This is my first Jersey City review and I owe it to my lovely friend Patrick from work. He had mentioned that he had eaten at this gem of a restaurant in Jersey City and wanted me to try. I was more than happy to try something different and broaden my horizons and even better Patrick was willing to pick me and my friend Allison up from the PATH train. I will caveat that if you don't have a car, it's not very easy to get to and it might even be a bit dangerous to get there via public transportation. While Patrick gave us on a very nice tour of Jersey City (I had no idea they have such beautiful brownstones there), we did literally cross the other side of the tracks and you could immediately tell we were in the more "up and coming" part of town. So MAE literally sticks out like a sore thumb in the neighborhood. But it's a lovely bistro type place that I think would do really well in Brooklyn (they already have a hipster waitstaff afterall!).
The brunch menu is a prix fix of either a $12 option or $15 option depending on what entree you order. It comes with either coffee and juice or a choice of bloody cesar (same thing like a bloody mary but with clamato juice), screwdriver or mimosa. There were tons of great sounding options and I was torn between the crab benedict or the fried chicken breakfast burrito. I ultimately decided on the crab benedict (surprise surprise), Patrick got the breakfast burrito and Allison got the vegetarian omelet. As any long time reader of this blog would know, I am a harsh judge on a brunch place based on how well they poach an egg. I am happy to say that MAE beautifully passed this test. It was perfectly poached and super runny. The crab cake underneath was pretty good (obviously it's not a MD full of crabmeat kind but it wasn't all filler either) and the muffin was perfectly soft. The dish came with a side of homefries which were really roasted herb potatoes. They were good, a bit on the undercooked side but they weren't raw. I had a bite of Patrick's fried chicken burrito and sadly this was a disappointment. It sounded so good, but it was very dry inside and out. The tortilla was too thick and dry and you couldn't really taste the chicken. Poor Patrick had to douse it with hot sauce just to get any flavor and moisture to it. I didn't try Allison's veggie omelet but it did look really healthy and tasty. We also this dessert that was a homemade biscuit covered with whipped cream and berries. It looks delicious when it came out and we were all super excited to try it. Unfortunately something was off with the biscuit. It had this sour almost curdled taste to it. But the berries and cream were great and I could see the potential in this dish and that if the biscuit was done right, that it would have been a great summer dessert. Maybe there was buttermilk or sour cream in it? Who knows, but we did end up telling the waiter about it and he did feel bad about it. Luckily, we all felt fine afterwards, so at least no one got food poisoning.
Even though 2 of the 4 dishes weren't stellar, I can see a lot of potential in this place. They try to cook locally and organically which is pretty unique in a neighborhood filled with strip malls and check cash places. If you happen to be in the neighborhood or have a car, I would say give it a try (maybe for dinner instead) and I do hope they consider opening a branch closer to the city because I would love to see them do well. Total bill: $20/pp with tax and tip
Photo Credit: Yelp
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