Quintessence – Albany, NY

Cassie and I had company in the form of Humberto Martinez in town this past Monday, so we wanted to start the day off with a nice breakfast. Miss Albany Diner was unanimously the first choice, but being that it was Monday, they were closed.

Hoping for a similar experience, we decided to try Quintessence which is located at 11 New Scotland near Albany Medical Center. None of us have had any experiences with this establishment.

The menu is somewhat standard and, although it tries, it lacks the originality of some of the items on the Miss Albany Diner menu. Cassie decided on The New Englander, which is basically Eggs Benedict hold the Hollandaise and add Vermont cheddar cheese. Humberto had a short stack of pancakes with bacon. I settled on one of my personal favorites, scrambled eggs over corned beef hash with home fries and rye toast.

My corned beef hash was decent. It was definitely homemade, which I enjoyed. My eggs were cooked well. The rye toast was toasted and buttered nicely. The hash browns left a little to be desired, but, by the time I was done with the hash and eggs, I was full enough to let the hash browns go.

Cassie’s meal was presented very nicely, and Humberto’s pancakes were nice and thick. The bacon he was served was sliced very thick and obviously cooked to order (he also shared some with me, and it was delicious!).

The service was wonderful. Being that we were the only customers there (for the most part), our waitress was very attentive and receptive to all of our needs at any point.

All in all, I’d say Quintessence provided a nice breakfast for us that day, and any negativity that comes through in my writing of this review can be attributed to having our hearts set on Miss Albany Diner.