Thanks for stopping to read this food blog, mmm-yoso!!!. Cathy is writing today, while Kirk and His Missus are 'vacationing' and celebrating the long Labor Day weekend.
The Mister and I drive to Carlsbad every so often just to enjoy a nice meal and pick up some German and/or European treats to enjoy at home. OK, we stop here a lot. This post, from two years ago, has links to my other five posts in the top paragraph. (Yes, seven posts in 13 years is a lot for one restaurant, but it is just so good). Breakfast can be glorious here. The Big John (still $7.98) includes toast, herb-y home fried potatoes, three eggs (any style) and *all you can eat meat*. Except bacon. You can only order bacon once, at the first order. People abused the privilege and now everyone must suffer. Pictured here is bacon and bratwurst. There is a house made breakfast sausage, kielbasa and ham also available as part of your meat selection. There are photos of Big John meats on the other posts; things here don't change.
The European Continental Breakfast ($8.99) is always interesting. First, I crave the bread rolls (which you can purchase in the Deli section for 50¢ each), the Swiss cheese is thick sliced (creamy/buttery soft and a slight nutty flavor) then the meats which are on the plate are always varied. This day, there were two slices of six different lunchmeats (including braunschweiger(!), two salamis, a mild headcheese, veal bologna and thick slices of Black Forest ham). To me, this is a perfect breakfast.
Eggs Benedict ($8.98) House made hollandaise (not very lemony at all) (compared to the hollandaise made at Costa's in West Covina). Perfectly poached eggs on top of a quality (thicker than usual) toasted English muffin and served with the home fries (potatoes and herbs-nice).
Meat Lovers Omelet ($8.99) Choice of two breakfast meats, three eggs.
Ham and bacon were the two chosen meats. There was more of that than egg or cheese wrapped in the eggs.
On some weekdays, we drive up for lunch.
Smoked pork chops with both (sweet red and sour white) krauts, mashed potato and beef barley soup ($11.49). Thick, lean, smoked in-house chops. When we left, we purchased more in the market for an at-home feast. The soups here are, of course, house made; thick, flavorful and really wonderful.
Beef steak sandwich (from the hot sandwiches menu) on marble rye toast and a side of Cole slaw ($8.99). Oh my. I've never ordered the Big John cheeseburger here; thought it would be 'average. So wrong...this was a perfect medium rare cook of wonderful flavorful beef. The other hot sandwiches as well as cold sandwiches are flavorful, fresh made, quite large and make a wonderful meal.
I hope you are having (or had) a wonderful Labor Day celebration!
Tip Top Meats 6118 Paseo Del Norte Carlsbad, CA 92011 (760) 438-2620 Open daily 6 a.m.-8 p.m.
For the Big John breakfast, you can order double bacon that first round. Then, only other meats for your other plates. Tip from my friend Superman who utilizes this method.
Prices are great here and we like that the meats are smoked/made in house.
Posted by: caninecologne | Monday, 02 September 2019 at 08:06 PM
bummer only one order of bacon...still that is a lot of different meats!
Posted by: kat | Monday, 02 September 2019 at 08:25 PM
Oh gosh, doing that would be wonderful, cc! Then again, pretty much every meat and sausage made here is really good. Tip Top purchases FFA and 4H animals from the County Fair each year; part of the Community.
Great selections here, Kat. Good breakfast selections as well as lunch and dinner items. Even a simple cold sandwich is quality.
Posted by: Cathy | Tuesday, 03 September 2019 at 06:01 AM
Tip top sure has some good tasting meat!
Posted by: Soo | Wednesday, 04 September 2019 at 08:44 AM
Everything from Tip Top is great, Soo. It reminds my of my old Polish neighborhood in Detroit-a bakery, bar and/or meat store (with a smoker in back) on every other corner. (Factoid: on one corner, there was a tailor, a small grocer and a bakery as well as a bar and the bar was named Tip Top).
Posted by: Cathy | Wednesday, 04 September 2019 at 11:28 AM