My initial reaction was that the space of the restaurant was gorgeous. Very industrial and spacious with lots of exposed brick with the garage door pulled up so that half of the restaurant was exposed to the outside. It just felt really hip and New York. I was a little annoyed that our waiter failed to tell us what the specials were since usually brunch specials are my favorite. But luckily the menu had enough good sounding dishes to keep me pre-occupied. I ordered the tea-smoked salmon on toasted sourdough bread ($14), Dan got the Fry up (eggs with slow roasted tomatoes and buttered mushrooms) with bacon ($13), Aarti got the Fry Up without bacon ($11), and Will got the salad of lentils ($10) and a side of quinoa hash browns ($4) and we all ordered the coconut pancakes for the table ($11). I don't know why I seem to be noticing the wait time of food lately, but we seemed to wait a long time for our food and the fact that the table next to us did get their food first irritated me (granted it was only a 2 top, but on principle I was still annoyed).
Honestly, I wasn't blown away by my salmon dish. The salmon definitely had a "tea smoked" flavor but it was a bit overcooked for me and even though I knew in advance it came on sourdough bread, I just didn't like eggs benedicts that aren't on english muffins. The hollandaise sauce was used very sparingly, which was probably good for my heart but bad for my palate. I prefer to have my benedict drowning in egg yolk and hollandaise sauce...no wonder I have high cholesterol. Plus for $14, you'd think the dish would come with a side like potatoes or something like that, but it was just the benedict. I will say the poached eggs were done correctly, so plus 1 fork for them. I tried Will's salad which was surprisingly good and very healthy tasting. Aarti actually thought that it was the best dish on the table. I didn't try the Fry Up, but both Dan and Aarti said it was "fine". The pancake could have used more coconut flavoring but the mango salad on top was quite refreshing and a nice touch. The pancake definitely could have used more syrup (who serves pancakes in a restaurant but doesn't leave you a jar of syrup??) even though you could tell it was already baked into it. But I do love the concept of pancakes for the table and whenever I go out with Will and Aarti, we usually go that route. I highly recommend it since it's hard to just eat something so sweet for breakfast but sometimes you just crave some sweets. The quinoa hash browns were just weird. They were in perfect squares but totally grey in color. It just looked kind of sad and depressing and taste-wise it was bland and greasy. I thought it was going to be some life changing health dish but it was 50% potato and 50% quinoa. Wah wah.
Overall, the meal was just ok. I wouldn't say I would never go back again and the dinner menu actually looked pretty appealing but with so many restaurants in NYC this just doesn't fall at the top of my list. Total bill $54/couple with tip.
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