Restaurant Reivew
Brandy's Restaurant
Brandy's Restaurant is a Flagstaff favorite that has been serving both locals & visitors home-style breakfast and lunch entrees in a casual setting for over 20 years.
The restaurant has won many awards over the years and was even featured on Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.
I decided to check Brandy's out after finding out that they now offer gluten-free bread with their breakfast and lunch dishes, therefore, making it more accessible to everyone.
Food
Everything at Brandy's is made from scratch including daily soups, pancakes, quiche, pastries, and bagels. They use ingredients from many local companies including Firecreek Coffee Company, Flagstaff Farmers Market, and Hickman's Family Farms.
Brandy's offers a full espresso menu, which is a nice find for a family restaurant as most only offer regular or decaf coffee. Beans from local roaster Firecreek are used for all drinks.
The breakfast menu at Brandy's features standard dishes like omelets, pancakes, French Toast, Steak and Eggs, and Quiche. One of the highlights of the menu is a Vegetable Garden Eggs dish, which includes the chef's choice of 3 vegetables (changes daily), served alongside an English muffin, Buttermilk pancakes, or country potatoes.
There are many gluten-free choices on the menu including French Toast, breakfast toast, and bread for the lunch sandwiches. In addition, we were told that the hand cut fries are gluten-free as well.
The lunch menu is even better, with plenty of choices for gluten-free and vegetarian diners. On the menu, you will find typical family restaurant offerings like sandwiches, salads, and burgers.
Whether you feel like a French Dip sandwich, a basic American burger, or a Grilled Salmon sandwich, you will find all these traditional favorites and more at Brandy's.
A great vegetarian find, the Veggie Deluxe sandwich, was a tasty combo of sprouts, tomato, onion, cucumber, carrots, avocado, mayo, and your choice of cheese (I replaced the cheese with olives to make it dairy-free).
The only disappointment was the price (for $6 plus the additional $1 for the gluten-free, you would think it would be served with fries instead of a simple pickle). Despite having to order the fries separately, we were pleased with the lunch. The homemade fries were absolutely delicious and a pretty large serving, and definitely big enough for 2-3 people.
The West Coast Chicken Breast sandwich (grilled chicken, sprouts, avocado, lettuce, onions, mayo, and cheese) is another fresh lunch choice that can easily be made gluten and/or dairy free.
Combining the sandwich with the large order of fries, we left full and satisfied with the meal.
Service
Service at Brandy's was very friendly, an unusual find in Flagstaff, and probably the best service experienced to date. Our waiter had no problem whatsoever with making substitutions and checking into ingredients to see if gluten/dairy was in the questioned dish.
In addition, drinks were constantly refilled, food was served hot and decently fast, and the bill was brought over quickly.
Atmosphere
Brandy's is a typical family style restaurant, with a more local homestyle vibe that most of the restaurants in this town are lacking. On the downside, the decor is a bit lacking due to the small, cramped setting. There are way too many tables cramped together for such a small space.
The local art is nice, although a little more effort could have been put into the overall design to create a more attractive dining setting.
Final Remarks
Overall, Brandy's was a nice local find for lunch, away from the crowds downtown and the chains dominating Milton Road. Food is good and reasonably priced, service is great, and the addition of new gluten-free options opens the doors for new customers.
