Cora has been on my list of places to visit for my ladies meet for a long while. However, their locations in Coquitlam and Surrey are a bit too far for us to travel to.

When I saw the sign that there will be one opening in Coppersmith Plaza in Richmond, I was very excited. This location was officially opened in April.

Cora was started by Cora in Montreal, Saint-Laurent district. It is a breakfast and lunch joint so that Cora can take care of her children after school. Her philosophy of high quality ingredients and service was so successful that it had turned into a franchise of over 120 restaurants across Canada.

The Cora in Richmond is bright and decorated cheerfully with artwork of their menu and chicken porcelains and antique tin cans. Cora opens early, 6:00AM. We were there slightly over 6:00AM for breakfast because Ben will be flying to Beijing on an early noon flight that day.  You know how time consuming flying is where you have to be at the airport 3 hours before the flight time for international flight. Ben always arrives at the airport early so that he can get his favourite window seat.

We were the first customers at Cora that morning. We had walked past Cora a week earlier during lunch hour and there was a line outside the restaurant. We were told by the manager of the restaurant that the restaurant is very busy between 11:30am to 2:00pm and there is always a line especially during weekend despite this restaurant can accommodate 156 customers.

We started our breakfast with coffee as usual. Free refills like most diners.

Ben had the Cora’s Special which is the most popular item on the menu, according to the server. Cora’s Special is …$10.95. It’s 2 eggs, bacon, ham, sausage, potatoes and crepe. Ben’s choice of egg is always sunny side up.

Ben shared some of his crepe with ham with me. The crepe is thin and soft and it goes well with the savoury ham.

Cora’s Special also comes with 2 toasts. It is a big breakfast.

My order was Maple Crespelles. It was not on their regular menu but a new item on promotion. It is $12.95.

Maple Crespelles is two large crepes sweetened with maple butter and top with 3 crispy bacon. The combination of sweet crepe and savoury bacon works well. However, I found that the crepe is too tough to be cut with a regular table knife. In fact, my fingers hurt due to too much pressure being used to cut through the multilayers of crepe. Perhaps, they can serve this with a sharper knife like steak knife.

The bill came up to $32.48 before tips. Cora accepts credit card.

You can click on the menus for a larger view.