There are several country-style, Southern breakfast eateries in Bowling Green that are deliciously greasy when I’m in the mood. But there is less than a handful of Tiffany-style breakfast establishments which I also find pleasurable.

This is not to be confused with Breakfast at Tiffany’s, which was a simple menu outside the richest, most famous jewelry store in the country, but just the opposite – a breakfast with a well-to-do menu.

I discovered the Hilton Garden Inn breakfast a few months ago, and finally made it in for a taste. While the Hilton did not have eggs Benedict on the menu (my personal standard for a lavish breakfast), it did offer a variety of breakfast items to enhance any morning meal.

The restaurant, which also serves dinner, is housed just inside the lobby of the Hilton Garden Inn. I became enamored by the travel atmosphere, feeling as if I were actually away from home, and out of the blue began striking up conversations with the other guests about where they were from.

My dining companion, on the other hand, sat at the table nostalgically noticing the upscale hotel d/cor that is a mirror image of any Hilton you might visit throughout the country. This luxury lends itself to the Tiffany-style breakfast, with thoughtful and soothing color combinations, deep grained decorative woods and opulent fixtures.

The breakfast at Hilton Garden is a mix of buffet and made-to-order food.

We each ordered at the made-to-order bar from a chalkboard menu. I ordered Texas-style French toast, my dining companion an omelet with potatoes.

While we waited, we enjoyed a wide variety of fresh fruit housed in a bed of ice in the buffet. There were also the usual breakfast foods: bagels, doughnuts, toast, cereals – and even not so usual, soy milk. The buffet also included three kinds of juices, orange, apple and cranberry, in large ornamental carafes on the bar.

I went for a cup of coffee and, by chance, discovered the Hilton Garden offers one of the best cups of coffee I have ever had. I don’t usually drink coffee black, but had overfilled the cup while chatting with a fellow traveler. I drank it down a bit so that I could add some of the flavored syrups they offered and was taken aback by the smooth flavor. Even my dining companion, who is not a coffee drinker, agreed. The first sip went down easy and lacked that usual bitter bite coffee can have.

Our breakfasts arrived and while the omelet was not “fluffy” as the menu described, it was a flat, flavorful blend of eggs with a variety of chunky, abundant ingredients of your choice, like bacon, sausage, green peppers, onions, tomatoes, cheese and the like. It did not list mushrooms, but they were inadvertently included – so if you’re not a mushroom lover, take note and make sure to exclude them.

The fried potatoes were tastefully unique and flavorful. The potatoes were uniformly cut into perfect half inch squares that were flawlessly fried in every direction – thick on the outside with a hint of soft potato on the inside.

My Texas French toast was two pieces of thick bread, slightly crispy on the outside and moist on the inside. It needed just a small amount of butter and syrup because the sweetness of the egg batter was adequately enjoyable on its own.

Breakfast at the Hilton Garden also offers patio dinning and was a splendid way to start the rest of our day, as we ended up engulfed in the true richness of taking in the wilderness while traveling down the Green River in a canoe. How lucky we are to have the best of both worlds in Bowling Green.

— Our anonymous food reviewer gives new restaurants a six-week grace period before reviewing. To comment, please contact Managing Editor Mike Alexieff at 783-3235 or via e-mail to

malexieff@bgdailynews.com.