Pat & Oscar's Breakfast Pizza - Santa Ana

It may not look it, but what you see before you is a breakfast pizza. Yes, a breakfast pizza. I repeat. A breakfast. Pizza.

I did not seek it out, nor would I have been interested in it if my co-worker didn't come back from lunch one afternoon and excitedly proclaim that he just saw it on a poster at Pat & Oscars.

By the time he finished describing it--that it came with country gravy, eggs, bacon, and sausage--another co-worker was already saying "When?".

"When were we going to pool a few bucks to try it?" the dude asked like an eager, bright-eyed kid who's just been told the circus is in town.

When? Apparently, the next morning.

And not only did he order one, he asked for the largest pie, retailing at close to $18, even after our protestations that it would be too big, that we only wanted a taste.

"If you guys can't finish it, I'll just have the rest for lunch!"

That's the kind of guy he is. Practical. And also, obviously quite confident that Pat & Oscars wouldn't make a bad pizza, a point that I had to politely agree to disagree with him on.

But as it turns out, as far as the breakfast pizza is concerned, he was right. It was a good breakfast pizza. Admittedly, there was no previous benchmark I could measure against. Still, the thing was much better than I expected. In fact, I ate two slices though I only really needed one.

The eggs, the thing I was most skeptical about when I heard of its existence, was not overcooked. Nicely scrambled and still somewhat blubbery, it accounted for most of the thickness and was covered with thin, insulating top layer of cheese. The pizza was so loaded with egg, it was just a millimeter shy of being called a deep-dish, or maybe, a quiche.

There was no sausage unfortunately, but there was bacon, crispy, crackly shards sprinkled over the top like pork confetti. And beneath it all, the country gravy was spread out like it was red sauce, but without any of its oomph. It didn't need to be there at all, and might as well have been omitted.

The sliced tomato and basil chiffonade was, in contrast, indispensable. It cut through the richness with a bright splash of fruit, refreshing acid, and cleansing herb. The only thing that was missing to help it out was a bottle of Tabasco.

After other cubicle mates gathered around to see and try the oddity themselves, we were all agreed that this was a much better idea than that time we went out to try the Double Down.

Pat & Oscar's Restaurant
(714) 689-3181
3811 S. Bristol St
Santa Ana, CA 92704

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