I hadn't seen Bharat and Cindy since Aarti's wedding, so I was excited that I was able to have brunch with them before I left SF on Sunday. Since they lived 10 minutes from Neera, it was even more convenient although I was a bit sad that for the 1st time I've been to SF, I've actually stayed in the suburbs the whole time! But if all the places in the 'burbs were like Alana's Cafe, I totally wouldn't mind not going into the city. Talk about the cutest brunch place on earth. It was the quintessential adorable brunch restaurant situated in an old Victorian looking house with a lovely garden outside. We got there "early" at 10AM (there was a debate as to what time brunch actually is - apparently it's an East Coast vs. West Coast thing) but it was totally packed already. Luckily the wait was only 15 minutes and we got a seat in the garden outside.
The menu is the perfect traditional brunch menu: yogurts, oatmeals, egg scrambles, more eggs type dishes, benedicts, french toast, pancakes and sides of every breakfast dish you can think of from sausage to coffee cake to homefries to fruit. Heaven. I had a really hard time deciding what I wanted. As most of you know, I love a good benedict and I was on the verge of sticking with it but since I was in California, I felt the need to be a bit healthier. So I opted for the California scramble ($11.50) which was 3 eggs lightly scrambled with broccoli, mushrooms, green onions, tomatoes, provolone and cheddar cheese served with herbed homfries and a choice of bread, coffee cake or scones (I got the papaya scones). Bharat and Cindy both got the Farmer's Garden ($10.95) which had almost the same ingredients I had except the veggies were topped with 2 poached eggs instead. Although the dish is a pretty basic egg dish, I was just so enamored with the overall vibe of the place, that I thought it was amazing. My one issue with an egg scramble with so many ingredients is the presentation but short of it being an omelette, there isn't a way to make scrambled eggs look that nice. But the ingredients were all very fresh and the eggs were cooked well (not too dry). They are famous for their scones which is why I got the papaya one (they also had some coconut version too) and it was good and definitely unique but I'm just not a huge scone person, so I only had a few bites of it. The best part of the dish was actually the homefries - ok, they were really roasted potatoes. But they were awesome. The herb and seasonings they used on it were spot on and made the potatoes incredibly addictive. I didn't get a chance to try the Farmer's Garden but it looked great and they mentioned that they get it every time they come here. I kind of wish we got an order of pancakes for the table because they looked delicious as well but I didn't want to go too overboard.
This was a fantastic brunch spot in the middle of the 'burbs that doesn't really make you miss the city. The decor, menu and wait staff were all great and it made me wish that I knew of more places like this in NYC (the closest thing I can think of decor wise is Friend of a Farmer - but the food there isn't that great). I guess living in the 'burbs of California does have its perks sometimes.
Photo Credit: Yelp
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