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A pile of egged-up ingredients

Generous portions on the cheap in Santee

The omelette contains too much filling to concern itself with form
The omelette contains too much filling to concern itself with form
Place

Omelette Factory

8860 N. Magnolia Avenue, Santee

Obviously omelettes are front and center at The Omelette Factory, but when I rolled into the large restaurant late on a bustling Saturday morning I toyed with the idea of ordering one of the Southern breakfasts. Then I learned the gravy wasn’t from scratch and the corned beef hash comes out of a can, so I drifted back to the front of the menu. When in doubt, order the item in the restaurant’s name, right?

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You can get omelettes with ingredients ranging from bacon and avocado to beef chorizo and jalapeños for a little under 12 bucks. However, a lineup of signature dishes goes for 11 dollars, and my server pointed out several Greek-inspired omelettes as popular choices. The Athenian in particular caught my eye: gyro meat, tomatoes, onions, and olives, all topped with feta cheese.

You can get omelettes with avocado, beef chorizo, jalapeños...

Make that a lot of feta cheese. Not small crumbles, like I’d imagined, but large melting hunks of it. The omelette itself, made with three large eggs, contained too much filling to concern itself with form, so there wasn’t a lot of structural integrity buried under that feta. It didn’t matter — served beside a huge portion of golden crisp hash browns, this dish was about delivering a pile of egged-up ingredients well past the point of satiety.

In this case, the ingredients included that particular blend of gritty lamb and beef trimmings seasoned with oregano known as gyro meat. The diced, canned olives got buried a bit under the pungent cheese, but otherwise the omelette stood resolutely savory and filling. I was more excited by the biscuit I got as bread option with the dish, as it was fresh and warm and made good use of those jelly packets. And whipped-butter packets, of course.

Everything here feels basic and familiar, which is probably why the place fills up with families looking for a simple, generous breakfast.

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The omelette contains too much filling to concern itself with form
The omelette contains too much filling to concern itself with form
Place

Omelette Factory

8860 N. Magnolia Avenue, Santee

Obviously omelettes are front and center at The Omelette Factory, but when I rolled into the large restaurant late on a bustling Saturday morning I toyed with the idea of ordering one of the Southern breakfasts. Then I learned the gravy wasn’t from scratch and the corned beef hash comes out of a can, so I drifted back to the front of the menu. When in doubt, order the item in the restaurant’s name, right?

Sponsored
Sponsored

You can get omelettes with ingredients ranging from bacon and avocado to beef chorizo and jalapeños for a little under 12 bucks. However, a lineup of signature dishes goes for 11 dollars, and my server pointed out several Greek-inspired omelettes as popular choices. The Athenian in particular caught my eye: gyro meat, tomatoes, onions, and olives, all topped with feta cheese.

You can get omelettes with avocado, beef chorizo, jalapeños...

Make that a lot of feta cheese. Not small crumbles, like I’d imagined, but large melting hunks of it. The omelette itself, made with three large eggs, contained too much filling to concern itself with form, so there wasn’t a lot of structural integrity buried under that feta. It didn’t matter — served beside a huge portion of golden crisp hash browns, this dish was about delivering a pile of egged-up ingredients well past the point of satiety.

In this case, the ingredients included that particular blend of gritty lamb and beef trimmings seasoned with oregano known as gyro meat. The diced, canned olives got buried a bit under the pungent cheese, but otherwise the omelette stood resolutely savory and filling. I was more excited by the biscuit I got as bread option with the dish, as it was fresh and warm and made good use of those jelly packets. And whipped-butter packets, of course.

Everything here feels basic and familiar, which is probably why the place fills up with families looking for a simple, generous breakfast.

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Here's something you might be interested in.
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4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
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