Location: 69 Kensington Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://www.instagram.com/sleepypetes/

I’ve noticed Sleepy Pete’s coming up in discussions of the best breakfast sandwich in the GTA; it’s also from the same people behind the great Kensington Market taco joint, Seven Lives.  Obviously, I had to check it out.

So did a lot of other people, apparently.  I showed up at around 11:00 on a Saturday morning and the place was packed.  It was about a half hour between the time I showed up and the time I started eating, but you know what?  Totally worth it.

I tried a couple of the sandwiches: the sausage and egg (“chicken sausage, hot honey, Kraft cheese”) and the fried chicken (“breaded chicken breast, hot lemon pepper sauce, mayo, pickles”).  The sandwiches come on your choice of biscuit: buttermilk or jalapeno cheddar.  I went with buttermilk on the breakfast sandwich and jalapeno cheddar on the fried chicken.

Both sandwiches were very, very good.  This place is mostly known for its breakfast sandwiches, and yeah, I get it.  Every element here is dead-on; in particular, the spicing in the meat is actually quite different from your standard breakfast sausage, but it really works.  And the biscuit is pretty much perfect, with a great fluffy texture, just the right amount of density, and a lightly crispy exterior.

I’ve mentioned before that my secret food shame is that I think a McMuffin from McDonald’s is better than like 90% of the fancy breakfast sandwiches in the GTA.  This is in the 10%.  It’s so great.

The fried chicken didn’t knock my socks off like the sausage and egg, but it’s still a very good sandwich.  I don’t think there were any pickles (at least not in my half of the sandwich), which would have been nice, but the combo of the savoury fried chicken and the sweet lemon pepper sauce was a tasty one.  The chicken had a layer of crispy breading that’s lighter than most of the fried chicken sandwiches in the city, but that works quite well.  I enjoyed it.