B.C.'s favourite breakfast spot opens in Toronto soon and here's what you need to try

At long last, a hugely popular breakfast chain based in B.C. is gearing up to launch its first-ever Toronto location this November.

It's always a thrill when popular chains from our friends in Western Canada finally decide to venture east, and 2025 has been a particularly fruitful one on that front.

This year alone, we've gotten high-profile spots like The Lunch Lady, new neighbourhood staples like Central Taps and one-of-a-kind ventures like Saku, but things aren't slowing down any time soon.

The latest West Coast venture to put its stamp on the city is Vancouver's Yolks, gearing up to open its first Toronto location in just a few days.

Founded in 2012 as a bright blue food truck, Yolks has spent the past 13 years cementing itself as a local staple, expanding to an impressive three locations in B.C., plus one in Ottawa.

For Yolks' founder Chef Steve Ewing, a Toronto native who grew up on The Esplanade before heading to Vancouver for culinary school, bringing the chain to Ontario is a homecoming of sorts, and the restaurant couldn't be a better fit on Bloor West, just a stone's throw from Runnymede subway station.

The restaurant itself feels designed to wake you up: all stark white walls and a cheerful colour scheme of sky blue, orange and egg yolk yellow. 

Cozy booths line the outer walls while, in the centre, communal-style seating allows both for large parties to sit together or for you to forge new connections over a pile of pancakes and a runny yolk. 

The restaurant's friendly, community-oriented atmosphere almost feels reminiscent of Yolks' days as a food truck, where the only way you could eat Ewing's decadent creations was in the company of scores of new friends.

Let's face it, though: as aesthetically pleasing and ambiance imbuing a restaurant's interiors can be, it's all about the food at the end of the day.

And, Toronto, I'm pleased to report that Yolks doesn't disappoint. But, when the Toronto location officially opens for business on Friday, Nov. 14, what to order first?

Eggs Benedict is to brunch what Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is to the Toronto Blue Jays: always dependable, if not outright incredible, and never fails to fit the bill. We opted for the Smokehouse Bacon ($21) version, and it did not disappoint.

Now, I've consumed what some could describe as an unhealthy quantity of poached eggs in my lifetime, so believe me when I tell you that the eggs atop the benny at Yolks are a masterful work of art.

It's only fair that, at a restaurant that gets its namesake from that gooey, golden stuff in the centre of the egg, the kitchen has managed to achieve as nearly a perfect poach as I've ever seen.

Paired with a mimosa — we went for the Pineapple Sunrise ($17) with pineapple juice, sparkling wine and Campari —, Yolks' house-made spiced ketchup or Ewing's iconic hot sauces, you've got a combination that hunger (or hangovers, for that matter) are no match for.

I understand that runny yolks, for whatever reason, aren't everyone's cup of tea, but you know what are? Cinnamon rolls.

At Yolks, you can get your cinnamon roll fill in pancake form, served in a single, eight-inch-tall stack that arrives piping hot and dripping in drizzles of caramel, cream cheese icing and a generous scattering of pecans.

The Cinnamon Roll Pancakes ($22) are almost too sweet, rich and enormous for one person to manage, but too altogether decadent and supple to pass up, so I'd recommend getting an order for the table unless you have a superhuman sweet tooth.

Even our server, who doesn't identify as a "sweet breakfast kind of girl," admits she can't resist this dish every now and then.

Yolks also offers a selection of sandwiches that invite you to "Lunch It Up," diverging from the more traditionally breakfast-oriented angle of the rest of the menu.

Steve's Hot Chicken Sandwich ($21) is truly a thing of beauty. Boasting an impressive vertical, juicy meat and hot sauce that's actually spicy, it's a far cry from the milder breakfast options and sweet treats that form the menu's foundation, but remains a more than worthy inclusion.

Of course, these are just my recommendations. Call it a hunch, I suspect you can't really go wrong here.

Yolks Toronto is located at 2245 Bloor St. W., and officially opens for business on Friday, Nov. 14.