Kid tested

A recent Saturday started ridiculously early with my wife, Kat, my daughter, Lily, and I heading to dawn patrol at the Great Reno Balloon Race. Afterward, wanting to keep an awesome morning going, we went for breakfast at InkBerry Breakfast House. We got there at 8:30 a.m. and no one was there. The sign says they open at 6:30 a.m. daily, but the place was empty, and the phone number they listed wasn’t taking calls.

We went back the next morning and asked the woman behind the counter what had happened. Her response was, “The owners kind of make their own hours.”

Moving on, InkBerry is one of the most kid-friendly restaurants in Reno. The atmosphere is almost like a daycare center. There’s a selection of wooden toys for kids to play with, the walls are covered in whimsical paintings, including a barnyard scene with a cow, and, when we visited, the movie The Sandlot was playing on a flat screen.

In spite of all this, the mood about the place felt dour. The few customers waiting for food looked sad.

Inkberry’s menu boasts a burrito that’s been voted “biggest” and “best” in some unnamed contest. So, for $4.50, Kat tried it. It’s three eggs, hash browns, cheese and your choice of chorizo, bacon or ham wrapped in a flour tortilla. I ordered the short stack of pancakes ($2.99) and a three-egg omelet ($4.50) with cheese, onion and ham. Breakfast took a while to hit the table, and I was a little taken aback when it did: Everything comes with plastic utensils, on paper plates and everything else—from the cream for Kat’s coffee to the syrup for the pancakes—comes in little packages.

My three pancakes were about the size of my fist, perfectly round, so uniformly colored, and so incredibly hot I couldn’t imagine them coming off a griddle, especially given Inkberry’s claims they cook nothing in oils or fats. How do you cook fresh pancakes without oil or butter? As for texture, they were sticky and rubbery. My omelet was fluffy, and the chopped up sausage links inside are a total guilty pleasure of mine, but overall it was pretty bland. The winner of the meal was Kat’s breakfast burrito. It wasn’t outstanding, but the hash browns give it a good flavor. The eggs and cheese kind of just fill it out, but the ham was nearly nonexistent. What the breakfast burrito needed was some color and texture contrast. Fresh pico de gallo would have made a remarkable difference.

I wanted to wrap up with some frozen yogurt, but they were temporarily out.

Inkberry’s food is all very budget friendly, but you’re definitely getting what you pay for.