Empellon Visited 2/12/2012 3 Forks

Empellon 230 W 4th St., (between S 7th Ave & 4 St), Manhattan, NY 10014

Empellon is more well known for its dinner menu but after looking at the brunch menu, I was intrigued to try it out on a Sunday afternoon.  To be honest, it was a perfectly fine brunch, just nothing totally mind blowing.  But after looking at the fish tacos that my neighbors had, I think dinner might have been a better option.  They did offer fish tacos on the brunch menu, but when there are eggs on a brunch menu, 9 times out of 10 that's what I'll get and who really wants to have fish tacos for brunch (please refrain from jokes here)?

Aarti and I started our brunch with guacamole, which I know is also not traditional brunch food, but when some place offers your avocados in the dead of winter, you take it!.  The guacamole was served with two kinds of salsa, one was a delicious Tomatillo-Chipotle and the other was Salsa Habañera which was just a bit too spicy for me. The actual guacamole was great and seasoned well but it was a whopping $12 for something that wasn't much bigger than 2 scoops of ice cream.  I will make a shout out for the chips that tasted like homemade tortilla chips and were super salty but in a good chip way.  For our main dishes, I ordered the Eggs Benedict with Refried Beans, Ham and Hollandaise and Aarti got the Chilaquiles with Roasted Maitake Mushrooms and a Sunny Side Egg.  Ever since the 2nd Street Cafe closed in Park Slope, I have been on the eternal search of the perfect classic eggs benedict.  I clearly should have known that I wouldn't really find it at a Mexican restaurant.  I just envisioned this dish to be served on toasted english muffin and covered in buttery hollandaise sauce.  To be fair, this benedict tasted fine and I applaud it for being different.  Instead of english muffins, it was served on challah bread and the ham was more like thin prosciutto slices than thick cut ham.  I appreciated the refried beans in it (and they were definitely quality beans, not your Taco bell variety) which put a different spin to the dish.  While many brunch places I've been to over poach their eggs, this place actually slightly under poached their eggs as the whites were still very running and not quite firm.  The challah bread added a sweet touch which was nice but again, I was just picturing this classic benedict dish based on the description and it just was not what I expected.  I didn't taste Aarti's dish but she did mention that it need more mushrooms in the dish.  And she also mentioned that the coffee was fabulous.

All in all, it was a perfectly fine brunch experience and the actual decor and ambiance was pretty nice and calming.  I can understand many of the Yelp reviews of it being over priced with small portions, but that's kind of what I expect with these fancier Mexican places.  Even for brunch I thought it was a bit overpriced considering neither of us ordered any cocktails.  $32/pp with tip and tax.

Photo Credit: Yelp