doing fun touristy things in San Francisco. While in Sonoma, I stayed at the beautiful Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn and Spa. It is a gorgeous resort with a top notch spa – though I would say my favourite spa is still the Grotto Spa (#1 Spa in Western Canada) on Vancouver Island. Normally, when I am travelling, I am not a fan of visiting hotel/resort restaurants. I rather go try something local and adventurous. However, we had booked the trip with the spa package special which included a breakfast credit, so we visited their breakfast and lunch restaurant called The Big 3. I am so glad we went! The Big 3 actually boasts an extensive menu for a hotel breakfast restaurant and when I first walked in, they even had an assortment of chocolates and macroons for sale as well. I had ambitions to try them on the way out but was so full after my meal I didn’t get to! When we first arrived, we were immediately greeted with prompt and friendly service and offered fresh squeezed orange juice and coffee. The coffee was heaven after driving in at 11:30pm the night before. The prices here aren’t the cheapest but it’s what you would expect from a hotel restaurant. They do have good portions and for what’s it’s worth, they use organic eggs in all their egg dishes. I was all set to try their “Dungeness Crab Benedict” –  $20 USD but their special sounded too amazing to pass up. It was a breakfast burrito with bacon, eggs, tomatoes, spinach, jack cheese with chilaquile sauce on top for $16 USD. It also came with breakfast potatoes. We also ordered a side of their ‘famous’ lemon ricotta pancakes because…it sounded amazing. They are $12 USD for two pieces or $16 USD for three pieces.

The burrito was delicious! The chilaquile sauce was flavourful and the eggs, bacon and melted cheese worked so well together. They did not skimp on the cheese and bacon either so every bite was gooey and flavourful. The tortilla was also fresh and chewy, and just plain good. Sometimes for breakfast burritos, restaurants use wraps/tortilla that aren’t that tend to be dry (maybe stale or old tortillas?), so I always just end up eating the inside of the burrito halfway through and leaving half the tortilla. Here, I totally ate the whole thing including the tortilla! The salsa, sour cream and guacamole was fresh as well. It all worked well together. The best thing was the lemon ricotta pancakes though. You have to get the pancakes. It came with syrup, crème fraîche and butter and it’s one the best pancakes I have had in forever. The lemon flavour is amazing: not fake lemony, not too tart, just perfect. It’s kind of like a lemon bar in pancake form. It was so yummy that I forgot to take the photo! Here is a photo of plate after I was done with it though :P

The only complaint I had at this meal? The potatoes with the breakfast burrito were…meh. I found them kind of soggy and oily. I prefer my breakfast potatoes more crispy. If I were to do it again, I’d opt for a side of fruit instead, though they do charge you extra for it. All in all, a pleasant surprise in Sonoma. Would I have liked to have found a hole in the wall to tell you about? Yes. Do I regret finding these amazing pancakes? Hells, to the nos!

The Fairmont Sonoma is located at:

100 Boyes Blvd.

Sonoma California, United States

95476

They can be found on Twitter @fairmontsonoma.