The Great Outdoors Come Indoors at The Campfire Grill

The cinnamon roll pancakes at The Campfire Grill in Depew, New York.Photo by J.M. Lesinski

Bringing a unique outdoors aesthetic alongside their woodside décor, the Campfire Grill has a reputation for some of the best breakfast in Depew, New York.

The pancakes are quite possibly some of the most pristine hotcakes in the Western New York area. The crystalline sugar around the edges of the specialty cakes caramelizes into a crunchy, sugary bite that simply cannot be beat. Flavors include camp classic snacks like s’mores, cinnamon roll, country apple, Oreo, chocolate peanut butter, and fresh berry.

French toast at Campfire Grill is called griddle toast and features cinnamon and vanilla flavors. One of the most innovative sweet breakfast items on the menu, the crunchy griddle toast, takes the same griddle toast and coats it in vanilla almond granola for a tasty crunch. The griddle toast logs take it a step further, stuffing the toast with cream cheese filling, fresh berries, and a light dusting of cinnamon sugar.

Aside from the sweet, the breakfast menu at Campfire Grill has a number of other specialties that really put them on the map, and to make it even better, they are served all day. The breakfast flatbread all day breakfast features freshly grilled flatbread topped with roma tomatoes, spinach, a bacon and egg scramble, and hollandaise sauce, and is served with choice of side between fresh fruit and camper potatoes.

Camper potatoes are another of the unique menu items at Campfire Grill that make them stand out. Available as a side or in many cases as the focal point of an entrée, the camper potatoes have a special dusting of spices on them that not only adds a depth of flavor, but a crispy layer to the already superbly fried spuds.

The sloppy eggs, for instance, feature the camper potatoes as the base of the plate before building the rest of the meal on top, piling on sloppy joe mix, cheddar cheese, and two over easy eggs for another amazing all day breakfast entrée. Not as much a fan of sloppy joes? The camper platter all day breakfast swaps out the sloppy joe mix for country gravy for a new spin on the classic gravy breakfast dish.

Seafood breakfast fusion items can also be found on the specialty menu, including the crabby scramble all day breakfast, a crabmeat, spinach, and roma tomato in scrambled eggs plate, or the campfire Benny all day breakfast, consisting of two basted eggs over fresh roma tomatoes, spinach, and salmon all on an English muffin with hollandaise sauce. Both come with choice of side.

When it comes to serving size, Campfire Grill thinks big. The oink and eggs all day breakfast offers a larger than one would expect portion of meat in the dish, coming with two breaded pork chops served with two over easy eggs on top. The Campfire Grill version of the iconic upstate New York garbage plate is the true mountain to climb, featuring a hotcake, piece of griddle toast, scrambled eggs, camper potatoes, bacon, cheese, sausage gravy, hollandaise sauce, and syrup in one massive entrée.

Closing out the specialty dishes is the breakfast griddle cheese all day breakfast. With grilled sourdough and American and provolone cheeses melting out of the sides and scrambled eggs and choice of bacon or ham within, the harmony of flavors is only matched in beauty by the tantalizing appearance of the melty treat.

A shot of the specials board and other décor at The Campfire Grill in Depew, New York.Photo by J.M. Lesinski

From the specialties, the remainder of breakfast items excluding omelets, hot cakes, and the create your own items, are lumped into the “Eggs N Stuff” menu category. The core breakfast joint menu selections roam here, like the country fried steak, biscuits and gravy, and steak and eggs, alongside the combination meals, like the chief with two eggs and two hotcakes, the lumberjack with three eggs, three slices of bacon, three sausage links, and two hotcakes, or the camper traditional all day breakfast with two eggs, choice of meat, and choice of toast.

The create your own breakfast sandwich is five dollars flat for the value seeker, add two-fifty for camper potatoes on it. Choice of egg between fried or scrambled, meat between bacon, ham, or sausage, and cheese between American, cheddar, or Swiss allows a pretty good field of options. The same goes for the Trail Blazer, or make your own omelet, which has twelve different ingredient options, and comes with choice of toast and side.

All menu omelets come with choice of toast and side, a nice touch for a plate that often does not get a side at all at other restaurants. The four on the menu are each unique to Campfire Grill and keep with the outdoors aesthetic of the restaurant. The campfire steak and cheese features grilled steak and cheddar, amid a flurry of peppers, onions, and mushrooms, while the scout is the strictly veggie omelet.

The fisherman’s favorite omelet contains both shrimp and real crab with spinach and hollandaise sauce as well for a hearty seafood plate. Granny’s favorite omelet is one of the best examples of “all day breakfast” in action, as the omelet comes with turkey, cheddar, bacon, tomatoes, and hollandaise sauce, really bridging the meals of breakfast and lunch with an eggy ode to the turkey club.

A shot of the front entrance of The Campfire Grill in Depew, New York.Photo by J.M. Lesinski

Moving from breakfast to lunch, one is immediately drawn to the wild animal burgers. Initially, with the restaurant’s name being Campfire Grill, one can make the mistake of assuming the burgers with wild animal names may actually be the exotic meat they are named after. This is not the case, thank goodness for the sake of the Bald Eagle Burger, whose name allures to America’s mascot essentially. But no, instead of biting into fresh ground bald eagle, the Bald Eagle Burger is actually named for the gritted roll it is served on.

The Badger Burger, likewise, is not badger but a patty melt on sourdough with American, cheddar, roma tomatoes, bacon, and thousand island dressing. The Mighty Elk Burger brings a three cheese burger to the menu with provolone, American, and Swiss, while the Mustang Burger comes with Frank’s hot sauce, bacon, and bleu cheese crumble for a take on the classic Buffalo burger.

For those who want double the meat on their burgers, the Grizzly Burger comes with roast beef, bacon, cheddar, mushrooms, peppers, and onions, while the Gunslinger Burger features pulled pork, cheddar, and coleslaw for a nice BBQ option. Speaking of BBQ, the Kodiak Burger rounds off the menu’s beef patties with a BBQ sauce and onion topped burger sandwiched between two grilled cheese sandwiches.

While the burgers dominate the lunch menu, the sandwiches at Campfire Grill are good too. The sloppy joe, breaded pork, and chicken breast sandwiches are all hearty options, while the turkey toss is a specialty with banana peppers, smoked turkey, onions, peppers, coleslaw, provolone, mayo, and mustard to make up one divine dish.

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